Harold B. Lee offers criteria for doctrinal authoritativeness.

Date
Jul 8, 1964
Type
Speech / Court Transcript
Source
Harold B. Lee
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

Harold B. Lee, "To Seminary and Institute of Religion faculty," Department of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, July 8, 1964, accessed May 17, 2021

Scribe/Publisher
Seminaries and Institutes of Religion Department
People
Harold B. Lee
Audience
Seminary and Institute Teachers
Transcription

It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they read and write. Now you keep that in mind. I don’t care what his position is, if he writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard church works, unless that one be the prophet, seer, and revelator—please note that one exception—you may immediately say, ‘Well, that is his own idea.’ And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the standard church works (I think that is why we call them ‘standard’—it is the standard measure of all that men teach), you may know by that same token that it is false, regardless of the position of the man who says it.

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