I
saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the Sun,
which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me,
I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing
above me in the air. The first spoke to me, calling me by name, and said,
pointing to the other, “This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him.”
--Joseph Smith
There are some interesting physical phenomena involved here:
Gravity is apparently constrained, and there is a
“Beyond-a-19th-Century-technology-light-show,” among other things. These unusual
features were also apparent in the three visits by Moroni to Joseph in 1823.
Physicists have learned a lot in the past century, but mostly we’ve learned how
much we don’t know. Some possibilities (among the known
unknowns) are Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Quantum Entanglement – any of which
may be involved. This is another reason for physicists to look forward to crossing
over to the Other Side: we’ll learn what they are, and what else is involved!
TWO Brief Asides Here:
a. This wasn’t the
only time something like this happened. As noted, three years later in 1823 Moroni appeared the same way. These weren’t dreams either, but physical visits.
Moroni physically carried away the plates after the translation was
completed. Also, Joseph was not the only witness to this kind of visit; the
Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses (who handled physical plates), and
others (e.g., several in the Kirtland Temple) also witnessed similar visits.
b. Why did God the
Eternal Father visit a humble, half-grown, poorly-educated kid in the boonies
of western New York – the wild west of the US at the time? Why not visit the
Pope Pius VII in Rome? The chief Imam in Makkah? President James Monroe? There
is an important pattern here: Christ himself was born in the most humble
of circumstances. He died in the most humbling and degrading way the Romans
could engineer. Humility is important – the Savior makes this clear time and
time again throughout the scriptures. By example.
Remarkable Consequences followed from this visit: The First
Vision restored to us the only Pre-Nicaean “Primitive
Christianity” Church on Earth; One not “…made of The Philosophies
of Men, Mingled with Scripture,” but instead fully consistent with what Jesus
taught:
· This
is the only Church that preaches all the Bible, including the principle of a Separate
Godhead (Matthew 3:16-17 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up
straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a
voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
and Matthew 17:5 “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed
them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.”), Baptism for the Dead (see 1
Corinthians 15:29 “Else what shall they do
which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then
baptized for the dead?”), and a Pre-Existence (Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” and Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the
spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”), among other doctrines
unique to this Church – a Church that the Savior countenances.
· This
is the only Church that has planned and operates 168 Temples,
with 49 more planned or under construction, all over the Earth.
· This
is the only Church, as far as I know, that is also preached in all the
World – even in China, even in Saudi Arabia (where my family were personal
witnesses), even in Israel (despite severe restrictions). It is likely even practiced in North Korea
(though sub-rosa among diplomats, inferred from our experience as such in
Venezuela and Saudi Arabia).
This represents only the 6th time (according to my
count) that God the Eternal Father has physically visited the Earth.
Most other interactions with prophets (Abraham, Moses, Paul, the Brother of
Jared, Nephi, etc.) were with Jehovah.
THE SIX
TIMES FATHER IN HEAVEN WAS PHYSICALLY PRESENT:
1.
Organizing Adam and Eve (Genesis, Temple)
2. Casting
Adam and Eve out of the Garden (Genesis, Temple)
3. Baptism
of Jesus (Matthew 3:16–17)
4.
Transfiguration on the Mount (Matthew 17:5)
5. To the
Nephites (3 Nephi 11:7)
6. The Sacred
Grove (JS—History 1:11–20)
Let’s now put
this into larger perspective (warning – we're entering the nerd zone here):
Specifically, let’s talk about Exoplanets: In the 1830’s we
learned from multiple revelations that there were “other worlds” in addition to
ours. This was far beyond the science of the time. Astronomers were only
just discovering what existed in the Solar System – Neptune had not yet been
discovered. In fact, there is very explicit information about other
worlds in the Temple Endowment ceremony.
To give a sense of how ahead-of-its-time this other worlds concept
was, bear in mind that it was only in 1933 that Edwin Hubble finally proved through variable stars in a photographic plate that some blurry things seen in telescopes were other galaxies!
In the past 30 years astronomers actually began discovering
“exo-planets.”
· As
of January 2020: 4,108 exoplanets are “firmly” verified. 18 can support
liquid water. (About 1,000 of
these exoplanets have been found by the Kepler satellite.)
· Kepler-452b
(1,402 LY) and Kepler-1638b (2,492 LY) are Earth-sized and orbit G-type stars
like ours, found at 0.75 – 1.5 Earth-orbit radii from their star. They lie in
the “Goldilocks Zone” – Not too hot/too cold.
· Note
that the Milky Way galaxy hosts 100 billion stars… maybe twice that. It’s kind
of hard to count.
· We
have enough information from the local galactic vicinity now to suggest that 10% - 26% of stars can host an
Earth-sized planet.
· That
means there could be 5 billion Earth-sized “worlds” in our galaxy alone.
· In
1995 the Hubble telescope was turned to a dark, star-free part of the northern
hemisphere sky to gather a “Deep Field” image. This effort took 10 days to
gather enough photons to see anything in that apparently empty patch – a tiny patch
of sky the size of a tennis ball at a distance of a football field. Another
Deep Field image was acquired in the southern hemisphere the following year,
and both images were full of far-distant galaxies. These have been
extrapolated by cosmologists to suggest there are as many as 2 trillion
galaxies in the universe.
Some simple multiplication gives 2 x 10+12 * 5 x
10+9 ≈ 10+22 worlds out there. That’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (in other words, ten
sextillion) Earth-sized worlds.
Of course, there are caveats upon caveats with this number.
For one thing, the early universe did not have enough heavy elements for any
Earth-like worlds until sufficient stars had formed, grown old, and gone nova/supernova to provide the life-critical heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus, silica, and iron, etc. How many of these worlds orbit in
a “Goldilocks Zone”? How many orbit single stars instead of complex binary
stars? How many have "correct" ratios of light isotopes (C, O, N, P, Si, etc.) to
heavy isotopes (Fe, Cr, Mn, etc.)
From latter-day revelation we know that the Father and the
Son have tangible bodies of flesh and bone (D&C 130:22–23 / Articles of
Faith 1). They look like us (or more correctly, we are organized in their
image). This implies that Father in Heaven can be in only one place at a
time.
I want to qualify this “implies” word carefully,
because the history of humankind is full of men who try to put human limits on
a Creator who is far beyond what they can possibly comprehend.
But if so, then the significance
of Father In Heaven visiting our world even once is huge. Much less six times.
Why Now? I put together a chart
of the (growing) Signs of the Times. I found seventeen separate prophesies
about these Signs in scripture – and more than half of the seventeen – nine –
have been fulfilled only since 1820! There are just five more to go, and
two are pretty terrifying:
Clearly
the Signs are accelerating. Gathering Steam.
In
“Nerdlish” the curve is non-linear; the 2nd Derivative is strongly
positive.
Pres. Nelson reinforced this observation in the October 2018
General Conference:
“If you think the church has been fully restored, you’re just
seeing the beginning… There is much more to come.… Wait till next year. And
then the next year. Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. It’s going to be
exciting.”
We
are celebrating the 200th anniversary of one of just six Cusp Events
in all of human history.
I am so grateful that my Father in Heaven chose to come here
personally – first to bring about, and now to accelerate our salvation.
==Jeff Wynn, 8Mar2020, the last talk given in the Grass Valley Ward.
Dear Bro. Wynn,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your book Everyone is a Believer I was delighted that you mentioned that the earth is a living being.The scriptures you cite refer to her groaning as the destruction of the wicked convulses her. This is good evidence that she lives, however there is evidence that she is more than just alive.
And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? (Moses 7:48)
It appears that Mother Earth is sentient, intelligent, and desires to communicate.
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. Therefore, it must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory; For after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father; 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. And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom. For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory. (D&C 88:17-22)
It also appears that the Earth is capable of living a celestial law. Which means that she is able to understand laws and exercises agency to obey them. This makes it a logical assumption that other celestial bodies; planets, stars, galaxies, could also be intelligent and communicate with one another. I’m thinking that a paper addressing this subject would probably have problems getting past peer review, but it’s fun to think about such things, especially when you mix in the musings (some would say ravings) of Brigham Young.
...when the last of the spirits in prison who will receive the Gospel has received it; when the Savior comes and receives his ready bride, and all who can be are saved in the various kingdoms of God—celestial, terrestrial and telestial, according to their several capacities and opportunities; when sin and iniquity are driven from the earth, and the spirits that now float in this atmosphere are driven into the place prepared for them; and when the earth is sanctified from the effects of the fall, and baptized, cleansed, and purified by fire, and returns to its paradisiacal state, and has become like a sea of glass, a Urim and Thummim; when all this is done, and the Savior has presented the earth to his Father, and it is placed in the cluster of the celestial kingdoms…
Brigham Young, JD 17 p.117,
https://scriptures.byu.edu/#12e7b:t29822&cluster:st&&1830&2020&gjt&r&30@0$cluster
They will have to bow the knee and confess that He is God, and that Jesus Christ, who suffered for the sins of the world, is actually its Redeemer; that by the shedding of his blood he has redeemed men, women, children, beasts, birds, fish, the earth itself, and everything that John saw and heard praising in heaven. Rev. 5:13
https://scriptures.byu.edu/#12e7b:t4e4f&sun:st&1396&1830&2020&gjt&r&30@30$sun
BY JD 2 p 309
Wow. I'm glad to meet you... and sorry that I didn't see this until now (been finishing and publishing another book). Our youngest son has a copy of Since Cumorah signed by Hugh Nibley. It's a family treasure.
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