Last night, I saw a quote that says "Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. Right is right, even if you are the only one doing it." And it got me thinking, if right is always right and wrong is always wrong, is that truly constant, or could God change the rules if He wanted to?
My first thought is that God is omnipotent. He made the rules, and He can change them, right? Well, maybe not. I did a search for "unchangeable" on LDS.org, and I found a few talks and articles that said that natural and moral laws are unchangeable. If something is unchangeable, that means that it cannot be changed - by anyone. On the other hand, if a being is omnipotent, that means that they can do anything, even the impossible. This is something of a conundrum. Did God make rules that He is now incapable of bending or altering?
I doubt it. From what I know about God (and I know that a lot of non-Mormons, and maybe also a few Mormons will disagree with this), He didn't actually write the laws of the universe. We know from modern revelation that God was once a human being. As a human being, He had to obey moral laws and principles in order to qualify for godhood. If the moral laws He had to obey are the same laws that we now have to follow, then I'd guess that they truly are unchangeable, or at least that there's no reason to change them because they're already perfect. If His moral laws were different than ours are, then I'd guess that He made the rules that we now have to follow, and I'd also guess that He, as a wise being, would retain the authority to alter them at will.
The rules might be unchangeable because we certainly can't change it, and the only being who can already considers the laws to be perfect, so He won't change them. Or maybe the laws truly are unchangeable, and God must act in accordance with them, the same as any of us. In fact, that's striking a chord with me. It reminds me of a scripture, and of one man's interpretation of that scripture.
Alma 42: 25 What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.
This might be saying that the laws of God, or in this case, the law of justice, cannot be broken, and that if the law were broken somehow, it would create some kind of paradox in which God would cease to be God. I don't understand that, but I do understand another interpretation - Sure, God could break or bend the rules, because He's omnipotent like that, but if He did, He'd get in trouble for it.
I'm running out of time to articulate this very well, but in a nutshell, the standards of godhood are really high, and even if we achieve godhood ourselves, I would guess that we'd still be subject to God's authority, because He would still be our Heavenly Father. In like manner, God has a Heavenly Father whose rules, I would guess, even He still has to obey. If He broke them, He would no longer be perfect in His adherence to His God's laws, so He would be removed from His place. Theoretically. That's my take on it, anyway.
So, no, I'd say that God's laws can't be broken, not without consequences, not even by Him, partly because those laws might not really be His to begin with.
1 comment:
I believe God is perfect in His understanding of the laws and in His ability to obey and to use them. When it appears to us that He has broken or overruled a law, I believe it is because He applied another law, possibly a higher law, which we do not know, not that He "broke" any laws. It is, however, all a little over my head.
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