Comprehending The Spirit and Spiritual Truths

Gaining spiritual truths is an interesting process. It requires different skills than we’re sometimes used to using when we learn things. D&C 8: 2-3 says the following in regards to learning via the spirit: “Yea, Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holgy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.”

It’s one thing to ‘feel’ something in your heart and think it might be a nice idea. It’s another thing to rely on those feeling for the learning of essential eternal truth. Fortunately, we are told that the spirit speaks to both our minds and our hearts. The process is spiritual and intellectual. We are to know and also to feel the truth. There is a definite language of the spirit by which we are to learn. The Lord would not leave such an essential process up to guessing.

The Cave

Plato (who lived from 429 to 347 B.C.) wrote the well known book, The Republic. Though it is largely a political commentary with some philosophical overtones, he also discusses some other issues concerning knowledge and truth. He makes an analogy of the cave that I believe is applicable to our understanding of spiritual truths. The analogy is somewhat lengthy, and I summarize it as follows:

Several people are born in a cave with only the dimmest flame as light by which to see. Those people do not even face the flame. They are forced to sit in a position all of their lives where they can see only the wall, and whatever is happening behind them they can see only as the faint shadows that are cast upon the wall. If you were to take one of these individuals at adulthood and suddenly bring him outside into the light at noonday, he would essentially be blind. His eyes would not at first be able to comprehend the light there. He might even retreat back into the cave. After a while, however, he would be accustomed to the light and his whole world would be changed. After a time in this light, if you were to again face him toward the wall in the cave, he would not be able to perceive the shadows as well as he once did. The others facing the wall might even mock him for having lost his skill at seeing shadows on the wall, but that man would likely not care, having seen the greater light and existence without the cave.

The obvious application here is to learning spiritual truths. We can receive spiritual promptings, or see the light of day as Plato put it, and not comprehend them. If we don’t persist in trying to comprehend the spirit, we might even shy away from them and back into our cave of spiritual ignorance. However, once we have become more accustomed to the spirit, and living a life which allows for revelation, we would never want to retreat back into the cave. If we visit our old lives, the people there might even mock us for having moved on to other things. But the spirit still speaks the truth.

How do we expect to comprehend God (who we are to know, in order to receive eternal life, John 17:4), if we do not even comprehend the spirit by which he speaks? If we shun spiritual learning and impressions, we cannot hope to draw closer to God. God is a God of truth (Ether 3:12). Being perfect, we can assume that he does things in the best way possible that we can learn and grow. The best way that we have to learn from God and about Him, is through spiritual means. Learning the language of the spirit will

God IS Truth

The “Source” of Truth

Despite physical evidences of spiritual truth that might be brought forth, the ultimate knowledge of such truths must come from the spirit. Why? If physical things can support that which we already believe, why not lean on that? Why do we need to rely primarily on the Holy Ghost, on inspiration and revelation, for our spiritual knowledge?

I believe the answers to these questions stem from the knowledge of where truth can be found. God possesses all truth. Truth is communicated through the spirit. Moroni 10:5 states that, “by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” ALL things. I don’t believe this is an overstatement of the truth that God knows and communicates through his spirit. Neal A. Maxwell made this insight concerning this topic:

“Below the scripture that declares that God knows “all things” there is no footnote reading “except that God is a little weak in geophysics”! We do not worship a God who simply forecasts a generally great frequency of earthquakes in the last days before the second coming of His Son; He knows precisely when and where all these will occur….There are no qualifiers, only flat and absolute assertions of the omniscience of God.”

Because God knows all, He is the source to which we can turn for truth.

As mentioned above, the Holy Ghost is the personage that conveys this truth to mankind. And it isn’t just that the Holy Ghost knows all truth. An often repeated phrase in the scriptures is there is a “spirit of truth.” D&C 93: 24-26 even goes so far as to say that Christ IS this spirit of truth.

How Is God Truth?

I don’t suppose that I completely understand how someone (The Holy Ghost, Christ, or God) IS truth. It makes some sense to say that they KNOW truth, but it’s different if you say that Christ IS the spirit of truth. However, if they are perfect, and know all, then it logically follows that they are truth. All truth rests in the Godhead. We will never find a particle of truth that is not a part of them or that they do not already possess. Taken in this light, it’s as if the Godhead (or any individual member thereof) is synonymous with truth. Gathering, understanding, and applying truth, therefore, makes us more like God.

This can also be understood from the opposite side. Satan is full of deceptions and lies. He twists truths to make their application untruthful. Again, D&C 93: 24-25 reads, “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.” In other words, as long as we are dealing in truth, we are dealing with God. When we vary from this, it’s not simply not of God, it’s the spirit of the adversary. Satan is fallacy, error, and untruth.

Often times we have difficulty determining if something is truth or error, and for good reason; there are opposing forces at work trying to convince us of each side. Things often fall into that gray area. But in regards to truth, given that there are two sources only, and that these sources are on the extreme ends of the spectrum, one being truth and the other untruth, I’m led to believe that the more truth that we gather and understand, the less gray area there is, and the more clear things become. There is likely no “spectrum” or gradient of truth at all. There is truth and untruth. It’s only our combination of these that muddy the waters and bring gray area into our understanding of truth.