This post focuses on President Eyring’s talk titled, ‘He Goes before Us. However, the broader conversation is around how western culture has mixed up wisdom and knowledge to the point that we rarely differentiate the two words. As seen from the image above for this post, our writing guides even recommend them as synonyms.

I want to take a journey through a few ideas before I tackle President Eyring’s quotes from his message about knowledge and time. 1) First, I will share his quotes that related to time and God’s knowledge. 2) I explain how wisdom and knowledge connect. 3) I provide an example of how western society has a hard time differentiating the two topics. 4) I relate all the concepts to President Eyring’s quotes and ask and answer some questions about some soundbites from his message.

President Eyring’s quotes

In our April 2020 General Conference, President Eyring gave an exciting talk on God guiding His church and people, and he is direct in his statements about God’s knowledge of the future. So straightforward, that one of my friends texted me in the moment of one of the below quotes. I have bulleted some of his essential quotes on God’s knowledge and time.

• I saw what it means for us mortals to be led by the Savior of the world, the Creator - who knows all things, past, present, and future. He teaches us step by step and guides us, never forcing.
• As I studied, it became clear to me that the Lord had prepared in detail the way for the Twelve to go on missions abroad where people had been prepared to believe and sustain them. In time, thousands would, through them, be brought into the Lord’s restored church.
• But the Lord, with His perfect foresight and preparation, made it possible.
• I testify that the Lord saw far into the future and how He would lead us to help Him accomplish His purposes in the last days.
• The Lord saw it all coming. He planned for it, step by step, as He has done with other changes in His Church. He has raised up and prepared faithful people who choose to do hard things well. He has always been lovingly patient in helping us learn “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” He is firm in the timing and the sequence of His intentions, yet He ensures that sacrifice often brings continuing blessings that we did not foresee.
• I invite all who hear this message or read these words to have faith that the Lord is leading the Restoration of His gospel and His Church. He goes before us. He knows the future perfectly. He invites you to the work. He joins you in it. He has in place a plan for your service. And even as you sacrifice, you will feel joy as you help others rise to be ready for His coming.

I am sure a few of my friends and family were hoping that I was paying attention as President Eyring spoke. I have to admit that it is hard for me to focus and digest conference talks during conference weekend with my family all around me. I have now read and digested his great message.

Before I address President Eyring’s quotes, I want to tackle the relationship between knowledge and wisdom.

Romeny on Knowledge to Wisdom

Over the last two months, I have been pondering what the attribute of wisdom is in man and God.¹ Many of those posts have helped me realize that there is a difference between the two topics, but that our western culture has a hard time differentiating the two attributes. Such a hard time that we often don’t. We see them as one and the same.

In 1983 Marion G. Romney shared a message titled Converting Knowledge into Wisdom that is one of the few General Conference or Ensign messages I could find that attempted to differentiate and define these two attributes. The quotes below highlight that wisdom can’t exist without knowledge but that it is more than knowledge. For an analogy, a professional basketball player can’t exist without arms, but a professional basketball player entails many more qualities than arms.

Since knowledge is an “acquaintance with, or clear perception of, facts”; and “wisdom is the capacity of judging soundly and dealing broadly with facts; especially in their practical” application “to life and conduct,” it follows that wisdom, although more than, is nevertheless a product of, and is dependent upon knowledge.

The Book of Mormon specifically relates God’s wisdom to his knowledge. Speaking of God’s plan for the salvation of men, Lehi says: “All things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.” (2 Ne. 2:24.) Thus, as God’s perfect wisdom is a product of His knowledge of all things, so man’s wisdom is dependent upon his knowledge. But since man does not know all things, it is possible, as already indicated, for him to be knowledgeable about many things and still be short on wisdom - that is to say, the [known] facts … in their practical relations to life and conduct."

COVID19 and Wisdom vs. Knowledge

In a New York Times article titled, The Costly Toll of Not Shutting Down Spring Break Earlier, I found a few interesting quotes that highlight our inability to differentiate wisdom and knowledge.

Notice how the quotations in the article blame leaders for not providing the necessary knowledge needed so that they could feel like their decision was only a decision between right and wrong - even blaming the government for not telling them what decision they should make. The COVID19 pandemic in early March 2020 had many unknowns, which lead to a wide range of possibilities. However, wisdom does not require knowledge of the perfect path to tread. It requires us to leverage all available knowledge to choose the optimal route for the most people over the most extended horizon.

Below are quotes from the article with my commentary in [brackets].

Beatriz Diaz said, “I was thinking, ‘OK, well, hold on, the government did not cancel it, so it should be fine.’” [Notice how she puts all the responsibility on facts. Government did not cancel so we must be safe… I don’t have to make any decisions after that…]

Rea Carey said, “It points to what we didn’t know at the time. If we had had the information that is available now, the information that has become available after Winter Party as this pandemic has played out, we would have made a different decision.” [Most of humanity is nearly incapable of making decisions based on varied future scenarios that have not happened in our lived past. That is a powerful feature of wisdom to know future possibilities even when they have never existed in the present or past.]

Mr. Nguyen knew the risk of attending, but said he did not want to lose the money he had spent on tickets. He did not blame organizers for holding the festival, and pointed to mixed messages from local officials. “If one city closes and one city is open, it’s not consistent. And therefore you can’t stop this pandemic.” [The lack of wisdom is exemplified here. He made a primarily selfish decision based on his current and historical costs without considering others or his own future costs.]

Mr. Gimenez said last week. “We did what we thought — and I’m sure all cities did what they thought — was the right thing to do at the right time. It’s called novel coronavirus for a reason. We don’t really know how it acts.” [Giving the virus the human quality of acting exemplifies how we must handle stressful events with wisdom, not certainty]

Mayor Jerry L. Demings of Orange County, home to Orlando, said local officials had insufficient guidance to act consistently to slow the spread. “We were left to our own devices to come up with strategies ourselves because of the lack of direction from the federal government and governor’s office.” [wisdom requires collaboration with other wise persons. It requires all the knowledge available. But it does not need a leader to tell you what to do. That is why God leaves us to decide. He wants us to obtain wisdom.]

Mr. Hickman has since recovered, but only after getting his mother, and likely his father, sick. He does not blame Disney for his infection. “If we would have been told not to go to Disney and just avoid going, we would not have gone. There’s no way we would have gone.” [wisdom requires us to decide our path not to be told what to do. In the end, we have to gather information and knowledge to leverage in making choices that affect our future pathways.]

Wisdom or Knowledge of the future?

Conference talks are rarely intended as a theological treatise on specific topics. President Eyring’s talk is no different. Even if his message was meant to define aspects of our theology, the title of his talk, ‘He Goes before Us’ is defining the topic that President Eyring wants to explain. President Eyring is begging us to trust in the wisdom of God, to trust in His ability to help us make the best choices to bring the best future to pass. His conversation lines up well with President Romney’s message from 1983. President Romney says,

My sincere desire is to impress upon our minds and souls that to foster wisdom is a central purpose of our membership in the church. If we fail to understand and appreciate the importance of the wisdom that comes through inspiration from the Lord, we will have missed a pearl of great price. God grant that we may not miss it and that we will be imbued with its significance.

President Eyring is begging us to understand that the Lord can see the possibilities in the ‘distant future’ because ‘He goes before us’ in his infinite knowledge and understanding. We should rely on the Lord to find infallible wisdom, but unerring wisdom does not mean a timeless perfect answer but the perfect answer within time. God’s response can change tomorrow based on the decisions of His children today.

I think President Eyring is ultimately asking us to trust the wisdom of God. I see that timeless believers and time-based believers (me) can still see two sides to what President Eyring has said. The significant part is that I think both sides would agree with the premise of his message. That God goes before us to prepare a way for our success. That electing God as a partner through this tumultuous life will provide a greater advantage (without a guarantee of a smooth road).

Eyring Soundbites

In hopes not to distract from his larger message, I want to make a few comments about each of his soundbites about the future.

He knows the future perfectly.

Questions: Does knowing the future perfectly have to imply that there is one fixed path, or can he know the possibilities perfectly?

Thoughts: This post highlights my response to this question. I like Gregory Boyd’s quote, ‘I prefer to think of “perfect” in dynamic terms: relational perfection. God is always in perfect relationship with us, and as the relationship changes, so God changes.’

He is firm in the timing and the sequence of His intentions

Questions: Does God timing and ordering his actions imply that he lives in a sequenced time with us?
Thoughts: This post highlights my ideas on time.

The Lord saw it all coming

Questions: Does this statement have to imply that the Lord knew each fixed fact from all eternity?

Thoughts: My thoughts on conditional prophecy to help provide insight into how the Lord sees it coming but then depends on man to respond to his pleas.

the Lord saw far into the future

Questions: Is he helping us understand that God is not timeless but much better than us at using His knowledge to understand future scenarios?

Thoughts: I think his phrasing here is important to contextualize all the other soundbites. It implies that God is in time with us. However, His knowledge and wisdom allow him to see far into the future. This post highlights my ideas on time.

His perfect foresight and preparation

Questions: Does ‘perfect foresight’ have to imply fixed path knowledge, or can it mean the best foresight possible?

Thoughts: God can plan and prepare understanding the panorama of the future, which man barely can, to make the best choices today. I get at this point in my commentary on D&C 130:7

the Lord had prepared in detail the way for the Twelve to go on missions

Questions: Does this preparation have to be from all eternity, or can he prepare ‘far into the future’?

Thoughts: I think that the Lord works with us in this preparation. He is capable enough to adapt to our agency and inspire us along the way. See my Hinckley temples post for ideas related to this. The Pheobe Woodruff story also provides insight.

the Creator - who knows all things, past, present, and future

Questions: Can this phrase mean that God, unlike man, makes His wise choices understanding all the current and future costs of His decision?

Thoughts: I believe in God’s omniscience. He knows all knowable things. He knows the past entirely, the present perfectly, and the future correctly. None of which, man can come even near in perfection. My post on the phrasing of ‘past, present, and future’ highlights my thoughts about what future things are known to God.

Conclusion

I enjoyed President Eyring’s message. It was a balm in these times of uncertainty. His words have always moved me to think differently about the gospel.² With President Eyring, I believe that God, in His perfect foresight, saw far into the future to perfectly time His entry into our lives because he knows all things available to be able to make the wisest choices to help us in these uncertain times. As we team with Him, we can find salvation and Zion.

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This post is part of a series on wisdom.

• principles
• wisdom
• general