Skip to main content

Prophets Don't Know Everything

One of the most difficult things to say is "I don't know". But it's often the right thing to say, even for prophets. For reasons only known to him, God hasn't yet revealed everything about this earth, our existence, and eternity. But some day he will.

Christians denominations all teach that Christ will come to earth again soon. But despite the occasional flourish to the contrary, nobody knows exactly when that will be. If you ask the president of the LDS Church when Christ will come, he'd probably tell you "I don't know" or "When he gets here." For whatever reason, that's the way God wants it to be.

Prophets don't know everything--on purpose.

Joseph Smith once prayed about the answer to this question. This is the answer that he received:
Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore alet this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.

This didn't help him understand the answer to his question any more than before.

I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face.

Some people will tell you that they are sure that the earth and everything on it came about without any help from evolution. If you ask an LDS Prophet, he will tell you that he doesn't know the answer to this question. Why, because almost nothing has been revealed about the matter. What has been revealed is this:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...declares man to be the direct and literal offspring of deity...Man is a child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes.

However:
Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel. Leave [science] which has [nothing] to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research...


Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding, pages 9-10

It turns out that saying "I don't know" is also simply a matter of patience. Eventually we will know all things--when God chooses to reveal them.
Yea, verily I say unto you, in that aday when the Lord shall come, he shall breveal all things—

Things which have passed, and ahidden things which no man knew, things of the bearth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof—

Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven.
When will we know all things? Sometime following Christ's return to earth. When will that be? Like I said before, "I don't know!!!" ;-)

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

School Vouchers: "The Bramble Memo"

$429 million? What? Where? The legislative fiscal analyst for the State of Utah calculated the costs to the public schools over the next 13 years if school vouchers are implemented. It said the costs would be $5.5M in the first year, and $71M in the 13th year. Suddenly, the number I have started seeing thrown around was $429 million, the total costs for vouchers over 13 years. Where did that number come from? Enter the mysterious "Bramble Memo". In the past few days several of us (Jeremy, Utah Taxpayer, Craig, Sara, Urban Koda, Jesse, and me) have (sometimes?) enjoyed a lively discussion about school vouchers in Utah . Jeremy clarified to me the costs of the venture by linking to a copy of the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Impartial Analysis (LFA) of the costs of Vouchers , found on "The Senate Site". In my previous voucher article, I quoted some of Lavar Webb's article from last Sunday's Deseret News, wherein he stated that those total costs ...
66 comments
Read more

Why Do Liberals Coddle the Radical Islamic Monster?

Many liberals and progressives in the United States and elsewhere support a radical Islamic fundamentalist movement which, if it came to power, would quickly wipe out their liberal progressive ideology. Why then, do so many liberals coddle the monster that would destroy them? The Answer lies in their long-stemmed hatred of Western liberty and free markets. Dick Morris' new revelation of Hillary Clinton's ties to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism provides an excellent backdrop for me to ask the question that Greg Allen of The Right Balance has been asking for quite some time, to wit: If many liberals stand for free sexuality, homosexuality, the use of drugs, binge drinking, and other mindless expressions of individuality, why do so many of them also look the other way when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism? Don't they know that Iran has put to death as many as 4,000 homosexuals? Don't they know that if Islamists come to power they will not only make sexual perversi...
52 comments
Read more

The Inhumanity of Bob Lonsberry: Waterboarding, Concentration Camps, and the the Bataan Death March

KNRS 570 radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture during his show on April 21, 2009. More grotesquely, he was beaming with pride about his advocacy campaign. It's difficult to imagine then, that, by the same rationale, had Lonsberry been a German at the time of Hitler, or a Japanese during the Bataan Death March, that he would not have advocated torture of Jews in the concentration camps or the bayoneting and shooting of American soldiers on the Bataan trail. Torture, Torture, Everywhere! Nearly 80,000 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the To contemplate a discussion about whether or not torture is legal or whether it even works, it is first required to come to the conclusion that 'I am a child of God, but my adversary is a monkey'. Phillipines in 1942 and forced to march with no food and very little water for six days. If a man stumbled, if he didn't respond quickly to a command, or if he tried to get wat...
50 comments
Read more