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Friday, October 4, 2019

What does a society of prophets look like?



hey guys...I'm getting kinda nervous here...




Given that failure is definitely an option for us...

Are we deferring too much to Dave and in so being darkened in our minds?  A comment from Denver holds a lot of weight in deciding relatively inconsequential matters:
Some thoughts shared with me from a conversation Denver had with one of the committee members indicated that the chronological order of that particular talk (OUR DIVINE PARENTS) is not critical.
While I believe Dave has stood before the divine council, part of me wonders if we should not be ascribing special weight to his opinions in places where he is not claiming any revelation.

I don't say this to call out others for their deficiencies, I see this in myself.   We need a society of prophets, where no one says "Know ye the Lord?" but I am not a prophet.  And the reason why we all  defer to Denver is that we don't trust anyone else to be a prophet for us.

I think the solution isn't for me to be able to trust your revelations, or for you to trust my revelations.
Therefore, let every man stand or fall by himself, and not for another, or not trusting another. (RE Mark 5:17, LE JST Mark 9:44)

It is for us to each get our own revelations.  For every man to stand or fall by himself, and to allow his neighbor to stand or fall by himself. To have the law written on our hearts. (Romans 2:15).  For me to trust you to get revelations for you, and for you to trust me to get revelations for me.

A Common starling.  Not much to look at. 
But what would our society look like if we were all our own prophets?  We've never seen such a society, and the scriptures are scant on the issue.

It seems likely that we would be in each others' business a bit less, trusting that each can hear God's advice.  And for those who can't hear God's voice, that would be job one for that person.

But sometimes a covenant body needs to coordinate to accomplish something, like write a statement of principles or build a temple.
Murmuration Starlings GIF
Murmuration of Starlings.  Beautiful. 

How on earth do we coordinate to build a temple?  If the temple is our bodies housing the Spirit of God, then the answer is well-known.  But if it's a physical building that a corporeal Jesus will visit, then there will need to be coordination among a body of believers.  But I suspect the command to build a temple will not come until the covenant body has the law written on each member's heart, where each of us (or enough of us) is led by the Spirit.  If a command to build a temple comes and we do not have the law written on our hearts, then it will end like Nauvoo.  If our hearts aren't right, none of this matters.  If our hearts were right, we could coordinate like starlings, with no one in charge but the Lord.  I think Dave is really tired of being the head guy in this movement.

Matters of governance such as which of Dave's quotes to include in our scriptures are only practice in learning to get along at this point.   Keep in mind that if the movement succeeds, we get Jesus and an unsealed Book of Mormon.  A hundred years from now, our yak leather bound set of remnant scriptures will either be replaced with white stones, or it will be kept in an Lamanite museum next to Brigham's walking cane and the conference center podium made from GBH's tree as a reminder of the hubris of failed dispensations.

None of this matters if we aren't individual prophets.  It just doesn't matter if we include words denoting that a loving Mother was behind the word of wisdom.

It just doesn't matter if we get the scripture project exactly perfect.

It just doesn't matter if we got the best Guide & Standard or not.

It just doesn't matter if Dave is a truer prophet than Russ.

It only matters that we each become the kind of people who can live in peace, because those are the people that the angels can gather to Zion.

Many of us (myself included) have forgotten why we got on this spiritual path in the first place.  It was because we each discovered that the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel, and he employeth no servant there.  That we should follow no man.

But now we are in real danger of being The Church Of Denver, "but receiv[ing] not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant.”  Against Denver's wishes, ironically.

If we fail, let's at least fail differently from the LDS from which we came.