This post is more of a framework of belief, than a detailed description. Pains have gone into fleshing out concepts, but do not attempt proofs. The writer assumes the reader is already very familiar with scripture, and can decipher and pick up on scriptural statements.
Questions this post covers:
What is law, and how is it related to grace? Why do Christians think they live by grace, but actually practice law? How is the Law of Moses and religious laws in general related?
Are Eastern-type enlightenments legitimate, and if so, how do they relate to an understanding of Christian and Mormon experiences and teachings?
What is the Light of Christ? Why is it so named? Is it the same as, different, or inferior to the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Who is Jesus, what is the meaning of his primary title “Christ”?
What is the commonality between Socialism, monarchies, Libertarianism and democracy. What attracts people to these systems on a fundamental level? What constitutes a heavenly government?
What is authority that so many people define in varying ways? What is priesthood, what is Melchizedek and Aaronic priesthood and their relation?
Who is the Father? Are the Father and the Son two separate beings? Why do some visionary accounts have Jesus telling them he is, and always has been the Father? Why do some accounts say they are separate beings? Is one deceived and false, or can they be reconciled?
Why isn’t this explained more clearly in scripture? Why is it not more clear here?
What is meant by the mansions of heaven which God prepares for us? Where and when is heaven?
What is the significant of “day one” of creation as opposed to “day two”?
What is the relation between the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life?
Who are Gentiles and how do they manifest authority?
Why can the Father not appear without a host?
Law. There is the Law of Moses, given as a schoolmaster for failure to receive grace. There is grace, which one can obtain after coming through the law. The Law which Moses gave and its temple were inspired, prophetic and pointed to grace, not just pointing to the time of Jesus in the earth, but the time of Christ to come in us. Some obtained grace even before Christ was born a babe and received their Second Comforter. These were the prophets of the OT. Receiving the SC does not clear up all of your misconceptions, but is there for you to experience what God is like and have the ability to report that to others. The purpose of the Son is to reveal the Father, to prepare the vessel to open their mind wide to the vastness of creation, to know the Father is to come into a host. When the Father is known, all things point back to his creation. The following is an experience of Richard Bucke:
“I was in a state of quiet, almost passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images, and emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in that great city. The next, I knew that the fire was within myself.
“Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then.
“I saw that without any peradventure, all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain.
“The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of the reality of what it taught has remained during the quarter of a century which has since elapsed. I knew that what the vision showed was true. I had attained to a point of view from which I saw that it must be true. That view, that conviction, I may say that consciousness, has never, even during periods of the deepest depression, been lost.”1
This is a manifestation of the Father. The son may appear, but it is not requisite if the vessel is prepared2 and open to receive the Father. The Son is the fulfillment of the expression of God. A vessel who fully manifested the Father. The Father is at the core, he is like the third rail or live wire, the source of the energy of the universe. Coming into contact with that can be electrifying, terrifying, exhilarating, for everything that has hidden the Father must shake, and fall away. The person must pass through the eye of the needle, must pass the cherubim which guard the way with a two edge sword which cuts to the marrow and so discover true riches.
The Law of Moses was not a universal law. It was specifically for Israel and those who wished to join them. It was not needed.3 There are others who come into contact with the Universe and experience God. These come back and as a result they can be broken, can he left without utterance, can be a stranger in a strange land, or can attempt to lead people into the light they enjoyed by recreating their path to connection.4 In many ways they may not understand what has happened and it is not lent easily explanation, and perhaps more importantly if it were fully explained, it would be able to be exploited by the self-serving who serve their vain ambition and lead away sheep with something that can seem genuine to some, but is detected by the “humble followers of Christ” as a fraud, though usually with pain and great travail of soul.
Christ is a title, not specifically a person, unless Christ is perfectly embodied such that the terms are synonymous. It’s not so much a title as Gentiles think of it, as it is a power. Joseph Smith described it clearly when he said:
“…through Jesus Christ his Son, he that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth, which truth shines. This is the light of Christ, as also he is in the sun and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made; as also he is in the moon and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; as also the light of the stars and the power thereof by which they were made; and the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which now shines, which gives you light, is through him who enlightens your eyes, which is the same light that quickens your understandings, which light proceeds forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space: the light which is in all things, which gives life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sits upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.” (D&C 88)
Christ is in all things, even us. The all-in-all as some writers put it. When Jesus declares his glory and light, he declared he did the will of the Father. There are examples of renaming something, giving it the name of the vessel who typifies it well. Melchizedek was an example of this. Melchizedek itself was a title Melchi-zedek meaning king and priest. So there was a priesthood originally named The Priesthood after the Order of the Son, which was renamed simply Melchi-zedek priesthood5 or the priesthood of kings and priests, however that was not the original name, though it has nearly the same meaning if it is truly understood. The Light of Christ is also an example of this renaming. Jesus declared his light was the Father, the light which led his way was the Father, this light being renamed for the one who exemplified the Father, and at the same time declaring the source of the that light, the Light of Christ which is in and through all things, and the “center” as it were of all planets, rocks, water, plants, animals and people.
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes…
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
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The concept of redemption is a powerful one; the closer a person is to the Father the more powerfully that message resonates. When Darth Vader’s stony heart broke, even in his physically weakened condition, he, with might tapped from deep wells, threw the Emperor to his death. The message of redemption resonates powerfully, and is one of the most powerful, endearing and calculated ways to make sobbing babies of us all, even in a fictional, archetypal or mythical account because it speaks to this core, or this center. When we hear about a sin6 revealed, in which we, ourselves are guilty, we tremble, because our center is trying to throw down our false foundation, and trying instead to expose the bedrock upon which we might build a more solid structure.
So “Christ” is in and through all things. This light is in the Methodist, the Mormon, the Buddhist, and the Atheist, without which they could not breathe.7 We look at labels such as these and we think they are the pure, original form of the thing. We think of a pure Christian preserving the sacred teachings of Jesus, a pure Mormon, who accepts Jesus through their “more updated” tenets, or the Buddhist who we make the same or equal to Buddha himself. The truth is none of these are pure or original. They are but pale imitations. While what started the movements might have been pure, what resulted afterward wound up attaching a lot of garbage, false traditions and pride that needs to be removed before the follower of any tradition can see clearly. Did Joseph Smith gaze into heaven? I believe so. Did Buddha connect with the source of the Universe?8 I believe he did, but just as with the Methodist, the sacred to which they place hope in their hearts omits the possibility of Buddha or Joseph Smith as authentic and only look to the historic figure of Jesus. All of these original actors had intimate access to the author of the universe (as do we), and when each one tapped into that light, it was profound, left them without immediate words, but each of them began to teach others about the depths which they experienced, to bring others to the Father. However what these founders inevitably found, was that the people needed a schoolmaster, a law and a straight and narrow path until they too could taste the Tree of Life, the love of which is so large and wide, that it “sheddeth itself abroad” into the hearts of every creature.
Given that all people subject themselves to a law in an unending verity of forms, to which they believe, if they hold true, will bring them salvation. The law might be the Law of Moses to the Israelites. It might be the letters the apostles wrote after the death of Christ to the Christians. It could be patriotism, crunchy health-food proponents—anything can be turned into a law. Each child eventually partakes of this Tree of Knowledge which brings death, releasing their connection to life. It is this tree and its effects which must be, and is so painful to shed, before being allowed to partake again of the Tree of Life. No so much “allowed” as it is always there, but it is not accessible to the “knowing” mind, and getting rid of this knowing mind is so painful, that it is likened to a cherubim and a flaming sword, which cuts both joint and marrow, and as a result it winds up turning nearly every way from life, or the tiny eye of a needle through which those who think themselves rich with knowledge must pass through.
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The concept of authority. In Gentile kingdoms and organizations, there is a central head, board of directors or a quorum of twelve that is the final word in that kingdom. In these kingdoms, the central authority appoints officers to carry out their will, the central authority being the author of that will. These Gentile kingdoms may be more or less enlightened by true author-ity, but they, nevertheless, run according to a central mind, giving out direction, letters, memos, operations manuals and commandments to their darkened following like a beehive zion-reich, appointing each their place. The kingdom of heaven is run in no such way. There is a central mind, but it is at the center of all things. It doesn’t reside in Salt Lake, the Vatican, New York or Washington D.C. Each person who has re-entered the Garden, recognizes this author in them, and it is the source of author-ity for all things. There is no need for an apostle or prophet, or president, as the writer said these things are given until we come to a unity of the faith.9
True apostles/prophets, those who have access to real author-ity may exist and may create earthly organizations in an effort to lead each person into true author-ity for themselves such that no one need say “Know ye the Lord?” These enlightened organizations have the goal of making their people free, not in continual bondage. It starts with a person who knows the universal mind. But this organization becomes more or less dead as the organization grows and spreads from that mind in hierarchy and in time. This is a hybrid system, not fully dead, and in this state, it usually only lasts until the death of the testator (Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, Buddha) after which, the organization quickly descends into a dead Gentile hierarchy with someone claiming leadership over the organization. The exceptions to such a rule are rare, but do exist as in the case of Enoch and Melchizedek who’s followers did receive their own light and it is said that God walked among them. These enlightened hybrid organizations are where the concept of Lesser priesthood comes into view. Aaron, who had not the vision of Moses was given “priesthood” because he had an association with Moses, who had been transformed into a being of light. These are Melchi-zedeks, who live in day one of creation, leading Aaronics who live in day two. One being unity, and two being division. (The day in which they live being obvious by the behavior which they emit.)
Those who have author-ity need no man to command them, but operate in harmony with each other, each doing that which they ought because it is what heaven endowed them with, or endowed them to do, flowing in harmony with the will of the universe, no one engaging in ridiculous strife, position-jockeying or competition. Contrary to dead Gentile organizations, this source of all life is a powerful creative, curious and cooperative energy and unfathomable variety that needs no one to direct it.
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This cooperative aspect of the energy is what leads some into a system known as socialism, where the dead organize and lead the dead and redistribute their wealth by a committee of thieves. The central mind aspect of this energy is what causes people to gravitate towards a king, whom they follow as if he were God. Most cultures wind up declaring their king to be God himself, or at least his mouthpiece on earth, and to follow him, is to do one’s duty to God and country. Examples of this are in Egyptian, Japanese, English cultures, as well as what has become of the American system. Both of these systems try to emulate some aspect of true author-ity, amongst a dead people who never have to seek the light, but rely on a strong-man to show them the way, relieving themselves of all obligation to come alive. Libertarians emulate the freeing aspect of not being ruled by man, and ironically have little representation in the history of governments. The American system came as close as it could, but among those who wish to remain dead, it is doomed to decay into rancor and become some other system or -ism. The Greek democracies represented another aspect, in that that they recognized that the power was in each person (dēmos: people, cracy: rule), yet here again is only a shadow of the hopes of mankind, which similarly devolves into great chaos.
While each system represented some aspect of pure government, each starts on a false foundation of control and manipulation, which is required if a people are determined to be dead. This rotten foundation leads some people to rightly declare all taxation is theft, all voting is unrighteous dominion that takes money or life-energy from one to put to use by the will of the system, even if that system is a constitutional republic. Even if all people wholeheartedly agree to the system at first, it doesn’t continue, and children born into it are already slaves of whatever they are born into. The children gradually lose their heavenly connection to conform to the forms of the dead.
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The Father cannot make himself known without a host, the Light of Christ resides in every soul, in everything. The Light of Christ, as declared by Jesus, is the Father. When God revealed himself to Moses, he showed Moses every person and every particle of the earth, and let him know that there were other countless worlds like this one. He showed him, as it were the clay tabernacles or “mansions” housing God.
The concept of Christ and the Father, some being reported to appear separately and some singly. Some reporting Christ to declare the he is, and always has been the Father, and some reporting that the Father and Son both appear, I believe can be reconciled harmoniously, if pondered upon, the meaning of the word “Father”.
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Notes:
1. Experience of Richard Bucke, a Canadian psychiatrist who was President of the Psychological Section of the British Medical Association and later, President of the American Medico-Psychological Association. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, New American Library, 1958, pp. 306-307.
2. “Prepared” gives one a sense that there must be some effort involved. And in some cases that may be, however “prepared” may have more to do with the circumstances (joys, anguishes) one is faced with in life that prepares them. “it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” (D&C 88) In some cases the user of the word “prepared” may be intentionally making the reader think they must effort, in order to provide a “straight and narrow” way discussed later.
God follows types and patterns, but is not bound by them. I think God would rather keep us guessing and making judgements (if that is what we are inclined to do) than bind him down to a specified pattern. He is not a tame lion.
3. It was not needed in one sense because the Israelites could have immediately received grace. It was needed on the other hand because they refused grace, and this was a merciful second measure for them and their generations.
4. Jim Carrey is an example of one of these types. He had an experience. He came back and tried to express the joy of what he felt. As a result he found our society completely unrelatable and intolerable. As a result, people view him as a mad-man.
5. I am not referring to what LDS call Melchizedek priesthood, though there is some superficial resemblance. The LDS have no Melchizedek priesthood, and when it appears, they cast it out from their church. The ritual of bestowing “Melchizedek priesthood” upon “worthy” makes may have been intended by Joseph to have been more of a teaching opportunity, and invitation to “go get it”. However it has since be conflated to being the thing itself and the pride of being “chosen” rules the mind. Someone once said “More Mormons die of paper cuts than have Melchizedek priesthood.”
6. I use “sin” as a shorthand, but sin is both more and less than a misdeed that we need to ask for forgiveness for. To sin means to miss the mark. Sin has come to mean a lot of things in our minds but Jacob seems to be pointing out its most accurate and intended meaning when he specifically says the Jews “looked beyond the mark.” This tells us that God originally gives us what is good, and when we want more, or something else, he, as a good and patient teacher, assists us in looking beyond the mark (or in sinning). He gives us what we want, so we can make more informed decisions.
“Looking” has more to do with “perspective” than it does a set of deeds. If the perspective is missed, then we have “missed the mark.” The Jews looked for a set of rules to govern their conduct. A set of rules was not what God originally intended for them. They missed the perspective, they looked in a different direction and God patiently gave them what they wanted with sign-post invitations to “come higher”.
When Alma says that Melchizedek priests “could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence,” I’m not sure we can say that these priests never did things that were against a set of established rules, rather, after obtaining the perspective God gave to them, they abhorred altering that perspective, or going back to their old way of seeing things. They no longer “looked beyond the mark”. They were perfect in Christ and understood what that meant. Like Paul “all things were lawful” to them, but not all things were expedient. They were able to “obtain a sufficient hope by which [they could] enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time (right now) henceforth until [they] shall rest with him in heaven.” (Moroni 7)
“The English Biblical terms translated as ‘sin’ or ‘syn’ from the Biblical Greek and Jewish terms sometimes originate from words in the latter languages denoting the act or state of missing the mark; the original sense of New Testament Greek ἁμαρτία hamartia ‘sin’, is failure, being in error, missing the mark, especially in spear throwing; Hebrew hata ‘sin’ originates in archery and literally refers to missing the ‘gold’ at the centre of a target, but hitting the target, i.e. error.[4] “To sin” has been defined from a Greek concordance as ‘to miss the mark’”. (Wikipedia, Etymology of “Sin”)
7. “I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.” (“King” Benjamin, Mosiah 2:21)
8. “In visionary encounters, friends have seen themselves as an enlightened beings, and in that role experienced peace, joy and love. They have overcome the pains, jealousies and distress of the mortal sphere…” (link)
9. We read that and say, “Ah, these apostles must remain because, the church has not yet come to a unity of the faith.” However, perhaps “unity of faith” has more to do with uniting an individual to heaven, the “Church of the Firstborn”, than it does a body of people that believe something or other to a greater or lesser degree.
Breathings 