mentalgymnast wrote:OK. Don't take me wrong. Just trying to understand...up to that point you DID believe the LDS Church was guided by divine inspiration and had divine authority (even with your issues dealing with the PoF)...or am I reading you wrong?
Up to that point I felt like the jury was out, so to speak. I have not believed for some time that the general authorities were prophets in the sense they portray themselves, but I did feel like they were susceptible to receiving inspiration and that their position in the church made that inspiration binding, in a sense, on the members of the LDS Church. We could jump down the rabbit hole of what it is I believe or don't believe, but that would take a very, very long time and bore most people to tears.
To make a long story short, I believe that priesthood is both an offering and a form of service. You make an offering to God in the performance of service to others. I believe that this is what is really behind the restoration of the priesthood, not angelic administrations. As an offering and a service, Christian priesthood must conform to basic Christian principles. Once those principles have been violated too much, amen to the priesthood of those people.
In the LDS Church I believe that the presiding authority of the priesthood is gone. This does not invalidate all priesthood altogether. People still receive the priesthood and exercise their Christian service as they make an offering to God. What is missing is the authority to judge the members and lead the Church righteously. I imagine the LDS Church can coast on a long time in this apostasy with many people failing to notice.
This was, after all, some time in coming. The Church started down this road in the early '90s, when they decided to involve themselves in the culture wars, and now the evil fruits of that bad decision have come to fruition. Despite their more or less subtle attempts to counsel the members against voting for Trump, Mormons did vote for him in fairly high numbers. That is where the leadership of the Brethren took them. Many members sold out their Christianity in the same way the vast majority of Evangelicals did. I believe you can chalk up the mass apostasy to the very same thing.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist