A Faithful Look Back at the First Presidency Urging the Covid Vaccine

Three years ago the First Presidency issued an official statement urging members of the Church to get vaccinated (Click here for that letter). I hated it. I had never been vaccinated for anything due to a family history of reactions to other vaccines. I wrote the following article detailing my struggles with the First Presidency’s counsel (Click here for that article). In that article, I detail that I fully believed that the vaccine might be lethal, but I detailed the importance of praying for confirmation with the intent to obey and how to know if you are an exception to prophetic counsel. Half of my family felt like they should not get the vaccine, the other half got it.

Here we stand three years later knowing that the vaccine was, medically speaking, neither as effective nor as safe as we were once told. Recent studies have shown there were, in some rare cases, fatal reactions to the vaccine. Every time a new study comes out I repeatedly get asked to explain how I square it with the prophetic counsel to get the vaccine. I have expressed my thoughts in two parts on this subject repeatedly in private conversations, and considering how often I have done it, I think it is prudent to share them here as well:

1st It Was Always About Restarting the Work.

Shortly after the First Presidency Letter was issued Elder Rasband was asked about getting the vaccine, he replied that the twelve had been praying that the Church would be able to send out missionaries again, reopen the temples, and return to having in-person Church services. He specifically stated, “In the presence of the prophet, we (meaning the twelve) have prayed that we would have a vaccine, not just for the sake of making us healthy and resilient to this COVID-19, but also to allow the Church to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. I mean, we all know through this prophet, President Nelson, that that’s the mission of our era, to gather Israel. He has said to the youth before, the most important work we are involved with is to gather Israel. And so when you put that as the overlining need for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you can understand.” (See the 6:44 minute mark of this face-to-face with Elder Rasband and Kearon)

The work of gathering Israel and building the kingdom is not some secondary, or tertiary objective in the Church, it is the PRIMARY purpose of the Church. It is the cause which every Latter-day Saints covenants to live the laws of Consecration and Sacrifice to further. We literally covenant to give everything we are and have, up to and including our lives to further the kingdom (per Bruce R. McConkie’s 1975 Conference talk).

So within the framework that the Church’s mission is not to protect the Saints, but to build the kingdom and to gather Israel, it would be logical that the Prophet in counsel with the apostles and medical advisors could conclude that the best plan would be to urge vaccination as a “safe and effective” means to reopen the temples and restart missionary work. But more than the prophet coming to this conclusion, it is easy to see how the Lord could then give His confirming approval to the First Presidency’s plan and letter. Yes, some saints might be required to live the fullness of their temple covenants, for which they will be rewarded like thousands before them, but the work would restart and move forward once again.

And who can argue but that with the Church’s urgings, the nations of the world viewed us as responsible and allowed missionary work and temples to reopen? Imagine if the Church had taken the opposite stance, how many nations would’ve kicked us out over it? How many doors would still be shut to this day over governments viewing the Church as a hostile agent? How much would the work of the Lord suffer? Therefore, within the context of the “overlining need” to gather Israel, the vaccine was safe and effective enough to restart the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil, despite its medical properties.

2nd. It Was a Litmus Test, a Test Many People Failed.

Let me be clear, as I have always been: Getting the shot was not a test. Good people got the vaccine, good people did not get the vaccine. Bad people got the vaccine, bad people did not get the vaccine. Therefore the vaccine is NOT a litmus test. The litmus test of our discipleship was how we reacted to the prophet’s counsel.

I have personally witnessed the full spectrum of responses within my inner circle. I saw family members pray about the counsel and feel that they should NOT get the vaccine, but that they should say nothing about that exception and continue sustaining the prophet. Emily and I prayed being willing to obey and desiring to be an exception, but not getting that prompting, we followed the counsel and got vaccinated knowing it might full well cost our lives. I also had other friends who got the vaccine without praying, and others who were confused as to what they should do who reached out to me asking for advice (Whom I outlined the need to follow the prophet and the 6 principles that govern being an exception).

I also saw people attacking others on their vaccine status, and I want to be clear here as some people have misconstrued my position. I have never attacked another person on their vaccination status. I don’t even care about it. I have siblings, faithful siblings who felt they should not get the shot. I have always maintained that Following the Prophet is about ME not YOU I even wrote an article using such a name years before COVID that I repeatedly reshared to denounce the pharisaical judgments about how well others were following the Prophet.

But there was another group, I had other friends who became openly antagonistic towards the prophet and the prophetic counsel. Many of them declared no need to even pray about the counsel and advocated on social media that the counsel was false. Many, if not most of them, cited personal revelation that the prophet was wrong and that they then felt the need to declare their revelations on social media to protect others. It is these last two groups I believe that failed the litmus test. Those who used it to judge others and those who became antagonists.

The Resulting Personal Apostasy

I want to make a note here on the last group: Those who became hostile to the prophet’s counsel. They became very angry at anyone posting any pro-prophet content on social media. Not pro-vaccine, but pro-prophet. The idea that we needed to follow the prophet sent them into a vocal rage. Unlike vaccination status, which I have never cared about, this group was actively engaging in apostasy, and I repeatedly called out their actions as apostasy on my social media platforms.

The consistent theme of these dissenters was protesting the idea we need to follow the prophet. Hence the descriptor of “Protestant Mormons” I have used in referring to them. These Protestant Mormons clung to two or three influencers who at first said things like “We were only urged, not commanded!” but then quickly descended into more antagonistic attitudes, continually producing theories of men mingled lightly with scriptures/quotes to justify their positions. Obscure, and often out-of-context, quotes from 100+ years ago became their favorite tools to mock those who stood with the prophets. They repeatedly advocated against the idea we need to follow the prophet, instead insinuating that the prophet could, would, and did in fact, lead us astray as a “test” to see if we were blindly following. They openly attacked ANYONE advocating for the prophet or the repeated promise that we won’t go astray if we follow the prophet.

One extreme example came mere moments after Elder Rasband declared in the Oct 2021 Conference, “We are distinguished as a Church to be led by prophets, seers, and revelators called of God for this time. I promise that as you listen and follow their counsel, you will never be led astray. Never!” I saw my social media feed filled with attacks against Elder Rasband. One of these influencers, in a now-deleted post, railed against Rasband for being an awful person stating he was rude and prideful and therefore his message should be disregarded. (I have a huge desire right now to name the names of these apostate influencers, as I have personally witnessed dozens of people falling away due to their false ideologies, but I feel constrained to maintain my general rule not to name names).

I have received hundreds of comments on my social media and blog from followers of this ideology regurgitated the talking points of these influencers, “I follow Christ, not the prophet,” “Nowhere in scripture does it say we need to follow the prophet,” and “Only Wilford Woodruff said the prophets won’t lead us astray! (this one lost a lot of steam when Rasband repeated the promise)” Or my favorite, “We should not follow the prophet blindly, we should instead #HearHim!”

It was to rebuttal these half-truths, out-of-context quotes, or simply unauthoritative statements that I published/reshared a series of articles on these topics to help people not be deceived by false revelation or apostate influencers. See the following:

7 Ways Latter-day Saints Get Following the Prophet Completely Wrong
Doubting the Prophet and Seeking Signs From the Holy Ghost
Why I Follow A Fallible Prophet, And You Should Too!
What Would You do if the Prophet Asked You to Stop Eating Vegetables?
When Satan Gives You a ‘Revelation’ That You Don’t Need to Follow Your Church Leaders
Are You the Exception or Just Disobeying? 6 Ways to Know if You Are the Exception
Did you hear Him, or did you hear him?
Two Guiding Principles of Personal Revelation That Every Latter-day Saint Needs To Know.
The Most Dangerous Apostates are Social Media Influencers
How Can I Tell if a Quote From a General Authority is Authoritative?
25+ Times We Have Been Promised That The Prophet Will Not Lead Us Astray
The Vitally Important Part of #Hear Him That Members Are Completely Missing!
How My Bishopric’s Handling of Masks Brought Unity to Our Ward
The Danger With LDS Influencers and Authors (myself included)
20+ Amazing Quotes on Following The Prophet and the Dangers of Disobeying!
Joseph F. Merrill: Divine and False Revelation – April 1941

So in summary: The test was never if you got the shot or not, it was instead how you reacted to the counsel. Did you use it as a weapon to judge others or become antagonistic towards the Lord’s anointed? If so, you failed the test.

Therefore what?

What is the lesson we should learn or take away from this experience? We should understand and realize that the core aspect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the thing that distinguishes us from other Christians, is the claim that prophets hold Priesthood Authority. Other Christian churches believe in Christ, other churches use the Book of Mormon. Splinter groups use the D&C and Pearl of Great Price. And others still claim personal revelations lead and guide them in all different directions. These things are not unique to us, and cannot produce unity of faith.

This is why for Latter-day Saints, safety and unity only come from following the prophets. We cannot follow Christ if we are rejecting His servants. Christ has commanded us to follow the prophet and to treat their WORDS and COUNSEL as if they came from Christ Himself! Am I saying we should worship the prophet, that prophets are more important than Christ, or that we don’t need personal revelation? Absolutely not! I am saying that we cannot be true Latter-day Saints if we are disloyal to the core of the Restoration! The Christ-given and directed prophetic authority of the leadership of the Church! So what should we do? Follow the prophet! Sustain the prophet! Seek to uphold the prophet and his prophetic priorities. Seek to #HearHim and authenticate all personal revelation to ensure it is consistent with the words, counsels, and teachings of the prophets. And in so doing we will be following Christ!

“If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord, then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain. How closely do our lives harmonize with the words of the Lord’s anointed—the living prophet, the President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency?”
Ezra Taft Benson

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson Chapter 11: Follow the Living Prophet