Unanimous Decisions

In his last conference talk entitled Sustaining the Prophets Elder Nelson gave some insight into how the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency make important decisions.  He said, “The calling of 15 men to the holy apostleship provides great protection for us as members of the Church. Why? Because decisions of these leaders must be unanimous.  Can you imagine how the Spirit needs to move upon 15 men to bring about unanimity?” 

The reason he said that their decisions must be unanimous is what the Lord revealed in the Doctrine and Covenants.  Speaking of the leading quorums of the Church, the Lord said, “And every decision made by either of these quorums must be by the unanimous voice of the same; that is, every member in each quorum must be agreed to its decisions” (D&C 107:27).  Elder Nelson said in the same talk that “the ways of the Lord are different from the ways of man” and that certainly shows here—if any sort of government organization depended on unanimity to make decisions then nothing would ever get done!  We see examples of this unanimity in a few places in the Doctrine and Covenants.  At the organization of the Church, six men “by unanimous vote these persons expressed their desire and determination to organize, according to the commandment of God” (heading to D&C 21).  So this principle of unanimity in important decisions was part of even the organization of the Church.  Similarly, we read that D&C 134, an exposition on government, was “adopted by unanimous vote of a general assembly of the Church” (heading to D&C 134).  When Joseph F. Smith had his great vision of the dead, “It was submitted to the counselors in the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve, and the Patriarch, and it was unanimously accepted by them” (heading to D&C 138). A final example that we have in the Doctrine and Covenants is found in the description of the revelation on Priesthood that came from President Kimball.  The introduction that we have in our scriptures says that President Kimball “presented it to his counselors, who accepted it and approved it. It was then presented to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who unanimously approved it” (OD 2).  I think that this pattern of unanimity teaches us how we should make important decisions in our families, especially as husband and wife.  Spouses certainly aren’t going to agree on everything in their lives, but for major decisions that greatly affect the family, the best way to forward is to seek the Lord’s will until agreement is reached.  The 11 apostles gave us an example of how to do this when they needed to decide who would replace Judas as an apostle.  They first sought out the right person until they had come down to two individuals, at which point “they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen” (Acts 1:24).  Having done their best to make the decision, they took it to the Lord and He who knows all things showed them the right path forward.