"I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE LIVING ORACLES THAN ALL THE WRITINGS IN THE BOOKS"
by Wilford Woodruff in CR, Oct. 1897, pp. 22-23

I find this story to be particularly insightful in that I believe Jos Smith & Brigham Young
realized that in order for them to gain unquestioned and complete control over their followers
they needed to undermine the primacy of the Bible. (Naturally, the primacy of family
and unfettered intellectual reasoning/questioning are also roadblocks to TSCC leader's primacy
and therefore also undermined, subtly or not so subtly.)

"A leading man in the Church (l830s/Kirtland) got up...and said:
"You have got the word of God before you here in the Bible, Book of Mormon,
and Doctrine and Covenants, you have the written word of God, and you who give revelations
should give revelations according to those books, as what is written in those books
is the word of God. We should confine ourselves to them."

When he concluded, Brother Joseph turned to Brother Brigham Young and said,
"Brother Brigham I want you to take the stand and tell us your views with regard
to the written oracles and the written word of God." Brother Brigham took the stand,
and he took the Bible, and laid it down; he took the Book of Mormon, and laid it down;
and he took the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid it down before him, and he said:
"There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God
from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day."

"And now," said he, "when compared with the living oracles those books are NOTHING to me;
those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet
or a man bearing the Holy priesthood in our day and generation.
I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE LIVING ORACLES THAN ALL THE WRITING IN THE BOOKS."
....When he was through, Brother Joseph said to the congregation, "BROTHER BRIGHAM
HAS TOLD YOU THE WORD OF THE LORD, AND HE HAS TOLD YOU THE TRUTH...."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2014 12:39PM by heretic.

Would you rather follow a 2000 years old dead book?

Not to be rude, not that it's any of your business nor is it the point of the story, but no.
"The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" (and other research) took care of that a long time ago.
However, the people Joe Smith and Brigham Young were dealing with certainly entertained that idea.

I suggest, in the future, you focus on the "Big Picture"
rather than looking for fault in the messenger like there was a reward for it.

The point of the story was:

Do as we tell you NOW; not what we said a few years ago in the D&C and in the BoM. (keeping the lies straight is too difficult.)

Even if we contradict the Bible, which a lot of 19th century people thought should be used as a guide in any religion, it does not matter, do as your oracle commands.

Little do they know what the oracle has planned for them. I'm sure they never saw the invasion of Davies county, tithing, the order of enoch, a secret theocratic government and every woman in a harem coming.

I don't really hear those 15 creaky old men in SLC calling themselves "Living Oracles" these days.. In fact, I think they are afraid to actually prophesy anything. They've been caught being fools too many times... I was watching it on TV when men landed on the moon. I saw the whole Mark Hoffman affair.

It's Mark Hofmann. One 'f', two 'n's.

As in "One Forger, Two Nurders."