Do Church Leaders Believe The Church Is True

[omni]

This question is directed more toward those who no longer believe the truth claims of the church, however I would love to hear from anyone who has an opinion.

Even though I'm struggling right now with belief and a lot of issues concerning church history/doctrine, my belief of the brethren as men of God has always been one of the strongest areas of my testimony. Even if I were to completely turn to the dark side if you will, I would still believe that the top leadership truly believes in the church and are not in it for the power/prestige or wealth that many critics assert.

Lets hear it, do they believe, or are they in it for the prestige, or maybe they got too far in and it was too late to leave?

[Freedom]

In it for the prestige? Really? Do you have any idea the hours they work, the compensation they receive and the working conditions they endure? There is no glory in being a general authority; however if you have an opportunity to meet one, I think you will know the answer to your question quit quickly.

[DBMormon]

I would allow for a leader here or there to lose there testimony and to hang around without believing. ?But I am unsure this has happened in the last 20 years or so. I think these men are all in.

For the critic the trouble comes when one will only accept that these men either have regular visits from Christ or angels on a regular basis or they are deceiving us.... Lately I have been pondering this false dichotomy and trying to explore what is real.

1.) we have to separate prophets of the old testament who come along sporadically at times, enjoy face to face conversations with the divine and declare universally God's will and the apostles of the new testament with the most senior three acting as the leadership. There inspiration seems to be more dreams and impressions with a selective few divine visitations reserved for crucial moments.

2.) I think Joseph Smith would have fit right in with the Old testament model and he is THE prophet. he restores the gospel and organizes the church. Once he is martyred the direction leaders receive becomes much more new testament like with subtlety. I think we are taught to see President Monson as a prophet and we do so comparing him to Moses or Isaiah when we would be better to relate him to Peter of the new testament as that would be more fair.

Does President Monson speak directly to Christ on a regular basis? Who knows but him and pehaps the other 14 men but in my opinion he could speak directly to Christ one time and otherwise be receiving revelation from the Holy Ghost in every other instance and that would still allow me to hold him as prophet seer and revelator. And even if he hasn't seen Christ personally, could he still be prophet? yes if his testimony is sure that God has called him as such and if God chooses to give us something new and profound that that is the man he would go through... then yes.

I firmly believe these men believe they have been called of God and what evidence they each personally have of that call is conjecture. But I take them as sincere.

Edited July 12, 2012 by DBMormon

[omni]

As I stated in the OP, I do NOT believe they do it for the prestige or power, but because they actually believe in the church. However I would suggest that most critics would disagree with me.

That being said I feel it would be very difficult for someone to be part of the church presidency or quorum of the 12 and not have an absolute surety of the truth claims.

If you have a specific question about something leaders have done or said, ask it. We do not like "what if" threads that ask for opinions about hypotheticals. Without evidence one way or another all that happens is a big argument over what posters think.