Ammon teaches about God’s characteristics.

“…[God] has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.” (Alma 26:35)

Questions:

-Why is God merciful?

-Does mercy guide how God exercises His endless and perfect power?

-Can power be perfectly exercised without perfect wisdom, perfect understanding, and all-encompassing comprehension?

-Does God ever use His power to force people to do what is good and right?

-Does God allow us to choose between giving our individual wills to Him and withholding our wills from Him?

-Since God is merciful, in addition to all His other perfections, is there any difference between God’s will for us and what is best for us?

Teachings of Latter-Day Prophets, Seers, and Revelators:

From Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

“Some have sincere faith in the existence of a God but not necessarily in a revealing and omniscient God. Other sincere individuals question God’s omniscience, wondering, even though respectfully, whether even God can know the future. But an omniscient and revealing God can at any present moment disclose things future. This is possible because ‘in the presence of God, … all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord’ (D&C 130:7). Thus God ‘knoweth all things, for all things are present before [his] eyes’ (D&C 38:2). He told Moses, ‘There is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all’ (Moses 1:6).

“No qualifiers on the scope of God’s knowledge appear in holy writ. Instead, we read: ‘O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.’ (2 Nephi 9:20.)” (If Thou Endure It Well [1996], 46).