A Letter to a Church Divided

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

For years I have believed a day of division in our church was coming, but I have always supposed it would be over some controversial political issue, like some of those we have seen in the recent past.

Perhaps those issues have caused some division, but I believe there is another division taking place that is closer to the heart of the gospel than those issues. It tugs at the heart and soul of the latter-day church, and the experience of a young boy who knew he could receive divine guidance if he asked for it. Following his miraculous vision, he told his experience to his minister and got the following reaction: “he treated my communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that there would never be any more of them.” (Joseph Smith – History 1:21)

I believe in a church built upon the ministration of angels, visions, prophecy, and direct communication from heaven. How grateful I am to know revelation is given through his appointed servants, the prophets and apostles who direct the affairs of his latter-day kingdom. I know those gifts did not cease in Joseph’s day, nor have they ceased in our day; but I’m afraid our general belief in modern day gifts of the spirit has ceased. Imagine if Joseph Smith Jr’s direct witness of Deity were to happen today, and how well mainstream media would cover the story, and how well the general public would receive that blessed experience.

If belief in general has truly diminished in our day, we should wonder why. Is it because our church leaders aren’t having divine experiences as in days of old? Or could it be that we aren’t being told of those experiences from our leaders because they know we wouldn’t believe them?

An ancient prophet named Jacob withheld information from the Nephites because of the wickedness of the men at the time (see 1 Nephi 16:3). Perhaps we aren’t heeding our divinely appointed leaders in the way we should? From my vantage point, we have a general church membership lightly regarding the prophets’ warnings to get out of debt and have a reasonable supply of the basic necessities of life (Thomas S. Monson, 2014, Are we Prepared). 

The scriptures provide many instances when God’s people rejected his message, and so he tried other means of reaching them. With our seeming collective disregard for inconvenient counsel, I have observed another scriptural avenue the Lord seems to now be using to give insight and warning to his people, which avenue appears to be misunderstood among Saints. Its importance has become very clear to me through scripture study. I owe my strong conviction of the Lord’s ordained prophets and apostles in part to this other avenue, which is based in the prophecy of Joel: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28). President Hinckley declared this prophecy fulfilled in 2001 (Hinckley, November 2001 Ensign, Living in the Fullness of Times).

It was three years ago that I read the account of the divine manifestations a man had seen of the other side of the veil and of future events. The content of his book felt natural to me, but I questioned the manner in which it came. I believed this sort of thing should come through a presiding officer of the church.

A year or two later Julie Rowe’s books, “The Time is Now”, and “A Greater Tomorrow”came into my life and described similar events as the first book I read. If you haven’t heard of Julie Rowe, she is sort of the icon of a host of people bearing testimony of latter-day events, which group of people I have come to recognize as fulfilling Joel’s prophecy. I knew instantly her experience was authentic, but again, I was troubled by the fact that the experiences she shared were not coming through the ordained leaders of the church. So I was caught between powerful confirming emotions I knew to be of the spirit, and a logic that didn’t fit my paradigm which was that only temporally ordained prophets should be revealing this to me.

This inner battle led to the greatest doctrinal journey I’ve experienced, which lasted for about the course of a year. I regularly did as Joseph Smith, and as James and Moroni directed and asked of God (James 1:5, Moroni 10:30). I found that the answers did not come quickly because I hadn’t yet sorted the doctrines out in my mind (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8). In the process of my studies, I became more fully converted to the Lord, his gospel, and his divinely appointed office of Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who I now see has said much about the future calamities, but I was too hard-hearted to see it.

But the Lord knows there are many like me who have difficulty responding (not in lip-service only) to his ordained servants. Sending additional warners is a familiar pattern in scripture. There were many times when immediately preceding a major calamity, the Lord sent a surge in prophets and warnings to gather and preserve as many as he could (see 1 Nephi 1:4; Ether 11:1; Enos 1:22; Ether 11:12; Jarom 1:4; Jacob 1:6; Jacob 4:6; Alma 32:23; Num. 11:29; Rev. 19:10; 3 Ne. 29:6).

Today doesn’t appear to be any different. There are many who do not hold the prophetic office(Dallin H. Oaks, 1986, Spiritual Gifts), including men, women, children, members and non-members alike who are bearing witness to the things which they have seen, or have been warned of in these latter-days. Though the church may not publish these warning accounts as part of the gospel curriculum, that does not suggest these accounts are false.

I emphasize that it was not the authors of the books I have read, but the author of their revelations that has converted me. Though I have come to love and respect those warners’ roles in my life, they have only served to point me to the Lord and his mouthpiece more faithfully. I’m grateful to the Lord for giving me a second chance to really heed his servants who hold the prophetic office, by listening to those who have prophetic gifts of the spirit. I thought I was following the prophet faithfully, but these warners have helped me see that I had some progress to make.

The recent accusations from a group of saints inside the church against Julie Rowe, and her recently published books strike a familiar tone to that of the persecution Joseph Smith received. Like his accusers, I have found the comments from Sister Rowe’s accusers to be lacking in their doctrinal backing, or in other cases, were motivated by contempt for the church in general. Ironically, some members have bought into the subtle anti-Mormon sentiment, which is essentially that revelations of this kind are not achievable to the common person. The prophet Joel would disagree.

The Savior told us to beware of false prophets in sheep’s clothing but who are really ravening wolves. Many are quick to judge messages that are not consistent with their own views to be false, and in a fleeting moment, forward the negative email or news article, never giving it the serious doctrinal research, meditation, and prayer that many have.

I wonder why the Lord gave this warning at all, knowing that members of his church would always be led by one holding the prophetic office. Were his council given according to a more current view, it might have been: “Don’t worry about judging between true or false prophets, because you will always have only one. Just follow him.” I believe his council was to help us know how to discern truth when it comes from sources other than the Lord’s ordained prophet, which also implies that he does indeed send us warnings from others.

The Savior also taught us the way to discern truth from these sources is by their fruits. By listening to the message of the warners, I am more kind to my children, have more purpose in my life, am closer to the Lord, pray more earnestly, have made good preparations, and am more apt to receive revelation, and I even sing with a little more intent at church. Can these fruits come from false prophets?

Many of these warners have jobs, families, attend church and temple, and seem to experience the daily struggles we all have, and some with the added burden of being persecuted for their beliefs – they are not ravening wolves.

If we truly followed the prophets today, the way we ought to, then I am confident this current surge in warners and prophets (in the non-ordained sense) would cease, and these ordinary people could go back to their normal lives and avoid the hassle, humiliation, and rejection they face in simply trying to point us to follow his ordained servants more faithfully.

I regret that I didn’t heed warnings to get out of debt and have a reasonable supply of the basic necessities of life from the Lord’s ordained prophets alone, but needed a gentle nudge from this group of warners. I’m afraid those who heed neither ordained prophets nor these warners, will be left to the Lord’s own preaching of thunderings, earthquakes, and the other disasters so frequently mentioned in scripture (see infographic). Perhaps that sermon is what president Monson referred to when he said “When the time for decision arrives, the day of preparation is past” (Thomas S. Monson, 2014,Are we Prepared).

The church gives members each fast Sunday an opportunity to share their witnesses of Christ publicly. We share our own revelations from the spirit trusting they will not be treated with contempt by our brothers and sisters. Stephen took the same opportunity to testify of Christ standing on the right hand of God and was stoned for it.

The next time an email or news article casting stones at our brothers and sisters bearing their testimonies crosses your screen, I urge you to prayerfully consider their message before carelessly disregarding it or contemptuously forwarding it to others. You are entitled to your own revelation. You may come to find as I have, that they are actually inspired, full of the Love of God, fully sustain the Prophet, and can point you to the Lord and the officers of his church more perfectly. Those are some of the fruits these witnesses have helped bring into my life.

If you are inclined to now throw stones at me for bearing my witness of the special role latter-day warners have in preparing his people, then I shall rest my case that we are a church divided on the doctrines of prophecy, revelation, and spiritual gifts, and pray for the day we will all recognize what the Lord has done to reach out to his children in order to gather as many into the garners as he can, to preserve and protect them in the days to come.

Sincerely your brother,

Eric

This letter was originally published on 9/20/2015