Brigham Young once prophetically lamented the state of the kingdom of heaven before the son of man would come:
"You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home; for every principle God has revealed carries its own convictions of its truth to the human mind, and there is no calling of God to man on earth but what brings with it the evidences of its authenticity. Let us take a course that leads to the perpetuity of the natural life which God has given us, and honour it.... "What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.... "If a people are led by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and they are cognizant of the fact through their faithfulness, there is no fear but they will be one in Christ Jesus, and see eye to eye" (JOD 9:149 – 150).
The key to the successful upbuilding of the heavenly kingdom, then, is not in all its subjects being united to the dictates of one man—be he Paul, Apollos, or Cephas—but in its subjects being united to the dictates of one spirit, even the spirit of the Lord:
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Eph. 4:4 – 7).
The church was anciently—and is modernly—given some "some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers...for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11 – 14). In Latter-day revelation, the body of the church has been told by Christ that the words of its leaders can be taken as his own words when those leaders receive it:
"Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; for his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith" (D&C 21:4 – 5, emphasis added).
A year-and-a-half later, and after an incident regarding Hiram Page receiving false revelations for the church, God clarified the quality of the former condition on first obtaining his word before declaring it (reiterating an earlier admonition as recorded in D&C 11:21):
"And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—and this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation. Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants" (D&C 68:2 – 5, emphasis added).
Hearers of words given by the Holy Ghost are given a key in the Book of Mormon to help them recognize when someone who claims or implies to be speaking by the Holy Ghost is truly doing so or not:
"When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost [then] the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men" (2 Ne. 33:1, emphasis added).
This provision places the hearer in a position to check the speaker for themselves, that they can be certain that the dictates to which they are expected to align themselves are binding upon them as the 'mind of God'—or not. If all who hear a word preached unto them possess this same perceptiveness, then unity with the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit can be achieved. One caveat, however, is that in order for the hearers to righteously exercise this check, their hearts must be sufficiently softened to the influence of the Holy Spirit:
"But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught" (2 Ne. 33:2)
Under these terms, a mass of people feeling a certain way—even a majority of God's covenant people—does not constitute by itself a signal that the popular feeling is the 'mind of God' as it is possible that the mass could share in a degree of hard heartedness as a result of giving ear to the contradictory precepts of men (see Alma 9:23, 30 – 31 ; and 30:45 – 46). In fact, this is not just possible, it is the prophesied state of the kingdom of heaven in the last days:
"And then, at that day, before the Son of Man comes, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom" (Matt. 25:1, JST, emphasis added).
Without reciting the whole parable, suffice it to say that there is not one guiding virgin whose light the others fail to heed but rather the kingdom is compared to ten virgins who each must possess their own light. In these precarious and trying circumstances, those members of the kingdom who want to be found possessing oil in their lamps would do well to emulate Paul who understood that alignment to anything other than the spirit of Christ is leaning upon the arm of flesh, even if that flesh is Cephas himself:
"But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
"When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, 'Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? You and I are Jews by birth, not "sinners" like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law'" (Gal. 2:11 – 16, NLT).
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