Prophet Seer Revelator

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Constitution, Government, Law, Liberty, Politics, Religious Freedom July 31, 2016

Preserving Religious Freedom

“We must never see the day when the public square is not open to religious ideas and religious persons. The religious community must unite to be sure we are not coerced or deterred into silence by the kinds of intimidation or threatening rhetoric that are being experienced. Whether or not such actions are anti-religious, they are surely anti-democratic and should be condemned by all who are interested in democratic government. There should be room for all good-faith views in the public square, be they secular, religious, or a mixture of the two.”

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Government, Last Days, Personal Revelation, Politics, Prophecy, Secret Combinations, Self Reliance, Signs of the Times, War, Welfare July 31, 2016

Stand Independent above All Other Creatures

“I stand before the Church this day and raise the warning voice. It is a prophetic voice… For the moment we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall not ever be thus… Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually… We do not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of the Saints. The Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and of the tribulations which shall precede it… He simply tells us to watch and be ready.”

Elder Orson Pratt

Last Days, Self Reliance, Signs of the Times, War, Welfare July 26, 2016

“…a day of great tribulation…”

“…inasmuch as we have pointed out the way of escape and shown you that the Lord has provided in regard to these matters, for all that will believe in him, and repent of their sins, and obey the gospel, do not be dilatory, do not be slack, do not be extravagant in your expenditures, but strive to lay up means… for a day of great tribulation is coming, a day of desolation…”

Ezra Taft Benson speaks in General Conference, October 1973

Discipleship, Last Days, Prophecy, Self Reliance, Signs of the Times, Welfare July 19, 2016

Prepare Ye

‘The strength of the Church welfare program lies in every family following the inspired direction of the Church leaders to be self-sustaining through adequate preparation. God intends for his Saints to so prepare themselves “that the church [as the Lord has said] may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world.” …may we recognize the infallibility of God’s inspired word—whether by his “… own voice …” or the “voice of [his] my servants, it is the same.”…The days ahead are sobering and challenging. Oh, may we be prepared spiritually and temporally, I pray humbly…’

President Spencer W. Kimball

Agency, Discipleship, Last Days, Personal Revelation, Voluntarism, War July 19, 2016

The False Gods We Worship

‘We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. …When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” We forget that if we are righteous the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us—and this is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas—or he will fight our battles for us…’

Boyd K. Packer speaks in General Conference, April 1990

Agency, Prophecy, Self Reliance, Voluntarism, Welfare July 17, 2016

Teach Them Correct Principles

“…Church activities must be replaced by family activities. Just as we have been taught with temporal affairs, the spirit of independence, thrift, and self-reliance will be re-enthroned as guiding principles in the homes of Latter-day Saints. And, just as stake leaders now will sponsor fewer activities, leaving more of the time and money to ward leaders, ward leaders in turn will leave more of both to the families. …For those who can and are willing, there comes the opportunity to make generous offerings. In leaving decisions to you, do you not see the fundamental doctrine of moral agency asserting itself? Do you not see the change from assessment to offering something of the testing which is fundamental to our mortal probation?”

David O. McKay

Agency, Government, Law, Liberty, Religious Freedom July 14, 2016

Dedicatory Prayer – London England Temple

“It is fitting that we express appreciation of the signing of the Magna Carta in the County of Surrey, the same county in which we meet today wherein the promise is given that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized or outlawed or exiled…without proper trial by his peers or by the law of the land. This protection of the individual is in keeping with Thy divine will; and any group of men who advocate an ideology that would deprive man of this individual right and heritage and make him a vassal of the state stamp themselves at once as enemies of Thy divine purposes. …O Father, help people everywhere more clearly to realize that government exists for the protection of the individual, not the individual for the government.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Politics, Self Reliance, Welfare July 6, 2016

“This Thing Was Not Done in a Corner”

“We teach self-reliance as a principle of life, that we ought to provide for ourselves and take care of our own needs. And so we encourage our people to have something, to plan ahead, keep … food on hand, to establish a savings account, if possible, against a rainy day. …The individual, as we teach, ought to do for himself all that he can. When he has exhausted his resources, he ought to turn to his family to assist him. When the family can’t do it, the Church takes over. And when the Church takes over, our great desire is to first take care of his immediate needs and then to help him for so long as he needs to be helped, but in that process to assist him in training, in securing employment, in finding some way of getting on his feet again. That’s the whole objective of this great welfare program.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Agency, Consent of Governed, Constitution, Government, Law, Liberty, Politics June 27, 2016

The Divinely Inspired Constitution

“… the most desirable condition for the effective exercise of God-given moral agency is a condition of maximum freedom and responsibility. In this condition men are accountable for their own sins and cannot blame their political conditions on their bondage to a king or a tyrant. This condition is achieved when the people are sovereign, as they are under the Constitution God established in the United States.”