1 Ne. 14:6-7; 3 Ne. 16:10; refer in this text to Hel. 16:2; 1 Ne. 3:7; 1 Ne. 17:50
“If we complain against the Lord’s servants, the heavens are offended, the Spirit is withdrawn, and amen to that individual’s faith. President David O. McKay once wrote: ‘Murmuring against priesthood and auxiliary leadership is one of the most poisonous things that can be introduced into the home of a Latter-day Saint.’” (Ezra Taft Benson, Improvement Era, Mar. 1969, p. 3)
“If you want to be close to the Lord, if you want to have His favor and Spirit to be with you, follow the counsel of those who have been called to preside over you.” (Ezra Taft Benson, London England Area Conference, June 1976)
“A man said to me, ‘You know, there are people in our state who believe in following the Prophet in everything they think is right, but when it is something they think isn’t right, and it doesn’t appeal to them, then that’s different.’ He said, ‘then they become their own prophet. They decide what the Lord wants and what the Lord doesn’t want.’ I thought, how true! We will be led astray, because we are false prophets to ourselves when we do not follow the prophet of God. No, we should never discriminate between these commandments, as to those we should and should not keep.” (N. Eldon Tanner, Conference Report, Oct. 1966, p. 98)
“It is too much to suppose that all the priesthood at this juncture will unite behind the prophet in the fight for freedom. Yet we can pray for that day, and in the meantime the faithful should strive to be in harmony with the inspired counsel given by the Lord’s mouthpiece—the prophet—and thus in unity with the Lord—and hence receive peace to their souls. The more we are united with the Lord and His prophet, the greater will be our chances to preserve our families and to live in freedom.” (Ezra Taft Benson, An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 311)
“If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord, let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain. How closely do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living prophet, the President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency? May God bless us all to look to the prophet and the presidency in the critical and crucial days ahead is my prayer.” (Ezra Taft Benson, 1980 BYU Devotional Speeches of the Year, p. 30)
“If you will not be loyal in the small things you will not be loyal in the large things… . A man who says he will sustain the President of the Church or the General Authorities, but cannot sustain his own bishop is deceiving himself. The man who will not sustain the bishop of his ward and the president of his stake will not sustain the President of the Church… . Some of us are very jealous of our prerogatives and feel that obedience to priesthood authority is to forfeit one’s agency. If we only knew, my brethren and sisters, that it is through obedience that we gain freedom.” (Boyd K. Packer, BYU Devotional, Mar. 23, 1965)
“Is not our attitude toward these prophets an unerring reflection of our innermost feeling toward God? I mean our real, basic allegiance when it is divested of all outward show and stripped of all pretensions. Can we truly love the Lord and at the same time reject his servants? If we really do love God, then indeed we must and we will love and revere his anointed ones.” (Mark E. Petersen, Conference Report, Oct. 1981, pp. 90-91)
“The Lord and his prophets are one, and no one can believe in Christ and reject his prophets.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, 2:79)
“One day when President Grant was living, I sat in my office across the street following a general conference. A man came over to see me, an elderly man. He was very upset about what had been said in this conference by some of the Brethren, including myself. I could tell from his speech that he came from a foreign land. After I had quieted him enough so he would listen, I said, ‘Why did you come to America?’
‘I am here because a prophet of God told me to come.’
‘Who was the prophet?’ I continued.
‘Wilford Woodruff.’
‘Do you believe Wilford Woodruff was a prophet of God?’
‘Yes,’ said he.
‘Do you believe that President Joseph F. Smith was a prophet of God?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Then came the sixty-four dollar question. ‘Do you believe that Heber J. Grant is a prophet of God?’
His answer: ‘I think he ought to keep his mouth shut about old age assistance.’
Now I tell you that a man in his position is on the way to apostasy. He is forfeiting his chances for eternal life. So is everyone who cannot follow the living prophet of God.” (Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, Apr. 1953, p. 125)