You Don’t Know Everything

In context of what is at stake, it becomes evident just how important it is to always welcome new truth. Nephi warned that in our day many would not be interested in more truth.

Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more! And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall. Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough! For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. (2 Nephi 28:27-30.)

We are told that those who adopt this position will not be given any additional truth, and thus will never reach the point where they can come back into God’s presence. The attitude of satisfaction is damning. One way of wording this is that those who consider themselves wise will never accept new truth. Nephi’s declaration of the same is frequently used as a caution to those who study the gospel more than the usual cursory amount:

And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. (2 Nephi 9:42.)

However, a careful reading will show that Nephi is not blasting the same acquisition of real knowledge he advocates for throughout his writings. Instead, he is condemning the feeling of supposing you know all there is to know. The Lord does not despise those who acquire knowledge. He despises those who assume they know something despite their ignorance. He despises those who think they know more than God, and ignore what he tries to teach them, assuming they already know what he wants. Nephi states that the antidote to the poison of pride is to “hearken unto the counsels of God.” (2 Nephi 9:29.)

In order to consider yourself a fool before God, and yet relentlessly seek and obtain further light and truth from him, you must adopt the difficult position of at once being perceptive and faithful enough to act on everything you have been taught thus far while also being ready at a moment’s notice to cast it aside in favor of greater light and truth.

Joseph stated that when individuals assume that their preconceived notions about the gospel encompass all there is to know, they will be sorely disappointed:

It is the constitutional disposition of mankind to set up stakes and set bounds to the works and ways of the Almighty. But I will give you a more painful thought. Suppose you have an idea of a resurrection, etc., and yet know nothing at all of the Gospel, nor comprehend one principle of the order of heaven, but find yourselves disappointed—yes, at last find yourselves disappointed in every hope or anticipation, when the decision goes forth from the lips of the Almighty. Would not this be a greater disappointment—a more painful thought than annihilation....Why be so certain that you comprehend the things of God, when all things with you are so uncertain. (TPJS, p. 229-230.)

While spiritual stagnation is comfortable, it is also damning. It is easy and comfortable to live your religion when you assume that it will always be the same: your spiritual practices will never change, nor will the requirements of salvation. However, every saved person in the scriptures—every person with whom God made a covenant—was constantly subjected to principles that were beyond their previous comprehension despite their righteous lives. Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, Moses was astounded by things he had never before supposed, etc. This is because we are not like God. We possess the degree of glory associated with the degree of the law we live. If we live a Celestial law, we possess Celestial glory, Terrestrial law, Terrestrial glory, and so on (see D&C 88:20-35). In order to ascend to a higher degree of glory, we will always need to embrace a set of laws that we are ignorant of. If you live your current beliefs perfectly, and have not been brought back into God’s presence, your current beliefs do not possess the power to bring you back into God’s presence. Like it or not, this means you necessary do not possess the same beliefs as Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Adam, Joseph Smith, and all other saved men.¹ Therefore, coming up to a Celestial glory will require letting go of at least some of the things you currently hold as true. You cannot close yourself to ideas you perceive as contradictory to current beliefs and simultaneously let in further light and truth. God can only teach us a

...portion of his word...according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell. (Alma 12:9-11.)

Not even Jesus himself possessed all there was to know in the beginning:

And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first. (D&C 93:13-14).

Those that believe that they already know all the doctrines necessary to be saved presume they know more than Jesus did, as he had to progress from one teaching to the next. They presume that, while Enoch and his city required hundreds of years to become Zion, they can do it with what little we have handed to us through Joseph Smith. Enoch learned new fundamental truths about God’s character after having been in heaven with God for generations.² As the Lord said,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9.)

Frankly, no one knows everything there is to know. If Jesus, Enoch, and others still had a lot to learn, we should be very cautious in our assertions of what we “know” to be true. Otherwise, we fall into the category of those who think they are wise, which incidentally means precisely that we do not hearken to God:

O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing that they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. (2 Nephi 9:28.)

It may seem difficult to imagine that thinking you know something and failing to hearken to God are the same. Yet, Jacob equates it to being deaf (2 Nephi 9:31) and blind (2 Nephi 9:32), probably because God continues to reveal new things to everyone as long as they continue to listen to him. Therefore, if you become set in your idea of the truth, you could only have become so by ignoring what God is continuing to say to you. Living revelation means constant revelation. We should expect to frequently displace our current understanding with something better.

You should not assume something is false simply because you have never heard it before. Anyone who does not believe they know everything ought to expect to hear something that they’ve never heard before, or something that contradicts what they have been told previously.

One way to discover further light and truth is to ponder problems that persist in the orthodox paradigm.³ Situations that fail to find a solution in orthodoxy are fertile ground for receiving revelation. Postman and Weingartner wrote,

We are unlikely to alter our perceptions until and unless we are frustrated in our attempts to do something based on them. If our actions seem to permit us to fulfil our purposes, we will not change our perceptions no matter how often we are told that they are 'wrong'. (Postman and Weingartner, “Teaching as a Subversive Activity”, p. 93.)

As long as we are satisfied by our current understanding of what is true, we never really have a reason to marshal real intent, a necessary prerequisite to receiving revelation. President Uchtdorf said, “How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?”⁴

Jesus taught we should be like children.⁵ Children are inquisitive. They never stop wondering and testing. They are never satisfied.

Abraham found himself unsatisfied in the orthodoxy of his time. He somehow noticed that there were greater blessings available to him than the theology of his father offered him.

In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence; And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. (Abraham 1:1-2.)

Abraham clearly had heard stories that described religious experiences far exceeding those he observed in the religion of his father. Thus, he believed that there had to be a better system available than what he had experienced.⁶