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.