Accepting a God of Inexplicable Contradictions

The Restoration seems to be one of those truly creative acts (imbued) with an inexplicably. Like the God that pulled Abraham out of Ur because they engaged in human sacrifice, then asked him to take a knife to his son and offer him up like a lamb. Or a God that delights in clarity, yet shows Ezechiel a mystifying vision of wheels turning in wheels. Or a Messiah who was suppose to free his people from political oppression but is executed by that very political structure. Slapping the label polyandry on Nauvoo seems an attempt to put the Nauvoo activities in a box into which it won’t go. In fact, I argue, that there is no box into which it will go. It demands that it be dealt with in its complexity. Joesph Smith did more in the restoration than reinstate OT polygamy while women were dallying on the side. He created a dynamic, expansive, social system that slingshot the church into a future where it flourished. A stone cut out of the mountain without hands.

We humans should not be troubled that God at time acts inexplicably. He likes to surprise, challenge and make us think. Also, sometimes I suspect that to bring about His ends, strange contradictory things must come into play—think about the Garden of Eden and its contradictory commandments. Why? Maybe God has to act with breathtaking creativity to see His purposes unfold. Maybe bringing about certain ends takes uncompromising daring and artistry. Maybe there is no manual bringing to pass the eternal life of man.

Thank goodness God found a the prophet in Joseph Smith willing to do unimaginably creative things - things which challenge (our understanding) so thoroughly, and yet which allowed the church to come forth out of obscurity in ways that might not have happened otherwise.

Excerpted from "Why BIV Would Totally Have Slept with JS: Polyandry, Part II" - Steven P. (By Common Consent)