Isaiah prophesies peace among animal creation

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

 

These verses speak of a future when animal creation lives peacefully together. I note that Isaiah describes how predatory animals will not take advantage of the trust and closeness of plant-eating animals to harm or eat them.

It will be cool to see this happen literally, but I think it also describes a spiritual reality that will come among humans. There are predatory types among humanity too, and I think Isaiah is telling us there will come a time when the knowledge of God will spread to the extent that those people who are predisposed to prey upon others—we’d call them sociopaths—will restrain themselves to live by the Lord’s doctrines and will refrain from harming.  “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.”

Lehi’s argument for the existence of God

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. (2 Nephi 2:13)

I think it is interesting how Lehi argues for the existence of God with a series of negated circumstances. “Take away this, and you don’t have this other thing, which removes this other thing.”

I’m going to go through his reasons with the positive side, because there is at least one step that I’ve had troubles with that required me to fill a wider gap and follow Lehi’s reasoning. 

Looking at the beginning and the end points, Lehi argues that the existence of a law (by which I think he means moral law) leads him to believe in a God.

If there is a law, then there is righteousness and sin. Some will follow the law, and some don’t.

If there are some that follow the law, then there must also be some that have mastered the law, who keep it in every particular and use it to benefit others. These must be what we would call God(s).

Also, if there be righteousness and sin, then there must also be consequences—reward and punishment. Otherwise there is no significance and meaning to either righteousness or sin.

If there is a Master of the law, then it would make sense for the Master to have a hand in reward and punishment. (In fact, we require our earthly dispensers of justice to be as morally upright as possible, and we are terribly annoyed and distrustful when they are not.)

Then there is a bit of a leap between laws with consequences and the creation. If there’s no righteousness or sin, then there is no God. Stated slightly differently and adding steps, If there is no law to master, then there is no Master of it, thus no God.  If God is not, then we and the earth are not.  So it implies there is a link between moral mastery and the powers of creation. One who keeps the moral laws will certainly find out and follow all the laws of the elements and material existence and follow these too, prolifically creating new things to benefit others, and perhaps being so clever as to streamline things such that creations create more of themselves.

The practical side of this is that laws exist, and we can either find out what they are through trial and error, or we can learn from the Master and make faster progress.  If we learn quickly and follow, we are promised righteousness and happiness proportional to our obedience.  Moral laws have been given to us, and we have the opportunity of learning about the laws of nature through experimentation. 

Probably this line of reasoning would not satisfy relativists. People versed in philosophy might have troubles with definitions and say this is all intuiting too far, but to me Lehi’s argument is satisfying.  In an extremely brief way, it points out our conscience is one of the best indicators that there is a God. I think C.S. Lewis gave  a more extended version of a similar line of reasoning in his book “Mere Christianity” that is also worth reading.

Meditations on the Creation of the Sun and the Moon

16 And I, God, made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the greater light was the sun, and the lesser light was the moon; and the stars also were made even according to my word.

17 And I, God, set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And the sun to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good; (Moses 2:16-18)

I read this recently and I found myself asking what it meant for a light to rule over a particular portion of the 24-hours—day or night. On the surface it means that one of those lights will be the dominant light over that particular 12-hour period.

And yet the astronomical reality is a lot more complex than this. Happily, we can say that the sun always rules over the day. Where the sun shines, there is light, there is day.

But the moon is different. In some parts of the month the moon does shine at night, but there are other parts of the month—during new moons—when there is no light from the moon. Does the moon really rule then? Not really. It is as if the moon temporarily abdicates its authority and takes a vacation. And only on full moons is its light all the way there. At other times it’s waxing or waning.

It may be this gives us a little insight as to the differences between celestial and terrestial obedience. (I’ve probably talked about this before, but I’m going to talk about it again.) Celestial obedience is like the sun—always there doing its duty, shining at full strength, radiating the light within. But terrestial obedience is rarely at its brightest, shines only reflected light from others more bright, and periodically abdicates its duty.

Something else caught my attention here too. It was this idea of dividing the light from the darkness. What is it that really divides the light from the dark astronomically?  Because if you have light, there is no dark. Light chases the dark away. 

Astronomically, darkness comes from distance from the light, if you’re Pluto out on the margins of the solar system.  And we have darkness on earth because of the earth itself. The earth gets in the way and creates shadow.  If we’re on the part of the earth turned away from the sun, we’re in the darkness.  Applying that to spiritual things, that teaches that in a certain sense we create spiritual darkness in our lives either by our distance from the light, or by turning away from it.

The idea of a lesser or greater light also makes me think of the quality of leader we choose to follow and the type of example we choose for ourselves. If we didn’t have the sun, we might be happy with the moon’s light. But having the sun, we see the moon is not so great after all. Do we choose the best examples to follow? Do we seek for greater light? If we don’t we may be one of those people the Lord describes as “walking in darkness at noonday,” which would be tragic.

What do you think? Are there any additional principles you draw from these verses about the creation of the sun and the moon?

The Earth’s Future Celestialization

17 And the redemption of the soul is through him that quickeneth all things, in whose bosom it is decreed that the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it.

18 Therefore, it must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory;

19 For after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father;

20 That bodies who are of the celestial kingdom may possess it forever and ever; for, for this intent was it made and created, and for this intent are they sanctified. (D&C 88:17-20)

To me, the neat thing these verses do is explode the notion that exalted man’s final place in the eternities will be out in space somewhere in an undefinable heaven after they have been raptured away.  Instead, the earth itself will be exalted and sanctified and celestialized.  Then, all those who are celestialized themselves will inherit it as their eternal place of abode. It is those who can’t live up to the celestial law who will have to be placed elsewhere. (No doubt a place is prepared, and we have to remember that even a telestial place will be more glorious than this earth is now.)

When I look out my window at the brightness of the day and see how beautiful the earth is, I have a hard time imagining how a celestial earth could be better than this. But that is only the fault of my imagination. Likely everything will be lots brighter and luminous. I so look forward to that day.

Further, these verses give an even broader view of redemption than just the redemption of man. It is also the redemption and sanctification of the whole of creation! That’s huge. And the earth will be redeemed for sure because it fills its measure of creation and faithfully obeys the celestial law. It is we mortal humans whose exaltation remains in question. The implied question in these verses to me is, “Will you obey like the earth and be sanctified with it, or will you remain in your sins and have to be sent elsewhere?”

Umm, I’d like to stay here, thanks. I’m working on that.

What the creation tells us about the atonement

I was in the temple recently watching the creation narrative and it struck me how much the creation tells us about the atonement of Christ.

The great power God has to create worlds tell us about His power to create great changes.  We need to change when we repent and the greater the change we need, the more we need that assurance that Christ has that power.

His ability to bring plants and animals tells us about His ability to help us grow. We need that for faith in His power (grace) to help us reach greater levels of righteousness than we've ever had before.

The long period of time it took to create the world tells us about His great patience. If He could wait for the earth to obey His commands, He is going to be patient with us as we grow.  He can't be discouraged.  (But just because He could wait for the earth doesn't mean that we have all the time in the world to do our part.  We only have so much time in mortality to do our changing and improving in, so the sooner we get cracking, the better for us.)

The way God pronounced it all good when it was done gives us hope that when we have finished progressing, He will similarly pronounce us good as well. It tells us God's approval can be attained. (What a wonderful thing that will be!)

If no Christ, then no God. But there is a Christ.

For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation. But there is a God, and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time. (2 Nephi 11:7)

The first part of that verse is fascinating reasoning that sounds very logical, and yet it leaves out many assumptions, trusting the reader to figure them out. It is instructive to think about what assumptions make it so Nephi can state this with such confidence.

“if there be no Christ there be no God” – A Messiah to suffer for all is absolutely important to the definition of God.  A Christ provides for mercy, and a God must show both justice and mercy to be God. 

That being said, we live in a world where it might seem difficult to see the justice of God.  That’s because God is long-suffering and offering mercy, holding back the day of judgment so we have time to lay hold on that mercy.

“if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation” – God must create because it is part of His perfections.  And He must create men and women to become more like Him because that is the perfection of creation.  And of course, that means He must provide means whereby He can have mercy on them, so that presupposes a Christ to suffer for their sins.

Unbelief might cause people to fall through the cracks of Nephi’s logic, but for those who don’t, we can see our very existence as evidence of God and of Christ.

Someone else has pointed out that life balances as it were on the head of a pin of perfect optimums, which if disturbed, disrupt whole systems and make life untenable on biological, chemical, and astronomical levels.  From that perspective, perhaps commandments are ways of asking us to spiritually climb onto more pins and balance, so that we can discover new optimums of spiritual creation that we never knew existed.  Naturally, there will be lots of wobbly pins and lots of falling off, but the atonement makes it so that our falls don’t nail us to the ground when we land on our faces.

Temple Architectural Symbolism: Octagons

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From time to time, you may have noticed that temples occasionally have octagons worked into the architectural elements.  You may have wondered what those mean. 

A few years ago, I read a book about temple architectural elements that said that octagons with their eight sides symbolized the 8^th day of creation and also progression toward perfection. 

I think it was from Sacred Walls: Learning from TempleSymbols by Gerald E. Hansen.  

I think Hansen skillfully unpacked the reasoning for how it communicates progression toward perfection (so I’ll let you buy the book and learn about that and all the other fabulous goodies that come in it), but I want to focus a little more on that idea of the 8^th day of creation because this is one that foreign to us.   This one took me a while to grasp.

Being baptized at age eight, the year of accountability, is familiar to us, but eight days in creation is strange.  Creation was done in six days, God rested on the 7^th, so what need for an 8^th day? 

Consider that we all need to be born again into the kingdom of God.  Wouldn’t that constitute an act of creation—the spiritual creation of a new creature?   It would be a further refinement and continuation of our creation that would be in line with the change and development that happens in the previous 7 days.

Thus, the 8^th day of creation is about spiritual rebirth and refinement, and so you will find octagons in the temple in places that should remind of spiritual rebirth, like around the temple baptismal font.   It may be the font itself.  It may be in the ceiling shape.  It may be in the stonework around the font.   You may find it other places as well, so you’ll know that is an opportunity to think about how that place is associated with spiritual rebirth and creation. (Also, don't forget that it can be associated with progression toward perfection as well.)

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/latter-day-saints-dir/32153-what-lds-temple-looks-like-inside.html

Notice the ceiling  (http://thetrumpetstone.blogspot.com/2011/09/lds-temple-glass-trees.html)

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=5273003&nid=460&page=2

http://www.pinterest.com/garrettdad2/lds-temples/

This one is from the Boise, Idaho temple.  Interesting that the octagon is associated with garden imagery.  http://www.pinterest.com/christmasfamily/temples/

Seeing God’s Hand in All, D&C 59:21

And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments. (D&C 59:21)

I personally think making a positive equivalent of the above scripture is nicer:

“And in nothing doth man please God, or toward none is his approval and blessing given, save to those who confess his hand in all things and obey his commandments.”

There are people who only focus on direct causes and who will say, “Well, how can I confess God’s hand in all things?  Did God make my bread?  No, a factory did that.  Did God make water come out of the faucet in my house?  No, water pressure did that.  How am I supposed to confess God’s hand when He’s not the one directly involved?”

It is up to us to look deeper and see that everything good ultimately came from God.  Maybe God didn’t directly make the water come out of the faucet, but He inspired others to experiment and work to harness scientific principles to bring running water inside.  He inspired the people to make faucets and sinks and all of that.  And so it is with all good things.  We can look around the world at all the beautiful and useful things that man has created and see behind it all the boundless wisdom and kind inspiration of our Father in heaven. 

In the creation of plant and animal life we can see the processes that shaped progression from one species to another and the environmental conditions and changes that made adaptations desirable, and we can know that somehow behind all of that was a command of God that was obeyed by the elements.

Some scientists may refer to a God of the gaps, but we can point to divine principles that are still at work and which we have yet to understand how they were first begun—the drive to reproduce, parents training their young by example, cooperative effort by community, ability to perceive stimuli and react accordingly, and the ability to some spark of intelligence and life to enter complex arrangements of tissue, the ability to learn and plan.. 

One of the things I learn about God when I consider the natural world is how well-programmed nature is to perpetuate itself and recover from imbalances.

While I feel inadequate to post about this because of my ignorance, I suppose if we couldn’t say anything until we had learned it all, we would have a very silent world… so maybe I will point you to some articles that have been helpful to me in seeing the Lord’s hand in the natural world.

“Evolution and the Gospel: Seeking Grandeur in This View ofLife” by Michael F. Whiting

“Time in Scriptures and Science: A Conciliatory Key?”  by J. Ward Moody

(This one is sure to make your mind bend and stretch in interesting ways..)

The heavens, they are many

Image: http://thingstolookathigh.com/outer-space-stars/

And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. (Moses 1:37)

That word “heavens” is baffling.  We know only one sky and one space, so it is hard to say in what manner there can be many.  Because if there are many heavens, then that means there is a discrete and discernable boundary between one and another.  Meteorology has advanced to the point that it can detect pressure gradients in the atmosphere and cold and warm fronts and temperature differences, but that makes sky into amorphous flowing blobs; it doesn’t result in a countable sky.  And it only has to do with earth.    So there must be other astronomical bodies that must have their own heavens with their own characteristics.  And probably space has its own “weather” and gradients and concentrations of particles.

And God can quantify all of this!  He is the ultimate scientist. 

In the beginning, there was taxonomy…

In the book Glut: Mastering Information Through The Ages there is the story told of anthropologist Brent Berlin walking through the Peruvian rainforest with a guide from the local Aguaruna tribe. Berlin listened as his guide pointed out the names of all the plants and animals they encountered. The tribe had developed an elaborate taxonomy of their own to classify and categorize the living things around them.

Berlin also discovered later that folk taxonomies are startlingly complex in order to organize their understanding of plants and animals. History credits Linnaeus and Aristotle with starting to catagorize living things, but it is suspected that the practice goes further back. It would be highly useful to learn very quickly what plants and animals were poisonous and harmful and which weren't.

When I read about this, I instantly thought of some verses I had recently read in the Pearl of Great Price:

19 And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life, and commanded that whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that should be the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but as for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him. (Moses 3:19-20)

Here’s a really cute poem I found more than a year ago that seems to bring this event to life:

Adam’s Task, by John Hollander

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and
to the fowl of the air, and to every
beast of the field...GEN 2:20

Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted
Glurd; thou, whitestap, lurching through
The high-grown brush; thou pliant-footed,
Implex; thou awagabu.

Every burrower, each flier
Came for the name he had to give:
Gay, first work, ever to be prior,
Not yet sunk to primitive.

Thou, verdle; thou, McFleery’s pomma;
Thou; thou; thou--three types of grawl;
Thou flishket; thou. kabasch; thou, comma-
Eared mashawk; thou, all; thou, all.

Were, in a fire of becoming,
Laboring to be burned away,
Then work, half-measuring, half-humming,
Would be as serious as play.

Thou, pambler; thou, rivarn; thou, greater
Wherret, and thou, lesser one;
Thou, sproal, thou zant; thou, lily-eater.
Naming’s over. Day is done.

(from Selected Poetry (New York: Knopf, 1993)

I think it says something about God's love for us and desire for us to learn that He allows us to make our own names for things. He wants us to discover for ourselves. I think it is also neat that He uses our names for things when He communicates. In a certain sense, it is another example of the condescension of God.

Image: SchoolWorkHelper—St. Rosemary Educational Institution, http://schoolworkhelper.net/2010/07/scientific-taxonomy/

Lesser Lights, Greater Lights

14 And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and caused them to divide the day from the night; and organized them to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years;
15 And organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.
16 And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set the stars also;
17 And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to divide the light from the darkness. (Abraham 4:14-17)

Recently in our family scripture study, my husband and I read through these verses. A few days later, we were out on a late night walk next to a canal that runs near our subdivision and the full moon was beginning to rise in the sky to our right. There were no streetlights along the canal, so we were thankful for that moon-gleam.

My husband must have been ruminating on the moon because he turned to me and said, “I think it is interesting how the light of the moon is bright enough that we can see each other and where we are going. I can see you, I can see the road we are walking on, and if I didn’t know the sun existed, I might think this was all I needed.”

Then he said, “I think it is also interesting that in life some people are like the sun. They always seem to be at their best, even when it’s hard. You can always count on them. Then there are other people who are like the moon. They seem to go through waxing and waning cycles in which part of the time they set a pretty good example and then another part of the time they don’t, or they even seem to disappear. You can’t always count on them.”

I thought that was an interesting perspective on degrees of glory. I hadn’t thought of it quite like that before. It was also unexpected to have an observation like that come through consideration of the creation story.

But what he said definitely made me want to be like the sun. Sometimes I feel too much like a body that waxes and wanes. I go through stages in which I gladly project what I stand for, but then I go through stages in which I find myself searching for more, and I feel like I become like some sort of sun-sponge, trying to soak in as much good as I can from the everything around me in preparation for the next solar flare or solar prominence. During my really rough times I feel like I’m a black hole of neediness, sucking the strength out of everyone. (Deep down I know I’m really not, but sometimes I feel that way.)

When I was taking an astronomy in class, I learned that our sun goes through an internal cycle by which it tries to maintain something called “hydrostatic equilibrium”. (The “hydro” part is in there because the sun is made out of hydrogen). The cycle goes like this: The hydrogen in the core fuses together to produce helium, and in the process, creates energy (heat and light). The explosiveness of the process causes the sun to expand. But the gravity of the star causes the mass of the star to contract into the center. When these expansive and contractive forces are balanced, there is equilibrium. But there is constant rebalancing.

I figure our lives are kind of like this when we have different demands and priorities pulling at us. We achieve a kind of equilibrium by balancing and rebalancing, correcting and re-correcting.

Something I also learned was about sunspots. I learned that sunspots happen as the sun’s magnetic field is twisted by its rotation, kind of like a rubber band wrapped multiple times around a ball. The tension causes little magnetic storms called sunspots and eventually the tension breaks and then the twisting starts again. Yes. Suns feel tension too. Suns have storms too. And they are visible to others, but it doesn’t affect the amount of light we are getting to a dangerous degree.

I think that says to me that it is natural to have tension in our lives and have those storms from time to time. Just because we have that doesn't mean we aren't doing our best and doesn't mean we aren't on track towards eternal life in the celestial kingdom. It says to me that the good effect we have and the light that we share is far greater than the tension we deal with.

Image: Third Grade Discoveries, http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blog_id=826749.

Inage: Windows to the Universe, http://www.windows.ucar.edu/sun/images/sunspots_big_jpg_image.html

Whose is this image?

16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. (Matthew 22:16-21)

Usually when we read this scripture, we read it to mean that money may belong to the government that coins it, but our service or something else (we’re not quite sure what) belongs to God.

I believe that the key to understanding exactly what it was that should be rendered to God is in that word “image”. Somehow Jesus was trying to draw a parallel that his hearers could perfectly understand.

I made progress when I remembered an important scripture in the Old Testament that I’m absolutely sure the Jews of Jesus’s day knew extremely well. A scripture from Genesis about the Creation.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27)

There it is. Render to Caesar the things that are in his image, but render to God the things (meaning us) which are in His image.

And that word “render”. According to the dictionary it could mean “give help” or “submit for inspection” or “hand over” or “deliver” or “cause to become”, among other things.

(Image credit - LDS pictures, ldspictures.wordpress.com/)