Truth

John 8:32.  Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

John 18:38   What is Truth?

2 Timothy 3:7.  Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth

Moroni 10:5.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth oof all things

D & C 93:24.  And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as theye are to come.

D & C 93:28   He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.

D & C 93:36.  The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth

Contemplating the world around us, leaves us with Philosophical concepts, ideas, and relationships, as well as Scientific principles. We arrive at philosophical concepts and relationships based on axioms assumed to be absolute and universal, connected by logical arguments. Scientific principles, in turn, are obtained through experiments involving measurements. If there is no possible way of measuring something, it is not science. To take concepts from the realm of the philosophical and introduce them into the world of science, measurements must be possible.

There are limitations to both approaches. The world of philosophy is inherently limited by the nature of the world around us, as well as the limitations of our mind. We are immersed in a world of space, time, and matter. While it is possible to describe a hyperdimensional space connected to time with unobservable mass and energy, to claim that such a world corresponds to an ultimate absolute reality is arrogant at best.

Science, on the other hand is limited by the processes of measurement as welk as the limitations of the tools of measurement.

The result in both, Philosophy and Science, is the abandoning of any attempt to deal with absolutes, or anything dealing with spiritual values. To attempt to discuss something infinite in finite terms is simply inadequate. We are attempting to describe a world of which we are an integral part. This is conceptually like the effort of describing a house, while locked inside. A better example might be an intelligent two-dimensional being, living on the surface of a sphere. Clearly, he could develop the mathematics of a three-dimensional world, but he would never be able to experience it.  The only way the sensation of three-dimensionality could be communicated would involve a three-dimensional being living in the third dimension.

Philosophical efforts to describe an omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite God have resulted in an incomprehensible human construct with no resemblance to the Eternal Father taught by Christ while He was on earth. Furthermore, the closed canon of scripture denies the possibility of a loving Father giving us additional insight into the nature and purpose of our life, 

As the scriptures quoted as an introduction to these musings indicate, truth is more than knowledge. Truth, in addition, is the awareness of its absolute reality. Such awareness can only be communicated from beyond the limitations inherent in the world in which we live. Such awareness is communicated by the Spirit, otherwise known as a Testimony. The certainty associated with such a Testimony gives peace, joy, and direction to our lives.

Continuation of Comments on Gospel Vocabulary

Obedience: To many of us, the word obedience, and more specifically, the concept of obedience, carries a connotation of a blind response to an arbitrarily imposed force. In many cases it also suggests fear of punishment for disobedience, or an expectation of rewards for compliance.

It seems incongruous that an omniscient and omnipotent God would need to exact obedience to discover our love for Him. With that reason removed from the understanding of the purpose of obedience, the scripture ranking obedience as higher than sacrifice takes on a new meaning (1 Samuel 15:22), so does the scripture in Abraham 3:25 (we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things . . . ).  My basic rule of teaching over the past 60 years has been that if my teaching has not helped my students to learn and understand, I have failed. Consequently, my tests have emphasized understanding and additional learning, and the tests were designed for the students’ benefit, not mine. Thus, I believe that the principle of obedience was not included in Gospel principles and priesthood covenants for the Lord’s benefit, but for ours.

It is clearly arrogant to compare my purposes with the Lord’s Eternal plan, yet, when I contemplate my Father’s love for me, and I relive some of the deeply spiritual experiences He has given me, which have strengthened my faith, and subsequently confront a commandment which I do not, as yet, fully comprehend, I can muster the faith to obey, because I have felt the love of my Heavenly Father.

Abraham is presented as a particularly strong example of obedience in the scriptures, and in many sacrament-meeting talks, and so he should be, but I believe Abraham’s actions go much deeper than that. Long before the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham had come to know God through deeply personal experiences. His obedience carried the signs of absolute trust, and I believe, that through the experience with Isaac, Abraham gained a deeper understanding of the Infinite atoning sacrifice of the Savior. Some-day, I hope to have the opportunity to talk to Abraham about that.

In my opinion, fear of punishment and hope for reward are very poor substitutes for love. Feeling the love of our Heavenly Father becomes a wonderful incentive to want to do what He expects of us. Our object in relation to the commandments should be to get to the point where we enjoy keeping them more than any alternative; so that we would live the commandments even if there were no commandments. The fact is, that we only sense the commandments as a deterrent from happiness, when we are not in harmony with the Gospel. The dog basking in the love of his master is not even aware that there is a leash on the collar around his neck. Not until he strains to get away does the leash restrict him. Once we have carved the commandments into our hearts we no longer need them on the wall to remind us. The Gospel is not so much about doing as it is about becoming.

However, not until we have arrived will a reminder of the commandments become irrelevant.

Comments on Gospel Vocabulary

Sacrifice: The word is used either as a noun, representing the object offered, or a verb as acting to make an offering. In the Old Testament the concept is given to teach principles associated with the atonement, looking forward to the coming of Christ. At the same time it was a symbolic representation of that infinite Sacrifice by the Father through the son to pay for all human sin and suffering. 

I find it particularly significant that the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit is required, thus repentance is necessary for personal acceptance of the atonement for forgiveness. While repentance always was a requirement for forgiveness, after the accomplishment of the atonement, the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit was given to replace the symbolic offering of a blood sacrifice.

The word “Sacrifice” itself in the Latin is much more than merely losing something for something better, which has become the colloquial meaning. Literally, the word translates into English from the two roots of the word.

Sacrum means sacred or holy, the ending of the word “. . .fice” being related to the verb facere to make or to do, thus Sacrifice translates into making holy, or that which has been made holy. In other words, it is not enough to feel sad about having given up something, unless someone is brought closer to the Lords, it is not a sacrifice.

Eternal:  Most nouns or adjectives carry a quantitative and a qualitative meaning. The quantitative answering to the question “how many or how much”, the qualitative property responding to the question “what kind.” Consequently, when you ask your six year old to measure the width of the table, and he comes back with 52, and you say “what, Hot Dogs?” And he chuckles and says “of course not, Inches”, you realize that the concept of measurement inherently includes both quantitative and qualitative elements.

So it is with the word Eternal. It includes the element of duration of time, and the quality of life experienced in that duration of time. We know very little about the time when our Heavenly Father began to be, except, whatever we can imagine, He was there before that. So it is with the End of Time. In our own experience, there is always a beginning and an end. Birthday celebrations, at best, only last a few hours. My wife had a grandfather who lived 104 years. With 89 years, I am extremely grateful for the richness of my life. One thing is clear to me: the meaning of time is vastly different for me than for my Eternal Heavenly Father. 

It is interesting that modern physics suggest that the concept of time in total independence of space is not tenable, and we describe the universe as a four-dimensional space-time continuum. At the same time, to claim that such a description of the universe corresponds to an absolute reality is at best an arrogant presumption.

The quality of life suggested in the term “Eternal” is indiscribeably creative and fulfilling and can only be imagined in the context of John 17:3 “and this is life Eternal, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent,” To me, the term “Eternal” should only be used in the context of considering Divine Possibilities.

Repent: Verbs, that is, action words, are used in a transitive context when they take an object, such as I read the book. Read is used as a transitive verb, and the book is the object. On the other hand, when I say: “I read”, the word read is used intransitively without an object. The word “repent” is inherently intransitive, it cannot be used with an object. Try as you might, you cannot repent me.