Latter-day Saints reject the concept of the impeccability and
infallibility of our leaders and hold that not everything a leader of the
Church says, even on the topic of theology, is ipso facto binding. For a discussion, see:
Interestingly, this is the position of Evangelical critics of “Mormonism”
with respect to the biblical authors, although they obviously engage in a
blatant double-standard with it comes to Latter-day Saint leaders. Dave Hunt,
who co-authored The God Makers with Ed
Decker, wrote the following:
Not everything that
Paul or the other apostles ever said was on the level of Scripture and intended
for believers in all ages, and the only sure way to make a distinction would be
to put permanent teachings into writing. (Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast: The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days [Eugene,
Oreg.: Harvest House Publishers, 1994], 516)
The a priori assumption of Sola
Scriptura notwithstanding, Hunt is correct—not everything Paul (or Moses,
Isaiah, David, Matthew, Luke, et al) wrote or said is binding. Indeed, “Paul
was only an apostle when acting as such” to paraphrase the above in a way
mirroring a famous saying by Joseph Smith.
