What Do We Really Know?

Another little bit of blasphemy, brought to you by Mo'Boy

I was reading one of my old posts, about the Trinity, and I saw a couple of comments there that I'd either missed or forgotten about.  They were postings by a couple of other Christians trying to convince me that I was all wrong.  On of them tried to show, using the scriptures of the Bible, that the Mormon concept of the Godhead is all wrong, and that the Mainstream Christian concept of the Trinity is all right.

You say Tomato...

For me it comes down to the question:  What do we REALLY know about God?  We have the words written in books that tell us all about God, and how he has, and will interact with us humans.

The challenge comes with the realization that these books are hard to understand at best, and that so many people understand the same words in so many different ways.  We pour over the words, and we study them, and we look at them in the context of our own experiences.  We also try and learn the historical contexts surrounding when they were written.  And we come up with lots of different conclusions. And that's assuming that we're even using the same translation, or even the same edition of the same translation.

But it's the Word of God!

Sure, but what did God mean when he said it?  And was it really God that said that phrase, or was that something of more historical note?  And how many mouths, ears, and hands did it pass through on its way from God to me?

The only thing I can KNOW is what I can personally experience, and, religiously speaking, that means that the only things I KNOW is what speaks from God's spirit to mine.  What it tells me is that (except for a few of my own missteps), the path of belief that I'm on is working.

I'm starting to feel that God values our faith and our search as much as he values our salvation.  Look at it this way.  IF God is omnipotent, and can do anything he wants to, he could appear today, announce his presence, and clearly state to everyone in the whole world which religion is the right one and which path we should all be walking.  Seriously, if he wanted to, he could get a press conference together and just say it. 

There are a lot of reasons why he probably doesn't do that.  For one, I'm not sure that everyone would believe Him if He did.

But a big reason is (in my own imagination) that it's important for us to seek Him and find Him on our own.  The ones that truly search for the truth will eventually find it.  And they'll be able to handle it when they find it.





Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Mark's Other Blog Posts: Moroccan Lamb Tagine