The Expansion of Our Knowledge of God Though the Ages

To be grateful for all the knowledge we have of God is hardly enough. We have been given so much knowledge about our Father in Heaven compared to the people of old. Being a Latter-day Saint and Christian, I believe in the Bible. I believe it to be the word of God and am grateful to have it as a testimony of an ancient people and their dealings with Almighty God. I wish to share with you my thoughts on this topic of topics.

As I ponder on it and the history of its people, I realize how much I have taken for granted those truths that I have learned and obtained throughout my life thanks to those who have gone on before and for those who are called by Him to lead us today.

The Bible begins with the story of Genesis and the creation. It speaks of the Fall and of Noah and the great flood. It speaks of father Abraham, of the Covenant God made with him and the near sacrifice of Isaac. It speaks of Jacob and his 12 sons and of Joseph being sold into Egypt and the eventual enslavement of Israel. Exodus speaks of their deliverance by Moses and the receiving of the law from Jehovah on Mount Sinai. The bible continues on and tells of the prophets down to Malachi and then the Savior's birth and his ministry and atoning sacrifice in the New Testament followed by the writings of a few of His apostles. The bible covers a period of thousands of years during which time, I believe God revealed Himself to man as they were able to understand and accept what he was sharing. I believe also that He revealed Himself to individuals in a more complete way than he did to man in general. What do we learn from just a brief scan of the bible? Let's start with Father Abraham – ordained to be a Father of Many Nations. What do we learn from him? What did the people of his time learn about God from him?

1. That there is One true God. Abraham was the first in the Bible since the flood to know that. The book is a record of his posterity and it was Abraham's knowledge that there was a God besides the false gods of the time that brought him to travel to a promised land.
2. We learn that God speaks with man.
3. We learn that God covenants with man.
4. We learn that God's ways are not our ways nor can man comprehend all of the ways of God (For example, the nearly incomprehensible request to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac) but that He will provide a way for us to fulfill His commands.
5. We learn that God does bless those that have Him to be their God

This appears to be essentially the knowledge that was generally had among the early people of Israel as there is no record before the time of Moses about any knowledge of life after death, eternal judgment, where we came from or the true purpose of life or the family. They knew there was a God and that He was to be their God. They knew that they could call upon Him and that He would help them. And He did.

Then Moses came. Moses learned that the voice of God came from a bush that appeared to be on fire but the bush didn't burn. He learned that God was Holy as opposed to the understanding of the Greek Gods or the Gods of the Egyptians. The people learned that God had great power and that He could work through men to do many wonders such as those wonders in Egypt and the freeing of the people at the Reed Sea where they walked through on dry ground. From the revelations to Moses they learned that God had created the Heavens and the earth and that they were created in His image. They learned that they had spirits within them (Numbers 16:22). Surely Moses learned for himself many things about God that the people at large did not as he spoke with the Lord face to face, as one man speaks with another (Exodus 33:11). To Moses, He was no longer the invisible God. To the people who could not endure his presence, he was a voice in the cloud by day, and a pillar of fire at night.

The Lord then gave them His law – some two to five hundred years after Abraham. We have no record of a law from God before this. What was His law? The basic 10 commandments. He was telling them more about Him and more about what He expected of them. The reason was for them to be a holy people – a nation whose god was the Lord. He gave them what is known as the Law of Moses to teach them about the Savior that would one day come to take away their sins. They also received the structure and order of the priesthood. They were learning. Did they think they knew it all? They may have, but we know they were only just beginning.

Not until some two to five hundred years after the Exodus, during the time of Samuel the Prophet is there even mention of the possibility of life after death (1 Sam 2:6 “he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.”

Now it was becoming clearer, after several hundred years of following the commandments why it is that they were following them – because there really does exist after this life another life – and that God will be there and “bring us up.” He gave us His law for more than just being a Holy nation – but to return back to Him after this life.

Samuel's mention of life after death goes uncorroborated until 300 years later when Isaiah said that some shall wake up to “everlasting burnings (Isaiah 33:14).” His people are now understanding that there will not be just temporal consequences to their actions, but consequences in the life to come for their disobedience to the One true God.

Around this same time is the first reference to life before birth with the Lord's declaration to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. (Jeremiah 1:5)”

They now knew that there was a God, that He created all things and that they were created in His image before they were born, that they were to follow Him in this life, keep His law, call upon His name, and that He would bless them in this life and in the Life to come if they did. If they didn't, they would be cursed and would endure everlasting burnings. They knew that He would also lead them and answer their prayers. They were learning.

Elijah also learned something about God. “And [the Lord] said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” He learned that although God was powerful, he speaks in peace and mildness (1 Kings 19:11-12).

During the time of Elijah the people learned that God could give to men a greater power – power to bind up the heavens and the earth. This is a power they had never seen. They also learned that man could be given power to bind on earth and that it would be bound in heaven. The people though could not endure this power but it was prophesied that Elijah would return along with this power. It was learned also that God could tell them the future through prophets to warn His people and that “surely the Lord God will do nothing save he first revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).”

We then have 500 years of darkness in the bible after the last prophet Malachi. We learn however that the Lord was faithful to His promises and sent His son to restore Israel and to fulfill the law given to Moses. His disciples learned doctrines and principles without number from the ministry of the Savior. Volumes could not contain the truths he taught and shared with them. Through Him they learned of a better way – a better law as taught on the Sermon on the Mount and His earthly ministry. They learned more clearly the doctrine of the atonement, the great commandments to love God and to love our neighbor. They learned of a greater priesthood, they learned about humility, about baptism and that “unless a man be born of the water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:5)” and more clearly about the resurrection from not only His teachings, but His own resurrection. They learned that in the Lord, the man is not without the woman and the woman is not without the man (1 Corinthians 11:11). They learned about the work for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29) and about exaltation (Revelations 3:21). They learned about the gifts of the spirit and the road of discipleship. They learned of grace as well as the place of works. They learned of the way.

Besides all of the perfecting principles taught by the Master, in my opinion, the most significant thing we learn from Christ is of God the Father. We learned that Jesus Christ was the Great I AM – the Jehovah of the Old testament – He who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (John 8:56-59). The Lord came to show us the way to His Father and that Jesus did nothing but that which He saw His Father do. We learn that Jesus came to teach us and show us of His father in Heaven. This is still almost impossible for most of the world to accept and comprehend. But comprehend it or not, that is what He did. Jeffrey R. Holland explained it better than I. He said:

“Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.

“After generations of prophets had tried to teach the family of man the will and the way of the Father, usually with little success, God in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.

“To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to come, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.

"The Father .... doeth the works," He said in earnest. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise (John 14:10 & 5:19)." On another occasion He said: "I speak that which I have seen with my Father." "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me." "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me (John 8:38, 28 & John 6:38)."

“In that sense Jesus did not come to improve God's view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man's view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.

“So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness." In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, "This is God's compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own." In the perfect Son's manifestation of the perfect Father's care, in Their mutual suffering and shared sorrow for the sins and heartaches of the rest of us, we see ultimate meaning in the declaration: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17)."

Truly, as Jesus said, “And this is Life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).”

To know God, to truly know Him, is personal. This short read is but a cursory look at the development of some of the main points of His character and how the understanding and faith in Him grew over time. But how He acts, how He thinks, how He feels – these things I didn't even touch. You yourself will have to read, study, ponder, pray and obey to know God the way He wishes us to know Him. I know that there is much yet to be revealed. How can we say that we are content with what we know? I don't believe that God is content with what He has shared. He is sharing even more through His latter day prophets if we will but listen and learn. I am grateful to know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I am grateful to know what I do and I stand taller because I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before. I am grateful for their faith to trust in God our Eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Thank you for reading.