The eternal round in the plan of salvation

The scriptures are like mirrors in a telescope, looking into them we capture more light to understand the eternal round in the plan of salvation.

All of you who read in theancum for years know that one of my purposes is to develop a cosmology of the Gospel. The eternal twist in the plan of salvation is an advanced movement in the scriptures that causes me much wonder.
Over this time I have accumulated ideas and views on this subject. All the scattered material in this area will be condensed into an attempt to formulate a theory of a Gospel Cosmology.

Before entering fully into this D&C revelation, it is necessary to understand how we come to ask these questions. Because everything has a path that is as important as the arrival at the destination.

Hypothesis, theory and theorem.

• A hypothesis is an idea that is based on evidence that indicates its veracity; however, it is not possible to assure it since it has not been tested.
• A theory is an organized set of hypotheses that explain a phenomenon, deduced from observation, experience or logical reasoning.
• A theorem is a mathematical proposition based on already demonstrated propositions. A theorem is something irrefutable.Logically I do not aspire to write a «Cosmological Theorem of the Gospel» only the title would make it impossible in a religious context. But I do aspire to present a set of organized ideas and hypotheses that agree with scripture and what we know about nature. Whether they are worthy of consideration as a theory would be an accomplishment for me. Only the reader will have the word.

However, as these ideas come together, I have seen with delight a symmetry between scripture and science. A harmony that frees me to some extent from uncertainties and brings me much joy.
For your assurance and mine, Theancum is not a place of doctrine but of observation, of pointing out directions, of encouraging study and prayer. I am not looking for followers, for me that would be an unbearable burden, but to stimulate the gymnastics of study and meditation on the restored wonder. In that colossal restoration of knowledge that we received from the Lord.

Today we will make an attempt to fit together the plan of salvation and the nature of time and space where that plan unfolds. We will do this by studying in the scriptures where they talk about the eternal twist in the plan of salvation.
I analyzed this question in July 2019 with quite a spread, over 16,000 views, almost half from the USA, since then I have made new contributions.

The powerful underlying layer.

As members of a Judeo-Christian culture, we all have a common substratum in pre-restoration Christianity. In this, every mystery not attained by reason or faith is attributed to the divinity, from the origin of matter to the origin of intelligence, from space to time. Any contradiction or departure from the norm corresponded to a desertion of faith.

The lack of resolution in the understanding of the world and its details during the apostasy is similar to the observation of binary stars. They are stars that revolve around each other, but the ancient means of observation could only see one star, when in reality they were two. Distinguishing their duality required new telescopes with higher resolving power. The result of this improvement was not to contradict the previous idea of a star, but to increase our knowledge of it. That is why the restoration extends its influence to…

«…Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms…» (D&C 88:79)

New stars

The deep underlying layer of apostasy still preserves in us an apprehension to deal with matters we consider mysteries. Detecting or resolving in the Gospel the new «stars orbiting» around traditional concepts is made possible by the power of the new scriptures delivered in the restoration. Our resolution, the ability to distinguish new objects in the firmament of the gospel, has increased incredibly.

In theanchum we are dedicated to this among other tasks. We look through our «Urim and Tumin» and it really is a new vision related to the familiar but augmented and wonderful.

Time and space in the plan of salvation

In the new scriptures we can find words like time, space, eternal turning, straight path, endless, worlds, expansion… All of them operate in the environment of the gospel and its plan of salvation. However, I make an observation regarding them

«Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.» (D&C 1:24)

These new words were compressed before the restoration in the scriptures, they were folded into the biblical texts. In the present, the language of the saints and their way of speaking is broader than that of the past. The Lord in his wisdom has unfolded the ancient words into others that increase our understanding.
The unfolding, for example, of the word eternal turning, provokes a cascade of new meanings, which I believe, we can begin to discover during today’s reading.

Meditating on the singular

This example I put below perfectly reflects the work carried out at Teáncum since its inception in October 2015.
Martin Bojowald in his book «Before the Big Bang» proposes an example of what a singularity is.

The behavior of water flowing through a pipe can be described by the laws of fluid mechanics. It is easy to calculate how much water circulates per second at such a pressure and with such a pipe section. However, when we get to a dripping faucet, those laws are useless, because a drop of water is totally different from a continuous stream of water in a pipe. It is necessary to go to the atom, the composition of water molecules, gravity, surface tension… because a drop of water is unique, it needs different laws to understand its behavior.

In the restoration, the doctrine does not behave in the classical way we knew in the past, the new words and concepts are singularities that drip from the new scriptures for each person who wants to drink. The Lord desires that we delve into the nature of His words and not just their general meaning.
Before the restoration, it was not possible to study with certainty the singular because there were no doctrinal foundations to do so. Now he speaks to us with the power of the spirit and revelation so that we understand.
This requires an imaginative effort on our part, which does not degenerate into fantasy, and nothing better for that than the common sense transmitted by the iron bar.

Some singular drops

Before going into the study on the eternal twist in the plan of salvation, let us look at an example of scriptures with cosmological connotations that we only find in the restoration scriptures.

Space

For example the word «space» appears in Abraham 3:24.

«We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;» (Abraham 3:24)

It suggests a concrete place from where they descend to a vast unorganized space. From materials, in my opinion a planetary embryo, the creation of the earth begins. This writing is a singular drop so that, using «[our] way of speaking, [we] reach understanding» (24) It is a writing that conveys movement, volume, a space where creation develops and where it mentions primordial elements. Genesis in the Bible lacks volume, it is linear since it is delivered to a culture lacking a concept of spatial depth (Egyptians), for them the sky is a mirror.

«Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?» (Job 37:18)

Thus by closely scrutinizing Abraham 3, multiple insights emerge into the nature of God and his relationship to creation. Linking that wealth of ideas to the plan of salvation is easy when we familiarize ourselves with the scriptures.

Space in D&C

In D&C 88 «space» appears five times and refers to the cosmological concept of the word, unique in all the scriptures. That drop of knowledge that emerges from this word in section 88 is of such richness that it deserves future development in theancum.

«And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings;» (DyC 88:11-12)

The combination of brightness, light, proceeding, immensity and space is of incredible evocative power if we know anything about the Universe. These are properties of spacetime that the scriptures transform into spirituality, giving secular knowledge a new dimension. I will not expand on this aspect now, but I invite the reader to consult the cosmology section of the gospel where there is a lot of development of this idea.

» …the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made;» (D&C 38:1)

There is nothing like it…what can I say? The Lord unites space (expansion) and eternity (time) It was not until 1915 that Einstein published the theory of general relativity introducing the concept of space-time and gravity. In a poetic way the Lord introduces us to the importance of this fabric of reality that we will now see unfold in the scriptures.
Why does he speak in this way? …because he stimulates us to think and meditate on his hidden mysteries. How can we not stand before his language?
«…I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow;» (D&C 12:2)

The eternal round in the plan of salvation

«His course is one eternal round.» (D&C 3:2) Esta expresión solo se encuentra en el Libro de Mormón y en Doctrina y Convenios, por lo tanto es un despliegue exclusivo del lenguaje de la restauración. Las escrituras modernas son como espejos desplegados. A semejanza de los espejos del observatorio James Web, broaden our minds to capture more light and truth «Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space» (D&C 88:12) and thus find «wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;» (D&C 89:19)

In this age where the orbit of their work is approaching the meeting point, the saints need to unfold the scriptures and understand future events and not by shadow but with fullness of knowledge.

A retrospective

Before studying the above in more detail, let us look at the plan of salvation that existed in Christianity before the restoration.
To summarize it is very simple. We are born without a past with an immortal soul, we die and according to our works we are resurrected to go to heaven or hell.

It is a linear and uniform movement. Both the existence of the soul and its time and movement start from zero and end in a stationary glory, without declared movements, that is to say, an indefinite glory without a clear outline.
To say that the soul is born from zero at its birth on this earth calls into question its eternal condition. Nothing is born from nothing since the necessary condition to be eternal, is the one fulfilled by intelligence «…Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.» (D&C 93:29) therefore it is eternal. Therefore in the restoration we are children of God but not his creatures, we have always existed.
We read in Abraham about the spirits.

«…have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal.» (Abraham 3:18)

The law of conservation of energy tells us that «Energy is neither created nor destroyed but transformed» we can also say it of intelligence, this law fully coincides with the above scriptures.
This is a basic doctrine in the restoration «…intelligence [is] the spiritual element that existed before we were begotten as spiritual children.» (Scripture Guide) We are not born from nothingness because emptiness does not exist. We are transformed, being begotten from pure intelligence to be children of God, in the likeness of our children on earth.
The linear, one-dimensional plan above is incapable of representing this knowledge.

An eternal turn

To roughly represent God’s plan, we need a higher geometry.

«For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round.» (D&C 3:2)

The first part of the verse rules out the random movements of mankind, those without fineness of plotting. If, in Jared’s journey, we see only the transport of fish in vessels (Éter 2:2)), then we perceive only crooked ways, a line disconnected from the broad outline of his plan; hence the despair of Laman and Lemuel in Lehi’s journey.
That is why we sometimes hear «if God exists why does he allow such a thing…» thus involuntarily confessing ignorance of the broad geometry of his plan, easily visible in a scenario as uncluttered as a desert.

If God’s plan were only the eternal twist represented in image B, we would have something similar to the previous scheme A but curved. Time, of scheme B, the red arrows, is not part of space but time is the stage where events occur, it is not the expanse of eternity of which the Savior speaks, something dynamic. Nephi makes something clear to us about this.

«…as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.» (1 Nefi 10:19)

By saying «and as well in times of old as in times to come« we are to add the time that Nephi adds to that turning, but as the axis of the movement and that gives us a more complex but more revealing picture. With that movement in time, existence and repentance is possible

«…we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.» (Alma 42:4)

Not only a time but a space to do so. Satan, although he has space, cannot repent because he lacks the time to do so. In his space there is «the end, the width, the height, the depth» but there is no time, instead there is «the misery of it» (DyC 76:48).

An eternal turn in time

The three dimensions of our space would not be possible without time, it is a concept of relativity. They are not independent but a single fabric, that is why the Lord speaks of «expansion of eternity.»
Each of these three eternal spins represented does not close in on itself, time pulls them and opens them to the future, that is why Adam «was granted a time». The schemes A and B are not eternal, but if we spatially develop the new scriptures we find eternity. I have represented in the first turn the seven dispensations of the gospel on earth, the seventh being the present one. Turns 2 and 3 represent the work of God in the humanities of other worlds.

On a small scale, the tendency of any moving body is to go in a straight line, to vary its direction a force must be applied. In this case its path is straight (T), associated with the Lord’s time, but its way or trajectory is curved. This curvature involves a permanent divine force that designs the space where human events take place. Its intervention is like gravity, it is not seen but it is present in everything.

However, our impression is that humanity walks forward, oblivious to the divine curvature, riding in time towards the future, away from the divine plans. We add historical stages that do not close any turn.
But it is an illusion, there is no such movement in the Universe, everything is curved because the structure of space-time does not allow purely straight movements. All nature is a turn, life, ecosystems, seasons, orbits of the stars, even our psyche.

The gravity of their presence

Gravity bends everything, gravity is one of the common points between the kingdom of heaven and our world. The force that causes this eternal twist has at its center the attractive influence of God as expressed in Abraham

«These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.» (Abraham 3:3)

All takes place with the «gravitational» influence of His presence in the heavens from the beginning. Through his words «I dwell in the midst of them all» (21) or when he says «And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them,» (23) we notice that central point of our turning around him.
Even in the camp of Israel we can see this disposition.

«Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.»  (Núm 2;2)

Properties of the eternal turn

Just as a charged particle emits radiation when it spins in a magnetic field, the eternal spin of his works radiates the glory of God to the immensity of space.
We see that glory in another spin in nature of special symmetry with the eternal spin of his plan, the DNA molecule.

DNA has a double helix shape, like a spiral staircase where the sides are chains of sugars and phosphates connected by «rungs», which are the nitrogenous bases, the direction of rotation is clockwise. Their function is to store the information of living beings. They are grouped in chromosomes, which are DNA molecule containers located in the cell nucleus.

When cell division occurs, each DNA molecule divides, forming two new molecules with the same previous information. In this way the identity of the living being continues in time.

This spiral design is a reproduction of the eternal spinning of his works in a lesser realm, therefore….

«Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.» (D&C 88:47)

In the case of the eternal turning in the work of God, we find the same helix model that exists in the least of his kingdoms.
In section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants we read.

«Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue» (20)

One can now understand this verse with a deeper nuance. The power that DNA has in its twist is also to make us «continue» in this life, transmitting our genetic load to the next generation. In the same way that the eternal turns of his work, [They] to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.. (Moses 1:39)
Therefore the work of the temple, continues the works of the DNA, taking them to a greater realm. The keys of Elijah continue weaving the inheritance beyond the veil. Hence the importance of Genealogy, the keys of Elijah and his ordinances are directly related to this twist of genetic information of our body.

That double helix in the gospel we can see it in Abraham.

«…and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.»(Abraham 2:11)

He is speaking of two descents, that of the priesthood and that of the body. Both compose the fabric of the society of the heavens and both spin intertwined.
This double helix, rebuilt inch by inch with the keys of Elijah, as do the enzymes in the duplication of DNA, are what millions of saints use to replicate in the temple ordinances what the literal offspring receive from the inheritance. Side by side in a dextogyro (!) sense.

It is amazing to see the symmetry of their kingdoms from the lesser to the greater.
Just as the chromosomes package and care for the survival of the DNA in a nurturing and protected environment, the family does the same with the individuals, preserving and transmitting their qualities into the future.

A knot of power

Let us now see graphically the division that occurs at the end of an eternal turn in that immense helix in the turn of the plan of salvation.

At the end of this first eternal turn in the exaltation, beyond the fulfillment of the times, comes the hatching of life, there will be a division.

«All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ.» (D&C 121:29)

It is an expansion in space, not only of honor and glory but dominion in space, power to say «We will descend, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials…». In the same way that DNA, conserving its «family» information, when replicating itself, expands in space organizing the available «materials» and creates a new cell to dwell in.
Each of the lineages represented from 1 to 6 start from exaltation. But its backbone from the point of origin, preserves the genealogical order in the ordinances (corporal and priesthood). Otherwise there would be no continuity of the eternal lives in the likeness of what death on earth would be with the non-continuation of the bodies.

«…lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.» (Malachi 4:6)

So at his coming, if it were not for the keys of Elijah and the work of the temple, everything would be a great failure, the world would be destroyed.
Why?

Because just as the loss of replication in the DNA is the death of the body, in the world to come the loss of the union in the generations, in the helix of the bodily descendants and that of the priesthood (Abraham 2:11) is the death of eternal lives. It would be the sinking of an eternal turn. It would mean the victory of the adversary, hence its belligerence against the family and the patriarchal order. Belligerence against the marriage that is the basic union to order among other aspects, the inheritance and its ordinances.
It is in the eternal turn of the plan of salvation, in the greater and lesser kingdoms, where «all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.» (11).