Mormon Dilemma 960 Bishops Know Man’s Heart

Official LDS Church Manual “Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood”, Part A, History and Organization of the Priesthood, 8: Duties of the Bishop and the Branch President, 57; “The gift of discernment enables a bishop or branch president to know truth, to understand the differences between good and evil, and even to know what is in a person’s heart. Because he has this gift, we can seek his counsel and he can tell us what the Lord would have us do to grow spiritually.”

1 Cor 2:11; “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God”.

The Mormon passage today sounds like telepathy!  How could a man know the thoughts of another person when only God knows the thoughts of men? 

Jesus knew the thoughts of the scribes (Matt 9:4) and God knew the thoughts of men were evil in the days of Noah (Gen 6:5), but no man has the ability to read someone else’s mind.  

Job told one of his friends he knew what he was thinking (Job 21:27), but this comes as a result of knowing someone well when you’re around them frequently.  You can assume or guess how someone would react to a situation, much like a mom does with her kids.  

Pretending someone can read another person’s thoughts is a form of witchcraft This sort of ‘super-powers’ portrayed by movies or mediums (aka fortune-tellers) isn’t from God and participation in such things is strictly forbidden by the Lord.