Over at the Mormon Women Stand website,there is an excellent article entitled “Chipping Away at Priesthood Authority of Mormon Prophets to Undermine Faith“.
Angela is one of the founders of Mormon Women Stand and has worked in international and public affairs for both the LDS Church and private organizations.
Here is an excerpt:
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Several years ago, I received an assignment to work in the Scheduling Office of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This particular office is located in the Church Administration Building and is surrounded by the offices of various apostles and general authorities. I would arrive at my desk by 7:30 a.m. each morning and it wasn’t long before I started to notice that Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, whose office was just down the hall, was always getting to work a little earlier than my 7:30 a.m. start time. I knew that he was in his 90’s and in a wheelchair, but yet there he was. Elder Wirthlin passed away several weeks later and his example left an indelible impression on my heart about dedication and the ways in which the Lord sustains our prophets, seers and revelators. Nothing keeps them from doing the Lord’s work for the duration of their life—and I guarantee that they wouldn’t have it any other way.
The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are ordinary men in extraordinary callings with divinely mandated responsibilities. More specifically, “The fundamental responsibility of prophets, seers, and revelators, all of whom bear apostolic authority, is to bear certain testimony of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world. This basic call to be a special witness of His name has remained constant whenever Apostles have been on the earth.”
Since the beginning of time, the adversary has stirred up the hearts of those in Christ’s church against the prophets and apostles in veiled (or unveiled) criticism about their fallibility, age, or human frailties as a way of chipping away at their authority and weakening faith. Yet it’s comforting to know that despite this, Jesus Christ is at the head of this Church. He calls specific men to these sacred positions because He is the One with the authority to make these divinely inspired callings. He is in charge. We are not. We also know that because, “No one knows how to work a crowd better than the adversary,” it shouldn’t surprise us to find that there will be smooth and subtle ways to undermine and lessen the authority of the prophets, seers and revelators.
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Read Angela’s whole article here.
[Administrative Note: We originally mistakenly posted Angela’s article here as a guest post. The post has been changed to only excerpt her article and redirect you to the original source.]