Many of you may have received an email stating that the planet Mars (God of War!) will be closer to Earth in August than it has been in the last 5,000 years and will be again for perhaps even 60,000 years. Guess what: You’ve been the victim of an Internet hoax!
Whenever I receive one of these kinds of emails I always go check snopes.com before forwarding it.
In August of 2005 The God of War will not be the closest it has been to Earth in 5,000 years. The interesting thing, however, is that this email has been recycled from 2003 when it was true. Read details at http://snopes.com/science/mars.asp.
I’m sure that this idea of Once True but Now False is analogous to, or has some application to our understanding of the Restored Gospel, but I don’t have time to flesh it out right now. Maybe you all could help me. Are there spiritual hoaxes that present things that were Once True but are Now False? And how can we protect ourselves from them?
During the years Christ preached on the earth the gospel of the atonement was at its purest. The god of the old testament was with us, His son atoned for our sins and instructed us how to return with him to Heavenly father.
In the years following the philosophies of men twisted and tore at the gospel. What once was true was now in the apostacy false. Not because the message changed but because the messenger changed.
I don’t understand your comment, Charles. Are you saying an assertion made by Jesus is true, but if someone else, say, Constantine, makes the same assertion, it is false?
I can think of some instances where this would be right, for instance when Jesus says “thy sins are forgiven you.” But certainly it is not true for all the things Jesus preached, is it?
Just yesterday I read about the opposite: an internet hoax that was once false but is now true. Seems that several years ago a chain email started claiming that Congress was considering getting rid of PBS and NPR. Snopes (or some equivalent) debunked it. But now a bill has been introduced in Congress to do just that, and PBS advocates are having a hard time convincing some people it’s not another hoax.
See http://www.snopes.com/politics/arts/pbs.asp
I’m not sure I fully understand the idea. Isn’t truth eternal? What kind of truth changes? It only seems to work with issues such as time, such as “Jesus Christ will come this year†was true in BC 1, but false ever after. But does truth change?
I can think of only a few possibilities. Commandments change. We don’t live the law of Moses, but that isn’t really truth either, except when put into the form “the law of Moses is a commandmentâ€. The only other possibility I can see is that our perception of truth changes. Brigham Young and his friends taught that God is ever learning, progressing, becoming greater. Joseph Fielding Smith and his friend McConkie said that God has learned all there is to learn and progressed all there is to progress. But even then, the truth, whatever it is, hasn’t changed.
My question, I suppose, is: what is truth?
Eric, I think that in the church we often hear the term “Eternal Truths” as distinguished from temporary truths. I do not think that time bound truths like the statement “I am currently at work” are any less true, their truth is simply not eternal.
It seems to me that a lot of controversy in the bloggernacle has been generated over disagreements over which are eternal truths and which are not (ie some are convinced that the prohibition against gay marriage or the ordaining women to the priesthood are just as temporary–time-bound–truths as was the previous restriction of blacks and the priesthood.)
Is our dedication to temporary truth, in its time frame, the same as our dedication to eternal truth? If we believe a truth is temporary and not eternal, is our obligation to uphold it less than it would be if it were eternal? Should it be?
Eric: you neglect the possibility that, when Brigham was prophet, God was still learning–but that he finished learning by the time Joseph Fielding Smith hit the stage. Maybe those crucial middle years allowed him to pick up those last three or four things he needed to know?
RT, that’s hilarious.
How about sex? It’s a grevious sin the moment before marraige and yet the moment after marraige the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth takes precedence. One might even conclude (with in the scope of reason) that it’s a sin NOT to have sex with your spouse. Context can change everything.
A man called as Bishop may receive revelation for his ward, but if he persists in receiving revelation for the ward after he’s been released, watch out!
Sometimes it’s a matter of dealing with competing virtues. It’s right to give alms to the poor, but not at the neglect of one’s own.
I’ve always believed that the most powerful weapon for evil is the “truth”. And I use the scare quotes to indicate the “misplacement of truth”. (which, in a sense, really isn’t truth–but maybe that’s a topic for another discussion)