Friday, January 19, 2018

Biblical Prophets and Apostles: "Only Prophets and Apostles when Acting as Such"

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.