Priestcraft
A new message that does not include knowledge about how the audience may come to God themselves; the primary intent is always to make others dependent on the messenger. It is foolishness to separate information about what the Lord is doing from instruction on how to become redeemed. It is vanity to spread new and personal revelation about the afterlife, God, man, prophecy, visionary encounters, and spiritual experiences if the primary reason does not focus on instructing how the audience can come to God themselves. It is dangerous to trust teachings that fail to give man guidance on how to find God for himself. “If all that is delivered is a message about some great experience, the experience was probably not intended for you. It is the way to find God that will save you, not someone else’s new and exciting spiritual manifestation. Still, people will go to great trouble and spare no effort to find someone who will only give a titillating peek behind the veil but who will do nothing to instruct you on how you can meet God here, be redeemed from the fall of man, and come back into God’s presence.”1 Pandering for popularity is at the heart of priestcraft.2 Priestcrafts are where people seek approval of the world but not the best interest of Zion (see 2 Nephi 11:17).3 Any man who tries to put himself between another person and heaven, claiming that he alone should be the source of religious beliefs and education, is practicing priestcraft and will, in the end, lead both himself and his followers to damnation.4 All churches, if the Book of Mormon is true, are filled with corruption and priestcraft.5 The obligation to hold up a light is circumscribed by His direction that [He is] the light which ye shall hold up (3 Nephi 8:8) — nothing and no one else. He is the lifeline. Therefore, when anyone offers to preach, teach, exhort, and expound, He must be at the center of this prophesying, or they are engaging in priestcraft.6 “When gentiles pursue any end other than establishing Zion, the Book of Mormon calls it priestcraft. That is what the gentiles have accomplished with the Book of Mormon thus far.”7
1 “Joseph The Prophet,” June 26, 2011, blog post.
2 “3 Nephi 21:26,” July 21, 2010, blog post.
3 “3 Nephi 21:19–20,” July 18, 2010, blog post.
4 “The process is everything — the answer is nothing,” May 4, 2010, blog post.
5 “Weep for Zion for Zion has fled,” June 4, 2010, blog post. Revised in Email to Scripture Committee, Jan. 31, 2018.
6 “3 Nephi 18:24–25,” November 15, 2010, blog post.
7 “Scripture, Prophecy and Covenant,” March 27, 2017, 6, paper.