I have been trying to put into words some of the thoughts that have been coursing my mind for several years regarding the dissemination of God's word and the relative purity with which it reaches us.
I have noticed, for example, that while Moses may have received the word of God in its purity, what we have received in the Old Testament is an adulterated, corrupt, degraded, and contaminated version of the original. Nevertheless it contains precious truths, buried under layers of attrition. We therefore rely on the spirit to extract the precious eternal truths from the source.
This caused me to reflect upon the Layers of Attrition to stand between the Word of God coming in its purity and our receiving it in its various forms.
I have concluded that Truth in its purest form must be experienced first-hand. Each time the principles of eternal truth are taught or transmitted from one being to another they experience a measure of attrition (a breakdown from their original state of purity). This is the nature of all communications including spiritual communications. (Its like the telephone game)
When spirit speaks to spirit the communication is pure and unfettered. Both spirits, the one giving and the one receiving are edified and rejoice together. But when a spirit speaks to a mortal the transmission is complicated by the body because the body does not inherently understand spiritual communications but must come to learn how to understand them. Furthermore the body is subject to many temporal influences such as language, culture, education, etc. The spirit within a body must interpret spiritual communications for the body and mind, fitting to its age, comprehension level, language, vocabulary, and a host of other variables. Furthermore, the mortal experience is a veiled and intentionally limited experience that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend eternal things as they really are. We understand likenesses of eternity, but they are shadows of reality instead of reality itself.
Another layer of attrition happens when we hear of someone else's experience without having experienced it ourselves. We walk away only with a sliver of the precious truth they experienced. Our perspective is limited to our retention level, our comprehension level, as well as the degree of experience with which we can relate to that which was shared. If what was shared is completely outside the realm of our experience then it is far more difficult for us to make sense of it. It is better therefore to experience the spirit first-hand than to hear of someone else's experience.
Another layer of attrition occurs when we are removed from the experience by time, space, language, culture, or all of the above.
"Better" in the following statements refers to being less prone to attrition in the transmission of truth. These are not necessarily ranked.
1. It is best to receive revelation first-hand. In other words, the word of God is purest when received directly from the source.
2. It is better to receive words of Revelation from a living witness than a dead witness. In other words, the Word of God is purest when we can relate on many levels with the one who received it.
3. It is better to receive words of Revelation from a witness in your own era than an ancient witness for the same reasons and previously mentioned.
4. It is better to receive words of a witness speaking your native language than one speaking another language that must be translated. Translation from one broken language to another is inherently full of problems that corrupt the purity of God's original word It is better, therefore, to receive a witnesses words of revelation that have only gone through one translation than those who have gone through many translations.
5. It is better to receive an ancient witness that has been translated multiple times, from a foreign culture, so that all that is left is a partial perspective of the original witness, than to receive no witness at all.
Why have I written this?
I have concluded that without the Spirit's assistance, reading the scriptures from a secular perspective would be a waste of time because too much is lost. However, if the scriptures are used as a catalyst to bring the spirit into our lives then we begin to experience divine communications at their highest level, directly with the source where it is purest. The same can be said of General Conference. If we attend general conference seeking to understand from a secular view what these good men and women have to offer, we will likely be disappointed, not having experienced and gained what they have experienced and gained through a lifetime of discipleship and divine communications. But if we use the talks as a springboard to having our own spiritual experiences, focusing on what the spirit has to teach us instead of what the man has to teach us, then we get the word and will of God in its purity, unfettered by any of the layers of attrition that might occur when we rely upon the arm of the flesh.
This is something of course we take for granted within the Church, not placing credit where credit it due. The reason we flock to conference again and again, year after year, season after season is because it provides the perfect environment to be taught from the source... the receive the word of God in its purity directly from the Spirit rather than the good men and women sharing their experiences and perspectives.
The words of life given to us from our current watchmen and those given to us from ancient watchmen are meant to be only a stimulus to our personal relationship with God from whom we should be seeking the living water that if we drink we shall never thirst again.
