NOM

In Sacrament Meeting yesterday the bishopric read a rah rah letter about General Conference. The line "General conference is an opportunity for you to receive personal revelation" got a massive eyeroll from me.

"Come internalize what we tell you but assign our thinking to God, kthxbye."

Didn't he mean the exact opposite? An opportunity to have some corporate policy rammed down your throat that you will be told is revelation by people who know it really isn't? Actual personal revelation is strictly forbidden. How is it that it doesn't occur to people like your bishop that what he's calling personal revelation is just a lazy-learner relabeling of any emotion that helps you conform to that corporate policy?

I hope your sprained eyerolling muscles recover by then. You're gonna need them.

If by personal revelation, he means God telling you that all of General conference is totally made up, and nothing you seriously need to worry about, then you might get it. Just pray and ask if any of it actually comes from God, and when you get that warm fuzzy sense of relief, know that it is your personal revelation telling that you don’t need to worry about the old fashioned opinions of any one who thinks they know God better than you do.

Linked wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:19 pm

"Come internalize what we tell you but assign our thinking to God, kthxbye."

Come daydream that your subconscious feelings are validated by prophets, embrace your "god complex", validate your unshakable belief that you are chosen, you are divine, God agrees with your beliefs, so blessed, so privileged... then leave GC feeling refreshed and prideful in your superior intellect and superior faith in yourself

I don't know if it was because of this thread or the approach of General Conference, but I woke up very early this morning particularly pissed off at the leaders of the victory-for-Satan* church. I'm getting less and less tolerant of people who pretend to speak for God (either they know they really don't or too stupid to not know), and authorize themselves to steal the widow's mite. In my mind they become more and more indistinguishable from televangelists over time.

*If there were a Satan I would expect that he would whisper in his prophet's ear that we shouldn't call it the Mormon church because forcing you to use Jesus' name in vain every time you refer to Satan's church really would be a victory for him!

Hagoth wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 5:30 am

I don't know if it was because of this thread or the approach of General Conference, but I woke up very early this morning particularly pissed off at the leaders of the victory-for-Satan* church. I'm getting less and less tolerant of people who pretend to speak for God (either they know they really don't or too stupid to not know), and authorize themselves to steal the widow's mite. In my mind they become more and more indistinguishable from televangelists over time.

*If there were a Satan I would expect that he would whisper in his prophet's ear that we shouldn't call it the Mormon church because forcing you to use Jesus' name in vain every time you refer to Satan's church really would be a victory for him!

If you want to really remain in your foul mood, have a quick gander at Nelson's latest word salad "The Everlasting Covenant" on the front page of the church's website. It's a doozy of fear and manipulation!

I won't link it in case you actually do read it.

What a complete joke. I remember the push back (and perhaps I even perpetuated this myself) that the reason we hear the same stuff over and over and over again is that it's really our fault. We are not sufficiently prepared or worthy, or righteous enough as a people for anything new because we are not living what we have. These very old, white, cis-het men are really devoid of anything interesting or wise to say. We were lucky to get even 1-2 decent talks out of 5 frickin' conference sessions. Personal revelation! HA! Just follow the prophet--he knows the way.

Want to know what the personal revelation will be? Easy. Here are the main topics for GC:

Ministering
Missionary Work
Temple Work
Prophetic Authority

Rinse and repeat. Over and over and over again.

Now get to work all ye LDS!!!!! Put your shoulder to the wheel and push alongl!! Do your duty with a heart full of song!!

Mormorrisey wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:05 am

If you want to really remain in your foul mood, have a quick gander at Nelson's latest word salad "The Everlasting Covenant" on the front page of the church's website. It's a doozy of fear and manipulation!

Yeah, it's a steamy pile. I talk about some aspects of it here: https://newordermormon.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6315

I've always wondered...what if my personal revelation contradicts what the brethren are telling me? It shouldn't, right? So if it does, I must be doing it wrong or Satan is trying to deceive me. So...why even try? Just listen to the prophets and apostles since they won't lead you astray. Personal revelation was for all those poor saps that lived during the apostasy.

Hagoth wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 28, 2022 6:19 pm

Mormorrisey wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:05 am

If you want to really remain in your foul mood, have a quick gander at Nelson's latest word salad "The Everlasting Covenant" on the front page of the church's website. It's a doozy of fear and manipulation!

Yeah, it's a steamy pile. I talk about some aspects of it here: https://newordermormon.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6315

Man, I read that thread too, and didn't put two and two together. I guess I'm more Frank Drebbin than Columbo these days!

SquareHammer wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 30, 2022 8:38 pm

I've always wondered...what if my personal revelation contradicts what the brethren are telling me? It shouldn't, right? So if it does, I must be doing it wrong or Satan is trying to deceive me. So...why even try? Just listen to the prophets and apostles since they won't lead you astray. Personal revelation was for all those poor saps that lived during the apostasy.

Hi SquareHammer! Welcome to NOM! Is this your first time or are you a return customer?

There are a few things I always consider. First is Jeff Holland's Wrong Roads talk where he tells us that sometimes God lies to us so we will make the wrong choice first se we can learn via hard knocks by making the other choice that you likely would have made anyway without God's help. Yikes. Then there's Dallin Oaks telling us that technically we do have the right to personal revelation but in practical use, if it isn't in perfect agreement with The Brethren, then it's from the devil. Yikes again. And we must not forget D&C 19, where God tells Joseph that he was lying to the writers of his scripture about Hell, because he wanted to scare people into doing the right things for the wrong reasons. Triple Yikes.

They might as well just come out and say, "we don't have a clue. You're on your own," but instead they're accidentally confirming that they don't have a clue while saying, "just trust us and don't bother with epistemology." Yikes all around.

Yes, it's been said many times before but the system is set up so that God and the church (not limited to Mormonism) always "win" in any situation.

If something good happens, it's a blessing.
if something bad happens, it's a test or your fault.
If you pray and get an answer that's wrong, you didn't do it right or it's a lesson.
If you pray and get no answer, you already have your answer or you have to wait or you're not doing it right.
If you pray and get the right answer, great.
And so on.