The Lord said:
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. 30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. (D&C 93)
Truth is things as they are. God knows all truth, but he does not create it. It is not created. Truth is independent, pre-existent, and infinite.
God is God because he conforms to truth. He received truth and glory— which means it existed before he did. He did it through a process where he iteratively acquired a greater awareness and then reconciled it to the increased light he received. We will become like him inasmuch as we do the same.
One example of how the Lord conformed to truth was provided when he was baptized by John. They both realized that John was unworthy of the task, yet the Lord indicated that he was submitting to principles beyond his ability to influence:
14 But John [declined baptizing Jesus], saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. (Matthew 3)
Truth is not things as we wish they were. God himself is both empowered and constrained by his submission to truth. When the Lord says “it must needs be done in mine own way” (D&C 104:16), it is not because of some arbitrary preference he might have. It is because there is no other way.
We are also empowered and constrained by our submission to truth. In our case, all truth we have access to comes through him, because he has already obtained it, and is the source of it to us. The gospel is the mechanism whereby we can obtain it.
We must embrace reality. We don’t get to decide which rules we will play by. Reality does not care how we feel about the rules. They just are.
We are told that “...when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (D&C 130:21) Another way of saying this is “every outcome is a consequence of predetermined conditions” or “everything that happens is a result of predetermined conditions.”
In mortality, we can either choose to learn the rules and play the game, or we choose to lose, and suffer all the while without understanding why.
We don’t get to pick the rules, but we do decide how diligently we will seek them out and how closely we will pay attention to them. This process is called optimization.
Optimization is about getting the most of something you want given the unavoidable obstacles and unchangeable consequences in the environment. Almost all real problems have no unconstrained solutions. There are less-than-ideal consequences in every solution to the hardest problems. Optimization recognizes this, and seeks the best solution given that none are free from undesirable sub-outcomes.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, most people believe that with enough scientific advancement and social control, we can create an environment free from constraints and consequences. The unconstrained worldview is epitomized by the character Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , who demands a laundry list of physically impossible outcomes, and threatens to destroy everyone else’s happiness unless they find a way of making it happen. Veruca and Charlie share their desire to be the factory owner, but they differ greatly in their efforts to obtain it. Charlie believes in a constrained system—where some things are as they are and can’t be changed. Veruca doesn’t care to recognize the limitations of reality and, predictably, ends up suffering a great deal.
Belief in an unconstrained reality is accelerating in depth and breadth in spite of evidence to the contrary, and it is bleeding over into our spiritual beliefs. In spiritual and temporal settings alike, this unconstrained worldview creates unbridled hatred and animosity as reality continuously crashes against the belief that by wishing we can create something different and better than things as they really are. We all suffer from the unavoidable consequences of acting against evident reality, rejecting functional solutions while holding out for unrealistic ones.
In spiritual settings, this is manifest by the numerous people who write off the existence of God for the most simplistic reasons. These are they who, after experiencing some degree of suffering or some hole in previously held dogma, conclude that there can be no God. For them, a system of truth that requires study, experimentation, and growth is not good enough. They want something that is complete and instant, something that has no questions, no struggles, and requires no effort.
Unfortunately, such a system is physically impossible. It has actually been mathematically proven that any system will generate questions that it cannot answer. A higher order system is always required. The proof applies to all systems, and is as true in temporal things as spiritual ones. A person who does not accept constrained reality, in other words, is going to endure unnecessary suffering in all aspects of life because they refuse to contend with a great deal of what is all around them. They will stumble through miserable lives without accomplishing nearly as much as they could have, constantly being unpleasantly surprised by many outcomes they should have seen coming and could have prepared for. Not surprisingly, those who believe in an unconstrained reality have much higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide than those who believe in a constrained reality. This stuff really matters.
One of the characteristics of reality that we can’t change is the existence of opposition. There is opposition in all things: “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad.” (2 Nephi 2:11)
Whether in life or death, and at every level of truth, everything has its complement. Those who enjoy a greater degree of glory do not do it in a vacuum free from wickedness, temptation, misery, or suffering. Instead, their glory includes an expanded awareness of all these things. Their expanded happiness, joy, and enjoyment is not from an absence of negative things, but because they are aware of and have overcome the negative things.
Your pathway to increased happiness, like everyone else’s, unavoidably runs right through increased awareness of wickedness, temptation, misery, and suffering. These things can’t be done away with. The experiences they bring are required to encounter something better.
We sometimes think we are full of faith. Here is a test to evaluate whether this is the case: If you were temporarily omnipotent, what would you change about this world? Would you bring those who do evil to justice? Would you make a beautiful paradise for yourself and those like you? Would you heal the sick? Feed all the poor? Would you arrange for the lonely to be visited? Perhaps the last thing you would think of is leaving everything exactly like it is. You see, God not only has all power, but he also has all knowledge, all wisdom, and all love. If you really believe that, then how could you suggest that there is a better way than what he has ordained? A simple and silly thought experiment as this reveals that we have very little faith, indeed.
But, you might say, Jesus performed miracles that dramatically changed reality. That is correct. And he still does.
But why didn’t Jesus heal everyone? Why doesn’t he? What is happening when we ask to be healed?
The answers to these questions and the balance between God’s power and God’s actions are found in what is “expedient.” Expedient is a scriptural term that means “that which improves.” Remember, God only does what helps people.
An exploration of his phrase “according to your faith be it unto you” can help clarify this idea. “According to your faith be it unto you” means to the degree that what you desire accords with what would benefit you according to your sincere understanding of God’s will, it will be done. This is the standard the Lord uses to exercise his power, and it ought to be the standard we use in asking for his power.
In his mortal ministry, Jesus showed that the recipe for obtaining a miracle was not about persuading God to change his mind, but about a mental, soul-searching process of the individual to determine if what they are asking is right according to their sincere current understanding of right and wrong. Escape from pain is not right, nor is encounter of pleasure. There is a moral underpinning to right and wrong that transcends mere pleasure and pain. That definition of morality is variable, specific to an individual’s current understanding of God and what is good. You can't lie to yourself and live the benefits of the truth.
Using what you have learned here, you can upgrade your perceptions of reality.
Why do bad things happen to bad people? Bad things that happen to bad people are the natural consequence of the beliefs of bad people. They shield themselves from the full scope of reality through willfully denying what God tries to show them about reality, and therefore encounter the negative consequences of reality that they would have otherwise avoided.
Why do good things happen to bad people? They don’t. The things sometimes regarded as good things that happen to bad people are actually misperceived as good. Pleasure is not universally good. It frequently occurs in situations that will lead to net pain, certainly when the full spectrum of experience (which consists not only of bodily pleasure and pain, but mental pleasure and pain) are considered. Bad people, by definition, engage in attitudes and behaviors that detract from their net well-being. Any seemingly good thing that happens to them is either not good or in response to that segment of their attitudes and actions that corresponds with his will to the degree they understand it.
Why do bad things happen to good people? They don’t. The things sometimes regarded as bad things that happen to good people are actually misperceived as bad. Pain is not universally bad. It frequently occurs in situations that will lead to net pleasure, certainly when the full spectrum of experience (which consists not only of bodily pleasure and pain, but mental pleasure and pain) are considered. Good people, by definition, engage in attitudes and behaviors that increase their net well-being. Any seemingly bad thing that happens to them is either not bad or is in response to that segment of their attitudes and actions that do not accord with his will to the degree they understand it.
Why do good things happen to good people? Good things that happen to good people are the natural consequence of the beliefs of good people. They embrace a greater scope of reality through willfully seeking and obeying what God tries to show them about reality, and therefore encounter the positive consequences of reality that they would have otherwise not enjoyed.
Is it true that God sends rain and sun on both the just and unjust? Yes and no. This statement is true only in terms of the individuals’ perception. From God’s perspective, whatever rain he sends on the just is only for the purpose of watering their crops, so to speak: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Every experience in the life of those who love God is precisely what they need to acquire the light and truth that keeps them from greater fellowship with God.
So much of suffering in life comes from desiring what is contrary to reality. While many great potential outcomes remain unrealized due to insufficient desire in the individuals who have the power to make them reality, many more outcomes are sought that have zero possibility of fulfillment, because they are contrary to the laws of the universe as given by God.
Discovering and pondering previously unseen constraints can vastly reduce one’s suffering in life. Many of these constraints can be found by studying the scriptures. These can be found, for example, in the wisdom literature, in sermons, and in what are broadly called “the commandments,” and are really instructions for better living.
Since the goal of truth is improvement, understanding constraints is vital to acquiring, assimilating, and dispensing truth. The more constraints you are aware of and understand, the more effectively you can improve and help others to improve.