Part 2: Apostates to Apostles
There are so many voices in our day expressing total disbelief in any God. When asked for evidence there is no God, they collectively say, “The evidence for there being no God is the lack of evidence to prove he exists.” Their total case is based upon no one being able to find scientific evidence that God exists. In all arguments such as this, it has been established in law that: “Evidence that something does not exist simply because we have not found evidence it does, is not tenable simply because we lack the knowledge and ability at the moment to search the entire universe or any other possible place to say with absolute certainty”.
This is especially evident when we are finding new information almost daily by new means which we simply did not have before. In many cases this new information or evidence refutes that which we held to be certain beforehand and we have had to change our conclusions accordingly. There was a time when scientific researchers believed for many centuries that the earth was flat, that we were the centre of the universe, that the stars we can see in the heavens were no more than 20 or so miles away. When I went to school some 70 years ago, we were taught by people who believed they knew for a certainty that the Atom was the smallest particle in existence. This certainty is not accepted today because information and evidence has since been discovered to the contrary.
So far as the case for the non-existence of God because of the absence of evidence to prove otherwise goes, it would be completely embarrassing and unacceptable in any of field, without evidence.
On the other hand, there are firsthand witnesses who have seen God. (Their testimony is recorded in scriptures like the Bible.) There is evidence of his existence because we see around us the existence of his creations. As well, the natural laws and order that surround us would be only random chaos without a creator. There are laws, order and consequences to everything. There are more evidences of the existence of God than there are to the contrary. Many people unable to accept the being of a God are willing to recognize his works and manifestations by attributing them to a mythical substitute figure, “Mother Nature,” confessing something or someone must be in charge in light of all the evidence.
The same holds true about the astounding and inexplicable communication process we call reading and writing. All things in our humanistic society are rationalized and attributed to man’s searching desires to experience more and know more. He claims personal responsibility for developing these attributes and skills over long periods of evolution. He points proudly to his primitive scribbles and quaint letters as proof of his wobbling march towards today’s complex lines and circles, despite evidence to the contrary.
Two of the oldest records we have today of our ancient ancestors are referenced in the Book of Abraham and the Book of Moses. These two books are currently found in the Pearl of Great Price.
The first, Book of Abraham was found in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, in the 1800’s, brought to America by a Michael Chandler and purchased by The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.
In Abraham 1: 31 it reads:
But the records of the Fathers, even the Patriarchs, concerning the rights of the Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved them in my own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of creation and also of the planets and of the stars as they were made know unto the Fathers, have I kept even unto this day and I shall endeavour to write some of these things upon this record for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me
The second, the Book of Moses, was revealed by God to the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith on June, 1830.
Moses 6: 3-6 reads as follows:
And God revealed himself unto Seth and he rebelled not but offered an acceptable sacrifice unto God, like his brother Able. And to him was born a Son and he called his name Enos. And then began these men to call upon the name of the Lord and the Lord blessed them, And a book of remembrance was kept in the which it was recorded in the Language of Adam, for it was given unto many as called upon god to write by the spirit of inspiration. And by them, their children, were taught to read and write having a language which was pure and undefiled.
What these ancient records verify is that the Ancient Patriarchs and their children actually read and wrote. And they recorded what God spoke to them. Clearly at this early period in our history, they were not scribbling or bumbling about. They had a fully developed spoken and written language. The fact that we have little record of it does not negate that evidence.
In the meanwhile, it would be tragic for all if we trivialized what they were commanded to record.
1/ The Nature of God
2/ Our Relation to Him and His Relationship to Us
3/ The Purpose of Earth Life and the Plan of our Salvation
Such information would be a great enlightenment to the children of God in our world today, as we search for more than what we know about God and his son, Jesus Christ.