FACTS: Thomas S. Monson was born on 21 August 1927. He was first sustained by members of the LDS church as “Prophet, Seer, and Revelator” on 4 October 1963. During the 54 years and almost 3 months from that sustaining until his death on 2 January 2018, he published exactly zero prophecies, zero translations of ancient documents, and zero revelations. [source]
COMMENTARY: I’m not going to say I know better than the Mormon God how to direct a multimillion-member church or oversee a multibillion-inhabitant planet, but the Mormon church’s claim to fame is supposed to be continuing modern revelation, and I think it may have been useful to have a little divine guidance on recent issues such as the cause of global warming, the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction and its effect on wars that ravaged entire nations, advance warnings of catastrophes caused by extreme weather or deranged gunmen, the source of homosexual tendencies and whether people so blessed deserve the same rights that others enjoy, and whether women are worthy to act in the name of the Mormon God. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed listening to Monson regale audiences with heartwarming stories and selections from great poets. I guess it was wrong of me to hope for a little more, though. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
I respectfully disagree. As we are in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, every day I am thankful for a living prophet who warns us of things to come. Temples are now closed, but a recent policy change was made that makes it possible for couples to get married civilly and then get married in the temple later without a waiting period. My dad is the Bishop of a young single adult ward. That new policy change has been a huge blessing for several couples in his congregation. Some of them are in the Air Force and have orders to go elsewhere. They would have had to be separated from their fiancées, but now they can be married and take their spouses with them. There was recently a big push for church members and anyone else who was interested to take self-reliance classes. My spouse and I took a class and it was great! It taught people to create a budget, get out of debt, save enough money for several months worth of expenses, and to become spiritually self-reliant. These are all things that have significantly reduced the negative effect of the pandemic for my family. We have been counseled to store food and basic necessities. When people were first ordered to stay at home, you could not find toilet paper, rice, beans, flour, soap, certain cleaning supplies, etc. anywhere in my town. Fortunately, we had all of those things stored in our basement! Recently, the prophet emphasized the importance of home centered, church supported worship, and introduced a new curriculum that families could use at home. A year later, after we were able to get used to the curriculum, worship services were canceled worldwide, and our only worship became worship in the home. What a blessing!
Those are all pretty wonderful things, but which of them is a prophecy?
You used the words “policy change” and “big push” and “counseled” and “emphasized” when introducing these things, but I’m pretty sure that a) Thomas S. Monson is still dead, so he wasn’t recently involved in any of these items you’ve mentioned, and b) none of them are actually prophecies.
If you want to figure out if a particular pronouncement by one of your revered leaders is actually prophetic, here’s a quick little test for you. Imagine the pope doing or saying the same thing, and see if you would consider him a prophet. If not, then don’t try to pass that off as prophetic on the rest of us just because it was said by someone you’re publicly pressured twice a year to raise your hand and sustain as a prophet.
The phrase “prophet, seer, and revelator” is used by Mormons as a title, and it is as meaningless as the Catholic title “pope” because it has become completely disassociated with the actions of prophesying, “seeing”, and “revealing” in the biblical sense. I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you this, because I know it’s an uncomfortable truth.