A year ago I was listening to the tape of a talk that David A Whitmer gave in 1993. I had never heard of him before moving to Utah a couple of years ago. Some friends had attended this talk and had a recording of him that they lent to me. He had some very interesting things to say that I had never heard of before, but there were also some very disturbing things. After listening to this tape I was in a funk.
Let me explain a little bit about myself. I have a very believing mind, some people might call me gullible. I believe what people tell me until proven wrong. So I will listen to anyone if they might have even a thread of light and truth to teach me. I guess that is how I came to read some of Denver Snuffer’s books. So I listened to David Whitmer’s talk. What I found intriguing about David Whitmer is that he was teaching very much the same things that Denver Snuffer would write and speak about 20 years later. But there were some things David said that really bothered me; even disturbed me.
David Whitmer was teaching in this talk that you have to give up everything you have, serve full time and do only, exactly what God tells you to do. If you don’t you are damned to the terrestrial or worse, telestial kingdom forever. What bothered me was that I kind of thought he might be, sort of, maybe, perhaps on the right track. Another teaching of David’s that seemed unreal to me was the concept that there are many “Fathers”. Your Father may be different than my Father. I am talking about the Father that created you spiritually. It just seemed crazy to me. But he spoke enough light and truth on other things that I wasn’t ready to completely discount him as a false prophet or false teacher. Listening to him disturbed my peace, but isn’t that what inspired teachers are supposed to do?
So, following the counsel of scripture that admonishes us to prove all things (Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:21) I decided to ask the Lord if there was any value in what David Whitmer taught. Was he speaking truth? I spent some time on my knees but didn’t get an answer. I did feel some peace about it, but no real yes or no answer. Just before finishing my prayer I cried out with some desperation that I really, really, really wanted to know. I was then impressed to ask that maybe I could have a dream about it to help understand what was going on with what David was teaching. I finished my prayer and went to bed having no expectations.
I had a dream.
I was on a bus with my wife. I don’t know where we were going, maybe to visit my daughter and her family in Southern California. It seemed like we were on this bus for days and days. The bus took us to Phoenix then to Las Vegas, then somewhere else and somewhere else again. After a few days of this, the bus driver announced the next stop was Magna, Utah (Really? Magna?). At that point I decided it was time to get off the bus. We were never going to get to So. California.
After I awoke, I knew the dream was significant. I asked the Lord to help me determine its meaning. As soon as I framed the question in my mind, the meaning was made very clear to me as if a voice spelled it out to me. “Stop following men! Your journey is unique. I will keep you on the path, but if you keep following what men tell you, no matter how much truth they reveal, you will never get to your destination. You will be pulled left, then right, but you will never reach the place you want to go. You can learn some things from reading and listening to inspired people, but you can not follow them. Follow Me.”
I thought of the second lecture of “Lectures on Faith”, by Joseph Smith, which presents us with the concept that the idea of the existence of a God must be taught to us before we can conceive of Him. You can’t begin to exercise faith in something unless you first have some idea that something exists. It is through other men and women, prophets and inspired teachers, and their writings that you learn of the possibility of a God. And from that first hint you can begin to form an understanding of His nature, but those inspired teachers can never lead you to Him, they can only point you in His direction. You must find Him yourself.
Here is a statement that David A. Whitmer made that makes so much sense on this topic:
“If I want to do what God told someone else to do, I just as well start building my ark and take my son to the mountain and sacrifice him. I also better read what he (supposedly) told Joseph Smith and go and start lining up more wives. I must do everything that God told everyone in order to try and cover all my bases until God decides to talk to me. Or, I can just find out why He’s not talking to me. If I’m not in tune, I need to find out why. I have to do what it takes to get in tune with him and do what He says.” (David A. Whitmer, Talk on tape, 1993)
Its not so much that these men are teaching false doctrine, they are teaching light and truth. Their inspired words were meant to spur us on to have our own revelations, customized for us and pertaining to what we individually need to work on. The words of prophets are designed to steer us toward the iron rod of Lehi’s dream. Once we take hold of the rod, it is meant that we obtain the word of God for ourselves.
I read this prophecy from Ezekiel, which gave me the perspective that I have responsibility for me. I feel that I have to seek the Lord, learn how to get instruction directly from Him, and do it.
“Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord.” (Ezekiel 14:13-14)
From my own experience, once having established a connection with Heaven, you may expect a message to come to you to do something that is not in the text book of prophets. Something that was never taught to you, something that may seem strange, and probably something you really don’t want to do. Do it! Then again, as I just explained, that was my experience, and may not be your experience. In fact, take everything I said with a grain of salt.