Here is your chance to add your name to the list of members who would or would not do "a thing" if President Monson asked you. As this is hypothetical, it stands to reason that you must be willing to do whatsoever he bade you to do. Your eternal soul is may well be on the line.
I pondered this scenario for hours and hours on end yesterday, as well as scriptural examples, or rather precedents. First, let me preface this by stating the many things, which Thomas S. Monson has asked of us. I took this from Gently Hew Stone's blog, which outline many things, which we ought to be doing. I've simplified them:
How many of us are already faithful home teachers? How many of us serve regularly in the temple? How many of us are worthy of entering the Lord's temple? How many of us are viewing pornography? How many of us are currently sacrificing and giving to the poor? How many of us are worthy of the priesthood we hold? How many of us are watching movies filled with sex and violence?Go to the temple for themselves and the dead
Pay their tithing
Contribute to the missionary fund
Be worthy of the priesthood
Be worthy to attend the temple
Qualify for a temple recommend
Use the priesthood to bless lives
Safeguard and treasure the priesthood
Avoid pornography, bad language and addictions
Do not watch movies and TV that portray bad behavior
Read the Book of Mormon
Gain a testimony
Obey the commandments
Pray regularly
Study scripture
Attend church
Attend seminary
Repent
Get married
Be careful in the choice of a spouse
Be loyal to spouses
Respect and love wives
Make any needed repairs to marriages
Do not allow marriages to be in jeopardy
Stand above the ways of the world
Be honorable and decent
Be above reproach
Go to the temple regularly
Keep temple ordinances as a goal
Put a picture of a temple in every bedroom
Teach children about the importance of the temple
Remember covenants made in the temple
Sacrifice whatever necessary to attend the temple
Follow in the footsteps of Christ
Remember the messages from General Conference
Read and study the Conference edition of Ensign magazine
Be good citizens and neighbors
Be examples of honesty and integrity
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These are simple things, which President Monson as asked us to do or not do. We have been asked by many of our leaders for decades and decades to do things. Flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. Get out of debt. Build food storage. President Ezra T. Benson called us slothful and included ward and steak officers. We would be wiped out when America is cleansed. (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.265, 266)
But let's putt ALL of that aside. You are called in to your Stake President's office and he is asking you a hypothetical question. If President Monson asked you to do "a thing," would you do it? I imagined myself sitting in the seat, which a dear friend of mine was asked to sit in. If this was me, I would humbly ask him to bear with me as we reasoned this together. I imagine my interview going like this:
"Brother SP, if I am to answer this question outright without know what this "thing" is, I must be prepared to do anything. This includes any extreme thing. And since my eternal soul is at stake, I must be willing to lay it down. This also means, that I must also be willing and prepared to send someone else to their death." (As I pondered this scenario, it occurred to me that Brother SP could state that President Monson would never ask me to do something so extreme. Let us proceed with this assumption). "Brother SP, in your hypothetical situation, are you saying that you have the authority to declare what President Monson can and cannot ask me to do? This goes against the very thing we believe, for unless you are God, Himself, or an angel sent from God to President Monson, how could you possibly know what President Monson would ask of me or ought to ask of me? And if this the case, shouldn't we both be in this seat? But let us assume then, that you are correct since this is a hypothetical question. Let us then say that President Monson will not ask me to end a life. He would not ask anyone to send another to his death. This is too extreme! Isn't it?"
"There are two scriptural accounts, which I feel impressed to draw upon. One is about two prophets of God-one of Judah and one of Bethel. The prophet of Judah was given specific commandments directly by God. The prophet of Bethel seems to have been sent by God to test the prophet of Judah. We read about this in 1 Kings 13. Because the prophet of Judah disobeyed the Lord's direct commandment and hearkened to the other prophet of Bethel, he was slain, not by the prophet of Bethel, but by the Lord. A Lion was sent to kill the poor prophet of Judah."
"The second scriptural account tells us a story of a young man, large in stature, by the name of Nephi. I have made a life long study of this man and his journey, both temporal and spiritual, which brought him back to Jesus Christ's presence. Nephi and his family were camped out in the wilderness, when Nephi was visited not once, but twice by the Lord before Lehi asked him to do "a thing." The first time was to soften his heart that he believed all his father's words. The second time was after Nephi had testified to his brothers what the Lord had done for him. As a result, the Lord's second visit to Nephi was more powerful. The first time, Nephi was visited with only the softening of his heart. The second time, after Nephi had proven himself more true and faithful, the Lord spoke to Nephi in very word, promising and endowing him with blessings."26 And when the prophet (of Bethel) that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God (from Judah), who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him.
"When Lehi approached Nephi and asked him to do "a thing," it was something that Lehi testified came directly from God."
"And because Nephi had not only received a witness directly from God, but had in very deed conversed with Him through the veil, he gave his father (who, by the way, had become a prophet outside the established hierarchy) the most confident reply that could be given."1 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, returned from speaking with the Lord, to the tent of my father.
2 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, saying: Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem.
3 For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews and also a genealogy of my forefathers, and they are engraven upon plates of brass.
4 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness.
5 And now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord.
6 Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured.
"Nephi had not only complete confidence in Lehi as his father, but also as a true and living prophet, seer and revelator of God. Remember that Jeremiah and other prophets had just preceded Lehi, who were also outside the established church hierarchy, the elders of the Jews, etc." (1 Ne 4:22, 27)7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
"Brother SP, I have never been asked to accept a calling without first being extended the calling. Why would this be any different? I would listen to President Monson and then I would take it to the Lord and pray for a confirmation. And depending on the gravity of this calling--this "thing," which President Monson would ask of me, I would ask him to kneel with me in prayer on the spot and I would pray, as I always have with faith for a witness from the Lord, and wait patiently, as I have in the past, for hours, if necessary, until my answer came."
This would be my reply. Now if this was unacceptable to the Stake President and he excommunicated me for this, I would be left to marvel at the irony that he (in this "hypothetical" setting) declared that President Monson (or any of the apostles) would never ask me to send someone to his death. Because being excommunicated in the LDS church in very deed is sending someone to his spiritual death. And he was just an instrument in the hands of someone in greater authority to do that very thing. Beyond this point, whether I am right or wrong in my belief and my loyalty only to the great Jehovah, my God and my Savior, only time would tell.
What would you do?