Since there clearly are standards to be member of the LDS church, what are the standards to be a LDS prophet?

As Helfer faces church discipline, I am amused that many who assert the church’s right to set membership standards are also in the excuse-making club for the wickedness of modern prophets. What, if any, are the standards for being a prophet? I would like to propose three. First, they can be imperfect but have behavior on par with biblical prophets and apostles. Second, they should not teach false doctrine on core Christian beliefs. Third, they should not make false prophecies or predictions. Let’s take look how they measure up.

1. They can be imperfect but have behavior on par with biblical prophets and apostles. This one is often set forth by orthodox members complaining LDS critics expect modern prophets to be perfect. What are some misdeeds of biblical prophets and apostles? Abraham lied (Gen. 12:17-20) and Jacob deceived his father for the birthright (Gen. 27). God sanctioned those lies (as well as mass murder but I’m not a fan of either). No one claims modern prophets have been directed by God to lie. Peter denied knowing Christ (Mark 14: 66-72). Then repented and spent the rest of his life preaching and then dying for the faith. JS lied about polygamy his whole life, dying as a result of his efforts to maintain the lie. He even put the lie in scripture as section 101 in the 1837 edition of the D&C. He never repented. There is no evidence Peter intentionally lied in scripture. Modern prophets have lied about things such as how the BoM was produced and lie to this day about the BoA. Hinkley’s interview with Larry King has at least 10 demonstrable lies. Intentionally lying your whole life is worse than what Bible prophets and apostles did.

Noah got drunk and naked (Gen 9:21). Ok, that’s not good. But he didn’t do it over 20 times and preach it was necessary for eternal exaltation. Judah did some bad things but there were consequences and I don’t think he’s considered a prophet in LDS theology. No biblical prophets married women already married to living husbands or used magic stones to find treasure or chanted incantations to ward off spirits. The Bible has some very harsh words for those who use magic.

2. They should not teach false doctrine on core Christian beliefs. I’ll cut them some slack on the whole caffeine confusion. The core of Christian doctrine declared by Jesus was loving God and your fellow man (Mark 12:30-31). It seems to me you should know who God is first. Who is God according to BY? Adam, of course. This doctrine was taught right into the 20th century in LDS temples. The god of the BoM switches between trinatarian and modelistic explanations while the church has an anthropomorphic triene that is both eternal and advancing in perfection over time depending on what scripture or prophet you read. In 1997 GBH seems confused or uncertain on the issue.

And second great comment? One word. Racism. Total strike out by modern prophets.

3. They should not make false prophecies or predictions. This one come to us from the Bible (Deut. 18:22) and reiterated in D&C 1:38. The list of false prophecies from LDS prophets is rather lengthy. Some highlights are that the US civil war would bring in Britain and other nations (D&C 130), blacks will receive the priesthood after everyone else -BY, we will never reach the moon JFS, and living the Gospel will make dark people lighter skinned -SWK Oct 1960.

In 2019 RMN announced great plans to celebrate the FV 200th anniversary in 2020. Although not strictly a prophecy, it’s seems rather odd for God to allow all the resource and planning to go into an event that would never happen. Of course, if God is a Loki type, this is a practical joke on a cosmic scale complete with using the Holy Ghost to call missionaries to serve in foreign lands that they could never enter. That’s right, the same Holy Ghost that is used to convince you that the church is true also convinced prophets,seers and revelators that they should call missionaries in a coming global pandemic to serve in lands that would go into lockdown. I don’t get the impression that the Mormon God is Loki, but if he is, this was epically funny as a practical joke.

But seriously, as we kick people out of the church for following the ethical standards of their profession, might we also be equal concerned about the standards expected of LDS prophets?