Wound #5
[If you have not read Mandate and Joseph’s Call, please do so before continuing.]
One of the fruits of placing all perceived revelatory power in the hands of a leader is the suspension of personal revelation for everyone else.
2 But, behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in, this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses. (D&C 28)
According to Book of Mormon, witness David Whitmer, the effect this had upon the people was one in which they began to trust in Joseph, their leader, more than God:
You see how we trusted too much in man instead of going to God in humility, and to his written word, to see if we were proceeding correctly. (Whitmer, p. 34)
Even the current LDS church leadership has admitted that the members today are in that same boat:
“Both Alma and Helaman told of the church in their day. They warned about fast growth, the desire to be accepted by the world, to be popular, and particularly they warned about prosperity. Each time those conditions existed in combination, the Church drifted off course. All of those conditions are present in the Church today.“
“I repeat, perhaps for one time only we have the opportunity to adjust that balance so that Church activities sustain parents and families rather than the other way around.” (Regional Rep. Seminar March 30, 1990)
“Elder Boyd K. Packer called the new budget program a ‘course correction’ that will have the effect of returning much of the responsibility for teaching and counseling and activity to the family, where it belongs.” (Church News February 24, 1990, p. 3)
Because the church members have placed all their trust in priesthood-appointed prophets and apostles and have suspended their right to personal communion with God, Joseph, and his heirs have their wish of having a membership incapable of questioning anything they do or say, just as the Catholics have with the Pope.
This is not something to brag about; it is something to be embarrassed about. The expression “We teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves” has gone right out the window. Had it not, there might be something to brag about.
This fruit is a serious wound to a living God who wants to talk to His children directly.