37: We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet

Reading Assignment for Sunday, October 20, 2013

Class Member Study Guide:  Lesson 37

Doctrine & Covenants 21

Doctrine & Covenants 43:1-7


Articles of Faith 1:9

Church History Chronology


WE NEED A LIVING PROPHET

"Beginning with Joseph Smith and continuing on to his successors as President of the Church, the ongoing stream of revelation has perfected our understanding of the gospel.  The understanding of doctrines is more complete as taught by the Church today than at any prior time in this dispensation."  Merrill C. Oaks, Seventy

	Joseph Smith Jr. 1st President Served: 1830–1844		Brigham Young 2nd President Served: 1847–1877		John Taylor 3rd President Served: 1880–1887
	Wilford Woodruff 4th President Served: 1887–1898		Lorenzo Snow 5th President Served: 1898–1901		Joseph F. Smith, 6th President Served: 1901–1918
	Heber J. Grant 7th President Served: 1918–1945		George Albert Smith 8th President Served: 1945–1951		David O. McKay 9th President Served: 1951–1970
	Joseph Fielding Smith 10th President Served: 1970–1972		Harold B. Lee 11th President Served: 1972–1973		Spencer W. Kimball 12th President Served: 1973–1985
	Ezra Taft Benson 13th President Served: 1985–1994		Howard W. Hunter 14th President Served: 1994–1995		Gordon B. Hinckley 15th President Served: 1995–2008
	Thomas S. Monson 16th President Served: 2008–

  
 While serving as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, President Ezra Taft Benson said:

 “The most important prophet, so far as we are concerned, is the one who is living in our day and age. This is the prophet who has today’s instructions from God to us today. God’s revelation to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the ark. Every generation has need of the ancient scripture plus the current scripture from the living prophet. Therefore, the most crucial reading and pondering which you should do is of the latest inspired words from the Lord’s mouthpiece” (in Conference Report, Korea Area Conference 1975, 52).

Role of Living Prophet

What the Doctrine & Covenants and Other Scriptures Teach Us about the Role of the Prophet:

D & C 1: 38 

D & C 21:4-5

D & C 42: 2-3

D & C 68: 3-4


D & C 20: 21-26

Mosiah 13: 33


D & C 21: 1

Mosiah 8:13- 18

The Parable of the Watchtower

D & C 101:46-54

D & C 107: 91-92


Following a Living Prophet

President Harold B. Lee taught:

 “The only safety we have as members of this church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized [see D&C 21:4–5].

… There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you’ [D&C 21:6]” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 152; or Improvement Era, Dec. 1970, 126).

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Latter-day Prophets' Christ-like love 

John Lyman Smith and his family came to Nauvoo when it was first being settled by the Saints. The only place the family could find to live at first was a stable made of logs. Everyone in the family except the mother soon came down with fevers as a result of living in the swampy area. John Lyman Smith said of the experience:

“The Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum visited us and administered to all of us, father being delirious from the effects of the fever. Their words comforted us greatly, as they said in the name of the Lord ‘you all shall be well again.’

Upon leaving the hovel, Joseph placed his slippers upon my father’s feet and sprang upon his horse from the doorway and rode home barefoot. 

The next day Joseph removed father to his own house and nursed him until he recovered” (quoted in Stories about Joseph Smith the Prophet: A Collection of Incidents Related by Friends Who Knew Him, comp. Edwin F. Parry [1934], 33–34).

 Our Heritage: Spencer W. Kimball  (page 131 last 3 paragraphs of chapter)

Challenge:  Do a Little More Study

I reviewed several articles on lds.org related to the living prophets.  Of those I reviewed, this article is the one that I felt was the most inspiring and powerful.  It is an address by Ezra Taft Benson given at BYU.  If you find a better talk on lds.org on living prophets please be sure to email the link to your article. 

This is a great article:  Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet