Prophet or Madman?
Posted on May 3, 2010
Filed Under Reason, Religion | 2 Comments
Yes, it’s a very dramatic title, I know. I borrowed the theme from an article written by Elder Bruce R. McConkie back in 1979 which he entitled “The Story of a Prophet’s Madness.” The intrigue of the title is only eclipsed by the actual story, which I find particularly á propos in light of recent events. There is much to be learned from this story. As with all scripture, there are layers and depths of meaning beneath the surface that are sometimes only revealed by circumstance, when hearts and minds are freshly prepared for reception. I guess that describes me today pretty well.
Much of what I will write here further supports the position I have taken in previous writings, which hopefully anyone can see above all is about the pursuit of truth. I have intentionally kept my name off this blog and other writings I have produced not to protect my identity necessarily, but rather to try to illustrate that I’m not interested in self-promotion or self-aggrandizement. I don’t care to build a following of readers or devotees, I don’t care to monetize my thinking on these matters (hence no Google or other ads on this blog). On the contrary, I am adamant that everyone think for themselves and discover for themselves what is true and what is not. That includes what is and is not true in my writing.
The tricky part of that process is sometimes found in the discernment of truth from the midst of falsehood. It’s really a matter of eternal vigilance and never taking any claim for granted or at face value. Above all, I hope that’s the thing that any reader will gain from reading here: the ability, or at least the desire to sift through thoughts and information, capturing and clinging to what is true, and disregarding what is not. It takes a fair amount of mental and spiritual discipline and a high degree of personal integrity—all traits that I am certainly still working to improve, being admittedly far from mastery myself. But that’s why we engage in this experience together, so we can help each other in that discernment by discussion, consideration, some civil debate and most importantly, prayer. Emotion must be tempered by reason and humility. There’s no room for visceral knee-jerk reactions or defensiveness from anyone. Sometimes life throws you twists, for good or for bad, and the measure of character is how well you can bend to absorb them.
Speaking of twists, back to the story.
I have to begin by illustrating a case of what I can only describe as divine serendipity. For a combination of reasons (illness and such) I haven’t been to my Gospel Doctrine class in about four weeks. That is until today when I was finally able to make it back. I was glad to be there; I missed it. This year the course of study is focused on the Old Testament. It was during this class today, taught by a man who works at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, that I was introduced to the story of Balaam.
I say “introduced” to reiterate my point from the beginning that sometimes the true depth and importance of scriptures are only revealed when the reader is in a circumstance befitting the revelation. I had actually heard the story of Balaam before on many occasions, and never once did it hold much impactful meaning for me other than to be a kind of weird story of passing interest about a guy and his talking donkey. (I’m probably over-stating my ho-hum and maybe a little irreverent attitude about it; in truth I just never paid it much attention.) Today, however, it meant a lot.
You can do your own research, including reading Elder McConkie’s article, which I highly recommend, to find out more about who Balaam was, but the short version is that he was a prophet, as Elder McConkie says, “in some respects a very great prophet.” This isn’t to be construed as some alternative definition of the word “prophet,” like maybe he was a self-proclaimed prophet, or a false prophet or anything of the kind. No, he was a legitimate prophet, an individual blessed with an exceptional gift of prophecy and revelation, who had great experiences in receiving instruction from God, and who showed remarkable commitment to doing only what the Lord instructed him to do, nothing more, nothing less.
Still, in spite of that commitment and his diligence in that respect, he still was just a man, with human frailty as any other man (or woman) has. In his case, he had strong desires for wealth and accolades of men. This was to be his ultimate undoing.
I won’t go into great detail about the story. You can read a much better treatment of it than I could produce in Elder McConkie’s article. In summary, however, Balaam was asked by Balak, the king of the Moabites, to curse the armies of Israelites who were moving in vast numbers across the land and who had already destroyed the Amorites. (Side note: if you know who the Moabites and Amorites are, you’re ahead of me, because I still don’t really know who they were.) In return for the cursing, Balak promises to “promote [Balaam] unto very great honor,” and to do whatever Balaam says for him. So he entices him with honor and (presumably) riches.
On several occasions, both at his home and after he has agreed to go to Balak, Balaam “importunes” the Lord to be allowed to curse the Israelites, and on each occasion he is instead told to bless them. To his credit, he does as instructed and ends up blessing the Israelites three times, much to the anger of Balak.
In the end, however, even though Balaam was faithful to the instructions he received from the Lord, his incessant pestering of the Lord to be allowed to curse the Israelites and thereby receive the promised stature and position results in his death by the sword of the Israelite warriors who ultimately were commanded by the Lord through Moses to go to war against the Midianites (Midian being the land where Balaam came from).
So why was this story so significant to me today?
First, it’s yet another instance of multiple prophets on the Earth at the same time; in this case, Balaam and Moses. No one can deny that Moses was the Lord’s prophet and according to Elder McConkie and the book of Numbers, no one can deny that Balaam was also the Lord’s prophet. Both had direct interaction with the Lord and his messengers. Both received instructions directly from God for other people.
Second, and more importantly, it’s a stunning illustration of the incorrect belief in the infallibility of prophets. Never in history has the Lord called a prophet who was incapable of falling victim to his own human weakness. Satan’s strategy for mankind involves, above all, preying on the weaknesses that are already present in our personalities by virtue of both our nature and our experiences. He doesn’t bother trying to introduce new weaknesses. For example, he’s doesn’t bother trying to coerce me into taking a drink or two on occasion, because he knows there is simply not the slightest inkling of desire in me for booze. I like thinking and deliberately impairing that ability seems pretty stupid to me. Satan knows that as he knows pretty well each of our actual weaknesses. That’s where he focuses his attention. All it takes is the slightest of openings, the narrowest crack in the armor, and he can begin to work on us and introduce trouble by whispers and ignorance.
The most important lesson in all this for me is this: just because someone has been right about something in the past, doesn’t guarantee they will be right in the future. That includes prophets and those of exceptional spiritual gifts. The inverse, however, is also true: just because someone can be proven to be incorrect now doesn’t mean that they have always been. In more spiritual terms, as the story of Balaam shows us, just because someone is a true prophet now, does not mean they will always be; likewise, just because a prophet may have fallen does not mean his entire legacy of testimony must be discounted. We can thank the flawed court system for giving us the false positive (or negative) of character witnesses. In ugly court battles, often the first line of attack for both sides is impeachment of the witnesses of the opposing side. It’s a sad state of affairs when the validity of a testimony somehow hinges on the credibility of the witness. In a court of law, as in all matters, shouldn’t truth be of supreme concern regardless of who’s delivering it? The trick, then, is to be able to discern what is and is not true in every case, in every statement, in every claim. Truth is truth, regardless of where it’s found.
In the end, ours is the responsibility to seek and accept all truth, even if sometimes it may come from the most unlikely and inconsistent of sources. Thankfully, there are many aids available to us—gifts, sometimes of “curious workmanship,” that the Lord provides to aid in the pursuit. We must remain open-minded and without guile and loyal only to the truth, not to those who may deliver it. After all, “cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.”
Thanks Balaam. I needed that.
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** Admin Note: This comment originally made a guess at my name, which I have removed. As I have stated many times on this blog, my personal identity is irrelevant to the content and I’m adamant that my identity not be factored when considering the content. Those who need to know do know my name; others don’t need to know and shouldn’t care what my name is. ***
Are you also leaving the Mormon Church?
Um…did you read this post? Maybe I wasn’t clear enough about it, but the intent of writing this post was to illustrate that sometimes amazing experiences happen to people, including prophetic experiences. Sometimes people are called to great responsibility. That doesn’t mean they will always respond properly. Hence the whole concept of “many are called but few are chosen.” When those opportunities and callings are presented to us, we have the responsibility to always keep ourselves in check. God has provided many tools to aid us in that checking process. Prayer is only one of them, but can be dangerous if not used in conjunction with others of those tools (“two or three witnesses” and all that). Scriptures, priesthood leaders, spouses, etc…all of these are meant to help us steer through the fog of information to find truth.
In my own personal experience, all of these tools have pointed me down a divergent path from the direction Jason has chosen. My path remains now and will always remain with the LDS church. That doesn’t mean that I think everything that happened with regard to the higher law blog was misled or false. Quite the opposite. Much that happened I know to be true, but not everything. That’s how it always is (and always has been). No one person is ever infallible or beyond the reach of meddling evil. The system of checks and balances that exists throughout the universe (including in the Church) is intended to help us avoid that meddling. We must choose, however, to allow those checks and balances to apply to us. The minute we begin to see ourselves as beyond the possibility of failure or misdirection–beyond the need for checks and balances–we’re already lost.
That’s a long answer to a simple question. The simple answer is no, I’m not leaving the LDS Church. It never even crossed my mind or entered my heart. Instead, the Church has been the anchor. I committed long ago that the moment anything, including anything related to the “higher law,” lead away from the Church rather than deeper in, that would be the moment I would leave whatever else it was behind and stay with the Church.