Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat (55:12)
Right. Well, back to the point of discussion. This other fellow wrote in and said that he was having a discussion with someone who was claiming that plural marriage was never taught by Joseph Smith. And then they said. And I had the Spirit tell me that. So, you know, as a way of winning the discussion, essentially the Spirit told me that Joseph Smith never taught or practiced it. So it doesn't matter what you say to me, that's what the guy says. Well, that kind of stuff goes on in the early church as well, where people are claiming that they have special access to authority on the doctrine of the church that isn't. The prophet starts with Hyrum Page doctrine covenant, section 28. Actually starts with Oliver Cowdery in the summer of 1830, after the church is organized, claiming that he has revelation that's not from Joseph. And it nearly breaks the church apart on multiple occasions. So, you know, look, the particular quote that God won't allow, you know, the pro. The. His prophet to lead people astray, that comes from. From Wilford Woodruff, when he's trying to defend the fact that God gave him the revelation to end the new practice of plural marriage, which is today Official Declaration 1. But Joseph teaches very clearly, and the Lord teaches very clearly that even if the prophet were to become a fallen prophet, God would have that prophet set apart his successor as his last act before he was removed from authority. None of the people that are making the claim that they somehow have prophetic authority can say that that's what happened. None of them can say, yeah, President Hinckley pulled me aside, put his hands on my head and said, you know what, new prophet? I'm out. And, you know, probably while he's waving a Governor Ford's History of Illinois book in the air, but this is something that the Lord is going to be very direct about. And, you know, the place you take him is Doctrine and Covenant, Section 43, where you keep having this come up, where people are teaching as doctrines to the church, claiming that they've received revelations, that these revelations are written down. And this is what the lord teaches. Verse 2, doctrine conversation 43. For behold, verily, verily I say unto you, you have received a commandment for a law unto my church. So this is binding on everyone. So not. No one's got a little special exemption from this, okay? A law unto my church through him whom I've appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations from my hand. And then God makes it as clear as it can possibly be. And this ye shall know assuredly that there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me. But verily, verily, I say unto you that none else shall be appointed unto this gift except it be through him, for if it be taken from him, he shall not have power except to appoint another in his stead. And this shall be a law unto you that ye receive not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelations or commandments. And this I give unto you that you may not be deceived, that ye may know they are not of me. For verily, I say unto you that he is ordained of me, shall come in at the gate and be ordained, as I have told you before, to teach those revelations which you have received and shall receive through him whom I have appointed. It literally can't be more clear. Only Joseph has the ability to receive revelation for the church. And when you want to say, yeah, but I think Joseph Smith became fallen prophet, the Lord says that even if that were to happen, Joseph would have one last power of the prophet that he would have the ability to do, and that would be to give that power to someone else. Now, Joseph does give that power to the quorum of the Twelve Apostles and gives them that last great charge in 1844. They receive that ability to receive revelations for the church from Joseph, the same way that this revelation is declared. And it doesn't say that if Joseph dies and then is resurrected, that he will then come back and give someone else unaffiliated with the actual body of the church the ability to receive revelation, doesn't say that. So all of the modern apostasies, whether they are from fundamentalists or whether they are from others, you know, polygamy deniers or people claiming that they've had their own spiritual. All of them fail this test because all of them cannot claim that the prophet, who was the prophet at the time of their apostasy, gave them the authority to Receive revelation for the church. So I think you leaned pretty heavy on D&C43. And, you know, for our brother who said, well, what about someone says, well, I. I really felt the Spirit tell me that. I mean, okay, but that's not how the church is governed. The church isn't governed by what people really feel strongly about. That's for your personal testimony. But you can't receive a personal testimony about how the prophet is wrong. That's not a revelation that God's giving you. Joseph teaches, even if it's a miraculous experience. And I know I've shared this letter a lot, but this, this is from Joseph. And that's what they asked for from Joseph. There is a. An elder in Vermont who has several people in his branch that are claiming to have had revelations. And at first everyone in the branch wants to believe it because they're great. They're like wonderful, beautiful revelations. And then they start saying things that this branch president, his name's Carter, he's this branch president in Vermont, in the middle of Vermont, it starts to make him feel uneasy. And so he writes to Joseph and says, what am I supposed to do about these people claiming to receive revelation for the church here? And this is what Joseph says. He says, as it respects the vision you speak of, we do not consider ourselves bound to receive any revelation from any man or woman without them being legally constituted and ordained to that authority and given sufficient proof of it, I will inform you that it is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the church or anyone to receive instruction for those in authority higher than themselves. Therefore, you will see the impropriety of giving heed to them. So again, how much more clear can Joseph be? How do I know that God didn't send an angel to appear to someone to tell them where President Monson made a mistake? Because Joseph Smith said, that is not how God works. It's contrary to the economy of God. If God needs to let President Monson know, or President Hinckley know, President Nelson know that they've made a mistake, that angel isn't coming to you. As wonderfully, as important as we all think we are, if God needs to speak directly to his prophet, to let him know what he needs to do, that angel is going to him and not to you. So we know from doctrine covenant, section 43, that all of these apostate groups are just throwing that revelation away as if Joseph didn't teach it because they were not given authority by the current prophet or the prophet that they claim became a fallen Prophet. They were not given that authority. They're claiming that as they look back, they see that there's been a loss of authority. But don't worry, they've got it. And that is not what Doctrine and Covenant Section 43 says. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't have an angel appear to you. You can't receive personal revelation, that you can't have answers to your prayers, and you can't have visions. You can, but Joseph explains those in this same letter. If any have a vision or a visitation from a heavenly messenger, it must be for their own benefit. And instruction for the fundamental principles, government and doctrine of the church is invested in the keys of the kingdom. Those keys of the kingdom are held by apostles, passed down through apostles. So can an angel appear to you? Yes. If that angel tells you, let me tell you where President Nelson is wrong, then you better start wondering whether or not he'll shake your hand, because that angel is not coming to you. And the hubris of how incredibly wonderful we think ourselves to be to think that if there was a problem in the church, it would be you, that the angel would come to, to fix it, I think kind of gives you an indication already about just how difficult things are. So I think probably gone on and on about that. Like I said, I know I've shared that before, but this is something that just keeps. It keeps coming up. And it's happened. It happened over and over and over again. In Joseph's time, it happened over and over and over again. In Brigham Young's time, it happened over and over again. In. In Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor. It happens in every era of the church that someone comes along and says, I know that the revelation says that the prophet would appoint someone even if they were to fall, but don't worry, I'm somehow special and different, you know. And the really sad part is that even though the church is very clear about where authority comes from, there you go, having people following after it. There's a Brigham Young sermon that. It's pretty funny because it's a sermon where he's primarily just talking about, you know, make sure you plant your wheat the right way and stuff like that. This is a. This is in Mount Pleasant, Utah. Okay, so in 1865, you know, and so a lot of it is like, you know, fairly mundane. You know, hey, stop sinning. Get that kind of stuff. But then he talks about how they're leaving, they're getting ready to leave, and he says, you know, I'm going to bless everybody. Here. But then after all our labors, will let some poor fellow come here and get up. The foolishest revelation that there ever was. I don't care what it was about. If it was about cats and kittens, cats and mice, sauerkraut and bodily lice, some people would follow them. I was trying to teach the saints and instruct them and plead with them to live their religion and learn something. So you can sense the frustration from Brigham Young in the fact that, you know, all of these people that go off following false revelations, outside of the ones that are just charlatans trying to deceive people, they all at one point believed in who the prophet was. And then because that prophet ended up not saying what they wanted him to say, or the church didn't take the position on some political issue that they wanted them to take, they decided that they must no longer be a prophet. So thanks so much for your emails and hopefully this was informative. At least no one have any personal revelations about sauerkraut. Okay. I feel like, you know, I feel like that's going to be harder for some of our German saints.
