I have been listening to conference addresses by Apostles and Prophets starting with the April 1971 conference, which is provided on the church’s website or on the Gospel Library app. I have made it to October 1980¹, and I found Bruce R. McConkie’s, ‘The Lord God of the Restoration message. This general conference message came a few months after the famous, or maybe infamous, The Seven Deadly Heresies talk at BYU in June. I want to highlight his teachings on omniscience as found in these two messages.

The McConkie Omniscience

The Lord God of the Restoration

there are even those who champion the almost unbelievable theory that God is an eternal student enrolled in the University of the Universe, where he is busily engaged in learning new truths and amassing new and strange knowledge that he never knew before.

How belittling it is - it borders on blasphemy - to demean the Lord God Omnipotent by saying he is an idol, or an image, or an animal, or a spirit essence, or that he is ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of all truth (see 2 Tim. 3:7).

…

certainly a student god, with finite powers, who is just experimenting in the eternal laboratories, is not a being in whom I, at least, would feel inclined to repose an infinite trust.

The Seven Deadly Heresies

Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths.

This is false—utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it. It grows out of a wholly twisted and incorrect view of the King Follett Sermon and of what is meant by eternal progression.

God progresses in the sense that his kingdoms increase and his dominions multiply—not in the sense that he learns new truths and discovers new laws. God is not a student. He is not a laboratory technician. He is not postulating new theories on the basis of past experiences. He has indeed graduated to that state of exaltation that consists of knowing all things and having all power.²

…

Eternal progression consists of living the kind of life God lives and of increasing in kingdoms and dominions everlastingly. Why anyone should suppose that an infinite and eternal being who has presided in our universe for almost 2,555,000,000 years³, who made the sidereal heavens, whose creations are more numerous than the particles of the earth, and who is aware of the fall of every sparrow—why anyone would suppose that such a being has more to learn and new truths to discover in the laboratories of eternity is totally beyond my comprehension.

Will he one day learn something that will destroy the plan of salvation and turn man and the universe into an uncreated nothingness? Will he discover a better plan of salvation than the one he has already given to men in worlds without number?

…

If God is just dabbling with a few truths he has already chanced to learn or experimenting with a few facts he has already discovered, we have no idea as to the real end and purpose of creation.

Conversation

I think that I have a different definition of truth than Elder McConkie. I hope it is clear that he is defining truths as facts or memorized information that allows God to experiment the correct way. Notice the language from the above quotes that I have pulled out in the bulleted list below.

• ‘where he is busily engaged in learning new truths and amassing new and strange knowledge that he never knew before’
• How belittling it is … [saying] that he is ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of all truth (see 2 Tim. 3:7)
• with finite powers, who is just experimenting in the eternal laboratories
• Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths
• —not in the sense that he learns new truths and discovers new laws
• Will he one day learn something that will destroy the plan of salvation and turn man and the universe into an uncreated nothingness?
• Will he discover a better plan of salvation than the one he has already given to men in worlds without number?

I agree with Elder McConkie on the concept that God is not learning new physics or morality that will change how He interacts with us. I agree that He is not running experiments to discover the real laws that He only currently partially understands. I agree that He will not learn some new science fact that could destroy the plan of salvation.

As I shared in my posts Oh say, What is truth?, The wisdom in truth, and If a tree falls in the wilderness, does anyone hear it (understanding relational truth)?, I don’t think the definition of truth that Elder McConkie is arguing is the scriptural definition of truth. For example, notice how Elder McConkie changes 2 Timothy 3:7. The verse reads, ‘Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ It does not say all truth, as quoted in his talk, it reads, the truth. I see this verse emphatically saying that men will seek learning over knowledge of Christ - the way, the truth, and the life. Paul did not put the word ‘all’ in the sentence as Elder McConkie did. Paul wanted us to understand that Christ is ’the truth.’

More to the point. On the topic of knowledge of information, there is a difference between knowing all the information to have a perfect response in any contingent situation or relationship and knowing all contingent choices of agents. I don’t think either of Elder McConkie’s messages takes a definitive stand that God knows every fact about every relationship He will have with each of His children since the beginning of the plan of salvation in heaven⁴.

As I shared in my omniscience and the topical guide post and quoted Blake Ostler in my Latter-day Saint Voices on Openess post, I do believe that God is omniscient and I affirm these propositions about God’s knowledge of the future.

1. God is omniscient in the sense that he knows all that can be known, but it is logically impossible to know future acts that are free.
2. God knows all possibilities, including the present probability of any future event.
3. God knows now what his purposes are and that He will achieve them.
4. God does not know now, in every case, precisely which contingent possibility will be chosen or become actual.
5. God knows now how He will respond to whichever contingent possibility occurs to ensure the realization of his purposes.

Elder McConkie does say that ‘God progresses in the sense that his kingdoms increase and his dominions multiply.’ We need to take a step back and ask, ‘What is one of His kingdoms?’ To me, a kingdom is a Zion people or a oneness in relationship. I might say God progresses in the sense that His relationships increase. I would then go on to push that each contingent relationship is God learning. The difference is that God is learning about us and how we will respond to Him. He is changed by His relationship with us, but he is not learning how to be the best relational being. He is omnibenevolent.

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