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I don’t believe God actually contradicts himself. (He just seems to.) Example #1: God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eve. He commands them not to partake of the fruit from the tree of good and evil. Satan tempts them and they partake of it. God later reveals to them that partaking of the fruit was part of his plan all along. Example #2: Why does God at times command people to kill when he first commands “Thall shall not kill.” Example #3: If God gives revelation to the prophet and his apostles that say one thing, then why does he give personal revelation to others that reveals something else completely different. That doesn’t make any sense. Example #4: Why did he let the apostasy take away his church for a time, if he’s in charge of it? Wouldn’t he be able to prevent that? There are others I don’t want to get into. Why does he do it? Why does God contradict himself?
God has to work with us. I can agree with that. I agree that God does seem to contradict himself and I don’t know why God didn’t prevent the great apostasy (which I don’t really believe occurred, the gospel was still taught) or the Holocaust. Of course my view of God has changed over time, and with my deist view God didn’t do anything because he doesn’t. Nevertheless, that still leaves a grey area in regard to how he can tell the prophets/apostles one thing and reveal to persons something different. I do like Ray’s answer. Just a little side point I always point out (sorry). In Hebrew the commandment is not “that shall not kill,” the word is murder. On the other hand, the argument could be made that Nephi was commanded to murder Laban.
Perhaps contradictions facilitate true insight. Edited many times. Argh, English.
I like the metaphore of the Mosaic. Elder Maxwell said: Quote:The finished mosaic of the history of the Restoration will be larger and more varied as more pieces of tile emerge, adjusting a sequence here or enlarging there a sector of our understanding….history deals with imperfect people in process of time, whose imperfections produce refractions as the pure light of the gospel plays upon them.
The gospel is often presented as a “plan” or a “puzzle.” This is a model that helps us understand the world around us – but all models have limitations. These conceptions indicate that contradictions are errors in the system that will be discarded as we see the big picture more clearly.
A different perspective or model is that of the mosaic. A mosaic is a work of art that can be even more beautiful and fulfilling for the contrasts and contradictions found within. My life is a mosaic, my community is a mosaic, the gospel (at least as it is perceptable through the “refractions” of people) is a mosaic.
I wrote some more about this concept here:
http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4583&hilit=+mosaic You have to believe that the scriptures are “The Word of God” to believe that God contradicts him/her self. But if you believe that most of what we call scriptures are faith promoting stories handed down through the millennia, and that God influenced their substance (i.e. good morals are taught), then “God” did not make any contradictions. Sheldon wrote:You have to believe that the scriptures are “The Word of God” to believe that God contradicts him/her self. But if you believe that most of what we call scriptures are faith promoting stories handed down through the millennia, and that God influenced their substance (i.e. good morals are taught), then “God” did not make any contradictions.
I had thought about my earlier comment on this thread and your thought occurred to me, since I have gravitated to such a view. I had come back to revise my comment, but there’s no need to now.
Related to what both Ray and Sheldon said, our understanding of what God “says” will always be tainted by our human condition. We all collectively and individually contradict ourselves at times. The way I see it we are trying to get a grasp or view of “the truth” but it will always be clouded as we see though a glass darkly. Not understanding this is what leads to grief and spiritual crisis. We long for simple and stable explanations, but as we mature we realize that false sense of certainty is really holding us back. I can agree with all those comments. What still confuses me, though, is that God commands Moses to deny to Pharaoh that Sarah wasn’t his wife, but his sister. Yes, I know that Sarah was also his sister, but for God to tell Moses to tell Pharaoh that’s not his wife doesn’t make any sense. Unless God wasn’t going to allow Moses to deny it anyway because is part of God’s plan for Moses to do so. I would answer that by saying the story we read is an interpretation of Moses’ understanding or “translation” of the inspiration that he received. It all falls back on man’s understanding – or more accurately “lack of.” We could assume that God was prompting an understanding of what could happen, then Moses took it upon himself to “wing it” with a “solution” of saying she was his sister. It’s all in the nature of how or if we believe God speaks to us, individually – and how literally we take the scriptures.
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