"We will be tried even as Abraham, it is essential in the Plan of Happiness."

You’re referring to the dangers of valuing doctrine over leadership, and such a danger is real if you have a wide gamut of what counts as doctrine, but there is also a risk of valuing leadership over doctrine, especially if in some future day a prophet or apostle has a falling away with the church, or something along those lines.

As I said, all doctrines are unchanging. God is real, for example. God is our Father. God has a body of flesh and bone. Jesus Christ is his Son. Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. The Holy Ghost teaches and testifies of the Father and the Son. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are One. Jesus is the creator of the universe. By following his commandments, we can be saved. Through the power of his Atonement, we can be cleansed from our sins. There are ten unchanging doctrines right there. And there are many, many more. Anything that cannot be termed as eternal truth is not a “doctrine”. That doesn’t mean it is not revealed by God, and that does not mean we aren’t obligated to follow it. Notice that none of these ten are commandments. They are statements of eternal fact. That is a “doctrine”. A policy or a commandment is binding and revealed, but just not in the same category as a doctrine.

For example: “do not commit adultery”. This is a commandment, not a doctrine. “To be exalted, we must repent of and become clean from all unchaste thoughts and actions”. This is a doctrine of eternal fact, which is taught to us. “Those who commit adultery face disciplinary action from the church”. This is a policy (and not one that is likely to change any time soon). The doctrine is just the core. It makes up a relatively small amount of what we do and teach in the church, but we should always remember to keep doctrine as our focus.

/r/latterdaysaints Thread Parent