What do Mormons believe about revelation? - the fact and myth cheat sheet

This is part of the Mormon fact and myth cheat sheet on this website. The main list of Mormon facts and Myths can be found here. This section specifically discusses Mormon belief about revelation.

This is a compilation of facts and myths about Mormon beliefs compiled from comments and other resources. I add things to this list as I run into them so this list has more information on it than I have had time to write about in detail. Some of these can be uncommonly random.

Some of these comments may have been collected from someone that is trying to imply that Mormons won't tell you about these things. This is partially accurate simply because we don't actually believe in many of these things. On a similar note, I have pulled some of this information from several "campaigns" which claim that they just want to help us Mormons realize the error of our ways. However, most of these campaigns are not actually targeted to Mormons. They are targeted to those who are not Mormon and may be curious about what we really believe. In war and politics it is known as a "disinformation" campaign and it's used to keep other people in the dark or doubtful of factual information. If these campaigns were intended to target Mormons, they would talk to us directly, instead of referring to Mormons in the third person as "they," and they would use our real teachings to try and convince us of our error.

You may notice that after the first sentence, these descriptions are written in a way so that anyone can quote them if they need to. The disadvantage to this is that there are some things that get repeated in the explanations more than once. It should be noted that this site is not an official source for Mormon doctrine, so if you're going to quote from this site I would recommend that you point out the sources or link back to this page so readers can verify accurate sources for themselves. I have also bolded some things in each statement to help identify the key points.

Speaking of repeating stuff, this introduction is fairly standard on the other fact and myth pages so you can probably skip it on the next one without missing much.

Link to the main Mormon fact and myth page

Mormon belief about revelation

"Mormons believe that God still talks to mankind":

This is true. Why would a loving God ever stop trying to talk to mankind?

Mormons believe that God still communicates with mankind through revelation and scripture. Latter-day Saints believe revelation for the church as a while is given to the prophet of the church, and through each individual for themselves.

"Mormons believe that there are things that have not been revealed to the earth":

This is true.

Mormons believe that mankind does not know all the mysteries of God and more things will be revealed in time.

"Mormons believe there is an order to revelation":

This is true.

Mormons believe the only person who can receive revelation to guide the church as a whole is the President of the Church. The person who can receive revelation to guide the congregation as a whole is the bishop. They believe that both the father and mother can receive revelation in family matters, and that each person can receive their own revelation for themselves. Latter-day Saints believe revelation follows an order, thus revelation to the bishop or individual will not override revelation given to the prophet.

"Prophets receive revelation at 'convenient times' in relation to current events":

This is true.

Mormons believe that revelation is not received in the same manner as one would receive a brick to the face. It does not come out of nowhere unexpectedly. Rather revelation is usually given when asked for. That means that there are current events that the prophet has to ask about and receive revelation for. It is one of the primary reasons why a prophet is needed. Noah did not receive revelation about a famine in Egypt, and Moses did not receive revelation about a flood because these were not current events during their time. Latter-day Saints believe revelation works in this same manner for all of mankind. There are some times where revelation is given when it is not asked for, however this is the incredibly rare exception.