Gazelam wrote:I just want you to know that I find it objectionable that you would choose to draw attention away from the meaning of Biblical scripture by gutting it in the way that you have and simply used it as adornment for your personally held theology.
Please supply examples when making assertations regarding what I put up here. In our last exchange you did the same thing, claiming I'm incorrect and offering nothing in regards to your own interpretations.
Your POST is an example of the assertions that I've made. Didn't you read what you posted?
Here bolded in the following repost of your comments are "examples" of your gutting scripture to adorn your personally held theology:
A prophet is a person who knows by personal revelation from the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
"for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19:10)
Nothing more than the testimony of Jesus (meaning the receipt of personal revelation from the Holy Ghost certifying that Jesus is the Christ) is needed to make a person a prophet; and if this revealed knowledge has not been received, a person is not a prophet, no matter how many other talents or gifts he may have. But when a person has received revelation from the Spirit certifying to the divinity of Christ, he is then in a position to press forward in righteousness and gain other revelations including those that foretell future events.
The mission of prophets is not alone to foretell the future. Even more important is the witness they bear to living persons of the divinity of Christ, the teachings they give of the plan of salvation, and the ordinances which they perform for their fellow men. Most of the great prophets are possesors of the Melchizedek Priesthood; as legal administrators some have possesed keys enabling them to administer the fulness of the gospel ordinances.
There are of coarse, ranks and grades of prophetic responsibility and authority. Every member of the church should be a prophet as pertaining to his own affairs. "Would God that all the Lords people were prophets, and that the Lord woudl put his spirit upon them!" was the prayer of Moses. (Num. 11:29) Prophecy is one of the gifts of the Spirit to which al the saints are entitled (1 Cor. 12:10), and faithful members of the Church are exhorted to
"covet to prophecy." (1 Cor. 14:39.)
Those who hold offices in the Church, however, should be prophets both as pertaining to their own affairs and the affairs of the organization over which they preside. A quorum president should be a prophet to his quorum, a bishop to his ward, a stake president to his stake. Members of the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve, and the Patriarch to the Church are all sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators to the Church. Any new revelation for the Church would, of coarce, be presented to the people by the President of the Church, he being the mouthpiece of God on earth. (D&C 21:1-7)
In this day and age true prophets will be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; they will be persons who have received the right to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost when they were confirmed members of the Church; they wil be persons who have so lived as to merit receiving the promptings and whisperings of the Holy Spirit; they will be people who are in harmony with the prophets and revelators whom God hath chosen to govern and control the affairs of his earthly kingdom. They will not be found in cults or sects which are running counter to the established order; they will not be in rebellion against the First Presidency and the Twelve,
"for the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." (1 Cor. 14:32)
With all their inspiration and greatness, prophets are yet mortal men with imperfections common to mankind in general. They have their opinions and prejudices and are left to work out their own problems without inspiration in many instances. Joseph Smith recorded that he "visited with a brother and sister in Michigan, who thought that a prophet is always a prophet', but I told them that a prophet was a prophet only when he was actign as such." (Teachings, p.278.) Thus the opinions and views even of prophets may contain error unless those opinions and views are inspired by the Spirit. Inspired statements are scripture and should be accepted as such. (D&C 68:4)
Since
"the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Cor. 14:32), whatever is announced by the presiding brethren as councel for the Church wil be the voice of inspiration. But the truth or eror of any uninspired utterance of an individual wil have to be judged by the standard works and the spirit of discernment and inspiration that is in those who actually enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost.
President Joseph Fielding Smith has said: "it makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man's doctrine.
You cannot accept the books written by the authorites of the Church as standards of doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.
Every man who writes is responsible, not the Church, for what he writes. If Joseph Fielding Smith writes something which is out of harmony with the revelations, then every member of the Church is duty bound to reject it. If he writes that which is in perfect harmony with the revealed word of the Lord, then it should be accepted." (Doctrines of Salvation, vol.3, pp.203-204.)
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Do you SEE it now? I say that you chopped up scripture. You call it an assertion and have the audacity to ask me to supply examples when YOU posted the
partial quotes yourself.
