Omniscience

God is omniscient. He knows everything.

What does that mean?

I wonder if our concept of God is strongly and incorrectly influenced by what mankind believed about God for nearly 2 millenia. It makes sense... our core beliefs are formed early in our life. Even if God chose to reveal the details of His own nature to the church, most would probably not have believed them. Some details were revealed little by little as early members of the church built their faith, but it's clear that God has witheld a lot about Himself (and even more about Heavenly Mother).

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that our concept of omniscience may be wrong. Most of us believe that God holds every single miniscule detail, every single quark which makes up a proton or electron, in the entire universe, with its seemingly unpredictable and random motion, in His mind at all times. Not only does he hold a snapshot of every tiny detail of the entire universe with all the current directional vectors (how everything is moving at that time), but He also holds that snapshot for every point in time from eternity to eternity in His mind.

I suppose if we were to try to believe the concept of God being everywhere and everything, having no form, if we were able to imagine up such an incredible sentient being, I think a being that literaly holds everything from eternity to eternity in His mind could also be believed. But believing God is a divine man, and that we may become as He is, doesn't that idea of omniscience seem a bit too radical?

I'm not trying to say that God isn't omniscient. I believe He knows everything. But it's what that means that I question.

Here's the verse that I read this morning that sparked this whole question:

The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes. D&C 38:2

So God knows all because He sees all. So I think it's more like, if He wants to know something He simply has to look. Perhaps it's the urim and thummim that we'll all receive who are exalted. Will we not be able to know all things then, even if we don't hold all that info in our minds? Is there a difference between storing info in a mind and retrieving it by remembering or thinking it and storing data in a seer stone and retrieving it by looking for it? Do you not still possess all knowledge?

I may be wrong, but it's an interesting way of looking at it.

What is glory?

How do you define the word 'glory'? When God's glory shone round about, what were they seeing? When we read of God's work and glory, what are we talking about?

I think in the world we just kinda know about glory and talk about it without really understanding what it is. We think of it as some kind of brightness and power. Something that causes the person to glow.

I was taught in my Pearl of Great Price class at BYU that the roots of the word 'glory' come from the same base as the word 'stewardship' in Arabic.

Well that makes a lot more sense out of a lot of scriptures. If we thing of God's work and stewardhip being the immortality and eternal life of man, that makes perfect sense. When we talk of God's great glory, it makes sense to understand it that God has authority over a great many things. There's a scripture (I don't remember where… I'll try to find it later) that talks of a prophet avoiding more glory.

But it still leaves a lot to wonder. Why did His glory shine round about? Stewardship doesn't really substitute perfectly with "the glory of God is intelligence" either (although you can bend the bracket to make it fit). But as I said, they are of the same root. That doesn't make them equivalent.

So what is it? I've asked that to many people, and nobody knows.

Here's what I think it might be. Glory is what attracts followers (disciples if you will). Take insects and light. For some strange reason, bugs are instictively attracted to light. I think all things, particularly men, are insinctively attracted to glory. We trust it. We respect it. We want to be a part of it. It is trustworthiness. It is perfection. It is love and courage. It is power and leadership. It is all those things that create an imaginary tractor beam toward the source of it.

Here are some examples where this would fit: "The glory of God is intelligence." "Where is thy glory that I should worship thee?" "His glory shone round about." (Shone would be a metaphorical verb.)

"This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." This one's a little tricky, but it makes sense. When the stewardship gains greater glory, does that not add to the glory of (glorify) the steward?

The verb form of glory would mean, then, to be attracted to someone or thing with glory. "I glory in the Lord." "We gloried in His goodness." "I do not glory in myself…"

It also is the accumulation of those that follow a glorified being or thing, their fan club (ie. disciples). This is where it is most closely related to the word 'stewardship'.

We often say we give glory to the Lord. We think of this as meaning that with our words we make Him more glorified or something. I suppose this can be true in a way. By our words we may convince others to follow Him more. But I think the true meaning has been lost. I think the intended meaning is that we give our own glory to Him. We are drawn to His glory and give ourselves to become His disciples. We give ourselves to His stewardship, and therefore our glory is His.

Take Sidney Rigdon as an example. When Sidney chose to become a disciple of Joseph Smith, many of his congregation followed suit. They who followed Sidney became followers of Jospeh, and thus followed Christ. That was Sidney's glory, that added to Jospeh's glory, which added to Christ's.

Hmmm... I'd love to get a better definition.

Can we sin without being tempted?

So, if Satan did not exist, or if he had not fallen, would we still sin?

Moses records that Lucifer became "the devil, the father of all lies" (Moses 4:4). Mormon calls him "the author of all sin" (Helaman 6:30). These seem to indicate that Satan is in fact the cause of all sin.

But let me ask this question: In premortality, why did Satan rebel? Who tempted him? Was he not a spirit child of God, as we all were?

What about the Millenium? Satan will be bound. Some speculate that this will be by our righteousness, but Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith clarifies that he will literally not be permitted to tempt us. "There are many among us who teach that the binding ofSatan will be merely the binding which those dwelling on the earth will place upon him by their refusal to hear his enticings. This is not so. He will not have the privilege during that period of time to tempt any man" (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:192).

So, will there be any sin in the Millenium? How could there not be? For none are perfect but Christ. If those born during the Millenium never sinned, they would not need Christ's Atonement. Zechariah and Isaiah mention sin during the Millenium (see Zech 14:16-19, Isa 65:20). But Jospeh Smith said it best: "There will be wicked men on the earth during the thousand years. The heathen nations who will not come up to worship will be visited with the judgements of God, and must eventually be destroyed from the earth" (Teachings, p.268-9).

So, yes... We sin by our own accord. We are who we are. If we are wicked, we choose wicked, regardless of whether we are tempted or not. Satan tries to get us to choose to become wicked, and if we continue to choose wickedly, we become wicked. At that point Satan no longer needs to tempt, for we choose evil on our own accord.

Conversely, as we choose good, we become good. And as we follow Christ, there comes a point where we no longer need guidance from God, for we are righteous and choose righteously of our own accord. Elder Oaks talked about the "challenge to become", a great talk.

I recently read a verse that kinda threw these theories out the window. "And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have the bitter they could not know the sweet" (D&C 29:39).

I read that verse over and over again. I was so sure of my conclusions, that I couldn't understand it any other way. But there it was... telling me I was wrong.

But then I finaly read the next verse: "Wherefore, it came to pass that the devil tempted Adam, and partook of the forbidden fruit and transgressed the commandment, wherein he became subject to the will of the devil, because he yielded unto temptation."

I wasn't wrong (thank goodness). The devil is the "author of sin" because of the fall. Not only that, he taught men how to satisfy their evil desires. He taught Cain to murder. He taught men how to sin (although I think we would have figured it out for ourselves eventually). But he is not the cause of sin. We are the sinners. Become.

Why do we fast?

It's kind of a weird commandment, isn't it? It's not really to serve others, is it? True, we give our fast offerings, but we could give that without actually skipping any meals if we wanted.

So why do we do it? What purpose does it serve us and/or the Lord? It's been widely said that by fasting we grow closer to the spirit and we are more apt to feel its promptings. Is this true? If so, why?

The answer is similar to why we obey the Word of Wisdom, which I discussed earlier.

Often times we hear or read that we are to put of the flesh or the natural man. Note that we, our souls, consist of a physical body and a spiritual body. Each has it's own intentions and desires, good and bad. For example, the body desires food, sex, back rubs, substances, etc. The spirit desires love, praise, music, etc. They are distinct desrires, and can often conflict.

Our goal, while mortal, is to learn to govern ourselves with our spirit. Our bodies are intended as tools to be governed, not governors of themselves. When we allow our bodies to govern the soul, we become slaves to desires. We may become immoral regardless of the suffering it causes ourselves and others. We may become addicted to substances that temporarily ease our spiritual torment, thus becoming completely dependant on those substances.

If we can govern our bodies, they become a powerful tool in accomplishing our spiritual desires (hopefully for good). We don't even know the powers that can be used once our bodies become glorified.

This is why we fast. We are teaching ourselves to govern our bodies. We must teach the body to submit to our will. We must enslave the flesh, not become slaves to it.

In Marion Zimmer Bradley's book The Mists of Avalon, Morgaine, a druid priestess, explains why the druids would fast. "The people of Avalon fast, sometimes, to teach their bodies to do what they are told without making demands it is inconvienient to satisfy -- there are times when one must do without food, or water, or sleep, and the body must be the servant of the mind, not the master. The mind cannot be set on holy things, or wisdom, or stilled for the long meditation which opens the mind to other realms, when the body cries 'Feed me!' or 'I thirst!' So we teach ourselves to still its clamoring."

Extremism

In the LDS church, extremism and fanatisism are condemned. It's not right for anyone to take their beliefs so intensely as to force it on anyone else in any way. It's funny, though, I see a lot of extremism in the church, even in my own family.

Here are a couple of examples:

A few weeks ago, my sister forwarded an email from a guy who wrote an email to ABC complaining about a supposed implied political agenda in one of their shows. He sent it to the wrong address, and found its way to the inbox of a strongly liberal employee. This employee responded to the accusational email with equal and surpassing emnity, implying that this man's beliefs were stupid and false. This, of course, further enraged the man, and he began this petition to boycott ABC.

Now, I see why the man is upset, but does he truly believe that the entire corporation of ABC ought to pay for this one employee's outburst (the employee was fired, and a letter of apology was issued)? What is this man trying to prove? He doesn't agree with the beliefs of the characters/writers of a show he watched. So try to put them out of business?

I got another email from a relative today that noted that post offices in Texas had to take down posters that said "In God We Trust". Outrage! So to combat this embarrasing attack on Christianity, we're to write "In God We Trust" on all our envelopes. Kinda silly. Any good supposed to come of that? "You don't believe what I believe? Well let me flood you with it 'til you're convinced I'm right!"

Here's a question for you… what would these outraged people think if their job put up posters with a slogan like "In Science We Trust"? Do you see the problem? You're offended when people take down something that is meaningful to you, and offended when they put something up that's meaningful to someone else that you don't agree with.

I don't really understand why we typically feel that everyone must believe as we do. Why does it offend us that someone has a differeing opinion, or someone thinks we're wrong? Why must we accuse, hate, or belittle others' opinions when they're not our own? Is it ego? Is it that overbearing temptation of pride that makes us always have to be right? Maybe you are right… does that make the next man any less entitled to his opinion?

I find it interesting that LDS people can't fathom that other LDS members can possibly be democrats. How, they ask, could you be in favor of such issues as abortion, homosexuality, etc? And here's the answer: they're not. They believe the same as we do. The question, though, is whether others that don't believe as we do should have to live our morals when they don't share them? And that is a tough question to answer.

I personally am conservative politically because I agree more with their economic and financial strategies. And I have a fairly strong opinion on a few issues such as gay marriage. But I can definately see the other side of many of the political arguments, and I can't diagree with their opinions, because they aren't necessarily wrong. They just happen to believe differently than me. And that's supposed to be okay.

Repentance

We were asked an interesting question in Sunday School. We read a verse in Helaman that more or less said to repent and turn to God. We were asked if we could repent without turning to God. What do you think?

The answers we got in Sunday School were pretty uninformative.

"Repentance" is normally defined as "a turning away" or "a change of heart". Defined as such, the question becomes: can you change your own heart without God's help?

Agency is an incredible thing. One of the most interesting things about it is the effects of our choices. What do our choices do to us? They change us. If we choose to do something evil, we become more accustomed to that bad thing. We being to enjoy it more. We become more evil. Same thing for when we choose to do good. We become good.

So, in answer to the question, if we've sinned, can we change our heart by our own choices and determination? Yes. When we recognize shortcomings in ourselves and resolve to fix them, with determination we can fix them.

There are 2 ways we can change. We can change ourselves, as I've just noted, or we can allow ourselves (with our permission) to be changed. The first way is very arduous and difficult. And it takes a long time.

The other way, if we let ourselves be changed, can happen quick. If we ask God to change us, and show that we do in fact have the resolve to change ourselves if necessary, He can change our hearts in a moment. It's the only way we can truly change in a relatively short period of time.

And it is only by turning to God that we can receive forgiveness for our sins. For Christ is our mediator. And even if we turn ourselves from our sins, we have not paid for those that we had committed. And we must, or we must turn to Christ in faith that He will pay for them in our stead.

So, if you include obtaining forgiveness in the equation of repentance, than the answer, of course, is a resounding 'no'. Change is an amazing thing.

But Dad...

You remember when you were a kid and your parents would tell you to do something that you didn't want to do? It seemed like a waste of time, so you would ask "why?" And what does dad always say? "Because I said so!"

What a lame excuse for an answer. The fact is, if Dad would take the time to explain the purpose of the task assigned in a way we could understand, we would be more willing to do the task. But we're never given the reasons, and we are put the the task grudgingly.

Well, the commandments are the same way. Sometimes we don't really understand why we must obey a commandment. It makes it kinda difficult to want to obey it. We're asked to just do it anyway, and we do. We typically eventually find out it was for the best, but still... it doesn't make it easy.

So take the time to understand the commandments. It will make obeying them easier for you.

I'll give an example. Take the Word of Wisdom. What's the purpose of it? It's a law of health. We often quote the scriptures that note that the body is a temple. So... we're supposed to take care of our body 'cause it's sacred. Okay, but there's a reason... what does it do for us? Obviously the Word of Wisdom isn't a favor for God. There's something we're supposed to get out of it. So what is God trying to teach us?

We're being taught how to control our body. We're learning to govern our soul by our spirit, not by our body. We're are taught to avoid substances that could cause us to lose this control. Remember that we are learning to be like God. To be gods, we must harness the powers that our bodies hold, for if our bodies can't be governed, we can't be trusted to govern anything else. And there's a power in our bodies... one day we'll understand it. But we won't be able to use it if we don't have control.

Doesn't that help make you want to obey those commandments a little more?

Created by God?

Here's a little ammo for you against your traditional Christian friends… a little evidence of why traditional nicean Christianity can't be true.

It is widely believed in the Christian world that God created each individual. Of course, this idea has all kinds of holes in it, the main one being that if God created who we are, then He is to blame for what we do. So, to try to mend these holes, Christian doctrines have made an emphasis on the gift of free-will. God created us, then gave us the ability to choose for ourselves, and do what we want. We are responsible for our choices, thus God's judgement and punishment is just.

Well, anyone who isn't so gullible as to accept this blindly at face value can easily see that this patch has just as many holes in it. If God created who we are, our personality, strengths, weaknesses, etc, and then gave us free-will to make our own choices, then God created how we would deal with this agency. What are our choices, if not a reaction between circumstance and who we are?

In other words, if we were creations of God, then whatever we do is directly and completely related to how God designed us and where He put us. Our choices are based on the personality, intelligence, etc. that He gave us. Therefore, all our decisions must be completely by God's design!

If that's the case, then there can be no sin. We could never do anything against God's will, for everything we would do would be by His design. Judgement could not be just, for why must we be punished for the weaknesses that God created in us? If we were supposed to be perfect, why didn't He create us that way? Why would He create some people that would fail and ultimately be damned, when He could have very well created that person to use his free-will appropriately?

Puppets… that's what we would be.

So, conclusively we must determine that God did not create us. Otherwise the logic folds on itself and implodes. Fortunately Joseph Smith revealed the concept of eternal intelligence. Who we are was not created, but we've always existed. What God created was a form for our intelligence, the abilty to begin use our intelligence. Makes a whole lot more sense that way.

Why Zion?

A couple of months ago we discussed Zion in Institute. We covered the who, what, when, where and why of Zion. Unfortunately, when we got to the 'why?', we read a verse in Psalms that said something to the effect of 'and I will establish Zion, for I desire it' (for the actual quote, it's Psalms 132:13-14)… and we left it at that. That was it. We must establish Zion 'cause God wants it.

Well, that obviously didn't do it for me. I let the teacher go on with the lesson without argument, but I continued to ponder the question. It's an interesting question… what is the purpose of the building of a city for some of the saints prior to 2nd Coming? Why is it necessary?

Let me branch off on a couple of tangets real quick to make my answer clearer. After the final judgment, Christ will dwell in the Celestial Kingdom, and will occasionally visit the terrestrial world. The telestial world he will not visit, because the inhabitants of that world cannot withstand His glory (glory, now that's an interesting topic).

Any time the Lord has come as a glorified being to the telestial world, there has necessarily been a transfiguration take place so that the person could withstand His glory. What does that mean? Transfiguration is the temporary glorification of a telestial body (and probably the local environment as well) to a terrestrial body.

What is the temple? The temple is a terrestrial haven in a telestial world. Thus Christ, as a glorified being can come and visit as He pleases, just like He will the Terrestrial Kingdom.

Does this make sense? I hope so, because it is critical to understanding what Zion is.

Zion, like the temple, is a terrestrial haven within the telestial world. It will have a higher law. It will be glorified above the rest of the world. And as a terrestrial city, Christ will be able to come and dwell within it as He pleases.

Do you see it? The telestial world will be destroyed at His coming. Why? Because telestial bodies cannot bear the glory of Christ's celestial glory. Who will be spared? The terrestrial inhabitants of the world. And this goes for the cities and places of the earth as well. Cities will be destroyed, mountains will form and deform. But Zion and her stakes will be spared. Why? Because it is already a terrestrial place. It can withstand His glory.

That is why it is critical that we build up Zion as soon as we can. Christ is waiting for us. He can't come to organize the church in preparation for His coming until He has a place to come to. He will hold His conference there, organize the gathering of Israel to the terrestrial havens of Zion and her stakes, then come in His glory.