Word: prophet
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Ezra Taft Benson had not appeared in public for two years. Toward the end, he could not leave his apartment and had to be fed by nasal tube. Yet he remained "Prophet, Seer and Revelator," the supreme authority of the Mormon Church until his death last week at the age of 94. A group of dark-suited apostles called the Council of the Twelve will gather this week in the central Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, to "set apart" a new prophet from among themselves. If tradition is a guide, they will select the chief of the council...
Smith, who was assassinated in 1844 in Carthage, Illinois, taught that the trinity is not a triune God as Christians believe but rather "three gods." Meanwhile, God the Father was once a man who achieved divinity. As church prophet Lorenzo Snow, who died in 1901, put it, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." In fact, Smith wrote in Doctrine and Covenants, men whose marriages are sealed and approved by the church will become gods in the hereafter...
Another serious challenge comes from historians. David Wright was fired from Brigham Young University, which is run by the church, for his unpublished opinion that Joseph Smith, not ancient authors, wrote The Book of Mormon, the church's original scripture. Wright, who still professes belief in Smith as a prophet, now teaches at Brandeis University. Meanwhile, D. Michael Quinn resigned under pressure from B.Y.U. for publishing Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, which detailed Smith's involvement with folk magic and the occult before becoming the church's first prophet. Quinn had earlier published an article indicating that despite...
Still, conservatism does not rule out innovation. After all, the prophet is a visionary and given to sudden revelations. In 1978 president Spencer Kimball had one such revelation, and blacks were finally allowed to become priests of the church. It was a practical vision. Proselytizing had been proceeding apace in Latin America, where -- particularly in Brazil -- many new converts had African ancestors. The only groups more successful than the Mormons in Latin America are the Pentecostal and other Evangelical preachers. Kimball's revelation also gave the church another continent to conquer: Africa, which recorded membership...
...givento music. As a first year student he was one ofthe original members of the undergraduate singinggroup The Noteables. He also sang with theHarvard-Radcliffe chorus and Mizmor Shir, Hillel'ssinging group, before making his "singing group,before making his "stage debut" in this semester'sstudent rock opera, The Prophet and theJanitor...