Look to God and Live

Follow the Prophet or Look to God and Live?

Do we assume that if we 'follow the prophet' and do what he says, our exaltation is assured? Brigham Young was concerned that this might be the case. "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.... Those men, or those women, who know no more about the power of God, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, than to be led entirely by another person, suspending their own understanding, and pinning their faith upon another's sleeve, will never be capable of entering into celestial glory, to be crowned as they anticipate" (Journal of Discourses, Deseret Book, 1:312; 9:151).

Note that Brigham Young is concerned about "not inquiring for themselves," settling down in a "state of blind self-security," "reckless confidence in their leaders," "not understanding about the power of God and the influences of the Holy Spirit," and "pinning their faith on another's sleeve."  He does not say we should not listen and learn, but that we should listen to hear whether or not the word of God is spoken (D&C 1:38).  But he knows we cannot hear the word of God if we don't know the word of God and can't tell the difference between God's words and an inspirational talk.

Contrast "Follow the Prophet" with what Alma taught his son Helaman.  

"For behold, it is as easy 

to give heed 

to the word of Christ, 

which will point to you 

a straight course to eternal bliss, 

as it was for our fathers 

to give heed to this compass, 

which would point unto them 

a straight course to the promised land.  

And now I say, 

is there not a type in this thing? 

For just as surely as 

this director did bring our fathers, 

by following its course, 

to the promised land, 

shall the words of Christ, 

if we follow their course, 

carry us beyond this 

vale of sorrow into 

a far better land of promise. 

O my son, do not let us 

be slothful because of 

the easiness of the way; 

for so was it with our fathers, 

for so was it prepared to them, 

that if they would look 

they might live, 

even so it is with us.  

The way is prepared, 

and if we will look 

we may live forever.  

And now, my son, 

see that ye take care of 

these sacred things (sacred words), 

yea, see that ye look to God and live.  

Go unto this people 

and declare the word, 

and be sober" 

(Alma 37:44-47 emphasisadded).

Alma's words to Helaman illustrate the difference between relying on God's words to tell us all things that we must do (2 Nephi 32:3), and just blindly following the Prophet.

This was an echo of what Lehi taught his sons:

"And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words..." (2 Nephi 2:28).

Many excuse themselves from searching the scriptures by asserting that "dead prophets" are less relevant than "living prophets." They seem to ignore that the ancient prophets are still very much alive, those of which now "commune with the Church of the Firstborn" (D&C 107:19). As Isaiah reminds us, "The word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8), while Peter cites "a more sure word of prophecy to which you do well to give heed.... Prophecy came not in ancient times by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as moved upon by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:19,21). No word of God a living prophet speaks can contradict the word of God by an earlier prophet. If so, that prophet is not of God. Those that ignore God's cumulative word, moreover, seem to draw no distinction between prophecy and inspirational talks.

When Jesus appears to the Nephites, he quotes at length the words of Isaiah and also takes care to explain them. Mormon emphasizes how Jesus "expounded all the scriptures unto them" until he had "expounded all the scriptures in one"--those they had received and those he gave them "both great and small" (3 Nephi 23:6, 14; 26:1). That should put to rest the view that we need not pay much attention to "dead prophets' when the living prophets will tell us all we need to know. Doesn't Jesus, considering it His responsibility to teach from the prophets and to encourage his followers to search their writing, set an example for His servants to do likewise?

By searching the scriptures, the people of Jacob's day could discern the deception of Sherem, an Antichrist (Jacob 7:23), and the repentant Zoramites could distinguish truth from error (Alma 33:2). What is it that causes us to so easily recuse ourselves from this requirement if not a prideful Zoramitish notion of our chosenness that flies in the face of all truth?

There is an incalculable difference between searching the scriptures and not doing so, between having a firm foundation of Israel's prophets and not having one (cf. 2 Nephi 32:3-7). In the New Testament, as in the Book of Mormon, Jesus counsels the people to "search the scriptures" (John 5:39). Those who believed in Christ, Jew and Gentile, were those who "received the word with all readiness of mind" and "searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11-12). Note that He does not say 'read' the scriptures daily. Because ours is the time of which the prophets speak, how much greater is our need to search them so we will not be deceived but rather believe and know how to act on what they say? If almost "the very elect" will be deceived (Matthew 24:24), doesn't that imply everyone else will? Refusing to search the prophecies, on the other hand, makes people "willingly ignorant" of what will transpire when Jesus comes again and catches them unprepared (2 Peter 3:2-10).

The sons of Mosiah and their companions, who served a fourteen-year mission to the Lamanites, are described as having "waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God" (Alma 17:2-3; 23:6).

Their conversion of the Lamanites to the truth and dissuading them from the traditions of their fathers, was successful because they had first "searched the scriptures diligently" to know the truth. The spiritual breakthrough and divine promise they and other scriptural heroes realized in their lives, God offers to all who would gain the "sound understanding" and "knowledge of the truth" they acquired, including the spirit of revelation and prophecy, and the ability to "teach with power and authority of God." Once one follows the principle of searching the scriptures diligently, along with fasting and prayer, until he gains a full understanding, then God opens the heaven to him and is able to use him to perform miracles like those the sons of Mosiah performed.

Simplistic slogans and attitudes (tenets and dogmas) that have developed in recent years were never shared by the prophet Joseph Smith. Even as Joseph cited former prophets when teaching scriptural doctrines, he taught that life is a solemn chance a loving Heavenly Father affords us to learn to "look to God and live."  Shouldn't we assume, then, that "looking to God" should be the ultimate pursuit, leaving little room for interests that may be at odds with this pursuit? Although following ecclesiastical leaders may indeed get us started on our spiritual quest, their quintessential function--aside from authority to administer church affairs, oversee gospel ordinances, and offer inspired counsel--is to put God's children on the path to God as quickly as possible. How? By teaching us the word of God. If not, our religion is in danger of becoming a personality cult, as it is for those telestial persons who say, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:12; cf. D&C 76:98-101). Consider how quickly our adoration turns from our deceased Prophet to the new one.

Where following an ecclesiastical leader substitutes for looking to God, or where pleasing men supersedes pleasing God, then it is a mark of apostasy, the erosion of our accountability to God by giving deference to man as we worship the creature and not the creator.  God's response to those who muddy his people's waters is to pour knowledge from heaven on the heads of his saints, those who are "chosen" of him (D&C 121:33-34), not those who assume they are chosen though they do little more than follow a man, even though on a closer look they really don't. For example President Nelson tells us to hear Him. Do we respond by hearing Him, or by making it another slogan?

To the Nephites, Jesus explained, "I am he of whom Moses spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people" (3 Nephi 20:23; cf. John 5:46; D&C 133:64). 

When the prophet counsels us to be "diligently seeking to be taught by the Lord himself" (Russell M. Nelson, General Conference, April 2016), should we instead transfer responsibility for our salvation to another mortal? If following the prophet is the same thing as receiving revelation through a prophet, why do the scriptures distinguish between the two? While we should "uphold him by the prayer of faith" (D&C 43:12), and while doing so equates with faithfulness to God, don't people who put other people on a pedestal and consider them worthy of all emulation practice idolatry?

Joseph Smith warned of excessive zeal, cautioning that "the Lord had declared by the Prophet (Ezekiel) that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church--that righteous persons could deliver only their own souls." Applying this to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith added, "If the people departed from the Lord, they must fall--that they were depending on the Prophet (of the church), hence were darkened in their minds in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves, envious towards the innocent, while they afflict the virtuous with their shafts of envy" (TPJS, 237-238).

Jesus taught his disciples that "he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward" (Matthew 10:41). Doesn't this imply that he who receives Jesus in Jesus' name will receive Jesus' reward, and that he who receives the Father in Jesus' name will receive the Father's reward?

God has never declared in the scriptures that He reveals all truth through one man, even if it were possible:  

"I speak forth my words 

according to mine own pleasure. 

And because that 

I have spoken one word 

ye need not suppose 

that I cannot speak another; 

for my work is not yet finished; 

neither shall it be 

until the end of man, 

neither from that time 

henceforth and forever. 

For I command all men, 

both in the east and in the west, 

and in the north, and in the south, 

and in the islands of the sea, 

that they shall write the words 

which I speak unto them; 

for out of the books 

which shall be written 

I will judge the world, 

every man according to their works, according to that which is written.  

For behold, I shall speak 

unto the Jews and 

they shall write it; 

and I shall also speak 

unto the Nephites 

and they shall write it; 

and I shall also speak 

unto the other tribes of Israel, 

which I have led away, 

and they shall write it; 

and I shall also speak 

unto all nations of the earth 

and they shall write it" 

(2 Nephi 29:9-12).

Nephi sees that "because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrines"--which "pervert the right way of the Lord"--the endtime Gentiles (as in us the Ephraimite Gentiles) "have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men" (2 Nephi 28:12, 14 emphasis added). What does it mean to "be led" if not that sometimes our leaders teach the precepts of men? This is exactly what Nephi means and why we should "look to God and live" meaning to rely upon every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (D&C 84:44), and to the extent that His servants speak the word of God we are obliged to listen and give heed to those words. His words "whether by my voice or by the voice of my servant" are the same (D&C 1:38).

From the story of Aaron and Miriam (Numbers 12:2-8), we learn that a prophet is one who receives divine revelation through "visions" or "dreams," on the one hand, and from "mouth to mouth," on the other.  That sets a prophet apart from one who receives guidance through the Holy Ghost, to which every believer is entitled. The "words and commandments" Joseph Smith received, for example, were accompanied by recurring visions and dreams and were given him "even as Moses," obliging the church to receive them "as if from mine own mouth" (D&C 12:4-5; 28:2). Inspired counsel and matters of church procedure and policies, therefore, are not the same as prophecy or revelation received through visions, dreams or face to face. To confuse the two could lead to a condition Brigham Young warned of, of which the high priest Ciaphas serves as a type. Doesn't worshiping God "with your mind" require that we distinguish true points of doctrine from that which is false lest we fail in our quest to attain eternal life?

This from President Gordon B. Hinckley when asked about revelation and prophecy is directly on point: 

“Q: And this belief in contemporary revelation and prophecy? As the prophet, tell us how that works. How do you receive divine revelation? What does it feel like?

A: [Gordon B. Hinckley] Let me say first that we have a great body of revelation, the vast majority of which came from the prophet Joseph Smith. We don’t need much revelation. We need to pay more attention to the revelation we’ve already received. Now, if a problem should arise on which we don’t have an answer, we pray about it, we may fast about it, and it comes. Quietly. Usually no voice of any kind, but just a perception in the mind. I liken it to Elijah’s experience. When he sought the Lord, there was a great wind, and the Lord was not in the wind. And there was an earthquake, and the Lord was not in the earthquake. And a fire, and the Lord was not in the fire. But in a still, small voice. Now that’s the way it works.” Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday Interview, April 13, 1997, by Don Lattin.

Patterns from the past, in fact, inform us that when people's hearts are not whole toward God, their prophets can and do lead them astray. In instances of multiple prophets--where these suppress the lonely voices who bring forth pure revelation from God--these prophets, though they speak in His name, God rebukes: "An amazing, shocking thing has occurred in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own authority. And my people love it that way. But what will you do in the end" (Jeremiah 5:30-31)? "Prophets and priests alike practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as if it isn't serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:13-14). In the end, those who "prophesy from their own hearts," who "follow their own spirit but have seen nothing" (Ezekiel 13:2-3), who declare "peace" but not of God--for them "the sun will go down" and they will "see no vision" (Micah 3:5-6).

Isaiah calls their bluff:  

"Present your case,' says Jehovah; 

'Submit your evidence,' 

says the King of Jacob. 

'Let them come forward 

and recount to us 

their prophecies of 

events (endtime) heretofore. 

What were they? 

Tell us, that we may 

examine them and know 

whether they were fulfilled. 

Or predict the future for us: 

Tell us of events to 

come hereafter, so that 

we may know you are gods. 

Perform something good or evil 

at which we will be dazzled 

and all stand in awe. 

It is clear you are of no account, 

that your works amount to nothing; 

whoever accepts you is himself an abomination'" 

(Isaiah 41:21-24).  

Should we not assume that without being warned of the endtime events his people will be perilously unaware? For this reason and others the Lord has commanded that we search the words of Isaiah so we will know for ourselves and not be dependent on anyone else to know of the endtime events and our role in them, and with the reminder that "all things that he (Isaiah) spake have been and shall be" (3 Nephi 23:3).

One example from Isaiah on why we must receive direct revelation and look to God and live is the idea of prophets and seers of the Lord's people in the last days failing to warn the people of the Lord's impending judgment: "Their watchmen are altogether blind and unaware" (Isaiah 56:10-12). In the October 2020 General Conference two speakers mentioned Isaiah; in October 2021, four speakers; October 2021, five speakers;  April 2022, two seakers, and in not one single talk was Isaiah’s warning of impending judgments even mentioned. 

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To one who said "Follow me!" (Matthew 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; 16:24; 19:21; Luke 18:22; John 8:12l 10:27; 12:26; 21:19; 22; 2 Nephi 28:14; 31:10-12; D&C 38:22; 56:2; 100:2; 112:14), following an ecclesiastical leader is misguided. It ignores the principles of spiritual advancement Jesus stands for, including the most foundational one of all--the freedom God grants His children to learn by their own experience to know good from evil and the personal processes and circumstances through which he tests his children. The ability to think through situations and make inspired choices can be learned only for oneself; it can't be borrowed or bequeathed by another. Just to "regard the person of men" (Mark 12:14) is a form of idolatry, so our doing so is offensive to God. When sustaining ecclesiastical leaders becomes synonymous with blind compliance, we have misinterpreted the scripture and turned idolatrous.

Said He, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matthew 16:24-25). In effect, Jesus invites those whom he calls to drop all other considerations and follow him even to death without looking back (Matthew 4:18-22; 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 9:57; John 1:43). These scriptures define what Jesus means by following Him. Should we not do likewise so we will not labor under the illusion that in following a man we are following Jesus Christ, when in reality we may be falling far short of what Jesus had in mind? The laws and ordinances of the gospel that are the terms of his covenants, operate independent of man made imperatives and alone equip a believer to inherit heaven.

Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life, summarizes this discussion. It commences with a "man" dressed in a white robe who "bade me follow him" (1 Nephi 8:5-6). Instead of leading Lehi to the Tree of Life, however,  the man led him into a "dark and dreary waste." That barren darkness soon became so intolerable as to cause Lehi "to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me" (1 Nephi 8:8). Only then did he see the "tree whose fruit was desirable to make one happy," which "filled my soul with exceedingly great joy" (1 Nephi 8:10-12). Only when Lehi called upon God directly--independent of the white-robed man who led him--did he partake of the fruit of the tree. And give heed to Alma and anyone else who tells you to "look to God and live!"