Growing up in the Mormon Church I was told on various occasions that some questions we might have in this life would never be answered. The reason for this, I was told, was because those questions had no bearing on our ultimate salvation so God wouldn't waste time explaining them to us. See the sources below for 1, 2 and 3. In these sources we read the words of prophets who said there are things God hasn't revealed and that's because they aren't important to our salvation so we shouldn't worry about getting answers to those things. And because of that there are some things for which the church doesn't have an official stance. At the time this seemed reasonable to me. I was ok with the idea that we just had to have faith or wait for science to provide some answers because God wasn't going to. This included answers to questions like the age of the universe, the age of the earth, evolution, dinosaurs and other mostly non-religious questions I had.
Two years ago when my faith transition started the questions began to include things like, why did Joseph marry women who were already married? Why did he marry teenage girls? Why did he promise eternal life in exchange for a marriage? Why are some elements of the book of Mormon not found in archeology like horses, metal swords, armor, etc..? These questions felt much more important, I needed answers to these or else I couldn't make myself believe the book of Mormon was a non-fiction religious book, I needed answers to these or else I couldn't believe Joseph was a prophet. So, in a sense, answers to questions like this are directly related to my salvation, and the salvation of anyone else who loses faith over the same questions.
Recently I've learned about something called the pure language of Adam, or the Adamic language [4][5]. Supposedly, this is the language God and Adam spoke in, in the garden of Eden. This language interested JS enough that he prayed about it and had a Q&A with God about it. God told JS a few of the words and their meanings [6]. This seems beyond trivial. How does knowing the pure language of Adam pertain to JS's salvation or that of anyone else? Why would it matter for our salvation to know what language Adam spoke in when the world was created? Who cares how to say Angel in Adamic? How does that help us get closer to God? Why would it even matter if we know how to say Son of God in Adamic? It doesn't help us have faith, it doesn't help us come closer to God. And yet, when Joseph asked God this seemingly unimportant question, God answered. God gave Joseph a revelation that included various words and their meanings from the Adamic language [6].
My take away from this is that when we have questions, no matter what they are about, we should be able to get answers. If members take questions to the quorum of the 15 then instead of telling us "it's not something God has revealed" they should be able to take the questions to God and they should get answers.
Sources:
1 - https://scriptures.byu.edu/#:t11176 look for "does not pertain" BY says you shouldn't talk about things that don't pertain to salvation.
2 - https://scriptures.byu.edu/#:t383 second paragraph.
3 - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-student-manual-genesis-2-samuel/genesis-1-2-the-creation?lang=eng page 29, the last paragraph before the new section mentions more things that haven't been revealed.
4 - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/latter-day-saint-history-1815-1846-teacher-material/lesson-10?lang=eng search for Adamic, BY spoke in tongs and JS said it was Adamic.
5 - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-pearl-of-great-price-student-manual-2018/the-book-of-moses/moses-6-1-47?lang=eng search for Adamic, Bruce McConkie talks about how it was the pure language given to Adam.
it is only peripherally related to your thoughts, but according to the narrative, the sealed portion of the BoM would have been written in the Adamic language.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I've never heard that before.
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