Was Joseph Smith a true Prophet?
I have read an interesting book by Michael R. Ash, titled The Shaken Faith Syndrome. I really recommend reading this book entirely, but I particularly like the part where he discusses the unrealistic expectations of Prophets that many people have. These unrealistic expectations come from members and non-members of the Mormon Church.
Many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have heard the phrase “The President of the Church will never lead the people of the Church astray”. This seems to have caused some members to believe that prophets are infallible in their teachings at all times, since they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night. However, Joseph Smith and other leaders clearly taught differently.
Having being raised as a Catholic, I can’t avoid laughing at this comment comparing Mormons and Catholics.
The official position of Catholicism is that of an infallible pope, yet few lay Catholics really seem to believe it, while conversely, the official position of Mormonism is that of a fallible prophet, yet few lay Mormons really seems to believe it.
However, there are specific and sad consequences when people insist to act as if they believed that a prophet can’t make mistakes, or that all he does and say must be inspired at all times. For example, many ex-Mormons insist that they left the Church because of some idea expressed by some of the prophets in the past, even if that was never the official doctrine of the Church. They do not seem to understand that prophets are not born as prophets, and that when they are called as prophets they do not become immediately “divine”. They can make mistakes. They do not live in a cultural vacuum and therefore they may have bias.
Joseph Smith made mistakes, and he knew it and never tried to conceil it. In fact, modern scriptures have several examples when the Lord reprehended Joseph for his sins and mistakes. The same prophet Joseph Smith said that a prophet is a prophet only when he acts as such.
Same people would prefer differently, perhaps because they do not want to accept their personal responsibility of praying and asking God in order to receive a confirmation of what a prophet or any other leader of the Church is teaching.
Personally, I have no problems to believe that Joseph Smith and other leaders of the past made mistakes, because I have my own personal testimony of the true of the restored gospel and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I make mistakes and I can live knowing that prophets make mistakes.
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3 Responses to Was Joseph Smith a true Prophet?
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giovanni on
Tue, 14th Jul 2009 6:31 pm
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Why Do People Leave the Mormon Church? Racism, Polygamy? : GMormon (Giuseppe Martinengo) on
Mon, 20th Jul 2009 12:36 pm
Well done Giuseppe…good insight that made me reflect!
[...] Was Joseph Smith a true Prophet? [...]
Giuseppe Martinengo Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am
At times I think that many members are like teenagers. Young children think that their parents are almost perfect and believe them almost blindly. Then, as they grow and become teenagers, they start realizing that their parents are not perfect. This “discovery” usually means that teenagers start discounting what their parents teach and use parents’ flaws as an excuse for their own disobedience and bad behavior. Similarly, some members initially treat prophets as if they were almost gods, and when they discover that those leaders made mistake, those members start using supposed feeling of “betrayal” as an excuse for their breaking of the commandments. However, there is no justification, since the Mormon Church clearly teaches that only Jesus was perfect. Moreover, differently from other churches, the Mormon church teaches the doctrine of personal revelation and personal responsibility. So, in short, if I have a testimony of the truth, it does not matter what Brigham Young or my bishops did. If the Church is true, it is true. If some information about past prophets is able to destroy my testimony, it is my fault, not theirs.
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