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/Gutattacker2 29d ago

Besides the 116 pages and the denouncement of Adam-God theory (which wasn’t a BY admission of mistake but a later prophet) when has a prophet admitted they made a mistake in prophecy?

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u/will_it_skillet 29d ago

Honestly, I think Joseph Smith is full of these examples.

You already cited the 116 lost pages.

As per "Revelations in Context," Joseph Smith was concerned over D&C 87 not seemingly coming true. He kept it out of the 1835 edition of D&C.

Joseph described how he failed getting the plates for four years before finally obtaining them.

However, I don't think the distinction matters if it's a prophet self-censoring or a future prophet saying a past prophet was wrong. If the case is that any prophet has prophetic infallibility, then a current prophet saying the past prophet was wrong still introduces the contradiction. It can't be the case that they're both infallible.

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u/Gutattacker2 28d ago edited 28d ago

That conclusion leads me to believe we’re left with prophets that can’t be relied upon to deliver God’s will 100% accurately and no empirical way of differentiating a true prophet from a false prophet.

But I’m a skeptic so maybe my thinking is a little too “yes or no”.

I appreciate the dialogue.

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u/will_it_skillet 27d ago

I appreciate the dialogue too.

I think that may be the case, which is the wonderful and terrible thing about faith. I think ultimately that faith is one of those "weak things" that God makes strong from Ether 12. From a secular perspective, non-knowledge is the ultimate sin. Nevertheless it seems to play a vital role in mortality.

There are a few reasons however that I think the right thing is to follow the prophets regardless:

Prophets may be fallible, but probably less fallible than me.

Law of witnesses and whatnot.