I think that a good place to start a religious blog, especially one advocating Mormon doctrine and beliefs, would be to address the topic of truth. Why? Here are a few of the reasons I can think of:
- People today are looking for truth, and are often tired of simple speculation
- Religion deals with truth
- Some unacquainted with the church believe that it somehow teaches some form of ignorance or at least filters the truth its members receive, which is false.
- Truth really exists, can be found, and it’s discovery/application is advocated by the church
What Is Truth?
Part of the problem we deal with today is that the nature of truth is not understood. Latter-day scripture provides the best definition of truth yet available. D&C 93:24 “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob states that “the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be.” We can see from these definitions that truth is a knowledge of reality, or what is.
It’s interesting to look at some of the terms of truth presently circulating in the world in the light of these definitions. ‘Absolute Truth’ is a redundant phrase. Given that truth is unchanging, it must be absolute. ‘Relative Truth’ by these standards is a contradiction of terms. I would agree that many things in the world today are relative. But to believe that everything is relative, or that nothing is fixed, lasting, or eternal, would be to deny that truth exists at all. If there is no truth, then we lose track of who we are and we lose notion of having any purpose in life.
The prophet Brigham Young taught the following:
“Mormonism embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical. God has revealed truth that is now in the possession of the world, whether it be scientific or religious. The whole world are under obligation to him for what they know and enjoy; they are indebted to him for it all…I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs in our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours; we claim it. Our religion is simply the truth. It is all said in this one expression—it [the Mormon faith] embraces all truth.
If the church embraces all truth, how is truth obtained? First, we know that there are different types or categories of truth, and that not all truth is of equal importance. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. divided truths into two types, temporal and spiritual. For the most part, these are not terribly difficult to distinguish, so I won’t worry about that too much now. Needless to say, the truth that involves the eternal soul and destiny of man, which is the truth that matters the most, generally falls under the ‘spiritual’ category. Said Spencer W. Kimball, “The secular knowledge is to be desired; the spiritual knowledge is a necessity.” It makes very good to sense to me that the church primarily teaches truth that it is of a spiritual nature, as this is the weightier truth to be found.
How Do We Find Truth, And What Is Its Source?
The ultimate source of truth is God, as Brigham said in the quote above. Jacob said that the “Spirit speaketh truth” and this is the medium through which God delivers truth and his will to man. It is the doctrine of most Christianity in general, and the Mormon church, that God is omniscient. A key doctrine to understand is that the spirit, or the Holy Ghost, also knows all things (D&C 35:19; 42:17). Therefore the spirit can speak the truth to our souls. “Feeling” the truth is not a fiction and is extremely important in knowing truth, especially those very important spiritual truths.
Because God is omniscient, there’s no reason to believe that he would only convey truths that we consider spiritual. As Brigham Young said, he conveys ALL truths to man, and every truth we have comes from God. This includes the acquisition of temporal truths.
How do we come to truth? J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, “Temporal truths are not normally controlled by the revelations of the Lord concerning them and are, so to say, in the public domain. They may be discussed, investigated, experimented upon, theorized about, and handled in any way we wish, with exception noted [that is, the things which the Lord has revealed]. Spiritual truths, on the other hand, are to be found in and are governed and controlled by the revelations of our Heavenly Father as contained in the scriptures and in inspired utterances of his prophets.”
Therefore, in the searching of truth, it is important to study, learn, reason, and investigate. The ultimate source of knowledge and truth, especially concerning the most important truths, or those which are spiritual, come from the Lord through revelation. These revelations are the basis of the doctrine of the Mormon church and revelation is what makes the church a living one that is interactive with the Lord. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims revelation from the Lord, and thus has access to the most important truths that man will need in this life as well as in the life to come.
Lastly, it interesting to note a few scriptures: John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE: no man cometh unto the father but by me.” John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” We find truth in Christ, and it is only through truth, and through Christ, that eternal life is found. Truth is eternal, and of eternal importance
How Does Truth Fit Together?
People begin to run into problems when they start to exclude different parts of truth from what they ‘believe.’ For those outside the religious world, many exclude spiritual truths because it is not something they understand and they don’t feel like it fits into what they accept as true. For those within Christianity, including some who are members of the church, there can be an inclination to reject temporal (and even spiritual) truth that they do not understand. What do we do when we think that we have found ‘truths’ that don’t blend with our view of what truth is? Or rather, what do we do when we think that two truths contradict each other?
A Jigsaw Puzzle
I like the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle can represent pieces of truth. If a person is working on the puzzle, he/she may be making good progress in finding pieces that fit together. However, what happens when you’re working on part of the puzzle, and you encounter a piece that just doesn’t fit? Of course you wouldn’t throw it away, ignore it like it wasn’t there at all or worst, try to destroy it. You would hold onto it until you found out how it fit into the puzzle. You may keep looking through the pieces until you can add to the part of the puzzle you’re constructing, or you may take that piece that you’ve found and try to build upon it with other pieces. I believe that truth works in much the same pattern in our lives when we’re trying to unravel the big picture and figure out how things fit together. When I encounter something that I don’t understand, I either hold onto it until I know where it goes, or I examine it more carefully and see if I have other pieces of truth that it goes together with. I have faith that someday I’ll have the whole puzzle.
It seems to me a very arrogant perspective to believe that when you encounter something that appears to be true, that you will immediately understand it fully. Or similarly, that you will immediately know how it fits in with all other truths. It takes time, patience, and a lifetime and study and growth to comprehend all the truth that is available.
