On thing that is fun to view is how each society in history looks at the parable of the blind men and the elephant and concludes that everyone else was blind, but they see.
We are not immune from that as we remake God and the gospel in our own image, rather than attempt to remake our own image in God’s image and our own hearts in line with the gospel.
But one of the reasons for that is that reality, and God, seem to be quantum objects, not just on the nano scale (the scale measured inside of atoms), but on the macro scale (the scale measured in God and universes).
Some of that is semantics. It is a matter of the weakness of our perceptions as they are controlled and colored by our language and our circumstances.
and
As our circumstances and capacity change, what God says to us, what we can hear God say, changes. In many ways, all we can see of God is our own image.
But it goes deeper than that.
Can God create a rock so heavy he cannot lift it (or, as my twelve year old asked, a sandwich so big he can not eat it?)? Yes. Because God can encompass paradox, he is not limited by it.
Which means that in the parable of the blind men and the elephant, when the woman comes along who is not blind, what she sees is not an elephant, but that God is all of the things the blind men claim, and more, but not just any of them, and that while there is some degree of “greater” reality, it isn’t as much as one would suppose.
- The gospel leads us to the tree of Life and Christ.
- After we have the gospel, we will encounter mists of darkness that will obscure things so that we can not see the goal or even the short view. We are given basic commandments so that we will keep on course to the goal when we are confused, blinded by circumstances, life or society. But the commandments are not the tree of Life.
- We will see attractive alternatives.
- The gospel is the good word of Christ, the story of salvation and exaltation through Christ, not the commandments.
- The church exists to help us avoid getting lost.

- Do you think that we are 100% accurate and that Abraham, Moses, Paul, Alma and others really don’t know as much as we do now?
- Do you think things may very well vary for each generation as God speaks in the ways we can hear?
- Is it fair to compare ourselves to blind men dealing with an elephant?
Originally April 27, 2012 — reposted as it was lost due to site migration.
Images are all ones released to the public domain for blogging and other purposes or Amazon book covers.
”Which it is why it appears that God desires our trust and faith more than our certainty.”
Yes, God asks for our faith and trust. I make a choice to have faith. (Yes, the scripture speaks of faith as a gift, but I think there is still a choice to accept and magnify the gift.)
The blind men were honest in their observations. I hope they didn’t argue too much with each other. As President Hinckley said, bring all the truth you have and let’s see if we can add to it.
But we are not totally blind. There was a restoration and there is a priesthood. There is some vision in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..