Let me preface this article with something really important: THIS IS NOT about masks or COVID-19. Whereas the story is about COVID-19 and masks, the doctrine and application are universal to any time someone ‘receives a revelation’ to disobey the leadership of the Church regardless of the topic.
It is easy to follow our church leaders when we agree with them. When we support the Constitution we love quotes from President Benson extolling its virtue and calling for us to defend it. When we are pro-life we cling to quotes from the brethren supporting our beliefs. But what happens when we are asked by the brethren to do something we don’t agree with? What happens when their counsel challenges our politics or social views? That is when it is hard to follow our leaders. I had that happen to me this weekend. On Friday, July 10th, 2020 the Utah Area Presidency used official church communication channels to send an official church email, on official letterhead stating “We ask all Latter-day Saints in the Utah Area to be good citizens by wearing face coverings when in public.”
I believe COVID-19 is real, but I also believe in the data showing that it is far less deadly than what the media is reporting, and I think a far bigger danger than COVID-19 is the rights we are losing to overreaching government. I personally have not been wearing a mask, and I do not like wearing one. And I have been 100% against a mandate to wear masks.
Within that context, when I opened up this letter from my Area Presidency. My heart dropped. I was being asked to do something I did not want to do. At first, I entertained the idea of what would happen if I was to disregard this counsel when the Spirit brought the words of Harold B. Lee to my memory and testified of their truth. “You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory'”
After receiving my confirming witness that this was from the Lord, I went downstairs and explained the situation to my wife. She texted her family. Her mom, who has lung cancer, said that she was going to need some help making a facemask with thin fabric as it is hard for her to breathe with her lung cancer, one of the family members rebutted that obviously, she is exempt, but she replied that the example of obedience was worth the price.
I was almost brought to tears to see their valiance in keeping their covenants and sustaining their priesthood leaders. After all, that is the litmus test for the Celestial Kingdom, to be valiant in one’s testimony. I immediately bore testimony online and shared the Area President’s directive with my friends on social media testifying the need to follow our leaders. But what happened next both shocked and saddened me. Active members refused, refuted, and flat out claimed to receive revelation that this was not of God.
I want to address four lies that people are telling themselves and others regarding receiving personal revelation that the Area Presidency is wrong. (Note, it does not matter the topic that the Area Presidency has addressed, be it refugees, masks, abortion, immigration, medical marijuana, gay marriage, etc; these are lies Satan reuses whenever Saints want to ignore their leaders).
#1. “I prayed and received a revelation that I don’t need to follow this.”
Satan loves to give false revelation. He is enabled to give false revelation when we have a false understanding of how personal revelation works! Within general Christianity, there is no prophet, every man can receive revelation on how to act and what is truth. This has led to over 10,000 denominations teaching both sides of every doctrine. Your preacher says abortion is wrong, but you decide it is right, simply join another church, or start a new one! After all, your personal revelation is the ultimate authority. But this is not how personal revelation works within the Church.
Within the Church, you only have the right to receive revelation within your stewardship. The Church Leaders are given the right to receive revelations for their areas of authority. The Bishop has been given the stewardship to receive revelation for the Ward by the Stake President. The Stake President has been given stewardship over the stake by the Area Presidents, and the Area Presidents are given stewardship over the Area by the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency, who hold all keys to receive revelation for the whole world. Joseph Smith taught, “It is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or anyone, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves.”
If there is not a specific command by your priesthood leaders, then you are to seek out by personal revelation what to do. But when the Church Authorities speak, the debate is over. We have made covenants to obey them, WE DO have a right to ask for a CONFIRMATION that our priesthood leaders are acting in the name of the Lord, but regardless of whether or not we receive that confirming witness, we are never excused from our covenant to obey. As related in General Conference, “Any kind of obedience is better than any kind of disobedience.” or “We are too often afraid of what is called blind obedience, but obedience to God is always right — blind or otherwise.” Elder Eldred G. Smith Patriarch to the Church (Conference Report, October 1970 Page 16). (For more on obedience, and debunking the common Brigham Young quote used to justify disobedience see this article: Blind obedience is better than disobedience. But obedience based on faith is not blind!)
I was recently asked if I believed people could receive revelation that the Area Authorities were wrong. I replied, “NO!” If you understand the principles that govern personal revelation and the order of heaven you will learn you are never entitled to such a revelation, and if you receive it from ‘a spirit’, then it is certainly not the Holy Spirit, but rather an evil spirit and it is a false revelation. And beyond a false revelation, if you then proceed to proclaim what you’ve received as truth, then you are now the textbook definition of a false prophet. President George Q. Cannon warned about those who disobey the prophet as being a sure sign of apostasy.
“Whenever you see a man disobeying the counsel of the Lord through the Holy Priesthood, you may know that unless he repents, he will apostatize. It is a sure sign of apostasy. A man may be an Apostle, a Seventy, a High Priest, an Elder or a Bishop, yet if he tries to divide the people and persuades them to disobey the Prophet of God, he will surely fall, unless he repents with all his heart. The Lord asks us to obey Him. He tells us how to do so. He does not ask for blind obedience, because He gives His Holy Spirit to all who ask for it to show them that it is right to obey.”
George Q. Cannon “Satan Hates a United People,” Gospel Truth, Vol. 1, pp. 210–11 (italics and bold added).
The Ensign when dealing with members in the 1980s who claimed to get revelations that the First Presidency was wrong said the following: “But what if an individual feels his “confirmation” does not support the First Presidency statement? When the Apostle Paul was approached by members espousing their own interpretations, he resolved their dilemma by asking: “You saith I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:12–13).”
English translation? Jesus Christ is not going to give you revelations counter to the prophet. He is not divided. That is Satan giving that revelation, not Christ. Does having a difference of opinion means I am an apostate? No. But if you go around publishing your differences on social media attempting to get others to follow you rather than the prophet you are in apostasy. Again to quote President George Q. Cannon. He commented upon the extent to which counsel may be ignored or resisted:
“A friend … wished to know whether we … considered an honest difference of opinion between a member of the Church and the authorities of the Church was apostasy. … We replied that we had not stated that an honest difference of opinion between a member of the Church and the authorities constituted apostasy; … but we could not conceive of a man publishing those differences of opinion, and seeking by arguments, sophistry and special pleading to enforce upon the people to produce division and strife, and to place the acts and counsels of the authorities of the Church, if possible, in a wrong light, and not be an apostate, for such conduct was apostasy as we understood the term. We further said that while a man might honestly differ in opinion from the authorities through a want of understanding, he had to be exceedingly careful how he acted in relation to such differences, or the adversary would take advantage of him, and he would soon become imbued with the spirit of apostasy, and be found fighting against God and the authority which He had placed here to govern His Church”
George Q. Cannon (Deseret News, 3 Nov. 1869, p. 457).
If you wish to dive into this topic deeper I highly recommend it, here are some resources.
An article I wrote regarding the rules that govern personal revelation: Two Guiding Principles of Personal Revelation.
An article my wife wrote about being the exception: “Are You the Exception or Just Disobeying? 6 Ways to Know if You Are the Exception”
And a verbatim write up of a handout that was given to my stake by Elder Geral N. Lund about personal revelation.
This Ensign Article: The Latter-day Saint Perspective specifically deals with members who are claiming false revelation that the First Presidency is wrong.
And these three talks:
President Boyd K. Packer, Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise
President Russell M. Nelson, Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives
Elder L. Tom Perry, We Believe All That God Has Revealed
“If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.” Russell M. Nelson
#2.”It is just the Area Presidency, if it was the prophet I would obey.”
When the Area Presidency speaks, they are speaking out of the authority that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have given them. When a member murmurs and says, “I want the prophet to tell me this before I will obey” it is effectively taking an “I want to talk to your manager” attitude with the priesthood. And least you think that you are excused because this is not an explicit “thus saith the Lord” style commandment, the Lord addressed that in D&C 58:26&29 “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward… But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.”
Sadly, even if the prophet was to tell them what to do, many would likely still not listen, how do we know this? Because they are rejecting the priesthood chain of authority already by rejecting the Area Presidency that the Prophet has put in place. After all, the Lord taught us that when we receive or reject those who are sent we are really receiving or rejecting the sender. “For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me” D&C 84:36
When the Lord wishes to talk to us about our local issues, he uses our local leaders. It is extremely prideful for us to think we deserve the prophet to address our local issues. If you lived in Ghana then the only time the Church would speak on a local issue would be through the Area Presidency. Could you imagine the Saints in Ghana saying that they want the Prophet to address their local issues? No! They understand the order of heaven employs the priesthood chain of authority! D&C 1:38 teaches that “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” Our Area Presidencies are the Lord’s servants in this part of the vineyard. The Area Presidencies are the representatives called and set apart by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and should be received as the servants of the Lord that they are!
2021 Update. In August 2021 the First Presidency did ask us to wear masks. Almost all those who I saw murmuring about the Area Presidentcy asking us to wear masks are now murmuring against the prophet.
#3. “I am using my agency.”
Yes, you have your agency no one is forcing you to keep your covenants. But be warned, there is a kingdom for those who are described as not being valiant in the use of their agency in following Christ. Just because you have agency does not mean God will not tell you how to use it, every commandment is instructions on how to use your agency. You are always “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27).
I discuss the topic of agency and how Satan uses a corrupted view of it to justify sin in this article, “Abortion and Agency and the two lies Latter-day Saints are believing. Also of value might be this article, Five Major mistakes Latter-day Saints make with politics, where point #4 addresses agency in detail.
#4 “This is just a policy of man.”
A complaint my father raised about this policy was that it was simply due to political pressures and that this was not the Area Authorities acting as priesthood leaders but as men.
Ignoring the fact that this argument implies that the Area Presidency was using official church communication channels, to send a letter telling members to do something that was their personal opinion and that this letter went to every single member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! And that they did nothing to reign in this rogue Area Presidency! The root of this argument is that the source of the question invalidates the revelation. So what if the Governor of Utah asked the Area Presidency to issue this request? Do you really think they would issue this official commutation simply because they were asked without seeking confirmation from the Lord that it was acceptable? Does it matter that Emma was the source of the question that sparked the Word of Wisdom? Could you imagine the early brethren saying, “Oh the only reason God told Joseph that we should abstain from Tobacco was Emma, so we can ignore it.” No, that thought is utter foolishness. It does not matter where the genesis of the question that sparked revelation came from, what matters is that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have called these men, and stand by them. And unless they publically correct them for something they do, we have a covenant duty to sustain, stand by, and obey those who hold stewardship over us.
It does not matter.
It does not matter if what our church leaders have asked us to do makes sense, our duty is to obey. As Joseph Smith put it, “When the Lord commands, do it.” It is easy to obey when we understand, but it is hard when it is an act of faith. Surely Naaman thought washing in the River Jordan made no sense, but he obeyed and was blessed. Surely the Israelites thought smearing blood on the door to cause the destroying angel to pass over them made no sense either! But it does not matter what we are asked to do, if we obey then we will be blessed. We are dealing with a God that can turn water into wine! He can and will turn our obedience into blessings and miracles. In the words of Russell M. Nelson, “My experience is that once you stop putting question marks behind the prophet’s statements and put exclamation points instead, and do it, the blessings just pour.”
Josh
Wednesday 2nd of February 2022
Honestly trying to come to grips with this, as I have been since the letter was sent referencing vaccines, masks, etc.
I don't want to argue whether or not the letter was wrong, but rather whether such a directive from the Prophet could be wrong, and what my obligation is if it is wrong.
To the first question of whether the Prophet can be wrong, the statement has been cited that the Prophet will never lead us astray. I have never interpreted this to mean that every single thing the Prophet ever says is 100% correct. If the Church can be compared to a train on its way to the celestial kingdom, then my interpretation of that statement is that the Prophet will never derail the train. He will not stop it or put it in reverse. But he may slow it down or speed it up. He may rattle it a bit, and he is still not leading the Church astray.
Another analogy might be to compare the Prophet to someone leading a group through a forest. He may not always take the easiest path, he may not choose the shortest path, he may choose a path that's rocky and causes you to stub your toe or sprain your ankle, but if he gets you to your destination, were you ever led astray?
A final analogy might be an airline pilot. Flying a plane means being off course 97% of the time (or something like that) and constantly correcting. It would be laughable to expect a pilot to fly a perfect course, and yet does that mean the pilot took you astray?
We know that only Christ was perfect, therefore the Prophet is fallible. How fallible can he be? I don't know. I know that as he connects with the spirit and counsels with other leaders he becomes less fallible. I follow the Prophet, even though he is fallible, because to paraphrase Dan Jones, "I'd rather have an imperfect prophet than no prophet at all."
If we can agree that the Prophet is not perfect, then what of the second question? If the Prophet directs us to do something that is wrong, should we still do it?
Again, I don't want to get pulled into an argument over whether the Prophet is or isn't wrong in this or any other particular matter, that's not the point. For the sake of argument, just imagine that he is wrong about something that he asks the membership of the Church to do.
It would obviously be incorrect to go about trumpeting to the world that the Prophet is wrong on one thing and therefore the Church isn't true and we should all do whatever we want in all things.
On the other extreme, I could choose to disobey quietly and privately, so that no one else notices, but even in this it seems I am on dangerous ground. Consider this excerpt from a talk by Henry B. Eyring:
Another fallacy is to believe that the choice to accept or not accept the counsel of prophets is no more than deciding whether to accept good advice and gain its benefits or to stay where we are. But the choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand. That ground becomes more dangerous. The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future. The best time to have decided to help Noah build the ark was the first time he asked. Each time he asked after that, each failure to respond would have lessened sensitivity to the Spirit. And so each time his request would have seemed more foolish, until the rain came. And then it was too late.
Every time in my life when I have chosen to delay following inspired counsel or decided that I was an exception, I came to know that I had put myself in harm’s way. Every time that I have listened to the counsel of prophets, felt it confirmed in prayer, and then followed it, I have found that I moved toward safety. Along the path, I have found that the way had been prepared for me and the rough places made smooth. God led me to safety along a path that was prepared with loving care, sometimes prepared long before.
End quote.
However, to further complicate the matter, what if the Prophet is asking me to do something I not only see as needless, or incorrect, but harmful?
Naaman was commanded to wash in the river Jordan. This may have seemed needless or silly, but there was no harm in it. Building an ark could have seemed like a whole other level of silliness, but still, there was no harm in it. The test for Abraham, when commanded to kill his son, was of an entirely different sort.
We know God is perfect.
We know God sometimes asks us to do things that not only do not seem to make sense, but which are "obviously" harmful, like killing one's own child.
We have precedent for doing things that seem harmful when God commands it. We have precedent for doing things that seem silly and unnecessary when the Prophet commands.
My struggle with the letter about COVID is that it doesn't appear to necessarily be a commandment, nor necessarily inspired. It could just be "wise counsel" that seemed so logical and clear to the brethren that nobody thought to question it or seek the Lord's input. I don't see any indication in the letter or other directives that God told President Nelson to tell all the members to wear masks.
So what am I supposed to do if I believe or "know" that following this directive is not merely useless, but harmful? Should I still follow it, believing that even though this is something harmful, God will turn it to something good? Or should I say, "Well, the Prophet is wrong on this one, so I'm not going to do this one thing, but I know he's still the Prophet and I will continue to listen and obey to other directives and counsel in the future and when I struggle I will seek to understand and to get the spirit to help me know what to do."
Appreciate any thoughts.
Thanks!
Emily Goff
Friday 25th of March 2022
I think your scriptural examples are beautiful and would say to follow your own advice that you gleaned from them and know that you will never go wrong by following the Prophet. Granted, at the time of writing this, President Nelson has already made the announcement that it is up to local leaders now how to best manage Covid policies, but I do think that anything that comes through official church communications, signed by the first presidency, can be considered inspired. These men are not men who would put their opinions in a place where only direction from the Lord should go.
Alfred Vienneau
Sunday 30th of January 2022
I do believe God has asked us to obey the laws of the land, but it doesn't mean that the laws of the land are always correct. There might be a time when the church will tell us otherwise if the laws of the land are extremely corrupt. For instance, in some country, the laws of the land makes abortion ok. It doesn't mean we need to follow it to a T. It also doesn't mean that the Lord supports abortion. We need to fight for the rights of freedom. Right now, if we obey the laws of the land, the Lord might not tell us otherwise because the Gospel has to move forward and by the church rejecting the laws mandating people to wear masks and be vaccinated, it could mean putting the brakes on the church moving forward. But it doesn't mean that its right. I assume those that comply with this will either be protected or perhaps it might a time where the Lord asks some to sacrifice their lives for the good of the Church moving forward as Christ sacrificed his life for us. But there might be nothing wrong for people to fight against giving up our freedom to a corrupt government like we would for abortion. So we cannot judge anyone who goes in one direction or the other. We just need to follow what we feel is right for us.
Randall Craig Wall
Monday 29th of November 2021
You do realize there is a difference between the two:
It does not matter if what our church leaders have asked us to do makes sense, our duty is to obey. // As Joseph Smith put it, “When the Lord commands, do it.”
Carol
Saturday 23rd of October 2021
Thank You, Perfect. Well Said. Much appreciated.
Brian
Friday 17th of September 2021
Blunt and to the point, nicely said, polite, and utterly correct. Thank you for the article and staying faithful yourself! If we all continue to do this, we will all see each other in heaven. This is a time of sifting the wheat from the tares, being faithful helps us become wheat, and not turn into tares. Keep up the good work everyone! Stay faithful! The blessings to come are worth more than our own selfish desires!