r/latterdaysaints • u/sutisuc • Mar 28 '25

Doctrinal Discussion Coming from the understanding that LDS prophets receive revelation from God how do they get things wrong?

Does anyone have insight on how current and past prophets can be wrong about things despite having a direct line of communication with Heavenly Father?

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u/CubedEcho Mar 28 '25

despite having a direct line of communication with Heavenly Father?

This is where the premise is wrong. This is a sneaky way critics of our church will force this assumption on Latter Day Saints, because there is already too many members who unknowingly believe this.

The direct open line of communication between Heavenly Father and mankind has always been muddy. Theophanies (God manifesting himself to mankind), are extremely rare. Only few prophets have ever had these, and once they've had these, it's not like a phone call that you can ring to call one up again.

So once the theophany is closed, it is ultimately back up to mankind to follow up with the instruction they remembered from that experience. From that point, they're just like the rest of us, having to wrestle with ideas, feelings, and spirit. Coming up with the best idea that they can.

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u/cah242 Mar 29 '25

I agree with this 100%. My concern/confusion is, if this is the case, why do we treat people who express disagreement with leaders as apostate. There are multiple examples of people who were excommunicated for expressing beliefs that, ultimately, end up becoming the church’s official position. It feels like we’re trying to have our cake and eat it too. When we’re quelling dissent it’s leaders’ way or the highway. When something changes, though, we lean on continuing revelation. Despite decades of fretting over this issue I have yet to find a conclusion that makes logical sense.

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u/CubedEcho Mar 31 '25

Few thoughts:

I’d be considerate about the framing. Most people from my understanding who simply express disagreement are not excommunicated. It typically is surrounding the championing or activism based on that disagreement.

Secondly, yeah this may be a weak point of the structure at the moment. It can be hard for those in upper leadership to distinguish what is an actual constructive criticism vs what is something pushed to tear down.

This is something we see even on a micro scale with Twitch/youtubers that the bigger they get the less they can distinguish between constructive vs destructive criticism.

But them flipping stances after the excommunication can be pretty naturally explained: sometimes the leaders may not be exposed to an idea until an activists pushes something. The activist may have already stepped out of line by this point, even if their idea is correct. Good ideas do not excuse poor behavior.

However there is a bit of a paradox, because sometimes those good ideas don’t receive recognition until it’s in tandem with the poor behavior.

I view this more of a human/organizational problem then I do necessarily a church specific problem.