Comment by Forrest Curo on 7th mo. 15, 2011 at 12:48pm

"This compass is contained within the testimonies."

 

But doesn't limit the available territory, then!

Comment by James C Schultz on 7th mo. 21, 2011 at 11:31pm

You can't explore something that hasn't been discovered.  If you believe in a personal God with whom you can have a personal relationship, you have to find Him first.  Then you get to explore that relationship for the rest of eternity.  Exploring someone else's relationship with God doesn't do you any good unless it leads you to your own relationship.  Reading the "testimonies" or other writings, even the Bible, is like examining a map for landmarks and routes.  It can help you discover that relationship, but relationships have to be experienced to be explored.  Or you could be absolutely right and it's all semantics.

Comment by Paula Deming on 7th mo. 22, 2011 at 4:08pm

Exploring someone else's relationship with God doesn't do you any good unless it leads you to your own relationship. 

Yes! And Jim, you are so right about not being able to explore something that hasn't been discovered!

Might I also note that explorers go out seeking what they believe must be there, without knowing exactly what they might find. Think of Columbus seeking India, not to mention explorers seeking the southern tip of Africa or the Northwest Passage. They had tools--language and understanding--but no other map. And in that sense they were very much seekers, even though we might not call them that.

I am not sure this analogy works, however. If one is "exploring," those maps are important, but you may have been given the maps by other people. You build on previous knowledge. Without language (maps), you have a blank slate and no language to explain what you are looking FOR, let alone what you find, or, more importantly, What has found YOU.  The Northwest Passage didn't seek us and never will.

Take it from a born&bred agnostic who couldn't figure out what was pursuing her. I needed to learn from others, in adulthood, in order to make sense of my experiences--something that people who grew up with church teachings didn't have to learn from scratch. It was only through these maps from others that I learned that something was Seeking (actually, pursuing) me. Only then could I seek God.

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