President Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994) was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1943, and served as the 13th President of the Church from 1985 until his death in 1994 at age 94.
"The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet. The living prophet has the power of TNT. By that I mean 'Today's News Today.' God's revelations to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the ark. Noah needed his own revelation. Therefore, the most important prophet, so far as you and I are concerned, is the one living in our day and age to whom the Lord is currently revealing His will for us. Therefore, the most important reading we can do is any of the words of the prophet contained each week in the Church Section of the Deseret News and any words of the prophet contained each month in our Church magazines. Our marching orders for each six months are found in the general conference addresses, which are printed in the Ensign magazine."
- Ezra Taft Benson, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet," BYU Devotional, 26 February 1980
Click here to read the full talk
These remarks by Elder Benson, not yet president of the Church, are a good reminder of the importance of following the counsel of the Lord's spokesman on the earth. He emphasized the printed publications as the source of information; today, we have many other means to access both transcripts and audio/video versions of messages. We should be eager to learn from, and carefully follow, those "marching orders" in the counsel of our leaders!
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