God's Truth is Transcendent

God’s Truth Is Eternal - Transcendent

As is often the case, this paper sprouted from a conversation I had with someone about the Book of Mormon. There was skepticism over the fact that Abinidah, Alma, Almulek, and others preached about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. They preached on the Atonement of Jesus and following God’s commandments. Apparently, some have issues with the fact that the Atonement was preached before the actual event took place. People tend to look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as some discrete point in time when everything shifted, and the New Testament was born, just like that. Mankind even reset its calendar to reflect this event of Jesus. Thus, for many, this event was when Jesus became a point in time that changed the world and reshaped the future, causing many Protestants and Catholics to disregard what they call the Old Testament as no longer relevant because we now have the New Testament. This point in time also marks some transformation from a legalistic God to a new God of grace and mercy. It becomes difficult for many Protestants and Catholics to understand that God revealed His plans for Atonement beforehand and quite thoroughly.

But the real stumbling block for these doubters is that the message was being preached, and that listeners were being asked to repent their sins for salvation. It is one thing to foretell the future, but it is quite another to act upon that future event as if it were taking place in the present. Those who preached this message were distinctively different from those who prophesied in the Old Testament about the coming Messiah. The main difference is that the Old Testament prophet foretold of the coming Messiah, yet the listeners were never challenged to change or act upon that information. The prophet's message was a future hope, not a present reality. Furthermore, the Old Testament prophets did not reveal the fullness of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, either. I believe there may be several reasons why the Atonement may have been preached with such fullness in the Americas, one of which is that Jesus would physically come into the world in Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside. Those in Mesopotamia would have received the Gospel message physically, and the disciples would testify firsthand of their knowledge; this would not be the case for the Americas, who would have had to wait until 1492, when Columbus sailed to the Americas to bring the Gospel message. Unfortunately, by that time, the Gospel message had been compromised and lost. This means that those in the Americas would need to rely on historians to tell them about Jesus’ Atonement, but from a corrupted Church, with a corrupted message.

But could something this important go unpreached for such a long time? I often think that Jesus coming to the Americas was very important and necessary, but also that the foretelling of this event was just as important. Both the foretelling and the actual arrival of Jesus after his Crucifixion were necessary for the fullness of the Gospel to reach the entire world, particularly the Americas.

Let's consider the pre-Atonement message given to Alma. I will coin the word pre-Atonement to mean the foretelling of the future event of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, before the death, burial, and Resurrection actually took place. In the past, I have written about the fact that when God enters the world, He doesn’t enter for just a moment in time, but rather that in His fullness, He affects the past, present, and future reality of the entire created universe. God is not limited by time and space, as humanity is. God’s Truth and revelations are for all time and are unlimited -- they are eternal. God’s revelations then become Truth for all of Creation -- past, present, and future. When God revealed the coming Messiah and the Atonement to Alma, God gave Alma a fuller understanding than prior prophets found in the Old Testament. Once Alma understood the message of Atonement, he was able to act upon it. Because the fullness of God is transcendent, Alma did not have to wait until the actual event had physically occurred because God already had determined it; thus, it was as if it already had happened because for God, things are the way they always have been. The transcendence of God’s Word does not begin when man first learns God’s Truth because God’s Truth was Truth before Creation. Thus, God is simply revealing His Truth to mankind at the point when God reveals it to His prophets. Thus, God’s Truth does not begin when it is revealed to mankind, but rather it always has existed and is being revealed. In keeping with the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation celebrated recently, Martin Luther made the same claim about God’s transience in Scripture. Luther understood God’s Truth to be eternal, with no beginning or end. Once the future revelation was made known to Alma, he was able to experience/participate in the Atonement before the actual physical event took place. Some find it hard to believe that God would give Alma such a full understanding of the Atonement hundreds of years before the event, but this is not unusual at all. The entire Bible has been God’s revelation to mankind, and God continues, through the process of Progressive Revelation, to reveal His timeless truths to humanity. God has been communicating with mankind from the outset. It is not unusual for God to reveal His fullness; it actually would be rather unusual for God not to reveal it.

The ramifications of the Atonement then become a way for all of Creation to enter into the process of sanctification, being made into one’s intended purpose. The Atonement’s fullness is for all of Creation -- past, present, and future. Thus, a person born before the Atonement could partake of its sanctifying power, even though it had not happened yet, at the moment a prophet of God gains the revelation. This also enters our understanding of the baptism of the dead. Those who died before receiving the Gospel message of Atonement now have the opportunity to participate in this restorative act. It should not be a surprise, or seem unusual at all, when one considers the greatness of God and His Truth. What is more surprising are those who want to confine God within their own personal limitations -- making God subject to natural laws rather than eternal and transcendent laws. These Protestant and Catholic theologians are the same ones who argue that God is eternal and all powerful, all knowing, and ever-present, yet they place limitations on God’s Truths, which were true before they were revealed to mankind, making them timeless and eternal.

Thus, once God has revealed His Truth to mankind, either by revelation or action, this Truth is, was, and always will be eternal, without a beginning or end. As a Mormon, I believe that God’s truth is timeless, meant for all people past, present, and future. One might ask: “What about the future or those not yet born; how will they hear and accept?” Once again, that’s just Protestants and Catholics placing limitations on God’s Truth and revelations. This is why the doctrine of pre-existence is important. Those in their pre-mortal existence already have seen and, thus, already understand God’s timeless Truth. God’s Word already will have been here when they arrive, and they will have the opportunity to participate in the Atonement. God’s Word calls out to all His Creation, and all will have the opportunity to accept or reject it once they enter the physical world. This is why we read in Mosiah 15:25 that all little children have eternal life because before they came into the world, they already would have accepted the Atonement and would have been covered by the blood of Jesus before coming into the world. Thus, God knew us beforehand, and we knew God. They would have understood the Atonement of Jesus. Mormon doctrine is not difficult to follow, nor is it difficult to understand. I feel that Mormon doctrine falls more in line with Occam’s razor when confronted with two possible solutions to a particular problem: The least complex or least complicated should be one's choice. At times, we make things so convoluted that it obscures one’s vision and understanding.

In my defense of God’s timeless Truth being revealed to mankind by revelation or physically, I simply state that God’s Truth is transcendent and is meant for all of Creation -- past, present, and future. No more needs to be said because everything one needs to know and understand is simply explained, within the context of God’s Truth being transcendent. Either one believes that God’s Truth is transcendent, or else one needs to explain why, in this one particular case, the Gospel of Atonement is an exception. God prepared Jesus before the foundation of the world to come and offer Atonement, and all of Creation, since the beginning, has had the opportunity to participate in its Truth. Thus, for those who dispute the pre-Atonement message that Alma preached in the Americas, I simply say that God’s Truth is transcendent.

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