The following comment was posted on YouTube:
This has stuck with me, “God has enough scribes, he needs more witnesses, you can’t be a partial witness. You have to be who you really are, or you will impede the Spirit of God!”
How would the Lord be a witness to the bishop and stake president?
I was surprised when I went to talk to the bishop the approach he took. He wanted to argue with me. I had presented an 8-page paper on my reasons for leaving the church, most of it was quoting scripture and repeating ideas from your book, Commandments Of Men. He said it sounded like “anti-Mormon” material. I guess the scriptures can be viewed that way.
He also wanted to know WHY I would do this. My decision came as a shock, he was blown away, especially since I have a missionary in Germany currently. “Are you angry with God? Have you committed some great sin? Are you following some anti-Mormon person online? Are you going to start your own church?” I said NO to all his questions. He said, “then why?” I said, “this is what The Lord wants me to do, I know it could lead to total meltdown in my life, my wife could divorce me, my sons could hate me, I could lose my job. I don’t care. I’m doing what I believe God wants me to do.” This wasn’t the answer he wanted. He wanted the easy answer, I’ve gotten involved in some anti-Mormon indoctrination.
I knew what he was thinking, ”how could The Lord tell someone to leave the church?” So, I said, “the church can only take you a short distance back to him, you have to go directly to him for the blessings outlined in the scriptures.” Well, he said, “you know what this means, it’s like you're excommunicated yourself from the church. All of your temple blessings, and covenants will become invalidated. You will still be married, but the temple sealing will be canceled, your name will be blotted out of the record of the church.” I said, “I understand that, but are you saying my very salvation could be in question?” He said, “YES!” I said, “interesting I thought only The Lord held the keys to my salvation” I don’t remember what he said after that. He then had me sign my letter and said the stake president would be reaching out.
How would the Lord have handled this and the coming interview with the Stake President? How can I be a full witness? Was it disingenuous to leave out the effect you and your teachings have had in this decision? Maybe I should have handed him a copy of one of your books. But I don’t consider the things you teach your doctrine. It’s from a heavenly source. You expound on scripture. That’s what the Lord did with power and authority, that’s what angel’s would do if they visited you and that’s what messengers do.
The Lord always testified of one greater than him. He told everyone who the source of his doctrine was.
When Joseph Smith was alive, did the saints spend their time talking about Joseph and his story or the Book of Mormon and the fruits of the restoration when they were trying to be witnesses?
On the one hand if you focus on the teacher, it gives the church authorities an easy out, “Oh, now I see, he’s one of those people talked about in scripture, by being deceived by the craftiness of the devil.” On the other hand, do you just talk about the message?
I know “the ward” is already talking about me. I don’t care what they think. But how would the Lord talk about it for the greatest good?
Is it message only or message and messenger?
Here is my response:
The Lord can’t witness to bishops and stake presidents more than he already does. If he did, they would reject anything he said, assuming he was Satan. The power of individual testimony is that they know you and, presuming you are a good person, can’t write you off as totally evil without denying their own knowledge of your character.
Churchy people are accustomed to people leaving because they want to sin, and when they meet one who leaves because they don’t want to sin, they don’t know how to handle it.
If you left because of me, you’d be a fool, but it would be honest to say so. If you left because of actual logical reasons, you ought to state those instead. You did the latter, which is good.
Jesus testified of the Father because the reasons intersected the being. Any good a man provides is from and leads to God. This is the balance between the truth, the source, and the channel.
While Joseph Smith is often quoted as instructing people not to lean on him, it’s important to differentiate what he meant from what people excuse when they use the quote. We are meant to be like Jesus. If we see anything in anyone that is more like Jesus than we are, we ought to take it for ourselves, becoming as we see they are. The Saints in Joseph’s day were more than happy to dwell together and share certain ideas, but they did not implement the example they were given. They tried to obtain more from God without becoming more like him, and this is why they failed.