He speaks for God, except when he doesn't. He is right, except when he is wrong. He should always be followed, except when he shouldn't.
bcspace wrote:Incorrect. D&C 107 (circa 1835 and before) shows that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are equal in authority. Thus, as the Church states on Approaching Mormon Doctrine, all fifteen (both bodies) establish the doctrine.
It's the only way I back it up. If the Church says something is not doctrine in one of it's publications, it's not doctrine. Simple as that. I merely go with what the Church says.
CFR
bcspace wrote:
The introduction to your LDS edition Bible Dictionary is one glaring example. It says it's not doctrine.
The way I read the remarks of
President Hinckley, "First Presidency Message", Ensign December 2005, I don't think he would agree that the 12 are "needed" to establish doctrine, unless there is no functioning 1st Presidency:
Elders’ Journal, Nov. 1, 1906, 43 wrote:The question arises, How can they be equal in authority? Speaking to this question, President Joseph F. Smith (1838–1918) taught: “I want here to correct an impression that has grown up to some extent among the people, and that is, that the Twelve Apostles possess equal authority with the First Presidency in the Church. This is correct when there is no other Presidency but the Twelve Apostles; but so long as there are three presiding Elders who possess the presiding authority in the Church, the authority of the Twelve Apostles is not equal to theirs. If it were so, there would be two equal authorities and two equal quorums in the Priesthood, running parallel, and that could not be, because there must be a head”.
Likewise, the Seventy, who serve under the direction of the Twelve, would become equal in authority only in the event that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve were somehow destroyed.