-Hugh B. Brown, links added
"Some say God is incomprehensible. He says that to know Him is life eternal. The one takes hope out of life. The other is an eternal beacon."
-Hugh B. Brown, links added
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What was it about the early Apostles of the church that qualified them to receive their divine commissions? The amount of gospel knowledge they had did not seem to be an issue. Certainly they were not scholars, nor were they part of the established leadership of the day who professed to know all about the Messiah and His teachings. Yet Christ chose them above all else.
If a large amount of doctrinal knowledge is not necessary to be a servant of God, then what are the key attributes? An important qualification must be humility. While many heard Christ's teachings but proudly continued on their own path, each apostle immediately gave up all he had simply for the opportunity to follow Jesus and learn from Him. Throughout all of Christ's mission, his apostles did not seek to teach or correct Christ; rather they sought counsel from Him. They asked for more and more, even after reprimands. Near the end of His earthly mission, after all they had been through together, Christ turned to his friends the apostles and said "One of you shall betray me." Where so many would take offense at such an accusation, or at least brush the comment aside as being not worth their consideration, the apostles still took the humble approach. They each asked "Lord, is it I?" When I hear or read divine messages, do I pick and choose which to pay attention to? When a fault is suggested, defensiveness should not be my initial reaction. Humility requires sincerely asking the apostolic question. How well do I know my Heavenly Father? The New Testament teaches that knowing Him "is life eternal." So, how deeply do I need to know Him before I attain that promised eternal life?
Certainly it can't be as simple as knowing who he is. Even an evil spirit, before being cast out by Christ exclaimed, "I know thee who thou art." Yet evil spirits will not attain eternal life. So I must come to know Him on a more personal level. But how close? As close as a good friend, maybe a best friend? I think the best example to look at Christ Himself. He said over and over that He did nothing of Himself. He only did those things which Heavenly Father would have Him do. He knew God so well that He knew how God would have Him act in every decision. Aristotle referred to the conundrum of the man who is the best in a given field or vocation. To truly appreciate (deeply understand) how good this man is, a person must possess the knowledge that this man has. Otherwise, a person can offer praise but won't understand exactly what he or she is praising, because it is a mystery to those without understanding. Thus, the "best" man is the only one who can truly appreciate and fully understand what He has. Well, that's just philosophy, but it may correlate with Jesus' example. He commanded us to "be... perfect, even as I, or your Father in Heaven is perfect." Perhaps Jesus Christ could fully appreciate and understand Heavenly Father's perfection, only because He had fully attained that perfection. How well do I have to know Heavenly Father? I think the answer is "perfectly." Better get to work. Truth is an understanding of how things really are. Intelligence has been defined as "the light of truth." All light [knowledge] is bestowed by God. Though some believe that we can obtain knowledge of truth without God, the fact is that knowledge of truth cannot come from any other source.
Thus, any time we come to a knowledge of any truth, we can know that God was the source and the benefactor of that event. Scholars often try to discredit personal knowledge that is received from God, but there is no more sure way of discovering truth than by asking the source of all truth. Why then do members of Christian denominations rely so heavily on the wisdom of gospel scholars? Every sect and faith (including atheists and agnostics) have pastors and theologians who claim to have a more correct understanding of truth because of their own study. In this way the leaders of the Christian sects are imitating the scribes and Pharisees who lived at the time of Christ. While these gospel scholars self-interestedly proclaimed their own wisdom, Christ found simple fishers and others to be his true leaders. He knew He could trust them to teach the truth not based on their own logic, but based on what God would tell them. Christ taught us plainly about the source to which we should look for truth, and it wasn't a self-proclaimed theologian: "Blessed art thou [Peter], for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." It is impossible to live without faith. Faith in its broadest sense is simply a belief or set of beliefs. Unless a person has a perfect knowledge of every outcome that will result from every action, faith will be employed. Whether or not one holds to a belief in God, they act on faith on a daily basis. What makes a book true? A moment of consideration can lead us to a conclusion that a book is never "true" in and of itself. It is the principles that are presented in the book that are true or not true. The question is further complicated by the fact that the reader may interpret the written principle differently that it was intended, causing misunderstanding regardless of the truthfulness of the intention of the writing. A common view of faith suggests that when a person has faith, there can be no uncertainty. Under this paradigm, those who speak of their beliefs feel obligated to state their beliefs as an absolute surety with no room for error or doubt. But if faith were a perfect knowledge, there would be no need for beliefs, nor would there be any need for Heavenly Father to test our faith. Baptism includes a promise to follow God's commandments for one's entire life. Many of the same people who preach integrity in worldly arenas have seriously neglected this promise they made earlier in life. A popular excuse is that the person was naive back when the promise was made--he or she didn't fully understand what it entailed. Thus, that person should not be held accountable for such promises. When we have a knowledge of good and evil for a given choice, we have to submit ourselves to either good or evil. When faced with such a choice, there is no third option. Our actions under those circumstances then show where our faith is strongest. Scientific evidence is only one method of discovering truth. In many cases it is a very weak method, and in many cases science simply has no way to even attempt truth discovery. We should not write off science as irrelevant, because it certainly has value. Neither should we limit ourselves to blindly accepting only what science offers. We have access to One who already knows all truth. |
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