Importance of Prophets

Jennifer and I had the opportunity to attend the temple the Friday night before General Conference.  During the session, I was once again reminded of the importance of  the messengers God has sent to teach us His gospel.  In my opinion, this knowledge is becoming more and more needed as we hurtle toward the Lord's Second Coming.  I also find it interesting that I've noticed this more in the Book of Mormon as I've read it this time around.  One instance that I hadn't really noticed before was when Amlici challenged the new judge-led government.  While Alma the Younger was the chief judge, he was also the prophet.  He caused the people to pray "mightily to him that he would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies" and led them into battle against Amlici and his followers (see Alma 2).

Amilci and those who aligned themselves with him were Nephites.  These were not Lamanites who had been taught all their lives to hate everything the Nephites stood for and to do everything they could to destroy them.  The Amlicites were people who enjoyed the blessings of the freedoms that the government gave to them.  But even though they prospered and flourished under this system, they felt the need to oppose the tremendous opportunity king Mosiah had given them and strive to impose their own will, their own ideas, and their own thinking to a process that had been ratified by the people.  Over the last several conferences, a small group of people have continued to call out "opposed" during the sustaining of President Monson, his counselors, and the apostles.  I have read comments from people on other blogs and various websites who seem to think this disruption is caused by non-members who sneak into conference and yell out during the sustaining votes.  I suppose that may be true, but when I think about this Book of Mormon story I am honestly left to wonder about the validity of that notion.

Elder Oaks reminded us that there is no such thing as the "loyal opposition," by stating: "However appropriate for a democracy, there is no warrant for this concept in the government of God’s kingdom, where questions are honored but opposition is not (see Matthew 26:24)" (Ensign, May 2016, 117).  While I do believe that those who are not members of the Church and those who are former members of the Church will continue to strive to disrupt the gospel from moving forward in any way they can, I also believe that current members will also oppose the things our leaders do and say.

Last week, Isaac, Jennifer and I were able to attend a talk given by Elder Oaks at Claremont Graduate University.  His talk was based on the question: “What does it mean to be religious and free in the 21st century?”  I thought it was a very well thought out, articulate answer to the question and I was very glad we decided to make the trip.  The next day, I saw an article about the talk posted to a website and was dumbfounded to read the comments of a person who claimed to have read the talk and found Elder Oaks comments to be "wrong."  He then used quotes from President Benson to back up his claims. 

From what he was saying, it didn't appear that he was really there at the college to hear the address, but was claiming to have read a transcript of the talk.  However, none of what he said seemed to even be on point.  I kept thinking, "I was there and heard the talk delivered live and I don't recall Elder Oaks saying the things this guy claims."  Maybe he was a non-member, but I had to wonder why a non-member would use the words of former prophet to supposedly show how wrong the statements of a current apostle were.  But whether the guy was a member or non-member, this is definitely what Satan does; he tries to get us to think that the words of current prophets are wrong or to think that our leaders are too old and infirm to properly lead us or to believe that they are "out of touch" with modern day society.

All of these notions are completely false.  If we truly desire to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven, then we need to stay with the prophet at all times; not just when it suits us.  As Elder Waddell mentioned in his recent conference talk, "Our commitment to the Lord and His servants cannot be a part-time commitment” (Ensign, May 2016, 92).  We need to know of a surety that our leaders are true messengers (despite their human weaknesses) and stand by them at the tree of life (as with Lehi) and continually partake of the fruit.