God of the gaps

Many years ago, before science existed in its current form, humans were perplexed and amazed by lightning. They saw and heard these shocking bolts of light and sound tracing across the sky. Because their understanding of electricity and weather was limited, they resorted to reasoning that lightning must be the result of a god causing such an event.

They could see and hear the lightning, but they could not understand the root cause. There was a gap in their understanding. So they plugged God into the gap to explain what they couldn't understand themselves. Thus the term 'God of the gaps.' When you don't understand something, you can merely insert God into the equation to make it all balance out.

Lest you think of these people as being simple minded, and feel vastly superior to their inferior ways, the concept of 'God of the gaps' persists even today. When something good happens to someone, they are often quick to attribute it to the workings of God. And conversely, when bad things happen, God is often the reason we are 'being tested' or 'strengthened.' We cannot possibly comprehend all of the random events required to finally produce a singular event, whether that event be good or bad, and so we just plug in our particular concept of God into the equation and viola'!, we have an explanation.

This post was inspired by a recent conversation I had with my wife. Her position, while we discussed troubling and damning historical/archaeological/logical facts about the Church, was that we as humans cannot possibly comprehend the workings of God. We think we know what we know, but we can't understand how everything in the universe works together to ensure the Church is still true, regardless of all of the facts that seem to indicate otherwise.

This got me thinking. I began to wonder to what length a person would have to go to read and study all of the issues discrediting the legitimacy of the Church, and still maintain a belief the Church is exactly what it claims to be and is still the true church on the earth.

I will say at this point that everything I write further is NOT anything my wife has asserted to be her beliefs or conclusions. I don't know how she feels about many of these things because she has not told them to me. I am only speculating how a person could use the concept of 'God of the gaps' to plug the holes and inconsistencies in the Church narrative, so as to maintain a belief in the Church as being true.

The following are the Top 10 problems associated with the fundamental claims of truth, put forth by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

#1 The Book of Abraham
Joseph Smith purchased an Egyptian scroll from an antiquities dealer. Joseph Smith claimed the scroll was written "by the hand of Abraham" himself. He translated the scroll, along with the facsimiles, and the result is now contained in the Mormon scripture The Pearl of Great Price and is called The Book of Abraham.

At the time Joseph Smith translated this scroll, there was no one who could verify his translation as no one could translate Egyptian. Today that problem no longer exists. Egyptologists have looked at the scroll and facsimiles and then compared them to The Book of Abraham contained in Mormon scripture. The translation has been unequivocally been shown to be completely false. There is no way around the fact that Joseph Smith claimed he could translate Egyptian, and even wrote scripture under the guise of being a translation, and yet we have absolute proof that Joseph Smith lied about his translating abilities.

Now let's look at this situation through the lens of belief in Joseph Smith as a Prophet of God. On one hand we have a belief that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and spoke God's will. On the other hand we have unequivocal proof he lied about being able to translate Egyptian and even created scriptures that persist today that claim to be a translation of a scroll that bears no resemblance to the resulting Book of Abraham.

How do we reconcile these two positions? They appear to contradict each other. But we must maintain our belief in Joseph Smith, while at the same time we as rational beings cannot refute irrefutable proof available to us. The answer is that we do so by incorporating "God of the gaps."

We know we can't know everything about everything. We can't understand how God works. We weren't there when Joseph Smith translated the scroll. We don't know what God was trying to accomplish when he had Joseph Smith use a common funeral text to create the Book of Abraham. So we must conclude that while we don't know these things, we do believe God is omniscient, therefore God knows all those details and has taken care of it.

We have our solution. Joseph Smith is still a Prophet and Egytologists can still know the translation is completely wrong. God has filled in the gaps so we can maintain our belief in the divine calling of Joseph Smith.

At this point, you may be incredulously saying, "But that doesn't explain anything!!! Just saying that God understands everything hardly explains how Joseph Smith can still be a Prophet after irrefutable proof demonstrates he lied to produce incorrect scripture!" And I guess you're free to have your opinion. But just remember that you have limited understanding, therefore your doubts about this explanation and resulting conclusions are based on your limited mind and capabilities. You need to realize that with God, who knows everything, all things are possible. And when all things are possible, Joseph Smith can still be a Prophet even though he lied about his translating abilities.

See how easy that is? You just plug God into the equation and suddenly everything balances out. And best of all, you get to keep your preconceived beliefs that you hold dear. There's no need to allow new facts to alter your cherished beliefs.

And so we continue on down the list

#2 The First Vision
In 1832 Joseph Smith wrote of an experience he had in 1820 where he had an experience involving Jesus and the forgiveness of his sins. This was the first time this experience had ever been related to anyone else. Over the next few years, Joseph Smith shared this experience with others. With each telling, the story grew in scope and became more dramatic. Finally, in 1838 his secretary penned the version cannonized by the Mormon Church. This version related a dramatic experience involving the power of Satan, the visitation of not only Jesus but also God himself. And they explained to him that all churches are an abomination to them and he was to join none of them.

The issues with this First Vision are immediately apparent. And I have not even gone into any of the more damning facts surrounding its legitimacy. But again we are faced with reconciling our belief that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus in 1820 with the fact that his many different versions contradict each other and it took 12 years for him to even mention this to anyone else.

"God of the gaps" will be our method for making these two beliefs coexist. God was there and we were not. At least, he was there for the 1838 version. But we can be assured he oversaw the whole thing. And only He can understand the mechanics of how a mortal human being could view with human eyes two immortal beings. Our limited understanding cannot possibly be expected to comprehend such a thing.

As for the the 12 year gap between the experience and the first telling of the story, well, we weren't there. Maybe Joseph Smith told lots of people and for 12 years no one bothered to write down an account of such a miraculous event. We can't expect people to write down everything. Maybe they just didn't think it noteworthy to document something like that.

As for the contradicting elements to the story, how could Joseph Smith be expected to remember such a miraculous event? But God knows how it was all done and what transpired. And he is certainly capable of relaying to the current Prophet today which of the many contradicting versions best matches the actual events. So if President Monson says the 1838 version is the right one, then that's the one I'm going to assume is the most accurate.

Problem solved. The answer is "God did it." And we get to keep our belief that Joseph Smith was a Prophet rather than switch to a belief that Joseph Smith made up the story and it just evolved over time.

#3 The Book of Mormon translation
In the Church we are taught, and shown through hundreds of church paintings etc, that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by looking at the gold plates through the Urim and Thummim.

The facts are much different. He actually took a rock he had found while digging a well, and placed it in a hat. He then placed his face in the hat and dictated the Book of Mormon. The plates were never used.

What to do about the gap? God will fill it. If Joseph Smith could translate the plates through the power of God, then God can certainly give him the Book of Mormon through a rock in a hat.

Done. Explained.

#4 Book of Mormon problems
There is zero evidence for the Book of Mormon being an actual historical record of actual people of Jewish origins living on the American continent from 600 BC to 400 AD. In fact, the Book of Mormon mentions many things that are known to have NOT existed in the America's prior to the arrival of Columbus.

But we must believe that the Book of Mormon is exactly what it claims to be. So we will just use our fallback God to plug up the holes.

We can't know everything. Our understanding is limited. Maybe millions of Jews did live in the Americas during that time. And maybe they used steel and wheels and chariots and horses to fight battles involving millions of soldiers and they just happened to not leave any evidence behind. That is much more likely than the idea of Joseph Smith fabricating the Book of Mormon.

God knows everything so he of course knows how all these people must have lived and how we have no evidence for them and how the Book of Mormon is still true.

This is getting too easy!! You can just use God to explain anything away!

#5 Authorship of the Book of Mormon
Approximately 80% of The Book of Mormon has been documented to contain material already published and available to Joseph Smith at the time the Book of Mormon was published. It's not conceivable Joseph Smith just made up the Book of Mormon so therefore God must have made it possible. Maybe God used all those other sources as a means of inspiring Joseph Smith to write what he did. God moves in mysterious ways. It could have happened that way.

God can use any means at his disposal to accomplish his work. Issue reconciled.

#6 Blacks and the Priesthood
Up until 1978 Blacks were not allowed to have the Priesthood or participate in Temple Ceremonies. Church leaders are documented to have made many vile racist comments and teachings from the pulpit. Starting with Brigham Young and all the way up to Bruce R. McConkie, church leaders said many things very unflattering to Blacks. But we can't assume these men were just racist products of their time, we must believe they were called of God and inspired by him.

So we'll just assume God taught those things because it applied to those people at that time. And now it's a different time so God is teaching us something very different. Easy peezy.

#7 Kinderhook Plates
Joseph Smith claimed to be able to translate plates that have since been proven to be a hoax. Joseph Smith even went so far as to claim the plates were a record of a man from Egypt. He was obviously fooled by the hoax.

But hey, God can do anything. Who is to say God couldn't use those false plates to inspire Joseph Smith with real teachings from God. I bet he could have done that.

#8 Polygamy
Joseph Smith lied about his practice of Polygamy. He had 34 wives, that we know of, and for several years managed to keep it from his first wife, Emma. Many of the women were actually underage teenagers and some were as young as 14.

11 of the wives were already married to living husbands at the time Joseph married them. Orson Hyde was sent on a mission to Jerusalem by Joseph and while he was away, Joseph married Orson's wife without Orson's knowledge.

Joseph absolutely must have been a prophet. So of course if God commanded Joseph to marry 34 women, some as young as 14, (thus fitting in every way the definition of a pedophile, and a rather insidious one at that given his position of authority), then that makes it alright. If God says to do something, then it is the right thing to do. Even that means taking 34 women for your own gratification. God fixes everything!!!

#9 Witnesses to the Book of Mormon
11 men were supposedly shown the Gold Plates. They were forced to sign a prepared statement saying as much, rather than writing their own versions of their experience. Many of them later admitted to seeing the plates with their "spiritual eyes" and not as an actual physical event.

Of course the plates existed so however God chose to show them the plates, that's good enough to explain the issues. God knows everything and all things are possible with him.

#10 Temple
Joseph Smith revealed the temple ceremony to the church members a few weeks after undergoing the Masonic rituals himself. The temple ceremony is an obvious copy of the Masonic rituals that originated in the 1700's. We are taught the temple endowment ceremony was practiced by Adam and Eve and is identical to their practice of it.

But since Joseph Smith was certainly a Prophet of God and not merely cobbling together already existing ceremonies and theology that already existed around him, there must be some explanation. Well of course the answer is that God is responsible. God can use whatever means necessary to accomplish his work. And if he had to reveal the temple ceremony to the Masons in the 1700's so that Joseph Smith could then learn them from the Masons in the 1800's then that's how it was.

We can't be expected to understand everything about how this universe works. Just remember that God is in charge. And any time you come across any facts or evidence that appears to contradict or discredit your closely held and cherished beliefs, by all means do NOT abandon those beliefs. Just remember that God is in charge and he knows how all these pieces fit together. We are mere mortals. We can't understand everything. Just remember to keep your eyes firmly on the current Prophet (be sure and pay much less attention to past prophets). Even though he is human like the rest of us, he understands these things so much better than we can because he has a direct conduit to the mind and will of God. The Prophet will relay to us what we need to hear.

I hope this exercise has strengthened your faith and given you the only tool necessary for responding to any and all challenges to the beliefs that must be retained at all costs, even in the face of a mountain of facts and evidence that says otherwise.