Ok, Philosophical alert!!
In my scripture study of the Book of Mormon tonight I came across an interesting verse in the book of Jacob chapter 5:
13 And these will I place in the nethermost part of my vineyard, whithersoever I will, it mattereth not unto thee; and I do it that I may preserve unto myself the natural branches of the tree; and also, that I may lay up fruit thereof against the season, unto myself; for it grieveth me that I should lose this tree and the fruit thereof.
In this case, the Lord of the vineyard (representing Jesus Christ, if I am not mistaken) speaks to his servants, the prophets.
He gives them a commandment, actually he gives them many, and he tells them what he is going to do. He says (if I may take the liberty to paraphrase): “We’re going to cut some of the natural branches off of this tree that has gone bad, and I’m going to put them somewhere else until later. You don’t have to worry about where I put them, that doesn’t matter to you. You just need to know that I’m going to do it, and later we will bring them back.”
Isn’t this how the Lord has always worked with his prophets? Is it not how he always will?
There is in the book of Amos a bit of wisdom:
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?
7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, abut he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?
Paying special attention to verse 7 we see that God always fills us in on his plans, and we have always known that, as long as we’ve had the Bible, but the Book of Mormon helps us to understand that the Lord doesn’t always sit down with a blueprint of life with the prophet and make sure he memorizes the schematic, the prophet is not a perfect man. Rather, he is a man that is inspired by God when necessary to warn and teach the world as a whole.
To some it may sound like crazy talk, but I know it’s true. I found out for myself, I asked God personally. If you haven’t you can too.
Cool.
This is why some people see “religiosity” as a sort of following-like-blind-sheep proposition. It is the nature of an intelligent being to want to plan his own course, and to gather the information necessary for him to do it. The problem is that the universe, and the huge flow of time, and the complexity of events – all of this assuming that life has a purpose, and that there are events dependent upon other events – is so large, so deep, so incredibly complex, any one person is not going to have a prayer (not a pun) of seeing and understanding enough of the flow to be able to chart any certain course. Like a boat crossing the Atlantic – even if you have maps and charts and stars there is no accounting for wind or storms or floating debris, or for sub-surface earthquakes or shifts in the moon or climate change.
People like to see everything, not realizing that their horizon is terribly shallow. And it’s not that a prophet’s horizon, in terms of specific information. is any better than ours (prophets are not fortune tellers), but that these are people whose trust in God leads him to trust in them – and when he says to them, “Get the people out of there,” the prophet does not, like an adolescent human (which we really all are) say, “But, why?” The prophet turns around and says, “Move it.” And those who listen may escape the coming events. While those who don’t certainly won’t.
All very interesting, huh?