Thursday, May 22, 2008

Chapter 1: Divine Truth, A: Divine Truth is Absolute Reality

In this life we have relative truths and absolute truths. A lot of what we learn is relative truth - for example, how to deal with a family problem, or what we need to do personally to enhance our spirituality. Absolute truth is what we base all of our other truths on: it is the rock hard foundation of our belief.
This true way of life is not a matter of opinion. There are absolute truths and relative truths.... There are many ideas advanced to the world that have been changed to meet the needs of the truth as it has been discovered. There are relative truths, and there are also absolute turths which are the same yesterday, today, and forever - never changing.
Spencer W. Kimball "Absolute Truth" Ensign Sept 1978, 3-4
"Divine" truth is absolute. The truths upon which the gospel is founded never change. These truths include the existence of God, the existence of the Savior, the judgement, the Atonement, and so on. We can count on these truths, revealed by God, to be the same forever.
He cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round.
Alma 7:20.

For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being, but he is unchangeable from all eternity to to all eternity.
Moroni 8:18
Scientific thought is a great way for learning certain truths, but is a flawed method for learning eternal truths because science is always changing. Religion and science do not conflict, but rather are different methods of learning truth for different uses.
These absolute truths are not altered by the opinions of men. As science has expanded our understanding of the physical world, certain accepted ideas of science have had to be abandoned in the interest of truth. Some of these seeming truths were stoutly maintained for centuries. The sincere searching of science often rests only on the threshold of truth, whereas revealed facts give us certain absolute truths as a beginning point so we may come to understand the nature of man and the purpose of his life...
Spencer W. Kimball "Absolute Truth" Ensign Sept 1978, 3-4
The way we learn about absolute thruth is through the Spirit. The Spirit is God's messenger of truth. There is no extrenal way of proving or disproving these absolute truths, we can only learn of their certainty through prayer and inspiration of the Spirit through our own minds and hearts.
For the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.
Jacob 4:13

Behold, that which you hear is as the voice of one crying in the wilderness--in the wilderness, because you cannto see him--my voice, because my voice is Spirit; my Spirit is truth; truth abideth and hath no end; and if it be in you it shall abound.
D&C 88:66
We must always be searching for truth. When we have knowledge of divine truth it extends into our whole lives, making it easier for us to live the Gospel because we know it is true. We search for truth through scripture study, through listening to the church leaders, through attending church, through attention to truths manifest in life experiences, and mostly through listening to the Holy Ghost as it whispers to us.

We are willing to receive all thruth, from whatever source it may come; for truth will stand, truth will endure.... Truth is at the foundation, at the bottom and top of, and it entirely permeates this great work of the Lord.
Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 1

And now, seeing ye know these things and cannot deny them except ye shall lie, therefore in this ye have sinned, for ye have rejected all these things, notwithstanding so many evidences which ye have recieved; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in heaven, and all things which are in the earth, as a witness that they are true.
Helaman 8:24


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