God has called prophets from the beginning of time. Even after the Savior’s resurrection and acension into heaven, God continued to work through prophets. The pattern that God followed in calling Joseph Smith is consistent with the teachings of the Bible.
I believe that God calls prophets. I believe that we, as a society, need them. God wants to reveal his will to us, and although I also believe he can reveal his will to us individually, one of the purposes we have in this life is to learn. We aren’t perfect, we can misunderstand what God wants to tell us, and so we need prophets to receive direction from God.
The world can deceive.
I ran across a news story recently that emphasized to me the need for a prophet. A law firm in New York used ChatGPT for their legal research.1 Using that research, the law firm drafted a legal brief and filed it with the court, but the court couldn’t find the cases that were cited in the brief and so it ordered the law firm to file the cases. The law firm filed the cases with the court, who then contacted the supposed originating court, which confirmed that the cases did not exist. Those cases had been manufactured by artificial intelligence, or AI. The judge fined the law firm $5,000 for filing and relying upon false cases, and in response the law firm filed a statement that said, “We made a good faith mistake in failing to believe that a piece of technology could be making up cases out of whole cloth.”1 The court responded to that asserting by saying “there is nothing ‘inherently improper’ in lawyers using AI ‘for assistance,’ but he said lawyer ethics rules ‘impose a gatekeeping role on attorneys to ensure the accuracy of their filings.'”1
As an attorney working in litigation for more than 20 years, I found this story fascinating. I couldn’t believe that AI could generate documents like that, and make them so convincing that lawyers thought they were legitimate. With a powerful tool like this, who can we believe? With so much information coming to us online, how do we know what’s right? Not only do we have to worry about whether we’re hearing a fact or an opinion, or whether there is an individual trying to deceive, we now have to worry about artificial intelligence manufacturing information that looks credible.
Prophets are called to warn.
More than a decade ago, Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and a man whom I sustain as a prophet, seer, and revelator, raised “an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls.”2 In this address to students at Brigham Young University, I can hear his pleading voice as a prophet of the Lord:
“Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, earbuds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication. Beware of digital displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience.”2
Now, more than thirteen years later, I see this message from Elder Bednar as a prophetic warning applicable to the circumstances we faced during the Covid-19 pandemic,3 as well as the dangers of false information online. God knows all things, and he inspires his prophets to warn and forewarn.4
In the face of such opportunity to be deceived, who will we believe? Who can we trust to give us correct information? Personally, I choose to believe that God calls prophets, and that he inspires his prophets to teach truth.
Old Testament Prophets
The Old Testament is replete with stories of God calling prophets. The pattern shown in those callings is significant, as it was followed when Joseph Smith was called.
God called Adam as a prophet. “The Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam, by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the world, until the end thereof.” Moses 5:58-59.
When God called Enoch, he said, “Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto them—Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off.” Moses 6:27.
Noah was called of God, and the scriptures say that “the Lord ordained Noah after his own order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch.” Moses 8:19.
When God called Abraham, he said, “I will make my covenant between me and thee.” Genesis 17:2. This covenant that God made with Abraham was also made between God and Isaac, (Genesis 26:2-5), and then between God and Jacob (Genesis 28:10-15).
The calling of Moses shows that God calls men who have weaknesses: “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:10-11. After making several additional objections, Moses said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” Exodus 4:10. The Lord responded, “Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” Exodus 4:11-12.
After Moses, God called Joshua by speaking to him, and saying, “as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Joshua 1:5. As a child, Samuel was called by God, and Samuel responded by saying simply, “here am I.” 1 Samuel 3:4. Even the great king David received counsel from Nathan, a prophet of the Lord. 2 Samuel 7:4-11.
The calling of many other prophets is set forth in the Old Testament, and the call of Isaiah is typical: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. . . . Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8-12.
The writings in the Old Testament show time and time again that God called prophets. He spoke to the prophets, asked them to lead his people, teach his people, be examples to his people. Kings consulted with them, they gave the word of the Lord to worldly leaders, they called people to repentence, they performed mighty miracles, they warned people. Despite being weak and insignificant, they testified of wickedness and warned that if the people did not repent, they would be destroyed.
The calling of a prophet, and the role of a prophet, are clearly shown throughout the Old Testament.
God called prophets even after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
During the Savior’s ministry, he called twelve apostles to preach his gospel. Matthew 10. In a significant statement, the Savior taught that those who received his apostles would receive him: “He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” Matthew 10:40.
Prophets are called to represent Jesus Christ. They preach his gospel. They speak the words he puts into their mouths. So as people receive the prophets, they receive Jesus Christ.
As he instructed his twelve apostles, he chose one who would be at their head. When the Savior asked them, “whom say ye that I am,” Peter responded, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:15-16. This profound statement was not a result of Peter’s close association with Jesus Christ as a person. It didn’t come from seeing him in the flesh. Peter’s friendship with the living Christ did not give him that knowledge because it wasn’t knowledge that could have come through the mortal senses. (There were many who interacted with the Savior during his mortal ministry, but nevertheless rejected him.)
The Savior explained: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:17-19.
The keys of the kingdom. This significant statement shows the nature of the call of a prophet. Jesus Christ was preparing Peter to lead the church, but more than that, the Savior gave him the priesthood and priesthood keys, and Peter became a witness of Jesus Christ not by flesh and blood, but by the power of God.
After the Savior’s resurrection, and before he ascended into heaven, he told his apostles, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. . . . ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:5-8.
The Savior gave his apostles power, and he sent them to be witnesses of him. The New Testament shows that these prophets had the same power and responsibility as the prophets of the Old Testament. A revelation given to Peter instructed him to take the gospel to the Gentiles.5 This was a significant departure from the long-standing tradition of the Jews, in which they considered anyone not an Israelite to be unclean.6 Even during the Savior’s ministry, Israel was to keep themselves separate from the rest of the world. The Savior himself follwed this, refusing to help a gentile woman until she showed great faith: “[A] woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. . . . But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:22-28. The revelation given to Peter, a prophet of the Lord, after the Savior’s ascension into heaven, changed a long-standing tradition that even the Savior followed.
Even after his resurrection, Jesus Christ gave revelations to his prophet that changed the course of the preaching of the gospel.
Joseph Smith was called as a prophet.
Joseph Smith was called as a prophet in the same way as the pattern revealed throughout the scriptures. God spoke with him face to face. He was weak and simple. He had to learn and was often corrected by the Lord. He was inexperienced, but was trained by God and angels.
He learned line upon line, just as the apostles who learned from Jesus. He received revelations that changed or modified certain teachings or practices, just as Peter received the revelation to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Joseph Smith received the priesthood and priesthood keys, just as Peter did, and those keys have passed in an unbroken line of authority through the presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and are now held by Russell M. Nelson. I believe that President Nelson, as well as the other members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are prophets, seers, and revelators.7 I believe that God uses them to reveal his will to us, to teach us truth, to warn us, and prepare us for things to come. I believe that God knows all things, that he has all wisdom, all knowledge, and that he sees the end from the beginning. I also believe that as his children, God loves us perfectly and wants us to be happy. Believing these things, it makes sense to me that I should sustain the prophets, as I believe that following their counsel will lead me to do those things that are not only pleasing to God, but that will bring me the most happiness.
In a world where it can be difficult to know who to trust, I choose to trust the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
References
- Sara Merken, “New York lawyers sanctioned for using fake ChatGPT cases in legal brief,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/legal/new-york-lawyers-sanctioned-using-fake-chatgpt-cases-legal-brief-2023-06-22/.
- David A. Bednar, “Things as They Really Are,” Ensign, June 2010, 15-25, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2010/06/things-as-they-really-are?lang=eng.
- American Psychological Association, “COVID-19 pandemic led to increase in loneliness around the world,” May 9, 2022, https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2022/05/covid-19-increase-loneliness.
- Doctrine and Covenants 89:4, “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation.”
- Acts 10, see also the Come Follow Me lesson for Acts 10-15, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-new-testament-2023/30?lang=eng.
- Deuteronomy 7:1-3 (“Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.”)
- Russell M. Nelson, “Closing Remarks,” Ensign, Nov. 2019, 120-122, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2019/11/57nelson?lang=eng.