‘Thinking Otherwise,’ with James E. Faulconer

I came across the above podcast by the BYU Maxwell Institute, an interview of James Faulconer by Morgan Davis, regarding his recent publication, Thinking Otherwise: Theological Explorations of Joseph Smith’s Revelations. It is an hour long interview, which is too long to give it a detailed review; so I will be selective, and comment on some main highlights. The transcript can be found here. At around 03:21 minutes into the video James Faulconer gives the following response to an earlier question by Morgan Davis:

Faulconer: … having written a piece in which I argued—well, I gave it at a conference at Yale—I argued fairly strenuously that we ought not to have a theology. I still agree with what I said in that piece, but what I intended was that the church doesn’t need an official theology. And I still believe that really strongly. I think it would be a mistake for us to have some kind of officially curated and declared theology, I like it the way it is right now. I think it’s the best way to do it. But I don’t think that means we shouldn’t have theology and I never have thought that we shouldn’t do theology at all.

There are several issues with that statement. The first is, What does he mean by “official” theology? A theology can be correct or incorrect; it can be scriptural or not. But “official” and “unofficial” don’t seem to mean a lot as far as I can tell.

If by that he means that the Church should have no theology at all, that is impossible. The Church as an ecclesiastical institution has a theology—like it or not. It couldn’t exist as a church if it didn’t have one. When in the first article of faith it says, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost,” that is theological statement. When in the second article it states, “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression,” that is a definite theological statement. The same applies to the remaining articles. The Church couldn’t exist as a church if it did not have a theology. It wouldn’t be a “church” if it didn’t.

If by that he means that the Church doesn’t need to have an officially recognized theological treatise, like some kind of a textbook, again, that would depend on what he means by it. If he means that the Church can survive without one, the answer is yes, it can. If he means that the the Church’s theological position or status couldn’t be enhanced if it did have one, I would have to disagree. But it would have to be something that is given by revelation, not created by some man. In fact, the Church already has such a theological treatise. It is called the Lectures on Faith by the prophet Joseph Smith. It is the greatest theological treatise that has ever been written—although it is not complete. It is the initial chapters of a much larger work, the completion of which remains yet to be revealed. But still, it is the greatest theological treatise that has ever been written, even in its present limited form—and was given by revelation. Then the following exchange takes place:

Davis: Right, right. Okay, so the main title of the book is Thinking Otherwise, and that’s a little provocative, thinking otherwise about what? It seems to kind of indicate that maybe we haven’t been thinking right about something.

Faulconer: … The idea is that if we understand what Joseph Smith has revealed it gives us a way of thinking about the world, about God, about all kinds of things differently than the tradition has thought it. I think that we have often—especially when we’re doing theology, we have not taken advantage of that opening that Joseph Smith gives us to think about these questions other than the tradition thinks about them.

That is a very vague, generalized statement, which is not very meaningful to anyone. What “tradition” is that, and whose “tradition” is it? That requires some explanation to be meaningful. Consider this quote from the canonized scripture of the Church:

Doctrine and Covenants 20:

17 By these things we know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them;

Is that doctrine “traditional” or not? If not, why not? If yes, how is Joseph Smith’s theology any less “traditional”? If you said that Joseph Smith has given us more information, more divine knowledge, than what we had before, that would be a correct statement. If you said that he has told us things about God, and about spiritual and heavenly things that we didn’t know before, that would be a true statement. If you said that he has given us more scripture, more word of the Lord than what we had before, that would be a true statement. But talking about it in terms of “traditional” vs. “non-traditional” doesn’t mean a lot, unless those terms are clearly defined and clarified. It is not a meaningful distinction. The interview then continues:

Davis: And it seems too that you’re advocating for a different way of thinking about theology itself perhaps. We’re calling it theology but it’s not a systematic, programmatic kind of theology.

Faulconer: Certainly not. In fact the book moves away from something that’s more familiar to people I think, which is a kind of propositional statement of “Here are some beliefs,” toward what I think is a different kind of theology that is called “performative theology,” which is a matter of thinking about scripture and analyzing scripture and responding to scripture. And I think that is, at least from my point of view, perhaps the most important kind of theology we do.

There are several issues with that: The first is that he is implying that traditional Christian theology is somehow not scripture based, which of course is not correct. Christian theologians claim their theology is scripture based. They may have misunderstood that scripture at times, and therefore not always got their theology perfectly right; but that is a different thing from claiming that it is not scripture based at all. (See the short video on systematic theology by Wayne A. Grudem posted below.) The second issue I have with that statement is that, as we listen to the rest of his conversation, he provides very little “scripture” to support his own theological assertions. It is his theology in fact that is not scripture based. The third point is that the Lectures on Faith by Joseph smith is very much “systematic” and “programmatic”. It appears that Joseph Smith very much believed in a “systematic” and “programmatic” theology. Skipping a few lines down, the conversation then continues as follows:

Davis: Let’s dive into chapter one, “The One and The Many.” You waste no time, you charge right into the thorns and nettles where philosophy and theology intersect. You write on page 2, “Despite its seeming irrelevance to us most of the time the philosophical problem of the one and the many and philosophy’s answer to it is at the heart of Christian theology. Given what is at the heart of Christian theology, perhaps the best thing to do is to drive a stake through it. But even then it would be too late.” So those are strong words! … So what is this problem of the one and the many that you’re referring to?

Faulconer: The one and the many—it’s a problem that begins in at least the 5th century BC. And the question is, the universe, the cosmos, the world, whichever term you want to use there, is it ultimately one thing or many things? And the traditional answer has been—and Parmenides, this early Greek philosopher has given his reasons for thinking so—but the traditional answer has been, “Well, there’s just one ultimate thing.”  And one reason for that is to say if there are two ultimate things, then you have to explain them and you’d refer to some anterior, ultimate thing and it would be the one. So there’s still just be one. So that’s been the argument for thousands of years, and yet it seems to me that the revelations Joseph Smith gives us say that ultimately there is no “One.” There is no one thing that explains everything. There are multiple ones—intelligence, raw matter, God. At least those. And if you say, “Well then what’s behind them?” The answer is, “There’s nothing behind them, that’s what there is.”

What he is insinuating there (and in the remaining conversation, which I will skip in the interest of brevity) is that the idea of “one eternal and everlasting God” in Christian theology, and that he is the sole creator and governor of all things etc., is derived from Greek philosophy, which is absolute rubbish and utter nonsense, and unjustified by all considerations. No concept is declared in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) more clearly, emphatically, repeatedly, and unambiguously than that there is one God, who is infinite, eternal, and unchanging, from everlasting to everlasting, and that he is the creator of all things:

Exodus 20:

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Deuteronomy 4: 35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. • • • 39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Deuteronomy 6: 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

Deuteronomy 32: 39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. 2 Samuel 7: 22 Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 1 Kings 8: 60 That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else. 2 Kings 5: 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. 2 Kings 19: 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

• • •

19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

1 Chronicles 17: 20 O Lord, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. Nehemiah 9: 6 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Job 9: 8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Psalm 18: 31 For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? Psalm 33: 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 46: 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 83: 18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth. Psalm 86: 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. • • • 10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. Psalm 90: 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Isaiah 37: 16 O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. • • • 20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only. Isaiah 41: 4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he. Isaiah 42: 8 I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Isaiah 43: 10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11 I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. Isaiah 44: 6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. • • • 8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. • • • 24 Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

Isaiah 45: 5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: • • • 18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. • • • 21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.

22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 46: 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Hosea 13: 4 Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. Joel 2: 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. Zechariah 14: 9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. Mark 12: 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: • • • 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

• • •

34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Luke 1: 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. • • • 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 17: 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Romans 3: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Romans 11: 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 1 Corinthians 8: 4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. Galatians 3: 20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Ephesians 4: 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Colossians 1: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 2: 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 1 Timothy 1: 17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 2: 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. James 2: 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 1 John 5: 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Jude 1: 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Revelation 1: 8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 4: 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

And modern LDS scripture confirms this without reservation:

2 Nephi 2:

15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; …

Alma 18:

28 And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?

Alma 22:

10 And Aaron said unto him: Yea, he is that Great Spirit, and he created all things both in heaven and in earth. Believest thou this?

Mormon 9:

11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

Doctrine and Covenants 20:

17 By these things we know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them;

Doctrine and Covenants 38:

1 Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made;

2 The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes;

3 I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by me.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:

1 Hearken, O ye people of my church, to whom the kingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who made the heavens and all the hosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which live, and move, and have a being.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:

13 The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:

10 The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.

Moses 3:

7 And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.

Moses 6:

63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.

So it looks like according to him, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price (and the Bible) all came from Greek Philosophy! If carefully examined, it is his theories that are philosophical, or more correctly, speculative, rather than anything else. They are purely imaginative, rather than based on any scripture. Here is an interesting short video (6 minutes long) by Wayne A. Grudem, who has authored a well-known and popular book on systematic theology, explaining the scriptural basis of it:

Try telling him that his theology is based on Greek Philosophy! Skipping quite a lot of material, and jumping to around 31 minutes into the podcast, the conversation then continues as follows:

Davis: … But, I think you make the point that we haven’t fully appreciated this shift that the Restoration brings about. What are some of the ways that you see Latter-day Saints still sort of thinking in terms of “The One” that might not be beneficial?

Faulconer: Well, I think that it isn’t at all uncommon for us to really mix, in an odd way, traditional theological ideas about God and the way that he is perfect or the way that he is in time or not in time or all kinds of things like that. With the revelations of Joseph Smith we end up with this odd mishmash of things, so that if you say to someone, “Well, let’s talk about God” they will say things like, “Well, he obviously can’t be in time.” And yet, he does have a body so it’s hard to think of how he couldn’t be in time. Or they will say, “Well, he has a body and since it’s not like ours,” and they end up talking about it very much in the same kinds of terms that one might talk about “The One.” We think about our relationship to God in terms of somehow we are going to become like him, but when we think about what it means to be like him, we think in traditional terms rather than in the terms of Joseph Smith. We think somehow, his perfection means knowing every minutia about the whole world, never changing in any way whatsoever. I mean, we’ve set for ourselves an impossible ideal, not just because it’s unachievable, but because it doesn’t make any sense.

Davis: It doesn’t exist.

Faulconer: It doesn’t exist! But we make up this fantasy, as it were. We accept this fantasy idea of God and then say, “Well, that is what I should be like.” And are just distraught when we can’t be like what doesn’t exist.

He makes a number of statements in there that can be challenged:

1. The Book of Mormon teaches that God is outside of time:

Alma 40:

8 Now whether there is more than one time appointed for men to rise it mattereth not; for all do not die at once, and this mattereth not; all is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men.

2. Having a physical body does not preclude one from existing outside of time; scripture teaches that during the Millenium, time will be abolished. Everyone will live outside of time:

Revelation 10:

6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

Doctrine and Covenants 84: 100 The Lord hath redeemed his people; And Satan is bound and time is no longer. The Lord hath gathered all things in one. The Lord hath brought down Zion from above. The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath. Doctrine and Covenants 88: 110 And so on, until the seventh angel shall sound his trump; and he shall stand forth upon the land and upon the sea, and swear in the name of him who sitteth upon the throne, that there shall be time no longer; and Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years.

3. Modern LDS scripture explains what it means to “become like him”:

Doctrine and Covenants 132:

20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:

28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.

It means becoming omnipotent and omniscient as God is. It means acquiring all the attributes of divinity, including infinity, eternity, absoluteness, and everlastingness. He is basically saying that scripture doesn’t mean what it says. He likes his own imaginative speculations more than what scripture says. He is essentially an Open Theist, but he is a bit reluctant to admit it. To that then Davis adds the following:

Davis: It seems like perfectionism is really one of those things where if the command is “Be ye therefore perfect,” and we think perfect means this sort of platonic ideal or whatever or a God that is incomparably other than us, how can we ever get there? It’s just an overwhelming command and it breaks us down sometimes. So is the God of classical theism, The One, which most mainstream Christians might still subscribe to and the God of Latter-day Saint belief—are we talking about completely different beings? Can we not have a conversation with other Christians that believe in “The One?” It gets thorny.

All the incorrect principles are coming from them. The Book of Mormon teaches that in the last days, the Lord will restore the gospel through the Gentiles, rather than the house of Israel; because the Gentiles believe in him, and the house of Israel don’t (3 Nephi 16:7). God respects the Gentiles for their “belief in him,” so much so that he chooses to restore the gospel in the latter days through them, rather than through the house of Israel. If what they are saying is true, God restores the gospel in the last days through the Gentiles, because the Gentiles believe in Greek philosophy, and the house of Israel don’t! Then skipping quite a lot more of the conversation, at around 40:55 minutes into the video, in response to an earlier question raised concerning the problem of “evil” in Christian theology (how can God be good, and still permit evil in the world), Faulconer adds:

Faulconer: Yeah. I think that if I believed that God is a being like the tradition describes who has all power and all knowledge and who still lets these bad things happen, then I would have to stop believing in God as well. I don’t think I could be a believer. If I was a believer I would have to be a really cynical believer.

So his solution to the problem of evil is that God can neither be all-knowing nor all-powerful, which again is contrary to all revealed scripture, both ancient and modern. He is denying the omnipotence and omniscience of God, which are entirely biblical and scriptural; see the previous quotes. That is Open Theism. I have discussed both topics elsewhere in my blog, so there is no need to add more. The conversation then continues as follows:

Davis: Let’s talk about the truth. You have a whole section on truth. And let me draw you out on this. You mention John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” So, rather than truth being this abstract concept of “The One,” you now have a living dynamic person in the presence of Jesus. And so, that’s a really powerful notion of truth. And yet, we also have statements in other parts of our canon, our standard works, where we have, for example, in Jacob 4:13: “The spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore it speaketh of things are they really are and of things as they really will be.” Or D&C 93:24, where we have, “Truth is knowledge of things as they are and as they were and as they are to come.” So, are we dealing with different definitions of truth across the scriptures?

Faulconer: Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is I don’t think the word “truth” always means exactly the same thing. There are probably very few words in the scriptures that always mean exactly the same thing. Words mean what they mean in their context, and in usages, and when they have histories, and so on. But I do think that if we do think about truth, what I find interesting about scripture is that there are statements like those in Jacob that you mention, but the one from the Doctrine and Covenants is especially interesting to me because it there defines truth as knowledge. So, in that case, truth is the knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they will be. Now that is radically different than any definition of truth that I know of in the history of thought, Western thought. There, truth is defined in a variety of ways, but usually we talk about a knowledge of truth rather than knowledge being the truth. So if that’s the case, truth is a kind of state of one’s being, and I think that matches with the idea that Christ is the Truth. Christ exemplifies a particular way of being in the world and truth is a knowledge of that way of being in the world. So for me that’s really an important insight given to us in Latter-day scripture. I think it’s also important to recognize, as I said, that it doesn’t always mean the same thing. Truth in the Jacob scripture means something like “propositional truth.” And so, there’s nothing wrong with using the word in that way, but I think it’s important to recognize that probably the most fundamental meaning for us is this way of being in the world. Truth is a way of being related to other beings, things as well as persons, in the world.

The significance of defining truth in D&C 93:24 as “knowledge,” is the recognition that truth is knowable, and therefore it is known. There is no such thing as “truth” which is unknown, or is unknowable. If something is unknowable, and therefore is unknown, then it is not “truth,” by definition. There is one being who has all knowledge, and therefore knows all truth, and that is God. D&C 93:24 is essentially an acknowledgement of the omniscience of God. It doesn’t mean that truth is relative, or that one man’s “truth” can be different from another man’s “truth”. When it defines truth as “knowledge” of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come, that means that truth is not relative. It is not one thing for one person, and something different for another person. And when Jesus identifies himself as “the truth …,” it means that he is the embodiment of truth:

John 18:

37 … To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. Then jumping further down, the following exchange takes place:

Davis: You know, people get nervous at the statement that truth is relative. They say, “You’re relativizing everything, and there have to be eternal truths that are immutable, unmovable, unchangeable.” So how do you think about that?

Faulconer: Well usually when we think about truth being relative we ultimately mean something like, “It means whatever I want it to. Whatever is convenient for me.” And I think that is an obviously ridiculous way to understand the truth. But I do think it makes sense to say that even propositional truth is relative to the circumstances and contexts in which a person thinks it or says it or understands it or whatever. And that that’s probably why for me the most important definition is that truth is not a proposition but a way of being. If I say to myself, “Jesus Christ is the Truth,” then what I’m saying is living in the world in the way that he would or that he does, is living truthfully. Now, that does relativize it to a certain extent, but it doesn’t relativize it to my desires or my convenience or something like that. It sets a pretty high bar if I were to decide to do something other than what’s commanded, for example. The bar for doing that is not just my particular pleasure. So, I think that the relativized version of this is relativized to a being who has perfected his way of being relative to other beings.

That is his roundabout way of saying that truth is still relative—but not in the sense that I get to decide for myself what is truth for me and what is not. One man’s “truth” can still be different from another man’s “truth,” depending on the circumstances. What is “truth” for one person; at a given time, place, or circumstance; may not be “truth” for another—which of course is entirely incorrect and unjustified on all accounts. Truth is absolute, not relative. It is objective, not subjective. It is not “my truth” versus someone else’s “truth”.

My “knowledge” of something as it is can never be different from another person’s “knowledge” of the same thing as it is. The “truth” about gravity for me can never be different from the “truth” about gravity for someone else. Someone may have wrong ideas about gravity, and think that they can jump out of the window and nothing happens—and soon discover their mistake if they tried. But that does not mean that “truth” about gravity has changed; it means that somebody had wrong ideas. So the bottom line is that these folks are teaching a whole bunch of incorrect principles, and leading people astray. Latter-day Saints deserve something better than that.

Are we Heading Towards a World Government?

 

These guys seem to think that we are, and some people definitely seem to be thinking along those lines! I don’t have any comments of my own to add at the moment, but I think it is interesting to watch.

Viganò on Fifth International Vatican Conference

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been up to his usual tricks again, this time writing in criticism of the forthcoming Fifth International Vatican Conference to be held in May 2021. See here and here for more information. I think that some of his comments and allegations are a little excessive. But I think that his general concern about the direction in which the Catholic Church is moving is justified. This statement was published on April 20, 2021, and appears in several places on the Internet, such as here and here. The following text is copied from The Remnant newspaper, which seems to have published the most readable version of it, and is as follows:

“From May 6-8, 2021, the fifth International Vatican Conference will take place, entitled Exploring the Mind, Body & Soul. Unite to Prevent & Unite to Cure. A Global Health Care Initiative: How Innovation and Novel Delivery Systems Improve Human Health. The event is being hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Cura Foundation, the Science and Faith Foundation, and Stem for Life.

“Michael Haynes of LifeSiteNews has reported (here) on the topics to be addressed and the participants, including the infamous Anthony Fauci, whose scandalous conflicts of interest did not prevent him from taking over the management of the pandemic in the United States; Chelsea Clinton, a follower of the Church of Satan and a staunch abortion advocate; the New Age guru Deepak Chopra; Dame Jane Goodall, environmentalist and chimpanzee expert; the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna; representatives of Big Tech; and a whole slew of abortionists, Malthusians, and globalists known to the general public. The conference has recruited five prominent journalists to be moderators, who are exclusively from left-wing media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, CBS and Forbes.

“This Conference – along with the Council for Inclusive Capitalism of Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the Global Compact on Education, and the inter-religious Pantheon to be held in June in Astana, Kazakhstan – is the umpteenth scandalous confirmation of a disturbing departure of the current Hierarchy, and in particular its highest Roman members, from Catholic orthodoxy. The Holy See has deliberately renounced the supernatural mission of the Church, making itself the servant of the New World Order and Masonic globalism in an antichristic counter-magisterium. The same Roman Dicasteries, occupied by people ideologically aligned with Jorge Mario Bergoglio and protected and promoted by him, now continue unrestrained in their implacable work of demolishing Faith, Morals, ecclesiastical discipline, and monastic and religious life, in an effort as vain as it is unprecedented to transform the Bride of Christ into a philanthropic association enslaved to the Strong Powers.

“The result is the super-imposition over the true Church of a sect of heretical and depraved Modernists who are intent on legitimizing adultery, sodomy, abortion, euthanasia, idolatry, and any perversion of the intellect and will. The true Church is now eclipsed, denied and discredited by her very Pastors, betrayed even by the one who occupies the highest Throne.

“The fact that the deep church has managed to elect its own member so as to carry out this infernal plan in agreement with the deep state is no longer a mere suspicion, but a phenomenon which it is now essential to ask questions about and shed light on. The submission of the Cathedra veritatis to the interests of the Masonic elite is manifesting itself in all its evidence, in the deafening silence of the Sacred Pastors and in the bewilderment of the People of God, who have been abandoned to themselves.

“Further demonstration of this degenerate libido serviendi of the Vatican towards the globalist ideology is the choice of speakers to give testimonials and lectures: supporters of abortion, of the use of fetal material in research, of demographic decline, of the pan-sexual LGBT agenda, and last but not least, of the narrative of Covid and the so-called vaccines. Cardinal Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is certainly one of the leading representatives of the deep church and Modernist progressivism, as well as an advocate of dialogue with the infamous Masonic sect and a promoter of the famous Courtyard of the Gentiles. It is therefore not surprising that included among the organizers of the event is the Stem for Life Foundation, which proudly defines itself as “a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization focused on creating a movement to accelerate development of cell therapies.”

“On closer inspection, the sectarianism and partisanship of the Vatican Conference are made evident by the topic it addresses, the conclusions it seeks to draw, its participants, and its sponsors. Even the image chosen to promote the Conference is extremely eloquent: a close-up of Michelangelo’s fresco of Creation on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in which the hand of God the Father reaches out towards the hand of Adam, but with both hands covered by disposable surgical gloves, recalling the regulations of the new “health liturgy” and implying that even the Lord Himself might spread the virus.

“In this sacrilegious representation, the order of Creation is subverted into therapeutic anti-creation, in which man saves himself and becomes the mad author of his own health “redemption.” Instead of the purifying laver of Baptism, the Covid religion proposes the vaccine, the bearer of disabilities and death, as the only means of salvation. Instead of Faith in the Revelation of God, we find superstition and the irrational assent to precepts that have nothing scientific about them, with rites and liturgies that mimic true Religion in a sacrilegious parody.

“This choice of imagery has an aberrant and blasphemous ring to it, because it uses a well-known and evocative image to insinuate and promote a false and tendentious narrative that says that in the presence of a seasonal flu, whose virus has still not been isolated according to Koch’s postulates and that can be effectively cured using existing treatments, it is necessary to administer vaccines that are admitted to be ineffective and that are still in the experimentation phase, with unknown side-effects, and whose producers have obtained a criminal shield of immunity for their distribution. The victims immolated on the altar of the health Moloch, from children dismembered in the third month of pregnancy in order to produce the gene serum to the thousands of people who have been killed or maimed, do not stop the infernal machine of Big Pharma, and it is to be feared that there will be a resurgence of the phenomenon over the next few months.

“One wonders if Bergoglio’s zeal for the dissemination of the gene serum is not also motivated by base economic reasons, as compensation for the losses suffered by the Vatican and the Dioceses following the lockdown and the collapse of attendance by the faithful at Mass and the Sacraments. On the other hand, if Rome’s silence about the violation of human and religious rights in China has been paid for by the Beijing dictatorship with substantial prebends, nothing prevents the replication of this scheme on a large scale in exchange for the Vatican’s promotion of the vaccines.

“The Conference will obviously take great care not to mention even indirectly the perennial teaching of the Magisterium on moral and doctrinal questions of the greatest importance. Conversely, the sycophantic praise of the worldly mentality and the prevailing ideology will be the only voice, along with the amorphous ecumenical repertoire inspired by the New Age.

“I note that in 2003 the same Pontifical Council for Culture condemned yoga meditation and, more generally, New Age thought as being incompatible with the Catholic faith. According to the Vatican document, New Age thought “shares with a number of internationally influential groups the goal of superseding or transcending particular religions in order to create space for a universal religion which could unite humanity. Closely related to this is a very concerted effort on the part of many institutions to invent a Global Ethic, an ethical framework which would reflect the global nature of contemporary culture, economics and politics. Further, the politicization of ecological questions certainly colors the whole question of the Gaia hypothesis or worship of mother earth” (2.5).

“It goes without saying that the pagan ceremonies with which Saint Peter’s Basilica was profaned in honor of the pachamama idol fit perfectly into that “politicization of ecological questions” denounced by the 2003 Vatican document, and which today is instead promoted sine glossa by the so-called Bergoglian magisterium, beginning with Laudato Sì and Fratelli Tutti.

“At La Salette, Our Lady warned us: “Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” It will not be the Holy Church, indefectible by the promises of Christ, that will lose the Faith: it will be the sect that occupies the See of Most Blessed Peter and which today we see propagating the anti-gospel of the New World Order. It is no longer possible to remain silent, because today our silence would make us accomplices of the enemies of God and of the human race. Millions of faithful are disgusted by the countless scandals of the Pastors, by the betrayal of their mission, by the desertion of those who by Holy Orders are called to bear witness to the Holy Gospel and not to support the establishment of the kingdom of the Antichrist.

“I beg my Brothers in the Episcopate, priests, religious, and in a particular way the faithful laity who see themselves being betrayed by the Hierarchy, to raise their voices so as to express with a spirit of true obedience to Our Lord, Head of the Mystical Body, a firm and courageous denunciation of this apostasy and its authors. I invite everyone to pray that the Divine Majesty may be moved to compassion and intervene in our aid. May the Most Holy Virgin, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata, intercede before the Throne of God, compensating with Her merits for the unworthiness of Her children who invoke Her with the glorious title of Auxilium Christianorum.”

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

The above image that he is objecting to is a parody of the well known paining by Michelangelo on the Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel:

And here is a closeup of the detail:

The Craziest Prayer Ever Offered!

 

Ben Shapiro thinks it is, and it is impossible to disagree! The complete prayer can be seen here:

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Letters to Trump

 

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was appointed the Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican ambassador) to the United States from 19 October 2011 to 12 April 2016. He gained prominence in the US by writing two open letters to President Donald J. Trump, one in June 7, 2020; and the other in October 25, 2020; both of which have received wide publicity and reprinted by several journals in the US. I heard about him through the media and on the Internet when he wrote his first letter back in June, but wasn’t interested to look into it further at the time. But following the recent political upheavals in the US, and especially following the controversial Presidential election, his name has been mentioned more often, especially since he wrote a third open letter in November 4, 2020, following the US Presidential election, and addressed to “American Catholics and Americans of Good Will;” so finally I decided to take a look at his writings to find out more about him and what he has to say.

The first thing I noticed after reading his letters is that he is a very eloquent, articulate, and well spoken individual. He has a flair for writing good English, which suggests a high degree of intelligence, so he cannot be easily dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”. He has also held other high positions in the Catholic Church and at the Vatican, in most of which he has generated controversy by exposing fraud and corruption. He has been very critical of Pope Francis for example, accusing him of pandering to the globalists, and called on him to resign. In this post I would like to focus on his two letters to President Trump, and the last one addressed to the people of the United States. In his first letter he speaks in more general terms, and begins as follows:

“In recent months we have been witnessing the formation of two opposing sides that I would call Biblical: the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light constitute the most conspicuous part of humanity, while the children of darkness represent an absolute minority. And yet the former are the object of a sort of discrimination which places them in a situation of moral inferiority with respect to their adversaries, who often hold strategic positions in government, in politics, in the economy and in the media. In an apparently inexplicable way, the good are held hostage by the wicked, and by those who help them either out of self-interest or fearfulness.”

Two paragraphs down he states the following (emphasis added):

“And it appears that the children of darkness—whom we may easily identify with the deep state which you wisely oppose and which is fiercely waging war against you in these days—have decided to show their cards, so to speak, by now revealing their plans. They seem to be so certain of already having everything under control that they have laid aside that circumspection that until now had at least partially concealed their true intentions.”

He also implies that the Covid 19 emergency has been used as an excuse for an exercise in “social engineering” whereby the conspiratorial elite “have decided the fate of humanity, arrogating to themselves the right to act against the will of citizens and their representatives in the governments of nations”. In the rest of his letter he speaks in conspiratorial terms, using typical expressions such as the “deep state,” the “invisible enemy,” “globalism,” “aligned thought,” the “New World Order,” “universal brotherhood” etc.; and speaking of those who want to “dominate the world by driving God out of the courts, out of schools, out of families, and perhaps even out of churches;” and that “hidden behind these acts of vandalism and violence there are those who hope to profit from the dissolution of the social order so as to build a world without freedom: Solve et Coagula, as the Masonic adage teaches”.

In his second letter he is more specific, speaks in more ominous terms, and talks of a global conspiracy to create a world dictatorship in which nation-states are dissolved, international borders are removed, individual civil liberties are curtailed, and the whole world is governed by a global socialist utopia. He begins his opening paragraph as follows:

“Allow me to address you at this hour in which the fate of the whole world is being threatened by a global conspiracy against God and humanity.”

Then in the next paragraph he continues as follows:

“As I said when I wrote my letter to you in June, this historical moment sees the forces of Evil aligned in a battle without quarter against the forces of Good; forces of Evil that appear powerful and organized as they oppose the children of Light, who are disoriented and disorganized, abandoned by their temporal and spiritual leaders.

 

“Daily we sense the attacks multiplying of those who want to destroy the very basis of society: the natural family, respect for human life, love of country, freedom of education and business. We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny.

 

“A global plan called the Great Reset is underway. Its architect is a global élite that wants to subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations. In several nations this plan has already been approved and financed; in others it is still in an early stage. Behind the world leaders who are the accomplices and executors of this infernal project, there are unscrupulous characters who finance the World Economic Forum and Event 201, promoting their agenda.

 

“The purpose of the Great Reset is the imposition of a health dictatorship aiming at the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt. The price of these concessions from the International Monetary Fund will be the renunciation of private property and adherence to a program of vaccination against Covid-19 and Covid-21. … Beyond the enormous economic interests that motivate the promoters of the Great Reset, the imposition of the vaccination will be accompanied by the requirement of a health passport and a digital ID, with the consequent contact tracing of the population of the entire world. Those who do not accept these measures will be confined in detention camps or placed under house arrest, and all their assets will be confiscated.

 

“Mr. President, I imagine that you are already aware that in some countries the Great Reset will be activated between the end of this year and the first trimester of 2021. For this purpose, further lockdowns are planned, which will be officially justified by a supposed second and third wave of the pandemic. You are well aware of the means that have been deployed to sow panic and legitimize draconian limitations on individual liberties, artfully provoking a world-wide economic crisis. In the intentions of its architects, this crisis will serve to make the recourse of nations to the Great Reset irreversible, thereby giving the final blow to a world whose existence and very memory they want to completely cancel.”

And then a couple of paragraphs down he adds:

“Until a few months ago, it was easy to smear as ‘conspiracy theorists’ those who denounced these terrible plans, which we now see being carried out down to the smallest detail. No one, up until last February, would ever have thought that, in all of our cities, citizens would be arrested simply for wanting to walk down the street, to breathe, to want to keep their business open, to want to go to church on Sunday. Yet now it is happening all over the world, even in picture-postcard Italy that many Americans consider to be a small enchanted country, with its ancient monuments, its churches, its charming cities, its characteristic villages. And while the politicians are barricaded inside their palaces promulgating decrees like Persian satraps, businesses are failing, shops are closing, and people are prevented from living, traveling, working, and praying.”

 

These two letters were written before the US Presidential election. Following the election he wrote his third letter, addressed to American Catholics and all Americans of good will, in which he continues the same theme as before. He begins his letter as follows:

 

“As devout Christians and faithful citizens of the United States of America, you have intense and heartfelt concern for the fate of your beloved country while the final results of the Presidential election are still uncertain.

 

“News of electoral fraud is multiplying, despite the shameful attempts of the mainstream media to censor the truth of the facts in order to give their candidate the advantage. There are states in which the number of votes is greater than the number of voters; others in which the mail-in vote seems to be exclusively in favor of Joe Biden; others in which the counting of ballots has been suspended for no reason or where sensational tampering has been discovered: always and only against President Donald J. Trump, always and only in favor of Biden.

 

“In truth, for months now we have been witnessing a continuous trickle of staggered news, of manipulated or censored information, of crimes that have been silenced or covered up in the face of striking evidence and irrefutable testimony. We have seen the deep state organize itself, well in advance, to carry out the most colossal electoral fraud in history, in order to ensure the defeat of the man who has strenuously opposed the establishment of the New World Order that is wanted by the children of darkness. In this battle, you have not failed, as is your sacred duty, to make your own contribution by taking the side of the Good. Others, enslaved by vices or blinded by infernal hatred against Our Lord, have taken the side of Evil.”

 

The solution that he proposes to the American people is to pray earnestly to God for a resolution of the problem, and for the defeat of the globalist conspiracy. Does he know something that the rest of us don’t know? I am not taking sides, but he seems to be too intelligent (and too much to lose) to be your typical “conspiracy theorist”. I think that what he says deserves to be taken seriously.