Living with Ambiguity

For some reason, I found myself thinking during sacrament meeting today about 1 Timothy 6:20-21, which, in the King James Version of the Bible, reads as follows:

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.”

I’ve occasionally heard this passage interpreted in church discussions as referring to apparent clashes between religion and science, faith and reason.

But the King James rendering of the original Greek τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως as “of science falsely so called” is somewhat misleading to modern readers.  The Greek gnōsis or γνῶσις doesn’t at all refer to science in the modern sense.  (In any case, modern science was still many centuries in the future when Paul was writing.)  Rather, it refers to “knowledge,” and probably, in this particular passage and context to the kind of secret or esoteric knowledge claimed by the “gnostics.”  It has nothing to do with evolutionary biology or quantum physics.

“O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.”

There are, of course, some points at which propositions that many of us hold true as matters of religious belief seem to contradict or be contradicted by certain commonly held scientific propositions.

However, this can occur for several reasons.  Perhaps, for instance, we don’t understand the science correctly.  Or perhaps we don’t understand the relevant revelation or revelations correctly.  As Brigham Young put it,

I do not even believe that there is a single revelation, among the many God has given to the Church, that is perfect in its fulness. The revelations of God contain correct doctrine and principle, so far as they go; but it is impossible for the poor, weak, low, grovelling, sinful inhabitants of the earth to receive a revelation from the Almighty in all its perfections. He has to speak to us in a manner to meet the extent of our capacities.  (Brigham Young, “The Kingdom Of God,” [8 July 1855] Journal of Discourses 2:314.)

O perhaps the science will change in a time to come.  Or perhaps further revelation will descend.

Our secular knowledge and our understanding of relevation are and should be in a continual dance, an ongoing dialectic, with each other, enriching and deepening and informing each other.

As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 13:9-10, 12-13:

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. . . .  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.  (KJV)

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. . . .  For now we see in a mirror dimly (ἐν αἰνίγματι; “in an enigma”), but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  (ESV)

There is much that we do not know, and there are many questions that we cannot answer.  Calm and patience should prevail.  But, as the prophet Nephi understood, we can know some fundamentally important things nonetheless:

And he [the Spirit] said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?

And I [Nephi] said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.  (1 Nephi 11:16-17)

Posted from Newport Beach, California