Dr Moore wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:11 pm
Back to the OP - interesting find, IHAQ.
If you choose to empower Nelson with a prophetic mantle, then technically any outcome remains prophetically viable.
To use a stock price analogy, say Nelson gives prophecy that the stock will go up.
(1) If it goes up, excellent. Prophet.
(2) If it goes down, well no timeline was given, so wait on the Lord. Still a prophet.
(3) If the company goes bankrupt and stock goes to zero, just wait for the restructuring. Trials in the flesh bring faith. Still a prophet.
Nelson can do or say anything because he is the
living prophet.
Ironically, that's really not true except for the most ardent believers. Thanks to his nonsensical claims to revelation, I believe Nelson has presided on more testimony losses than any other church president.
There is an interesting and relevant passage in the book "Black Box Thinking" (Matthew Syed)
A landmark three-year investigation published in the Social Science and Medical Journal revealed similar findings, namely that physicians {Russell M. Nelson's profession} cope with their errors through a process of denial. They 'block mistakes from entering conscious thought' and narrow the definition of a mistake so that they effectively disappear, or are seen as inconsequential'.
(Page 97, Black Box Thinking, Chapter 5 - Intellectual Contortions. By Matthew Syed)
Syed also gives another example of a doomsday group who's leader had predicted a spaceship was coming to rescue them at midnight on New Years Eve as the world had gone to pot. The group sold their houses, left jobs, took their kids out of school etc and gathered for the event. Of course, the leaders prophesy didn't materialise, no spaceship came, the world didn't end. The leader reframed his failure as a success - because the group had been so faithful they had saved the world, it wasn't going to end, no spaceship was needed. The group were delighted with their success and their leaders inspired guidance.
We see this same process of intellectual contortion in Mormon apologists and members - consider the reframing that went on following the leak about the hundreds of billions of dollars sat in Ensign Peak et al. And we've seen it in this very thread trying to reframe Russell M. Nelson's Armenia prophecy. Intellectual Contortion is how testimonies are maintained.