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What Is a Prophet in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Prophet and President of the Church is the only person on Earth with the authority from God to receive revelation for the whole Church. When a Prophet passes away, a new Prophet is selected by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Historically, the new Prophet has always been the most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints honor and respect the Prophet, as well as the “Role of the Prophet”. In building the Gospel Buddy extension and transforming the collected data, I had the questions, “Has any Prophet been mentioned more than others in General Conference talks?” and, “How quickly is a former Prophet mentioned less in General Conference talks?”. The answer to these questions was very informative!

How Often Are Prophets Mentioned in General Conference?

My findings - displayed in the graph below - show that a new Prophet is always mentioned immensely more than they had been previously. The previous prophet is mentioned far less than during their own presidency when a new prophet is sustained. A prophet’s highest number of mentions usually occurs within their first general conference as the prophet. This “first conference spike” is likely due to the excitement felt by conference speakers around having a new prophet. Mentions of the prophet then gradually decrease over the length of their presidency.

One striking example is President Howard W. Hunter. President Hunter was sustained in the October 1994 General Conference in which his mentions were strikingly high at 76. That is 1.8x higher than President Benson’s highest mentions in any conference (42). Sadly, President Hunter passed away only five months after his first conference. President Hinckley was sustained as the new prophet in April 1995 conference in which the late President Hunter received 42 mentions and President Hinckley received 58. In the October 1995 General Conference, President Hunter was back to pre-prophet levels with 4 mentions.

This data demonstrates a clear pattern that prophets are mentioned infrequently before and after their presidency. However, the current prophet of the church can expect to be mentioned far more frequently than any given apostle.




Why Are Prophets Mentioned More During Their Presidency?

I believe this illustrates an important practice among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Members of the church always seek to honor, sustain, and follow the Prophet God has chosen regardless of who it is. The current Prophet will always be mentioned far more than any other Apostle because they have been selected by God, through revelation, to lead His Church in this time. Members of the church talk about the Prophet frequently. While members definitely honor previous Prophets, they believe that the most important Prophet the Church has ever had is the one the Church has today!

How Often Is the Current Prophet Mentioned Compared With Jesus and Other Church Leaders?

In the graph below I am showing a single line for mentions of the current prophet. Here we will compare total mentions of the current prophet in each conference to a few figures important to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.




Compare mentions of the current prophet to mentions of Jesus. Members of the church speak frequently about the current prophet, yet that pales in comparison to how frequently they talk about Jesus Christ. The high spikes seen in the previous chart are nothing compared to the consistently high mentions of our Savior within General Conference talks. In fact, the numbers show that prophets are mentioned 5-8x less frequently than Jesus. Members of the church honor and sustain the current church President, but they love and worship Jesus Christ.