We documented many of the lessons we were taught and revelations we were given including the most powerful and life changing revelation "The Atonement" as taught to us by Christ directly. You can read those on our website: www.Elliaison.org We invite others to consider what we learned and have received several hundred letters of appreciation from people who have made their calling and elections sure as a result.

This morning, I woke up at 4:00am prompted to share the following here.

It is dangerous to follow people, even when they have seen Christ. Seeing Christ is not cerificate of approval on your teachings or beliefs, and it is certainly not reason to follow anyone or accept blindly anything they teach.

Many people in the church believe that every apostle and therefore president of the church has seen Jesus Christ. It is reasonable to think this since Joseph Smith showed the example and repeatedly taught that we can and encouraged us to do so. Additionally, Oliver Cowdery taught the newly ordained Qurom of the Twelve Apostles, "Never cease striving until you have seen God face to face. Strengthen your faith; cast off your doubts, your sins, and all your unbelief; and nothing can prevent you from coming to God. Your ordination is not full and complete till God has laid His hand upon you. We require as much to qualify us as did those who have gone before us; God is the same. If the Savior in former days laid His hands upon His disciples, why not in latter days?" - History of the Church, 2:194-198

Many years ago, while talking with Christ in a vision, Rebecca observed that the leaders of the church didn't see or recognize him. This confused her since we were under the opinion that all of the Apostles and prophets spoke directly with Christ both in vision and in person the way we had. She asked him why they can't see him and he said, "They do not because they will not. They teach for commandments the doctrines of men having a form of godliness but they are in direct denial of the power thereof." We struggled to understand and accept this because we were utterly convinced that they all had had these experiences.

Years later, it became clear to us that the vast majority of the leaders of the church, including the Presidents of the church have never seen Christ. And realizing that many members of the church believe they have, and follow them as if they are quoting direct instructions from Christ, I researched and found many quotes from Presidents of the church stating emphatically that they have not seen Christ themselves. Below or are some of these quotes and how long they were the President of the church when they stated that they have never seen Christ. Truth is relevant and dispells lies that lead to error.

Brigham Young was ordained president of the Church in December 1847. He had lead the church for about 12 years when he said the following:

“I have flattered myself, if I am as faithful as I know how to be to my God, and my brethren, and to all my covenants, and faithful in the discharge of my duty, when I have lived to be as old as was Moses when the Lord appeared to him, that perhaps I then may hold communion with the Lord, as did Moses. I am not now in that position, though I know much more than I did twenty, ten, or five years ago. But have I yet lived to the state of perfection that I can commune in person with the Father and the Son at my will and pleasure? No, - though I hold myself in readiness that he can wield me at his will and pleasure. If I am faithful until I am eighty years of age, perhaps the Lord will appear to me and personally dictate me in the management of his Church and people. A little over twenty years, and if I am faithful, perhaps I will obtain that favour with my Father and God.” - Journal of Discourses, 7:243. Brigham Young, September 1, 1859

About another 6 years later he said, (President of the Church for 17 years at the time of this statement.)

"And what shall we say of our Heavenly Father? He is also a man in perfection, and the father of the man Jesus Christ, and the father of our spirits; He lives far above the influence and power of sin, and holds in his hands the destinies of all. We have not seen the person of the Father, neither have we seen that of the Son; but we have seen the children of the Father, and the brethren of the Savior, who are in every way like them in physical appearance and organization. Although mankind of the same color look alike, yet there exist expressions of the features by which one person can be distinguished from another. The human family all resemble one another in the main characteristics of humanity, and all resemble the Savior who died for us; and could we see him in the flesh, as he appeared to the ancients, we should very likely find that some men are more like him that others in feature and form, as we often see men who are more like Joseph Smith than others are." - Journal of Discourses, 11:42. Brigham Young, January 8, 1865

The following letter was written by President Heber J. Grant to his sister 13 April 1926. (Grant succeeded Joseph F. Smith as president of the LDS Church in November 1918. He had been the Prophet/president of the church for 8 years.)

"Dear Sister:

Answering your letter of the 12th.

I know of no instance where the Lord has appeared to an individual since His appearance to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Sincerely your brother,

[signed] Heber J. Grant"

- Lester Bush’s papers at the UU

After nearly 24 years as President of the church President Grant tells us in General Conference address in 1942:

"I have never prayed to see the Savoior, … I have seen so many men fall because of some great manifestations to them.”

President Grant indicates that having such great manifestations might cause us to fall. As if he as the President of the Church might fall by having such an experience…

President George Albert Smith was the next Prophet/President of the church starting May 21, 1945. After serving as the President of the Church for nearly 5 years, he wrote the following on March 25, 1950:

"I have not seen the Father or the Son, neither have I heard their voices in an audible way, but I have felt their presence and have enjoyed the whispering of the Still Small Voice that comes from them, the result of which has given me a testimony of the truth." - "The Vocation of David Wright: An Essay in Analytic Biography1" by Bruce W. Jorgensen in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 11, No. 2 Summer 1978, p. 48-49[

President Joseph F. Smith has been the president for 3-6 years when he was asked to testify before congress in the Reed Smoot hearings. The record reads,

"Senator Dubois: Then you do not know whether you have received any such revelation as you have described or whether you have not?

Mr. Smith: Well, I can say this: That if I live as I should in the line of my duties, I AM SUSCEPTIBLE, I THINK, of the impressions of the Spirit of the Lord upon my mind at any time, JUST AS ANY GOOD METHODIST or any other good church member might be. And so far as that is concerned, I say yes; I have had impressions of the Spirit upon my mind very frequently, but they ARE NOT IN THE SENSE OF REVELATIONS." (Reed Smoot Case, Vol. 1, pages 483-484).

On page 99 of the same volume Joseph F. Smith stated:

'I have NEVER PRETENDED TO NOR DO I PROFESS TO HAVE RECEIVED REVELATIONS.'"

The list goes on and on. President Gorbon B. Hinckley had been functionally leading the church for 15 years but was the president of the church for almost 2 years when he explained, ""Revelation no longer comes by vision," Mr. Hinckley said, "but in the 'still, small voice,' like that heard by Elijah." "We wrestle with a problem, we discuss it, we think about it, we pray about it," he said... "And the answer comes in a remarkable and wonderful way." (Washington Times, Dec. 3, 1996, page A8)

When you look at all the major decisions of the church, you find out that the Lord did not personally dictate to the prophet in visitation or in vision these decisions. For example, here is an eye witness account of how the blacks were given the priesthood from Apostle, Elder LeGrande Richards who was interviewed by Wesley Walters and Chris Vlachos on August 16, 1978, in the Church Office Building, Salt Lake City.

"Walters: On this revelation, of the priesthood to the Negro, I've heard all kinds of stories: I've heard that Christ appeared to the apostles; I've heard that Joseph Smith appeared; and then I heard another story that Spencer Kimball had had a concern about this for some time, and simply shared it with the apostles, and they decided that this was the right time to move in that direction. Are any of those stories true, or are they all?

Richards: Well, the last one is pretty true, and I might tell you what provoked it in a way. Down in Brazil, there is so much Negro blood in the population there that it is hard to get leaders that don't have negro blood in them. We just built a temple down there. It's going to be dedicated in October. All those people with Negro blood in them have been raising money to build that temple. If we don't change, then they can't even use it. Well, Brother Kimball worried about it, and he prayed a lot about it. He asked each one of us of the twelve if we would pray--and we did--that the Lord would give him the inspiration to know what the will of the Lord was. Then he invited each one of us in his office--individually, because you know when you are in a group, you can't always express everything that's in your heart. You're part of the group, see--so he interviewed each one of us, personally to see how we felt about it, and he asked us to pray about it. Then he asked each one of us to hand in all the references we had, for, or against that proposal. See, he was thinking favorably toward giving the colored people the priesthood. Then we had a meeting where we meet every week in the temple, and we discussed it as a group circle. and then held another prayer circle after the close of that meeting, and he (President Kimball) lead in the prayer; praying that the Lord would give us the inspiration that we needed to do the thing that would be pleasing to Him and for the blessing of His children.

And then the next Thursday--we meet every Thursday--the presidency came with this little document written out to make the announcement--to see how we'd feel about it--and present it in written form. Well, some of the members of the Twelve suggested a few changes in the announcement, and then in our meeting there we all voted in favor of it--the Twelve and the first Presidency. One member of the Twelve, Mark Peterson, was down in South America, but Brother Benson, our president, had arranged to know where he could be reached by phone, and right while we were in that meeting in the temple, Brother Kimball talked with Brother Peterson, and read him the article, and he (Peterson) approved of it.

Walters: There wasn't a special document as a "revelation", that he had wrote down?

Richards: We discussed it in our meeting. What else should we say besides that announcement? And we decided that that was sufficient; that no more needed to be said."

In short, the church is led by the spirit. Some few leaders have seen Christ and when they do, the vision is not about directing the church. Most of the modern prophets have not seen Christ nor heard his voice nor even had a recognizable vision. Some (as shown in the quotes above), don't even recall having revelations at all.

This does not mean that YOU cannot have these experiences. But you will not have them doing what you are told by leaders who have not had them. You must learn to recognize and follow the spirit, not man, not men nor church policies and dogmas. The promise is clear and certain,

D&C 84:47 And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father.

This is the path, there is no other way. The wheat follow the spirit, the tares grow up with the wheat in the church and follow the leaders and cannot be distinguished from the Wheat because the wheat and the tares both go to church. They both serve in their callings, they both keep the commandments. From the outside, appearance, they look and act identical. But inwardly, the wheat follow the Lord and the tares follow their leaders. Only when the leaders give directions contrary to the will of the Lord can the wheat be distinguished from the tares. The teachings of the church encourage members to reject their own revelations and the voice of the Lord when it contradicts the leaders of the church. This is not reliance on God, this is reliance on men. There is nothing wrong with doing what your leaders tell you to do as long as the spirit supports it. But it is very wrong to do what your leaders tell you to do when the spirit does not support it. To teach otherwise is to teach the commandments of men having a form of godliness but deny the power of God.