There was once a time when the common teaching in the Church concerning the scriptures vis-a-vis the General Authorities, including the President of the Church, was the polar opposite: "If I say anything that is contrary to the scriptures, the scriptures prevail," said President Joseph Fielding Smith."I don’t care what the scriptures say; I care what the current prophet says they say." - Paul H. Dunn (emphasis his)
President Smith's teaching has not been heard for many years. Elder Dunn's perspective, despite the problematic source, seems now to be the received wisdom, albeit in an expanded form: we seem to not care what the scriptures say, but rather what any General Authority says they say.
This seems odd for a Church which teaches that the General Authorities, and even the President of the Church, are men, and as such are liable to err, even while in the execution of their callings. High callings in the Church are not guarantors of doctrinal purity or even personal righteousness; neither is a lack of calling (or even lack of Church membership) necessarily a sign of doctrinal impurity or personal wickedness. Even the spiritual gifts of God come unto all men, severally as He will; it is possible to find spiritually gifted individuals outside of the Church, while it is also possible to find spiritually impoverished individuals within it. The Lord draws His husbandmen from the pool of candidates within the Church.
The scriptures are the united voice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have agreed, by common consent, that their teachings are binding upon all, for both doctrine and reproof. No calling in the Church places anyone above the authority of the scriptures, and no manual or handbook has been accepted by common consent. The General Authorities give counsel concerning the current circumstances we find ourselves in, which we should obey unless counseled otherwise directly by the Lord, but they may not pronounce a binding doctrine or scriptural readings merely on their own say-so. The only way to make such pronouncements binding upon all would be by the common consent of the Church, thus making it scripture and the united voice of the Church.
This much seems clear, at least to me. President Smith's teaching was correct when he was alive, and there is no reason to suppose anything has changed to invalidate it. Elder Dunn was ill advised, in my view, to outsource his responsibility to search the scriptures diligently to know the word of God, and I believe his personal outcome supports this view.
President Joseph Smith read the 14th chapter of Ezekiel -- said the Lord had declared by the Prophet [Ezekiel], that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church -- that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls -- applied it to the present state of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall -- that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves, envious towards the innocent, while they afflict the virtuous with their shafts of envy (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 237).
