Possible outcomes:
1. The irresistible force was misnamed, and is resisted by and fails to move, the immovable object.
2. The immovable object is misnamed, and the irresistible force….. moves it.
Absolute truth is like an immovable object! That is why it is described as absolute. It stands unchanging, unyielding, eternally firm.
Given the weaknesses, frailties and biases of every human soul, it is also the case that absolute truth can only be known in its absolute sense by the gift of revelation.
So how do Latter-day Saints deal with collisions of the world’s claims, arguments, philosophies and seemingly irresistible facts, with what they know by revelation to be absolute truth?
Possible Outcomes:
1. The irresistible fact is actually a fraud….. like fake news, revisionist history, perjured testimony, flawed science, appeals to emotion, etc. Such flawed arguments have no impact on the absolute truth and may be discarded, no matter the repercussions or accusatory labling of blind faith, simpleton mind set, irrationality, condescending, patronizing, etc. that follow that rejection.
Personal example: The Salamander letter. Science, historians, and religionist alike all claimed it was authentic. Yet when I read the letter and noted that it contradicted the revealed and absolute truth I knew about the Prophet Joseph Smith, I discarded it as a great deception. I was mocked, but simply saw it as a fulfillment of the prophecy that Satan’s frauds would fill the earth, deceiving if it were possible even the very elect. Time and circumstance finally revealed it to be a forgery, but only after a series of miraculous events brought the forgery to light.
2. The irresistible fact is truth….so its apparent contradiction to the known absolute truths is a matter of perspective, a lack of full understanding on my part. In such circumstances meekness, self-awareness and humility, must enter the equation. Since absolute truth cannot yield we must acknowledge that perhaps our initial impressions, or the interpretations of the flesh, are in error. We must then assume the possibility that if more light and knowledge were given the apparent contradiction could melt away and we would see that the fact, properly understood, is actually consistent with revealed truth, and part of the great eternal whole.
Personal examples:
A. One absolute truth I know is that God is a perfect, tender, gentle and loving Father. Some scriptures seemed to suggest otherwise. Over time, and with the aid of revelation, I began to see that what at first appeared to be harsh scriptural evidence of a vengeful God, was actually revelation of the tender mercies of a kind Father whose perspective is eternal, and far beyond the confines of our current mortal existence. Again, what at first appeared to be a vengeful Father meeting out fierce punishment to a disobedient Adam and Eve, became, in the light of revelation, a kind Father tenderly explaining to them the necessary consequences of their actions.
B. In day to day living the denial of blessings, which to my selfish human mind appeared to be the consequence of a distant and uncaring God, in the light of revelation became the tender firmness of an attendant and wise Father, who even knowing how I would misjudge Him, held firm to grant me the blessings I needed as opposed to those I myopically sought.
The list goes on, but the point is clear; all absolute truth is consistent with, and part of, the great whole. Any contradictions or inconsistencies we perceive as humans, between revealed absolute truths, can be attributed to the limited knowledge, faulty interpretations and misjudgments of flawed human kind. With that in mind we can rest at peace among the apparent contradictions that plague our existence. We can hold fast to the safety of absolute truths we know, and humbly seek the Godly perspective and additional light that will transform the currently observed contradictions, into an acknowledgement of their perfect harmony with truth.
Conclusions:
Absolute truths are discovered only, never created.
Absolute truths become the realm of the known and can be trusted.
Once the Spirit clarifies and verifies a belief it becomes an absolute truth, and while we may later choose to discard it, to set it aside, to forget it….it remains an absolute truth.
When Absolute Truth is confronted with a contradiction, it is the contradiction that must be doubted until it is either clarified or cast aside.