If you honestly believed that God had called a Prophet to represent Him on the earth today, you would unquestionably hang on his every word. For, to heed the words of the Prophet, is surely to heed the very words of God Himself.
The Church of the Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints believe that God has given them such a Prophet. Each year at
their semi-annual General Conference, run-of-the-mill Mormons get very excited
wondering what new revelation the Prophet and leaders of their Church may
bring.
Same Old
I have to say, as a non-member of
the Church, unless I am missing something, I did not hear anything new at this
month’s Conference. It was just the same old things. There was a sustaining of
the leadership, a lot of ‘we are the true Church’, much talk about repentance
and the need to try harder and, of course, the obligatory announcement that new
temples are to be built – but nothing that I identified as new revelation.
This does not seem to concern the
faithful. After each General Conference, numerous messages appear on social
media lauding the Church, and the uttering of how amazing the prophet of God is.
Found on the General Conference
YouTube Channel, the following comments followed President Nelson’s opening
session:
‘We have a living
Prophet that lives now that we need to listen.’
‘HE that the
lord call in this last dispensation, He that reminded us all that our loving
father in heaven love us every day and he knows us what we go through, thank
you prophet Russell M Nelson, we love you n we sustain you.’
‘We are blessed
to have a living Prophet even Russell M Nelson.’
‘Every time I
listen to the Prophet I feel the love of the Savior emanating from him and
through the screen.’
‘Seeing our
Living prophet makes me cry. We are so blessed!’
‘President Nelson, you are an amazing instrument in the
Lord's hands. Thank you for your guidance, your wisdom, and your abundant
spirit! Bless you that you will go on blessing our lives for many more years.
We love you, we revere you and we sustain you as our living prophet!’
We Love the Prophet
What was it that the prophet said
that caused such an outpouring of love and admiration? Well, nothing really.
They love him because they love him. After all, he is the Prophet of God.
In his opening address, which officially
opens the General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson, told his hearers
that they must listen for three things throughout the Conference.
He said the faithful should listen
for ‘Pure Truth’, for ‘The Pure Doctrine of Christ’, and for ‘Pure Revelation’.
As I listened to one talk from the
Conference, I decided to take up the prophet’s advice. Here I consider a talk
entitled: One Percent Better given by Elder Michael A. Dunn of the Seventy; let
us listen for the Pure Truth, the Pure Doctrine of Christ, and the Pure
Revelation contained therein.
Cycling
I was immediately attracted to this
talk because he opened by speaking about Great Britain, which is my home, and
cycling, something Team GB are great at.
Elder Dunn pointed out that Great
Britain have not always been good at cycling, in fact, he said there was time
not too long ago when we ‘mired in mediocrity’. But then something
changed. Team GB hired Sir Dave Brailsford.
Elder Dunn reckons that what Brailsford did
reveals ‘an eternal
principle—with a promise—regarding our ofttimes perplexing mortal quest to improve
ourselves.’
He continues:
Unlike previous coaches who attempted dramatic,
overnight turnarounds, Sir Brailsford instead committed to a strategy he
referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains.” This entailed implementing
small improvements in everything. That meant constantly measuring key
statistics and targeting specific weaknesses.
Continuing, Dunn quotes Brailsford,
“The whole principle came from the idea that if you
broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then
improved it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put
them all together.”
Now if you are not sure where Elder Dunn is going with this, you don’t
know very much about Mormonism.
Mormonism is all about striving to be better, about straining towards
perfection, about hoping that after you have done all you can, God’s grace may
be sufficient.
Better
Again, quoting Brailsford, Elder Dunn goes on to say:
“The
whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could
think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1 percent,
you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
Dunn
suggests that rather than trying to fix everything, let’s produce a spiritual
inventory showing the individual parts of our lives. This will show the Mormon
where they are failing and therefore where they can improve.
Every time I
hear this kind of stuff in Mormonism, it reveals further that they either do not
know what Jesus did or that they flatly reject what he did, in the hope that
they may save themselves.
You see
according to Elder Dunn and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to
be truly saved, to return to Heavenly Father, we need to have victory over our
pesky personal shortcomings. How they suggest that can be achieved is what we will consider next time.
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