SWK #6: Discovering the Scriptures for Ourselves, Part III

As promised, here is the third and final post on last week's lesson. Our discussion was about personal revelation. To remind us of the importance of following the Spirit's guidance in our individual lives, Lea cited the story of Nephi killing Laban to obtain the brass plates (1 Nephi 4). Nephi did not want to take Laban's life. He knew that God's law prohibited this. And yet, he could not deny that this was what God wanted him to do. If he had refused, his people would not have had the scriptures to guide them in the promised land, and they would have dwindled in unbelief. Lea told the story of a friend who felt prompted one day on his way home from work to enter a night club. This was not something he would normally have done, and it took several repetitions of the prompting before he was ready to comply. Entering the bar, he ordered a soda and sat down, waiting to see why he was there. Soon he saw an old friend and they were able to have an important talk. It was good that he was willing to follow this prompting although it seemed like a strange thing to do.

I was concerned that someone might take the idea of following personal revelation too far, and let themselves be deceived into thinking that a prompting to go against church doctrine was coming from God, when it was actually coming from the Adversary. As Linda Johnson pointed out, many of the groups that have left the church have justified their actions as being dictated by personal revelation, in spite of the fact that they are in direct opposition to truths revealed by living prophets.

It has been one week since Lea's lesson. Today I had a good talk in the library with her about it. She told me that she wished she had mentioned a talk by Elder Melvin J. Ballard about personal revelation. In this talk, Elder Ballard explained that the leaders of the church must speak in generalities to the church as a whole. Individual members, therefore, must turn to the Spirit to find guidance for their personal situations. He warned, however, that the Adversary can deceive us if we are not careful, and that there is such thing as false or counterfeit revelation.

I left the lesson last Sunday with many questions. In my own research during the week, I found several talks that make similar points to the ones Lea told me about today. If anyone is interested, they can find and read these talks on the Church website (www.lds.org):

1. "I Have a Question" Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign Sep. 1976
2. "When Shall these things be?" Elder Ballard, Ensign Dec. 1996
3. "Is it Revelation?" Elder Lund, New Era Jul. 2004
4. "Recognizing Personal Revelation" Preparing for Exaltation: Teacher's Manual Lesson 15
5. "Personal Revelation" Elder Packer, Ensign Nov. 1994
6. "I Have a Question" Rodney Turner, Ensign Feb. 1996