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

What's Your Reaction to California's Decision on Same-Sex Marriage?

Yesterday a "Republican-dominated" California Supreme Court struck down state laws against same-sex marriages. The LDS Church issued a press release, calling the decision "unfortunate". I agree, but not for reasons you might think. Did the California Court make the right decision? Update 5/17/2008 : California decision does not affect prohibitions against polygamy and marriage of close relatives. Why not? Government should not sanction same-sex marriages for the same reason that it should not sanction heterosexual adultery--such activities tend to be destructive to the family as the fundamental unit of society. Before you get too far into reading into my words, let me echo and agree with something that Madeleine Albright wrote in her recent book, The Mighty & The Almighty (one of the better books that I have read in a long time): I oppose discrimination against gays and lesbians and am convinced that heterosexual adultery is a greater danger to the institu...
67 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

One Sure Thing about Global Warming: Loss of Liberty

In all of my reading about man-made global warming, never once have I come across the statement that 'we are absolutely sure' that mankind is causing irreversible global warming by our behavior. No one has dared make this claim yet. The closest anyone has come is being pretty sure that something bad might happen in fifty to one hundred years if we don't act now. One thing that several people have stated (on both sides of the debate), however, is that slowing the supposed effects caused by man on the warming of the globe will require significant strengthening of governments around the world, along with a significant reduction in your freedom to choose. My religion teaches You may think, from this article, that I am having a hard time separating my views of church from my views of state. That would be correct. that there was a great war in heaven between two ideologies. The first faction advocated our Heavenly Father's plan, which was a blueprint for freedom of choice...
51 comments
Read more