“I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self security. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not." -Brigham Young
I like this quote a lot. It has really helped me to understand my personal responsibility and privilege to engage with and seek understanding regarding the teachings of church leaders and apply them as the Spirit directs to me personally. No one else can take that responsibility/privilege away from me. And no one else can gain that understanding on my behalf. It is my belief that by so doing, we actually assist our leaders in their revelatory process. In turn, we experience the growth that comes from receiving personal revelation and a bond is strengthened between Heavenly Father and his child. If all that was required was to follow our leaders unquestioningly, there would be no need for personal revelation. There would be no need to strengthen that bond. There would be no understanding gained. And there would be no growth made. I believe we do our brothers and sisters a great disservice when we so dogmatically coerce them into believing as we do that we deny them their privilege to discover truth through their own personal relationship with deity.
Here's another gem from Hugh B. Brown (to BYU students and faculty):
"We call upon you students to exercise your God-given ...right to think through on every proposition that is submitted to you and be unafraid to express your opinions, with proper respect for those to whom you talk and proper acknowledgment of your own shortcomings... We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts."
I like this one too (also from H.B.B.):
“We have been blessed with much knowledge by revelation from God which, in some part, the world lacks. But there is an incomprehensibly greater part of truth that we must yet discover. Our revealed truth should leave us stricken with the knowledge of how little we really know. It should never lead to an emotional arrogance based upon the false assumption that we somehow have all the answers-that we in fact have a corner on truth. For we do not."
7 months ago
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So what happens when a person's own personal revelation is in contradiction to official Church doctrine?
I think it is great that the Church allows and even expects members to seek their own confirming revelation. But the problem, I believe, is that the Church expects the person's own revelation to confirm that of the Church leaders'. And if it doesn't, the person is told to keep asking and praying until it does.
I think it's a little bit of a false sense of freedom. It's easy for the Church to tell people to pray for their own answers if they've convinced most of the those people that until they agree with the Church they either haven't received an answer or are still confused.
So my question is a sincere one - what do people and the Church do (or what are they supposed to do) when an individual's personal revelation doesn't match Church doctrine? Is that technically possible in the LDS? If it's possible, is it accepted? I'm not sure it is.
The last season of Big Love deals with this topic a lot, actually, in the story line of one of the wives. It's had me thinking about this topic quite a bit lately.
Those are really good questions. I'm not sure I have the answers, but the Brigham Young quote is interesting to me because it says "Let every man and woman know...whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not." He could have said "Let every man and woman know THAT their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates (period)" The fact that he adds the "or not" suggests to me that there is a possibility that church members could receive an answer that is different from general counsel. If that weren't at least a possibility it doesn't seem like there would be much need for independent questioning through the spirit. But I realize that may not be the way most church members interpret it.
Wouldn't believing that only personal revelation that agrees with church leaders is correct imply that church leadership can never be wrong?
The church leadership are inspired, but that's not the same thing as infallible.
Then again, I'm not sure I'm terribly qualified to be commenting on matters of faith... ;)
Eric, yes that is a good point. I think there is an important distinction between being inspired and being infallible like you mentioned. I see it the same way.
Here's another quote I came across today from Elder Uchtdorf:
"Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit. Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?"
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