The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a system of religious education for college-age students called the “Institute of Religion.” When I was in college at the University of Oklahoma, we had a Latter-day Saint Institute instructor who warned us against the fallacy of “we used to think but now we know.” How many times have you heard the scientific or medical community say that? “We used to think such -and-such, but now we know this other thing.”
Here’s a familiar example: “We used to think that Pluto was a planet, but now we know it’s system actually change what it really and truly is, or ever was? Did our calling it a planet before change the fact that those other planetoids existed? Just because we hadn’t previously discovered those planetoids in the Kuiper Belt, does that mean that they hadn’t been there long before we were?And just because we “know now” that Pluto is one of these planetoid objects, does that mean that there isn’t some other undiscovered aspect of the solar system that these objects belong to? Once we discover it, might we change our definitions again and “know” something else?
It’s interesting how our perceptions can change just from new discoveries. Man through science has made vast strides forward in the understanding of scientific truth. Each discovery and each experiment brings us a step closer to understanding the true nature of the universe. But the universe itself hasn’t changed. Only our understanding of it has.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:24 tells us: “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” That tells us that regardless of man’s definition of the day, truth exists. The knowledge of things as they really are, were, and are to come, is truth – regardless of whether we currently possess that knowledge or whether we even want the knowledge. Truth itself doesn’t change.
Truth also applies to a knowledge of right and wrong. Regardless of what the current trends of the world are, regardless of how people around us choose to live their lives, what is right and wrong does not change. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve was specifically speaking of the standards of chastity when he said:
Too many of our young men and women are succumbing to the pressures imposed by a world saturated with evil messages and immoral behavior. Lucifer is waging a vicious war for the souls of young and old alike, and the casualty count is climbing. The standards of the world have shifted like the sands of a windblown desert. That which was once unheard of or unacceptable is now commonplace. The world’s perspective has been so dramatically altered that those who choose to adhere to traditional standards of morality are viewed as strange, almost as though they must justify their desire to keep the commandments of God.
But one thing is certain: the commandments have not changed. Let there be no mistake about that. Right is still right. Wrong is still wrong, no matter how cleverly cloaked in respectability or political correctness. We believe in chastity before marriage and fidelity ever after. That standard is an absolute standard of truth. It is neither subject to public opinion polls nor dependent upon situation or circumstance. There is no need to debate it or other gospel standards. (Ensign, May 1999, 85-87)
Why is a knowledge of the truth important to us? One reason is because the truth is as a light to us. It is a beacon that shows us the way to go:
45 For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
46 And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit.
47 And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father. (D&C 84:45-47)
And once we have that truth to guide us, something wonderful happens that may seem strange in the eyes of the world. Many believe that commandments and rules restrict our freedoms, but on the contrary, Christ tells us in the book of John: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
