The worlds of glory and their orbits, D & C 76 (3rd part)

The patience of the chrysalis

Recalling what was discussed in the first article of the series «The kingdoms of glory» on section 76. The inhabitants of the celestial kingdom, before receiving a fullness, have followed a process of change after «… they received the testimony of Jesus, and They believed in his name. »
We summarize this process by means of an «equation»

[su_note note_color=»#f9c8c8″ text_color=»#401919″ radius=»8″]
Commandments + Σ ((washed + cleansed) + ((Holy Spirit) ƒ (ordinance + authority))) = D & C 76:70
[/su_note]

Or we can read his statement in verse 52

«That by keeping the commandments they might be washedand cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power»

Beginning with verse 51 and following the sons of perdition , the Lord describes the requirements of those who inherit the heavenly.
The righteous, like chrysalises, change their spiritual constitution, in the anonymity of a common body. Not even they are aware. Thus, fulfilling his will, like those masters, are born at the wedding of the lamb, from water to wine. And that master formula, we observe in D & C 76:70 . It is the miracle that Nicodemus did not understand.

That sum of a variable, such as our obedience, to the constants of the ordinances and that of someone ordained and sealed to exercise this power , makes the previous arrangements to receive a celestial body.
As the athlete trains at heights to increase their aerobic capacity and endure the victory in the race. The saints increase their capacity to endure heavenly glory, through obedience to the heavenly program of preparation. But all this happens in the anonymity of the sacred urn of the soul.

The symmetry at the ends

Verse 31.35 (condemned)	Verses 51, 52 (righteous)
a . you know my power b . participate in it c . deny the truth d . they rebel e . deny the Holy Spirit f . they deny the son	a . were baptized b . washed and cleaned c . They received the testimony of Jesus d . in accordance with the command e . they receive the Holy Spirit f . they believed in his name

Those in the right column are «And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise» ( 53 ).
The two columns show the mirror images of the extreme realms of the plan of salvation. The symmetry is remarkable.

The promise

The worlds of glory — but in a thin line

The Holy Spirit of promise is described in the following verses. However, the situation of the righteous on earth is not one of salvation but of balance. They are not on this earth in a platform of salvation, but in a thin line. That’s why it’s a promise. They can fall, in the same way as those first ones of verse 31.

The great unevenness between the previous columns creates a great tension in the lives of the saints. We can reach the tree , but staying requires a constant act of will. There is a whole building focused on the desistance of the will in those who come to taste the fruit. Supporting the crossings of the world requires us to escape to the gentle slope that appears before us. The narrow path proposes the countercurrent as the daily environment of discipleship.

The result of that tension, between two such opposite conditions, is a gradient of orbits around its throne.

A spatial approach

Section 76 is a revelation with a lot of spatial sense. The word world is repeated nine times in its sense of space. Heaven is mentioned seven times. Star repeats three. Sun five. Moon four. All this suggests a celestial, that is, spatial approach to this revelation.
The environment where the Lord explains his kingdoms through 2,832 words is not in the form of a parable . There is too much insistence in astronomical terms to not realize something: There is a clear intention to form in our mind an idea of spaces and worlds.

This approach provides us with interesting ideas and images to better understand the future world that redemption prepares for us. In parallel, the modern cosmology of our time has its counterpart in the advanced cosmology of restoration. Both being in the apostasy divergent lines. Now we see a future encounter when the Lord, who [rule in the heavens above, and among the armiesof the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God.] ( D & C 60: 4 )

The formation of the worlds.

Following the clues given by the language of section 76, let’s expand the field.
The unorganized matter of deep space consists mainly of gas (H) and dust. These elements, when slowly concentrating towards a point due to gravity, form a protostar (star in formation)

That star has a disc of matter that revolves around it. Little by little differentiated rings are formed and in them rocky objects that, uniting, derive in bodies of greater mass, arriving at the end to form planets.
The main force, is the gravity of the star and its light, the cause of future life. Each ring will give light to a planet or bodies of different sizes (asteroids). The giant planets form on the outside and slowly migrate to an inner orbit. In that space of time there is enough calm for the smaller, rocky planets like Earth to form.

The phrase 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;» suggests a process that begins with a smaller and dispersed materials and ends on a planet. The similarity with the formation of the planets described in the ALMA project is impressive.

But this coincidence is obscured if we do not read with gratitude. That is, treating the words of the scriptures as certain without needing to be confirmed, by ALMA . However, this reading must be done «according to [our] knowledge» ( 1 Nephi 1: 3 ) knowledge of Nephi that was composed«of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.» ( 2 ) and in our case that knowledge includes ALMA. It is the difficult balance and tensegrity of the saints in the last days.

The orbits around his throne

The kingdoms of glory described in section 76 orbit like worlds around his throne. Some receive from his presence, others from his influence others ministered by worlds of greater weight of glory. As in the planets of a star system, the distance to the star defines the properties and sizes of its planets. Likewise, the kingdoms of glory receive light and knowledge in the vicinity of their throne.

This spatial concept that I suggest may give us the idea of a planetary system in the realms of glory. But not my intention. I just want to highlight the orientation, the approach suggested by section 76 to meditate on this issue.

Now we need to talk about something, before continuing.

The great takeoff

As I read section 76, I believe that the Lord, as the restoration progresses, is becoming more concrete and less allegorical. I put for example the prophecies of the messiah in the old testament.

The kingdoms of glory — the carpenter’s son

The Jews expected a king to free them from their enemies, triumphant over the nations. They thought about a political liberation. They expected a military leader. In a way it was natural that they had that idea because Jehovah accompanied them in their wars and their laws were the foundation of their state. His understanding was in the inertia of his trajectory. That is why when the Messiah came many did not recognize him in the carpenter’s son.
He needed to be born again, rebuild his Jewish way of thinking. Overcome the religious-state law of Moses. When this was accomplished, a new wineskin was needed, an open mind to the first agreement, rejected at Sinai .

Seeing Jesus of Nazareth in the law and the prophets, demanded to abandon habits, the circuits of the previous thought, to take off from the sure path of the scribes. To enter a new world with him as a reference. An insecure world, unprecedented. But alive and hopeful. From a Christian mind, it is easy to understand and see Christ in the old testament. But we have the inertia of two thousand years.

The saints of the last days are in a similar situation. The restoration is not a fracture, but a stage that takes off from the great launch of the plan. As we ascend in knowledge in these last days, we detach ourselves from the gravity of the ideas of the old days.
We come from a Judeo-Christian tradition. Both stages added the necessary impulse to the plan of salvation to get where we are. There is a connection between the two, but also a takeoff similar to the stages of a space launch.

Our orbital environment

The exhaustion of the previous religious phase occurred with the first vision of Joseph Smith in 1820. That was the ignition of an unprecedented stage of knowledge. The restoration gives us a new language and ideas alien to the common sense of souls subject to the gravity of past history.
Yes! He has a body. Let’s continue ascending.
But the wonderful thing about all this is that the environment that surrounds us, for the first time, slowly synchronizes with the new scriptures. Hence the comparison with the ALMA observatory and its conclusions in the planetary genesis.

Although sometimes we impute to our century the evils and sins prophesied. It is also true that «the learning of [our] father» ( 1 Nephi 1: 1 ) is an immense legacy and that his language no longer «… which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.» ( 2 ) but of broad continents of knowledge and peoples. Now a church linked to the days of Adam uses the artificial intelligence. A threatening hydra, that under the guidance of the priesthood, navigates without pause in an ocean of data, writing the book of life. Fulfilling an impossible mandate in the eyes of the saints in 1830.

I imagine the Savior saying « If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?» ( John 3:12 ). Now he tells us the heavenly things, will we be at that height? or we will respond like Nicodemus «How can these things be?» ( 9 )
Moroni’s ancient difficulties when he recognized «Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them» ( Ether 12:25 ) are not in the section 76.

Some heavenly things

The celestial kingdom is not a republic or a democracy. It is a kingdom.
In a Sunday school class this issue arose. Raising the hand in support of the bishop’s proposals was interpreted as a demonstration of the internal democracy of the church.
However, the church, like nature, is not a republic but a kingdom. Vegetable, mineral, animal … The Universe and creation, does not submit its laws to a vote or are established by majority. Consider that science advances in the same way, under the iron rule of the scientific method. Your royalty is the facts, not the opinions.

In the church sovereignty is in the Lord and its representation is in the line of authority of the priesthood. Although he shares it with the saints of the last days, the saints did not choose him. But he chose them.

In describing the inhabitants of the celestial kingdom, he tells us that «They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory» ( 56 )
To unite in the same person the real and the religious power, on earth, is an example of theocracy. Or at least absolutism. As a citizen of a democratic country, this detail strikes me. The form of government in those realms will not be representative.

The sovereignty belongs to the Father, even though he «has given all things» ( 55 ) into the hands of the Church of the Firstborn or in its broadest sense. He shares his royal power with «the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn.» ( 67)). One of those delegated powers is that «and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads» ( 132: 19 ).

All things are yours

For those priests and kings, who are promised that «all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come …» ( D & C 76:59 ) Scripture does not speak of how they will, but of what they will receive.
To the inhabitants of the celestial kingdom, we assign in our mind a religious establishment. No generals or governors are mentioned, neither scientists nor engineers nor entrepreneurs. These estates on earth do govern the how of things. Here we know what things are governing. Politics, the army, research, economics …
However, what do priests do by receiving all things and being kings in all things? In our world that would be disturbing, to the point of preparing our passport and suitcases.

What are things

We do not know how all things will be governed or used in the celestial kingdom , because we do not know what they are.
In our world, although we say that we know the atom, we only exercise our way of knowing and using it. However, in this kingdom people (more complex than an atom) «and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known « ( 94 ) This direct way of knowing things is different from the indirect form of our consciousness through the senses . Perhaps for that reason, in that kingdom, its priests and kings, receive the way to know things as they are and not as we think they are.

Something similar to using your fingers to count is fine to do, however they are not mathematics. But they help.
Maybe that’s why the Savior did not need surgical instruments to cure a blind man. Those instruments are not health, but they help. However, the Savior knew how things really were.
To see things as they are. Even to see that «it is all matter.« ( 131: 8 ) it is clear that we will need a new body, even a celestial one.

As we read about that kingdom and its «things that the eye of a boyfriend has not heard, nor even reached the heart of man.» We noticed that we can not fit that heavenly world in our way of knowing terrestrial things. But at least the saints we can suspect them.

If we stand next to Democritus in 370 BC he with his concept of atom and us with our idea of future glory. We would both be at a distance to understand, as in which he would be from the LHC (Large Hadron Collider ) in Geneva and his discovery of the Higgs boson . Democritus would be far from enduring the glory of the LHC.
We would have to be born again, even «made perfect through Jesus » ( 69 ).
However, we would both be on the right path. Democritus on the path of science and we in the jurisprudence of the salvation agreement .

The variety of kingdoms

The variety of the kingdoms of glory is in line with the variety of their creations. It is a feature of their hands, the infinite diversity in any area where they work. That is why the black and white of apostasy is overcome in the rainbow of restoration. The reason for this can be seen in verse 70 of this section 76

«These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood»

What does this perfect atonement mean ?
He did it perfectly, rushing to the stool in the cup. An impeccable work. He suffered for all and that facilitated all possibilities of salvation for all. He was the perfect prism and through him, justice broke down into innumerable nuances of salvation. He was the only one who could break down the iron decision of the elements and intelligences not to let those candidates-disaster that we are.
He with sufficient prestige before them, «For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible» ( Col. 1:16 )

I could have done it well or very well. But he did it perfect. Similar to the stars, he provided the way for each particle of dust to belong to a world, become light or acquire life. None was lost, because he rescued them all, even the lost in the darkness out there.
He got that «for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom. « ( D & C 88:37 ). The one that counted the birds of the field, knows us well.
His perfect atonement got the multitude of kingdoms of glory.