Of God and Godesses: August 2014

Intelligence or Awareness Brings Order, Light, and Life:

Introduction:

After a person has chosen to believe that God exists; then, the next step for many of us is to try to figure out what God is really like and try to figure out how God does what He does. I have discussed what God is really like in other essays. In this essay, I will try to explain how God does what He does.

The Book of Abraham and Hugh Nibley’s book, “One Eternal Round”, try to introduce us to the true nature of reality; and, it all centers on God.

What I write in this essay is not official LDS Church Doctrine. It’s simply my effort to explain some of the things about God that God rarely talks about. I start with the revelations of God in the Restored Gospel of Christ as received by Joseph Smith; and, I go on from there. Of all the people in the modern era, the one most likely to know what God is really like would be Joseph Smith, the man in our era or dispensation who saw God and talked with God.

Like every other LDS Scholar, I take what was revealed to Joseph Smith, and then I try to go on from there.

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Who Decided What the Physical Laws of the Universe Will Be?

I personally believe that the original construct of everything is Chaos. I envision an endless realm of Darkness or Chaos where there is no order, no law, no organized light, and no life as we know it. Imagine physical matter and spiritual matter that have no law, no order, and no purpose. It is Chaos.

Yet, there apparently was hope. Within all of that Chaos, there was apparently awareness or intelligence or hope. There was thought; and, there was an intelligence that was more intelligent than all the rest. Somehow, the head intelligence or the awareness or the thought contracted or covenanted with the Chaos and offered to bring order and law to parts of that Chaos in exchange for its obedience or compliance. Physical laws and order are of no value to anyone unless the physical matter is actually willing to obey those laws. Obedience to law is what makes order and this physical universe possible; otherwise, all there would only be Chaos. It is intelligence or thought that brings purpose, order, structure, and life into random chaos.

Who decided what those physical laws would be? God, the head intelligence, decided what the physical laws of this universe would be; and thus, Order was born out of Chaos. Life as we know it came into existence under God’s direction and command.

God is the one who decided what the physical laws will be; then, the spirit matter and physical matter either decided to obey those laws or they decided to remain in Chaos. In this universe, physical matter obeys God’s laws because that physical matter chose to do so; otherwise, there would be no physical order, and there would be no physical life as we know it. God’s law brought some order out of Chaos; and thereby, our physical universe was born. God is the intelligence that made all of this possible.

If God goes away or if God breaks His covenant with the physical matter to give it law, and order, and life to that matter; then it would all collapse back into Chaos and cease to exist as it now exists. Only the intelligence or the awareness would remain. All of the spirit matter and physical matter would disintegrate back into Chaos. God is the intelligence or the light or the influence that holds the universe together through order and law and covenant. Without God, there would be no universe and no life as we know it.

I slowly grew into the idea of a Chaos Realm from which everything derives by studying science fiction and thinking about alternate realities. Then, during 2007-2010, I also started to realize that the idea is there in Hugh Nibley’s writings as well. When it comes to the Creation, Hugh Nibley seems to be the LDS Scholar that I turn to most.

A search for “chaos” in the LDS Library 2009 brings up 2198 hits; but, it mostly has to do with things falling apart here in mortality rather than the place of origin where everything initially comes from.

If one searches only the books of Hugh Nibley for the word “chaos” in the LDS Library 2009, it produces 75 hits; and, a third of the time when Nibley speaks about Chaos, he is speaking about the Chaos Realm from which everything in this universe comes. Nibley is speaking about the original source from which all matter and thought in this universe derives. Hugh Nibley got his ideas about a Chaos Realm from the ancient Hebrew and Egyptian documents that he collected and studied during his life.

The general idea is that this whole universe would quickly slip back into Chaos if God didn’t keep lifting parts of it back into order, light, and life. God commands and the elements obey.

Any time that I think I have a new idea, Hugh Nibley quickly points out that my ideas have been around for over four thousand years and that none of my ideas ever originated with me. In fact, if any of my ideas actually represent the True Reality of things, then we simply know that my ideas originated billions and maybe even trillions of years ago in the mind of God. Our whole existence originated in the mind of God long before it became a True Reality. It’s kind of humbling. There is no thought or idea in this universe that exists outside of God’s awareness. Since God exists in an “eternal now” or a timeless reality, God knows what we will be thinking long before we think it; so in this universe, there are no new ideas that God isn’t fully aware of in advance of their being thought. It’s a heady thought, and a humbling thought.

The Chaos Realm According to Nibley:

God is the one who brings order and life into the unorganized universe or the chaos realm. I tend to believe that God brings order to chaos by lifting spiritual and physical matter and “thought” or “intelligences” out of the Chaos Realm into Organized Universes like ours. I believe that is what the Gods do.

Quoting the words of other people in “Mormonism and Early Christianity”, Hugh Nibley defines the act of Creation as that “which brought the ordered cosmos out of chaos”.

Hugh Nibley, “The Timely and the Timeless”: “Where there is a purpose there is a plan; where there is neither there is only chaos and chance.”

Hugh Nibley, “Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price” page 8: “So it tells us here this is Ptah on the throne of Ptah-Tenen. Wolf has written a good study on Ptah-Tenen. He stirs the earth out of her lethargy, which is called Nen, a state of inertia, a heat death. That is to say out of her condition of chaos. It is Ptah-Tenen who visits the earth and organizes the earth here below. Out of its condition of chaos, he puts things into order. But he does not give it life or force. He depends on another for that.”

Hugh Nibley, “Teachings of the Book of Mormon--Semester 1”: page168: “So the most high God appointed a deputy to this world, and that was Hivil Ziwa. That's just the word Abel, the son of Adam who was Hivil Ziwa, the eternally living Abel, who is also called Gabriel. He said to him, go down to the world of darkness [he's going down to the chaos]. There is matter there, he says. Go down to the world of darkness where everything is in a process of slow combustion [of entropy, you see]. A totally false and counterfeit world until it has been organized in its present state, a world where everything is wrong. Go down there and check the darkness and get to the bottom of the mysteries of material existence so that we can construct something better of it. Then form and condense an earth from these things. Unroll the firmament above it and fix it there in its proper situation in the midst of the other stars and systems. Give them a sun in its splendor. Give them a moon with its pale beauty. Cause the earth to bring forth all sorts of plant and animal life to give variety and beauty to the scene. [There again] mountains and hills, great rivers and small streams to give variety and beauty. The first concern of God was to give variety and beauty to the earth, you see, when he started forming it. It's meant that way on purpose. We're not supposed to destroy it. It comes first. And the same thing with the tree, that man might look upon the beauty thereof. And create the animals and the beasts and the fishes and all manner of flying things, male and female, each after its kind, to serve Adam and all his race.”

From Nibley’s, “The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri”, “The opening of the eye being the completion of awakening, in which also the eyes of the understanding are opened by the Light of Day. This same light overcomes the power of darkness and chaos from which all things come.”

Also from the “Timely and the Timeless”: “‘The sparks from the Crown scatter to every Place,’ Ginza, 7; the Power of the Light, radiating into surrounding Chaos, produces a higher type of topos wherever it goes, Pistis Sophia, 58 (112), the creation process being the adding of Light and its power to dark chaotic matter.”

Hugh Nibley, “Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present”, page 11: “There is matter. That is the first law: matter was always there. There is unorganized matter. Or as Lyall Watson says, ‘The normal state of matter is chaos.’ It always is and it always will be. The normal state of matter is to be unorganized. There is unorganized matter; let us go down and organize it into a world. That mysterious somebody is at work, bringing order from chaos. It would be easy to say we were making up a story, if we didn't have a world to prove it. Somebody went down and organized it. Matter was always there, always in its normal state of chaos; and long ago the protons should have all broken down, yet here is the world. Matter is unorganized. The temple represents that organizing principle in the universe which brings all things together. It is the school where we learn about these things.”

Hugh Nibley, “Old Testament and Related Studies”, page 76: “Mystery No. 2: Why should it be so organized? Its natural state calls for progressive disorganization – the Second Law. But organizing is the exact reversal of that law. Whose idea was it to build this elaborate organization – which we can see for ourselves exists, however contrary to natural law? Many scientists are puzzling over that just now. Trust the book of Abraham to anticipate such problems; this sort of thing has been going on for a long, long time. It is planned, programmed, and tested. The ‘anthropic cosmological principle’ recognized that the state of organization depends on the observer. He reads order into the chaos. We may be looking at total chaos or at nothing, but to us it makes sense. Not just to me but to us. If it were only to me it could be an illusion, so we check with each other. Many find the whole thing absurd. Eminent scientists tell us that we are living in an absurd world. But that only means that we know that it should be different. When I say it is absurd, I am complaining that what I see is ‘not the way it really is.’ And who are we? Abraham sees that as the ultimate question and meets it handily: intelligence – awareness – is the beginning and ending of it all. You start out with ‘intelligences,’ beyond which nothing is to be said. You can doubt everything else, but that much you must grant – there were those intelligences, because they still are. What the book of Abraham tells me is that, if this moment of consciousness is real, then it is all real. I can bear unshakable testimony to one thing: I am here. I am under no obligation to explain it or prove it before it can be believed.”

In this next quote, I clobbered the footnotes and some of the stuff in the parentheses hopefully making it more readable. Hugh Nibley, “Old Testament and Related Studies”, pages 182-184:

The whole thrust of Weiss's book is that until the early Christian apologists, we find no trace anywhere of a doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, the Creation being everywhere conceived of as the act of organizing "matter unorganized", bringing order from disorder, the basic prerequisites for the work being space and unorganized matter.

And so we have in the Pistis Sophia, continuing the Egyptian teachings, the picture of a constant remixing going on in the universe in which old, worn-out, contaminated substances, the refuse of worn-out worlds and kingdoms, is first thrown out on the scrap-heap and returned to chaos as “dead” matter, then melted down in a dissolving fire for many years, by which all the impurities are removed from it, and by which it is "improved", and is ready to be "poured from one kind of body into another". This whole process by which souls as well as substances are "thrown back into the mixing" is under the supervision of Melchizedek, the great re-processor, purifier, and preparer of worlds. He takes over the refuse of defunct worlds or souls, and under his supervision five great Archons process (literally "knead") it, separating out its different components, each one specializing in particular elements, which they thus recombine in unique and original combinations so that no new world or soul is exactly like any other.

In this full-blown pleniarism there is no waste and no shortage: "If any were superfluous or any lacking, the whole body would suffer, for the worlds counterpoise one another like the elements of a single organism." The worlds go on forever: "They come and come and cease not, they ever increase and are multiplied, yet are not brought to an end nor do they decrease."

It was essential to the plan that all physical things should pass away; this idea is depicted by the ancient Egyptian symbol of the Uroboros, the serpent with his tail in his mouth, representing the frustration of material things or matter consuming itself by entropy.

Indeed, the Pistis Sophia describes the Uroboros (which means "feeding on its own tail") in terms of the heat-death, when it reports that fire and ice are the end of all things, since ultimate heat and ultimate cold both mean an end to substance. Though matter is replaced through an endless cycle of creations and dissolution, only spirit retains conscious identity, so that strictly speaking "only progeny is immortal," each "mounting up from world to world" acquiring ever more "treasure" while progressing toward His perfection, which awaits them all.

When the apostles formed a prayer circle, "all clothed in garments of white linen," Jesus, standing at the altar, began the prayer by facing the four directions and crying in an unknown tongue, "Iao, Iao, Iao!" The Pistis Sophia interprets the three letters of this word as signifying (1) Iota, because the universe took form at the Creation; (2) Alpha, because in the normal course of things it will revert to its original state, alpha representing a cycle; (3) Omega, because the story is not going to end there, since all things are tending towards a higher perfection, "the perfection of the perfection of everything is going to happen" – that is "syntropy." (Pistis Sophia, 358.)

The eternal process is thus not a static one but requires endless expansion of the universe, since each dispensation is outgoing, tending to separation and emanation, that is, fissure, so that "an endless process in the Uncontainable fills the Boundless". This is the Egyptian paradox of expanding circles of life that go on to fill the physical universe and then go on without end. Such a thing is possible because of a force that is primal and self-existent, having no dependence on other matter or its qualities. This is that "light-stream" that no power is able to hold down and no matter is able to control in any way. (Pistis Sophia, 227.) On the contrary, it is this light that imposes form and order on all else; it is the spark by which Melchizedek organizes new worlds; it is the light that purifies contaminated substances, and the light that enables dead matter to live. Reduced to its simplest form, creation is the action of light [or intelligence or awareness] upon matter; matter of itself has no power, being burnt-out energy, but light reactivates it; matter is incapable of changing itself – it has no desire to, and so light forces it into the recycling process where it can again work upon it – for light is the organizing principle.

If Melchizedek is in charge of organizing worlds, it is Michael and Gabriel who direct the outpouring of light to those parts of chaos where it is needed. As light emanates out into space in all directions it does not weaken but mysteriously increases more and more, not stopping as long as there is a space to fill. In each world is a gathering of light ("synergy"?), and as each is the product of a drive toward expansion, each becomes a source of new expansion, "having its part in the expansion of the universe."

End of Quote from Hugh Nibley.

This is a theme that Hugh Nibley repeatedly returned to, all the way to his death and even beyond. Nibley got his information from the ancient Egyptian and Hebrew documents that he collected and read. The ancient Egyptians and the ancient Hebrews seemed to understand Creation and God’s role in Creation infinitely more than our modern-day scientists and philosophers do.

All of this knowledge was rejected, destroyed, and lost around 200 A. D. when Christianity started adopting Greek Philosophy and started slipping into darkness and apostasy. The Greek Philosophers of that era refused to believe in resurrection, and that’s what God’s Creation really is, a way of organizing pre-existing matter and animating inert matter. The spiritual matter and physical matter already exists in a chaotic state, and it is God that organizes it, enlightens it, and gives it purpose and life. Since God can command and physical matter will obey, a physical resurrection is no problem whatsoever for God.

None of this information is available from the official teachings of the Catholic Church, which means that it’s not available from Protestantism and had to be restored through Joseph Smith in 1830.

All of Nibley’s ancient documents (where Nibley gets his ideas from) were unearthed long after Joseph Smith’s death; and, Joseph Smith didn’t have access to them, but they do show that this knowledge was once on the earth before Christianity and Judaism slipped into apostasy and lost it all by rejecting it all.

Furthermore, all of this information that Hugh Nibley dug out of the ancient documents is really only necessary for the people who refuse to believe that God Himself spoke to Joseph Smith and restored His Gospel Covenant through Joseph Smith. Hugh Nibley apparently wanted to give the unbelievers another way of accessing the truth without having to refer to Joseph Smith, whom they have rejected.

However, if a person truly believes that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and that God really did appear to him and speak to him many different times, then one quickly sees that God told Joseph Smith dozens of different times that God Himself is the one who created the heavens and the earth and that God Himself is the power or the will that holds it all together giving us continuing order and light and life.

God’s Influence Holds the Universe Together:

God commands and the elements obey. Without God and His command, there would be no order and no life as we know it. Everything would remain in Chaos.

In “One Eternal Round”, Hugh Nibley writes on page 239: “All the universe is full of life, sustained and rejuvenated in and by the One at the Center. A very important teaching of Abraham, which has recently been attributed to the Egyptians with great emphasis and now occupies the center place in the arguments on cosmology, is a form of ‘anthropism’. What is consciousness? What would exist if there were no awareness, no intelligence? The Egyptian was convinced, as Philippe Derchain has it, that ‘by the mind alone chaos is held at bay, implying that a cessation of thought would make ipso facto the end of the universe.’ As Abraham expresses it, intelligence is all.”

In “One Eternal Round”, Hugh Nibley writes on page 257: “It is the vowels that live, and the original tetragrammaton uttered by the high priest once a year was really the four vowels u-a-i-e, which are a manifestation of the Supreme Being, Who with His Name seals the six ends of the universe and thereby prevents it from relapsing into chaos. . . . The six ends include up and down added to the cardinal points.”

In the Abraham Facsimile 2, the hypocephalus is a symbol of the universe; and, as symbolized in Figure 1 of Facsimile 2, God is the Supreme Being in the center of the hypocephalus, and thus God is the Supreme Being in the center of the universe holding it all together and keeping it all from slipping back into Chaos.

Without God, there would be no order and no life in this universe.

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The Source of God’s Power:

What makes God unique? God commands the elements, and they obey.

When I command the elements, nothing happens, unless I use the “trickery” of science and construction to indirectly get the elements to do what I want. Mortal beings piggyback on the physical laws that God has created in order to get some semblance of control over the elements.

Some people think that the natural laws are eternal or that the natural laws are God. It’s a form of the philosophy that we call naturalism.

In contrast, the LDS Scriptures seem to indicate that God does what He does because of His intelligence or His awareness. In other words, God is the Primal Thought or the First Observer who brought all of the physical laws of this universe into existence. Many of the LDS Scriptures, including the Bible, seem to indicate that God the Father is omniscient, or completely aware, and simultaneously aware of every single atom in this universe.

In figure one of Abraham Facsimile 2, the God in the center, who is the Head God of all the Gods, has four faces which symbolically indicate that He can see in all directions all at once. In other words, the Head God is totally aware of everything in this universe – not only the space and the matter but the time element as well. It’s something that a mortal being can’t even begin to imagine, especially the complete control over time or God’s complete comprehension of time. Yet, it is God’s control over time that made it possible for all the sins in the universe, past, present, and future to rest simultaneously on Jesus Christ in Gethsemane and crush him like an olive in the olive press.

I, having recently discovered the importance of Covenants in all that God does, have started to come to the conclusion that God the Father and His Son have covenanted with a small portion of the matter or elements in the Chaos Realm that if those elements will obey God’s command, then God will bring those elements into this universe and give those elements law, order, purpose, light, and even at times a semblance of life.

Without that binding Covenant and without God’s continuing presence or influence, the Covenant would cease to exist, the physical laws would collapse, and the whole universe would fall back into Chaos once more. Therefore, whenever God commands, the elements in this universe obey, because the elements have covenanted to do so. That’s the source of God’s power; and this power is housed in God’s intelligence, or His awareness, or His Light, or in His Priesthood. In the LDS Scriptures, it is often called the Word of His Power. In some places, it is called “The Spark”. Whatever we choose to call it, God thinks or plans or envisions a future, and then when God speaks or commands, the elements obey. That is real power! If I had that kind of power, I could raise people from the dead!

All of the LDS Scriptures, including Abraham Facsimile 2, talk about God’s power and authority. God’s will is the universe’s command. The universe is the means whereby God brings His will or His plans into physical reality. Without God’s influence and presence in the universe, there would be no existence, and no order or reality as we know it. Likewise, I go out and work in my garden and my flower beds, remove the weeds or the chaos or the destructive element, and then try to bring some order and stability and a plan to the situation. To a large extent, I decide what it is going to look like and be like by the end of the process. There is a certain art to it; but, I can only sow and reap. God can command the very elements, and they will obey.

God is the greatest intelligence of them all; and, that is the source of His power. God’s word becomes law, and the elements obey. In order to make everything manageable, the elements have a standing order to obey the physical laws or the natural laws that God has created, unless God intervenes and tells the elements to do otherwise. All of the natural laws are in harmony or are in sync, and they work together properly because of God’s intelligence. God’s intelligence and awareness are the things that knew what the physical laws and the universal constants should be. In other words, God knew what would work and what would bring order and a semblance of life to the elements in this universe. God seems to know in advance what the outcome of His commands will be. God has faith, real faith! God knows in advance that what He commands will work. God is the only intelligence in this universe that can have complete faith in Himself and know of a surety in advance that His faith will bear fruit in all that He commands.

At times, I think I am the only one who has ever thought about these things, as if I were the one who created them; but, there are hints to all of this all throughout the LDS Scriptures. I got most of my ideas about the True Nature of God and the True Nature of Reality from the LDS Scriptures; and, so did other people. All throughout the LDS Scriptures, God gives us hints as to how He does it all; and, Hugh Nibley isn’t the only LDS Scholar to talk about these things.

From an essay entitled, “God, Natural Law, and the Doctrine and Covenants” by LaMar E. Garrard as found in the book, “Doctrines for Exaltation: The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants”, pages 55 and 63: “Which came first, natural law or God? It is my thesis that God came first, for natural law in our universe has its origin in the mind of our God: he thinks and plans ahead according to his wisdom as to how he wants the elements to behave and then has the power to command them to behave in that prescribed orderly and consistent manner. That prescription is a natural law. The orderly and consistent manner in which the elements obey these commandments is not natural law itself but the product of God’s wisdom and power. Sometimes God commands the elements to change their behavior from that which they have consistently done in the past to a new behavior which we are not used to observing. We call that a miracle. Sometimes Christ intentionally performed these miracles during his earthly ministry as evidence to the Jews that he had power over the elements, that he was indeed the Lord God over the universe. . . . Furthermore, the Doctrine and Covenants states that God plans ahead what he is going to do, for he tells us that his ‘designs, and . . . purposes . . . cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.’ (D&C 3: 1.) Then when God commands the elements, they obey him. (D&C 133: 23.) In this manner, he tells us, ‘the world was made, and all things came by me.’ (D&C 38: 3.) God is able to speak to the elements by the power of his Spirit: ‘As the words have gone forth out of my mouth even so shall they be fulfilled . . . in all things whatsoever I have created by the word of my power, which is the power of my Spirit. For by the power of my Spirit created I them.’ (D&C 29: 30-31.)”

Kent P. Jackson, ed., “Studies in Scripture, Vol. 8: Alma 30 to Moroni”, page 13: “The Prophet Joseph Smith and the scriptures indicate that when God commands the elements, they obey his will. (Abraham 2: 7; Moses 1: 25; Helaman 12: 7-17; D&C 133: 23; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 197-98.) This earth had its origin first as a plan in the mind of God. (Abraham 3: 24; 5: 1-3.) He then spoke to or commanded the elements (D&C 38: 3) by means of his spirit (D&C 29: 30-32), and they obeyed him (Abraham 4: 9-11, 18, 21, 25). They continue to obey him and are thus governed (D&C 88: 7-13) or upheld by his power (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 55-56, 345). In other words, what we describe the elements as doing (natural law) is nothing more than what God has prescribed them to do. Furthermore, God tells us that it is offensive to him to not acknowledge his hand in all things. (D&C 59: 21.) A more detailed discussion on this subject is given by the author in ‘Creation, Fall, and Atonement,’ ‘Studies in Scripture, Vol. 7: 1 Nephi to Alma 29’, ed. Kent P. Jackson (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1987), pages 87-90, 98-100.”

End of quotes.

Power Is Good If It Is in God’s Hands:

We have the axiom that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”; and, that reality seems to be completely true where mortals and demons are concerned. Yet, God the Father seems to be the complete exception to that rule. Power in the hands of God brings order, law, light, and life. The more power that God has over the elements and the more elements that are under His control, the better off this universe or this reality is. We can trust God to use His power wisely, whenever God intervenes and commands the elements to obey. God won’t let the elements of this universe slip back into Chaos; and, that plan continues to work because the elements continue to obey. God is fully aware of what will bring order, light, and life; and, God is fully aware of what will not. It’s this intelligence or awareness and His incorruptibility that makes God our God and gives Him His power.

God’s command brings order, light, and life.

When it comes to creation, God is the one who perceives what needs to be done, God is the one who knows what will work, God is the one who commands the elements to organize and is obeyed when He commands, and God is the one who instills or implants intelligence or life or volition into spirit matter and physical matter.

God is the source of order, light, and life – both in this universe and in the unseen spiritual realms.

God’s Power Resides in His Intelligence and Authoritative Utterance:

An understanding of God starts when we individually choose to believe that God really exists. That is the proper place to start, because all existence in the unseen spirit worlds and in this physical universe started with God’s existence. If God did not exist, then none of what we see around us would exist; and, we wouldn’t exist as mortal physical beings either.

Along with trying to pursue an understanding of God’s Metaphysic, The True Reality, many of us have tried to understand God’s Methodology or the source of God’s Power.

In Hugh Nibley’s last book, “One Eternal Round”, he pursues the source of God’s Power by studying the Shabako stone as found on pages 67 to 70.

I quote from Hugh Nibley. Unless stated otherwise, Nibley’s quotes are from the Shabako stone:

The play [on the Shabako stone] opens with the summoning of all the gods to the great council at creation. “Great and mighty is Ptah who grants his power to his heirs the gods and the spirits through his heart and his tongue. By it Horus (his son) had his being; by it Thoth (his lieutenant) had his being in Ptah.”

“Power (authority) was in the heart and in the tongue, investing all living members.”

At once we think of the creation by the “work” and the “words” of God: “There is no end to my works, neither to my words” (Moses 1: 38).

First it is the plan and then it is made known, shared with His children: “This is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1: 39).

In the same spirit our text [from the Shabako stone] continues: “The teaching is that he dwells, as it were, in every body and in every mouth, in all gods, in all men, in all creeping things, in whatsoever has life. For his heart conceives and his word commands whatsoever things he wills to be.”

“The council of the gods is in his presence as his own teeth and lips (i.e. his words) . . . the lips of that god which gave all things their names and out of which Shu and Tefnet [the first divine couple] came to be.”

[According to Raymond Faulkner’s “A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian”,] the agents of creation are constantly mentioned by the Egyptians as “perception, knowledge, intelligence,” and “authoritative utterance.”

This is the power of creation according to Joseph Smith as well, “The glory of God is intelligence” (D&C 93: 36) who created all things “by the word of [his] power” (D&C 29: 30).

[Nibley now returns to the Shabako stone.]

Cooperating with the Creator, “the council made the eyes that they might see, the ears that they might hear, and the breath in the nostrils that these might convey information to the heart or mind,” which in turn considers, or “repeats what is duly conveyed by the tongue.”

The words must always precede the works if this is to be shared by all of God’s children: “But every (creative) word of God arose first in the heart and mind, for which the tongue uttered command.”

“Thus all the gods were born and his Ennead was completed.”

End of quote from Nibley’s “One Eternal Round”.

Existence first begins in God’s thoughts or God’s mind, then He gives authoritative utterance with His tongue and issues the command, and then the elements obey because they have covenanted to obey.

God plans what He wants to happen; and then, God speaks or commands His plan into existence or being, and the spirit elements and the physical elements obey. God also periodically assigns intelligence or “thought” to spirit matter and physical matter, thus giving the selected elements or matter animation and life.

Through His desires and commands, God brings order or structure to the spiritual realms and the physical realms; and then, when God is ready and has constructed bodies or avatars that are capable of sustaining life, then God assigns or binds a consciousness or intelligence to that body or avatar. God breathes life into it. God is the spark. There is no existence and there is no life without God.

Avatars:

God creates the laws or the universal constants that the physical matter in our universe obeys; and, then God also plans the DNA and the gene sequences necessary to create living machines or avatars capable of housing intelligence, thought, personality, spirit, or life.

God organizes our spirit bodies and our physical bodies according to His plan and His command. He plans it and then He commands it, and He is obeyed. God even set up our physical bodies so that they can reproduce after their own kind.

Our physical bodies are avatars for our immortal spirits.

Our immortal spirit bodies are avatars for our intelligence or personality or volition, which has always existed.

God creates spiritual and physical avatars where our intelligence can reside. Why is this important?

It would be impossible for us to interact with and manipulate spiritual realities without a spirit body. Likewise, it would be impossible for us to interact with and manipulate physical realities without a physical body.

Options, that were formerly unavailable, become available to us whenever God gives us a new avatar. After God gave us a spirit avatar or a spirit body, then we were able to interact with and manipulate spirit realities. Likewise, after God sent us here and gave us a physical body or a physical avatar, we were able to learn how to interact with, manipulate, and enjoy physical realities.

It is impossible for a spirit or an intelligence to interact with physical realities without a physical body or a physical avatar. We need a physical presence in order to interact with and manipulate physical realities. That’s just the way it works! We are not set up so that we can command and be obeyed. We are not Gods. Instead, we need a physical avatar if we want to interact with physical realities.

The Movie “Avatar”:

The Movie “Avatar” ended up being one of my most favorite movies. For the first time in my life, I finally understood why someone would want a healthy, perpetually young, and immortal physical body or physical avatar. For me, the whole movie was a celebration of life! When he was in his avatar, the hero in the movie “Avatar” was free to fully interact with and enjoy his physical surroundings. His avatar became a physical interface with that physical world; and, he was able to take full advantage of it.

For most of my life, my avatar or my physical body has been a curse and a mess. In the movie “Avatar”, his legs and spine on his human avatar or his human body were broken and nonfunctional. I have had legs and have been able to walk for most of my life; but, my human body or human avatar has been broken in other ways for almost all my life. I could understand why the hero in “Avatar” wanted to transfer his spirit or his consciousness from his broken human avatar to his healthy and vibrant and fully functional alien avatar. There have been times in my own life when I wished I could do the same.

In our physical reality, God is the one who puts spirits into physical bodies.

I have a question? In the movie “Avatar”, what did the scientists do to prevent God from putting a spirit or consciousness into the physical bodies or avatars that the scientists created?

In our reality, God seems to oblige and puts a spirit or consciousness into everything that is capable of life, as if God planned for that life or knew that that life would someday exist.

In the movie “Avatar”, they had a machine and they also had a “tree of souls” that transferred the spirit or consciousness from one physical body to another physical body or from one avatar to another avatar; but, what did the scientists have to do to keep God from putting a unique spirit into the avatar in the first place? As I see, that’s the real science or the real magic!

If someone is born into this physical realm and their physical body is capable of life, God just automatically puts a living spirit or a living consciousness into that physical body. In contrast, computers and robots don’t seem to have spirits or souls because God doesn’t seem to put a spirit into them. It would scare us to death if a computer or a robot suddenly got a mind of its own.

Yes, we often assign thought and personality to our machines by talking about a “ghost in the machine” or a “god in the machine”, and we often say that our computer seems to have a mind of its own; but, that’s completely different than a machine actually developing desires, cravings, hopes, dreams, plans, fears, self-awareness, communication skills, volition, demands, and a soul.

God is the one who puts spirits or souls, thoughts and consciousness, personality and desires, into a physical body thus making it live. In this physical universe, God is the source of consciousness and life; and without God, there would be no life in this universe. Somebody or something has to put the spirit or consciousness into the avatar or the physical body; otherwise, there is no life. Furthermore, the physical body or avatar has to be fully functional and preferably fully healthy; otherwise, there will be limitations, a lack of enjoyment, and possibly even death for that physical body and the spirit inhabiting it.

Death takes place whenever the spirit separates from the avatar. When the spirit is not there, the physical body is no longer animated; and, that’s why some people describe sleep as a form of death. Alas, in sleep, the spirit is still there with its dreams intact, but the physical body is in shut-down mode; so, sleep really isn’t death.

Death also takes place when the avatar or physical body is irreparably damaged and broken, at which point the spirit is forced to evacuate the avatar or physical body, because that body is no longer capable of sustaining life. There is no reason for the spirit to be there if the physical body is broken and non-functional. If the physical avatar cannot sustain life, then the spirit has to go someplace else in order to keep living. They portrayed that reality accurately enough in the movie “Avatar” as well.

The only thing they didn’t explain in the movie is how they kept God from putting a spirit into the manufactured alien avatars in the first place, because God is the Grand Orchestrater and seems to put a spirit or intelligence into anything that is capable of sustaining life.

The movie “Avatar” was worth the time I spent watching it and studying it.

God’s Metaphysic:

God exists because the Prophets of God have seen Him, touched Him, spoken with Him, and know that He exists.

God’s thoughts are the source of everything we see around us; and according to God, God’s words or His commands is the actuator or the trigger that brought all the spiritual and physical things into existence. It works because the spirit elements and the physical elements have covenanted to obey whenever God commands.

God apparently has the power or the influence necessary to bring His thoughts into reality both in the spiritual realm and the physical realm, because we are here. God commands; and, the elements or matter obey. Of course, evolutionists attribute the same powers and abilities to blind chance and natural selection; however, there is still a difference if one is willing to look and see. God has appeared to His prophets and told them that He created the heavens and the earth. In contrast, Evolution has not appeared to anyone, spoken to anyone, or made any claim for being the organizing intelligence behind all creation.

The ancient prophets knew what God is like, because they saw Him and spoke with Him. We can get the same information from Joseph Smith, if we are willing to believe that God actually appeared to Joseph Smith and spoke to Joseph Smith. In all things, we must look to the man who has seen God and talked with God, if we want to know what God is truly like and want to know how things really are out there in the unseen realms of existence.

God told Joseph Smith in D&C 93: 29-39:
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
31 Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
32 And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation.
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fullness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fullness of joy.
35 The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.
39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.

Our thoughts, or personality, or intelligence is coeval or co-eternal with God’s thoughts and intelligence; therefore, we can choose to obey God, or not. Our intelligence or consciousness has always existed, and it always had the ability to obey or reject any command. It’s a choice. It’s called free agency, because we were always independent agents able to choose and decide for ourselves. This reality also explains the existence of evil, because many of these intelligences choose to disobey God rather than choosing to obey God.

When God created spirit bodies and physical bodies for these intelligences, God chose to maintain their free agency or their ability to decide and choose. We are told in the Bible and the LDS Scriptures that one-third of God’s spirit children chose to rebel against Him, and they became Satan and the devils, fallen spirits who will never receive a physical body or will never receive a physical avatar. These fallen spirits rebelled against God and His plan and chose not to participate in this physical reality or mortal reality. They didn’t really want a physical avatar that was subject to pain, suffering, and death. They didn’t want the hassle and didn’t want the risk; and, they didn’t want their loyalty to God to be tested any further because they were not loyal to God.

These concepts are also stated in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2: 13-14, 26:
13 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.
14 And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

Whenever God creates spiritual realities and physical realities out of spiritual and physical elements, God seems to include things to act and things to be acted upon. The intelligence or consciousness acts or chooses; and, the inanimate spirit matter or the inanimate physical matter becomes the things that are acted upon. Men plan and create skyscrapers and bridges. Men think and then act; and, the inanimate physical matter is the thing that they typically act upon. The intelligence acts, and the elements are the things acted upon.

Our physical bodies have been created in such a way that when we think or command, our physical members comply with our command. In a way, our physical bodies are also things to be acted upon by our intelligence. God has control over all the matter in our universe. When He commands, it obeys. God has given each one of us control over the physical matter in our own physical bodies. If that matter in our physical body is functioning properly, we can command, and it will obey. In a sense, we have become gods to the physical matter that comprises our own physical bodies, as if each one of us were a miniature universe or a miniature reality.

Matter complies with the demands of intelligence because the matter has already decided and covenanted to do so. God simply understands the physical laws and spiritual laws better than we do, because God is the one who created the laws of the universe.

Apparently in the pre-mortal realm, we covenanted to obey God’s law and to submit to God’s plan, or we wouldn’t be here in mortality. In the pre-mortal realm, we accepted Jesus Christ (Christ Jehovah) as our Savior and Redeemer. Therefore, if we willfully choose to disobey God’s law, we will be punished by that law, because we covenanted to obey His commands or His law during our pre-mortal existence, and we covenanted to submit to His Plan or His Will. The fact that we can no longer remember having covenanted with God in our pre-mortal spirit life is what constitutes or makes up the test of mortality. While we are here in mortality, God is trying to see if we will remain loyal to Him when He is no longer around to influence our thoughts, actions, and choices. It is a test to see how we will choose to use our free agency and our lives that God continues to give to us.

How are you going to use the avatar that God gave to you? Will you pursue the path to light and life, or will you pursue the path to darkness and sin?

There are two paths we can choose from. One path leads to God and Christ, their light and order and life and love. The other path leads to darkness, disorder, hatred, misery sin, and separation from God. The choice is ours to make, because God left us free to do so.

The Nature of Intelligence:

We start with the revelations from God to Joseph Smith if we want to explore the nature or composition of an Intelligence, because it is Joseph Smith who introduces us to the idea that we were Intelligences before we were organized as spirit beings.

D&C 88: 40: “For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things.”

D&C 93: 29-30, 36
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.

D&C 130: 18-19
18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

What is an Intelligence like? This is one of those unanswered questions in LDS Theology, but everyone likes to take a stab at it. Again, none of what I write is official LDS doctrine. It’s just personal speculation. Take it as such.

On page 95 of his revised edition of “Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price”, Hyrum L. Andrus writes: “The pre-earth existence of God’s children has two stages. The first has no beginning. The primal life, or intelligence, of man is eternal (D&C 93:29), and in time it was organized through spirit birth. As ‘organized spirits’ God’s children dwelt for a time with Him in His eternal home and its immediate environs.”

On page 98, Hyrum Andrus writes: “To a lady who made inquiry about her life in the first estate, John Taylor wrote, ‘Knowest thou not that thou art a spark of Deity, struck from the fire of His eternal blaze, and brought forth in the midst of everlasting burnings?’ An organized spirit may be a personage of brilliance for two reasons. First, spirits are composed of elements of spirit that are by nature radiant. As noted earlier, Joseph Smith taught that ‘life and light and spirit are one’. Second, an organized spirit can acquire the truth and light of God’s glory, which shines (D&C 88: 7). The glory, or light, of Christ as a spirit personage ‘was above that of the sun at noon-day’ (1 Nephi 1: 9). By rebellion Lucifer lost light, and with the loss of glory he ‘was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son’ (D&C 76: 25). But because Satan is an organized spirit, composed of luminous elements, he can reveal himself ‘as an angel of light’ (D&C 128: 20).”

One of the best discussions on this topic comes from Truman G. Madsen in his book, “The Radiant Life” in his essay entitled “Man Illuminated”. I quote from page 23: “The teaching that our ‘whole bodies’ can be full of light (D&C 88:67) suggests that what we call I.Q. is a clumsy and misleading ‘measure’ of man’s cognitive powers. Genuine intelligence, or the conscious ‘light of truth,’ is the light that recognizes and absorbs or ‘cleaves’ to truth, and it involves the whole person. Intelligence, in short, is a kind of light-susceptibility. Hence the Prophet [Joseph Smith] needed a Urim and Thummim until he himself became one. We have a glimpse of that level of light and burning in the Prophet as he emerged with Sidney Rigdon from his chamber, after they had written ‘while yet in the Spirit’ a portion of what they had together beheld in the vision of the degrees of glory (D&C 76). His statement is: ‘My whole body was full of light and I could see even out at the ends of my fingers and toes’ (N.B. Lundwall, comp., The Vision [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft], p. 11).”

An Intelligence is a light detector, able to detect light and truth. In fact, in it’s most primitive or original form, an Intelligence might in fact be living, thinking light. An Intelligence might be sentient light that is self-aware. I tend to define an Intelligence as a self-existing light or a self-existing awareness that never burns out. It burns, but it is never consumed. An Intelligence is like the burning bush; it burns, but is not consumed while it burns. Therefore, an Intelligence is the exact opposite of entropy, because it shines or it burns and gives off its light for all eternity. An Intelligence is eternal and immortal. It burns and gives off light, but it never goes out. An Intelligence is like the ultimate perpetual motion machine – it burns or gives off its light for all eternity; however, it can remain a dim little light for all eternity, or it can take on greater organization, greater life, greater purpose, and greater light or glory. It can one day become as bright and as glorious as God.

In the LDS Scriptures, God is sometimes described as the Father of lights. Not only might the particles that make up our spirit bodies be a form of light; but, our primal intelligence or awareness might also be a form of sentient light. The more light and truth that we manage to pull into ourselves, then the more brightly we shine and the more glorious we are. God is the brightest Light of us all because He is the most fully aware and because He has gathered the most truth and knowledge to Himself. In fact, for a resurrected being, they do not need to eat and they do not need blood in their veins; instead, they are immortal and eternal because their inner light, or inner spirit, or their inner knowledge sustains them.

D&C 67: 9: “For ye know that there is no unrighteousness in them, and that which is righteous cometh down from above, from the Father of lights.”

James 1: 17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

The LDS Scriptures tell us that God is the father of our spirits. He might also be the organizing force behind the light, or awareness, or the intelligence that is within us. In some way that has not yet been revealed to us, God might be the father of our light or the father of our Intelligence.

Light is tied in with all of this, somehow!

D&C 93: 36-37: “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one.”

Abraham 3: 19: “And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.”

Elder B. H. Roberts wrote: “I believe that this means more than that God is more intelligent than any other one of the intelligences. It means that He is more intelligent than all of the other intelligences combined. His intelligence is greater than that of the mass. . . . He is the All-Wise One! The All-Powered One! What He tells other Intelligences to do must be precisely the wisest, fittest thing that they could anywhere or anyhow learn – the thing which it will always behoove them, with right loyal thankfulness, and nothing doubting, to do. There goes with this, too, the thought that this All-Wise One will be the Unselfish One, the All-loving One, the One who desires that which is highest, and best; to come to earth under the circumstances that surrounded His mortal life, in order that He might play a vital role in the great and eternal plan leading to the immortality and eternal life of mankind.”

When it comes to Intelligences, God is the most intelligent of them all because God is the most aware of what’s really going on. God is the most aware of what can really save us. Somehow, God knows what we are thinking. God can hear our innermost thoughts and desires. It is as if our inner light is broadcasting our innermost thoughts, and God knows how to pick it up or detect it.

Intelligence is defined as light and truth; therefore, God’s intelligence is the glory that God has gathered to Himself, but it is also an awareness of everything that is happening in the universe. God is the most intelligent because He knows everything we are thinking, both good and bad. God somehow knows what is truly going on in our lives; and therefore, His intelligence is also made up of an awareness of the truths or the current realities of our lives and our existence.

If God can truly listen in on our thoughts and if our thoughts are dark, ugly, vengeful, hateful, and full of self-loathing, then that darkens not only our own personal universe but God’s universe as well. That might be one of the reasons why God keeps asking us to open our hearts and our minds to His light and His love. God must feel the happiest when we deliberately love each other and forgive each other, when our hearts and our minds are filled with God’s light and love. It’s an interesting idea to imagine that God’s infinite glory might be made up in small part by a combination of our dim little lights or our dim little lives. The scriptures often describe life or the spark of life as a light of some kind. It’s possible that our dim little awareness might somehow combine together with everyone else’s dim little awareness into God’s Massive Awareness or God’s Intelligence. God knows everything that each one of us knows, and then God knows infinitely more.

God has more light and glory than all the rest of us combined. Our spirits or intelligences might be dim little lights; and, if we were to combine all of our lights together, we still wouldn’t be able to out-shine God who is the brightest light of them all. It’s possible that one of God’s goals is to fill His followers with light until their spirits or Intelligences glow as brightly as God’s spirit does. If a resurrected being or angel from heaven shines with a light that is brighter than the sun, it is the light of his spirit or the light of his intelligence that he is letting shine through.

These speculative possibilities have other ramifications as well. Unless God, spirits, and angels start broadcasting on a wave-length of light that we can see with the naked eye, they can be standing right next to us, and we won’t see them. There are wave-lengths of light that the human eye cannot see. These things will be invisible to us unless they start broadcasting on a wave-length that we can actually see.

Another possibility is for our personal individual spirit to temporarily reacquire the ability to see other spirits; and yet another possibility is for our physical bodies to be purified by God so that our physical bodies temporarily acquire the ability to see or sense these other wave-lengths of light.

Joseph Smith stated in D&C 131: 7-8:
7 There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;
8 We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

Einstein taught us that matter and energy can be converted into one another. It’s therefore possible that light or intelligence might be able to take on a physical nature as well, or be converted by God into a physical form or an element of some kind. It’s possible that our spirits are simply the physical form of our intelligence or light or primal energy. Thus, God would be the one who gave our intelligence or our light some kind of shape or form.

Christians who believe the Bible tend to believe that our physical bodies are enlivened by our spirits. When our spirits leave and the brain waves cease, our physical bodies no longer move under their own volition, even if the body is on life support. If a spirit body is composed of a more-refined type of matter called spirit matter, then the Intelligence is what enlivens or enlightens the spirit body.

Within the LDS Scriptures, God repeatedly defines Intelligence as light and truth.

D&C 88: 40: “For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things.”

D&C 93: 29, 36:
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.

I have started to believe that Intelligence is the light or the sentience or the self-awareness that enlivens and enlightens a spirit body; and, it is a spirit body that gives a physical body light and life. We hear talk of the spark of life – that implies energy, or light, or sentience. Einstein demonstrated that energy can be converted into matter and that matter can be converted into energy. I assume than an Intelligence exists as energy in its natural state; whereas, a spirit or a spirit body exists as refined matter in its natural state. Put some Intelligence into a spirit body or a collection of spirit matter, and that matter will come alive.

Obviously, when it comes to our primal intelligence, there are many different ways to look at the same thing, and I have no idea which if any of them are true. However, I do get the distinct impression that an Intelligence is a combination of light and awareness, or light and truth. In other words, I have started looking upon Intelligence as sentient light, and the more truth that light gathers to itself, the brighter or more gloriously it will shine. There is a lot of talk about God’s glory in the LDS Scriptures; and, God promises every one of us except the Sons of Perdition a kingdom of glory after our resurrection from the dead. There is a kingdom of light and truth out there waiting for each of us in the next life.

Other Concepts Regarding Spirit and Light:

As found in the LDS Library 2009, Hyrum L. Andrus, “Distinct Doctrines and Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price”, states:

There are several commentary sources, some of which I would like to refer to, which relate this concept of God to the universe and life about us. For example, let me turn first to the testimony of Patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson, an intimate associate of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who wrote a significant letter in which he mentioned several teachings of the Prophet. Brother Johnson said:

[Joseph Smith taught] that all light and heat are the "Glory of God," which is His power, that fills the "immensity of space," and is the life of all things, and permeates with latent life, and heat, every particle of which all worlds are composed. (Benjamin F. Johnson to George S. Gibbs, "An Interesting Letter," p. 8.)

Parley P. Pratt also gave us a statement concerning that great principle of power, intelligence, light and truth that centers in Deity. Of it he said:

This is the great, positive, controlling element of all other elements. It is omnipresent by reason of its infinitude and it pervades all things. It is the agent or executive by which God organizes and puts in motion all worlds, and which by the mandate of the Almighty, or any of His commissioned servants, performs all the mighty wonders, signs, and miracles, ever manifest in the name of the Lord – the dividing of the sea, the removing of a mountain, the raising of the dead, or the healing of the sick. (Key to Theology, 9th edition, pp. 46-47.)

Brother Pratt then adds:

This is the true light, which in some measure illuminates all men. It is, in its less refined existence, the physical light which reflects from the sun, moon, and stars, and other substances; and by reflection on the eye makes visible the truth of the outward world. It is also, in its higher degrees, the intellectual light of our inward and spiritual organs, by which we reason, discern, judge, compare, comprehend and remember the subjects within our reach.

Its inspiration constitutes instinct in animal life, reason in man, vision in the Prophets, and is continually flowing from the Godhead throughout all his creations. (Ibid.)

Let me break this statement down into spectrum form, to see what Pratt is getting at. He says, first, that there is centered in Deity – in God's presence or glory – the light, the truth, the power, and the intelligence that radiates from God as a divine Personage, to fill the immensity of space. As this is broken down into its various areas of influence, he says that it constitutes the light of the sun, so that the light of the sun is part of light, truth, intelligence and power that centers in the Personage of Deity.

Let me give you two or three other testimonies right along this same idea, by other prominent brethren of the Church. Here is one from Orson Pratt:

The light we see is spirit; ... the light that comes from the sun is spirit. (Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, pp. 104.)

We talk about spirit as being matter-pure and refined matter. Here Elder Pratt says that light and spirit, in a sense, are synonymous; that light is a form of spirit or inseparably related to it.

. . .

Brigham Young explained, for instance, that the gift of the Holy Ghost gives one access to "the increased rays of that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, p. 315.) In other words, here is the manifestation of that power which we call the power of the Holy Ghost.

. . .

Continuing with Hyrum L. Andrus, “Distinct Doctrines and Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price”:

He [God] is omnipresent in the power of that spirit – the Holy Spirit – which animates all created things. This spirit which pervades all things, by which our heavenly Father operates, by which He is omnipotent, never had a beginning and never will have an end. It is the light of truth; it is the spirit of intelligence. We are told in the revelations of God to us that, "Intelligence or the light of truth never was created, neither indeed can be." And we are told further, that this Spirit, when it is manifest, is God moving in His majesty and in His power. Now, this spirit always existed; it always operated, but it is not understood, and cannot be comprehended except through organisms. If you see a living blade of grass you see a manifestation of that Spirit which is called God. If you see an animal of any kind on the face of the earth having life, there is a manifestation of that Spirit. If you see a man you behold its most perfect earthly manifestation. And if you see a glorified man, a man who has passed through all the various grades of being, who has overcome all things, who has been raised from the dead, who has been quickened by the spirit in its fullness, there you see manifested, in its perfection, this eternal, beginningless, endless spirit of intelligence. Such a Being is our Father and our God, and we are following in His footsteps. He has attained to perfection. He has arisen to kingdoms of power. He comprehends all things, because in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. He is a perfect manifestation, expression and revelation of this eternal essence, the spirit of eternal, everlasting intelligence or light and truth. It is embodied in His spiritual personality or spiritual organism. (Journal of Discourses, Vol. XXVI, pp. 23-24.)

The point that I would like to make is simply this: in order for one to become a personage of Deity, that being must go through what we might term three births, commencing with the initial primeval intelligence. First he must be given the birth by which he receives a spirit body and thereby becomes the "offspring of God." In the next birth he is "added upon," by being given a physical organization. This birth, that we receive here in mortality through the processes of procreation, is the means that God has ordained for man to receive a physical body. The third birth that we need is a birth into glory. Let me say at this point that Jesus is the son of his Eternal Father in three ways. He is the firstborn in the spirit world. Second, he is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. And thirdly, he is the Son of God in glory. For example, in Section 93, where John gives his testimony concerning Jesus, he says:

And I, John, saw that he received not the fullness at first, but received grace for grace [that is Christ received one endowment, one gift, one divine anointing after another]; and he received not of the fullness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fullness; and thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not the fullness at the first. (D&C 93:12-14.)

Now Christ is not here called the Son of God because of a premortal relationship; nor is he called the Son of God because of a relationship as the Only Begotten, but he is the Son of God because he was subordinate to his Eternal Father in the acquisition of this divine element which we call intelligence or glory, which, when he received it in its fullness, constituted him a personage of Deity.

John states further:
And I, John, bear record that he received a fullness of the glory of the Father; and he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him. (D&C 93:16-17.)

We also must go through three basic births.

End of quotes from Hyrum Andrus.

Three births at least. Our intelligence was born or placed into a spirit body to become the spirit offspring of God. At that point, we inherited the capabilities of becoming like God. The next birth was here in mortality as a physical being so that we could interact directly with physical realities and so that we could be tested to see if we would be willing to control our physical bodies and submit to God’s commandments despite to our physical desires. The third birth will come after our resurrection from the dead, and it can be a birth into the glory and intelligence and light of God. There are lesser degrees of resurrection in which a fullness of God’s glory or light or intelligence will not be given to the recipient; but, in the first resurrection or the greatest resurrection, those who rise from the dead will receive a fullness of God’s glory, power, light, and truth and will actually be reunited with His presence in the Kingdom of God. Those who are resurrected into the Kingdom of God or the Celestial Kingdom will receive a fullness of God’s glory or light, and will eventually become like God.

A Rebirth of Our Spirituality:

I can also think of yet another birth that most of us will have to go through. After we die here in mortality, we will be born into the Spirit World. In recent months during the summer of 2010, I have started to believe that there will also be three degrees of glory or light in the Spirit World when we go there.

The people who have rejected God and His commandments will go to a place in the Spirit World that the prophets call outer darkness or spirit prison or hell or Hades. In my mind, this realm is comparable to the Telestial Kingdom, except it is in the Spirit World before the resurrection and the Telestial Kingdom comes after the resurrection.

Studies of near-death experiences tell us that the people go to at least two different places after they die – they either go to a place of light and joy, or they go to a dark place of misery and sadness. I believe that the good people who keep the commandments of God but have not been baptized by Real Priesthood Authority into Christ’s True Church will end up in a place of light in the Spirit Prison, where they can pursue greater light and knowledge. Their probation or test continues until they find the Gospel of Christ and receive the Saving Ordinances. This realm of light in the Spirit Prison I tend to liken to the Terrestrial Kingdom. It is a place for the good people who have not yet received the Gospel of Christ into their lives. The Terrestrial Kingdom, whether before or after the resurrection is a middle-ground, a place of transition. It becomes a permanent place after the resurrection for the good people who reject the Gospel of Christ; but, before the resurrection, people can advance from the Terrestrial Kingdom in the Spirit World into a realm of greater light and glory.

Therefore, I also have come to believe that there is a third realm in the Spirit World, the realm where the righteous, commandment keeping, baptized Saints will go after they die. This realm is called Paradise. In Paradise, the person’s test or probation is over, and this kind of person seems to be reunited with God’s presence or influence as part of his experience in Paradise. The spirits who go to Paradise in a sense enter the City of Zion, or the Temple of God, or the Garden of Eden, or the Celestial Kingdom in the Spirit World; and, it is from among their group that missionaries with Real Priesthood Authority are sent to the other realms in the Spirit World.

I could never understand how the Spirit World works until after I started to assume that the Spirit World is most likely modeled upon the Three Degrees of Glory that we have become familiar with in the Doctrine and Covenants. Of course, all of this is just personal speculation or my personal interpretation of the LDS Scriptures; and, it is not the official doctrine of the LDS Church. Nevertheless, I got the impression over time that not all of the good people go to Paradise when they die. The people, who go to Paradise or the highest degree of light and glory in the Spirit World, are the baptized Saints of God who have experienced the Real Priesthood of God or the Real Saving Ordinances and have kept their baptismal covenants. So, where do all the other good people go? Well, they go into a place of light and order in the Spirit Prison where they can be taught and receive the Gospel of Christ. In contrast, the wicked and the rebellious who have rejected God go to a place of darkness in the Spirit Prison where they also can be taught the Gospel of Christ if they so desire, but are more likely to be under the influence of Satan and his minions.

I have come to visualize Paradise as the home of the baptized Saints in the Spirit World; and, Paradise is the place of greatest light, knowledge, and order. I have come to believe that there are also places of “lesser light” in the place that we Latter-day Saints talk about as Spirit Prison. The more I look at it, the clearer it becomes to me that the Spirit Prison isn’t pure darkness and sin. There are places of light and inspiration in Spirit Prison or Hades. Missionaries from Paradise carry the light of the Gospel into the Spirit Prison; and, that’s why Latter-day Saints and the Former-day Saints do baptisms for the dead, so that the spirits of the dead can transfer from the “lesser light” in the Spirit Prison into the greater light of Paradise after receiving the Gospel of Christ.

Paradise is only for the people who have been baptized and have fully accepted the Gospel of Christ. Paradise is where the Saints go; and, I visualize it as a place containing the fullness of God’s light.

In contrast, in the Spirit Prison, there will be varying degrees of “lesser light” or complete spiritual darkness depending upon the individual. I have started to imagine that the good people who have not been baptized will end up in a better place in the Spirit Prison than the people who have rejected God and deliberately broken His commandments. There will be different degrees of glory or light in the Spirit Prison depending upon the individual; and, I image that like will tend to congregate with like. I imagine that the dark or unholy people well tend to congregate towards the dark or live completely alone in darkness; and, I imagine that the good people will tend to gather their individual lights or spirits into a different place of greater light and glory even though they find themselves in the Spirit Prison after they die. Even here in mortality we tend to gather or congregate with the people who are most like us. I assume that the same thing happens in the Spirit Prison as well.

The idea is for God to add more light and knowledge to us as we go along. In a sense, we become enlightened for real by slowly being filled with the light and glory of God. The more that we are enlightened by the Spirit of God, the greater the degree of glory or light we will attain, whether in the Spirit World or after our resurrection from the dead.

A Type of Light That Travels Faster Than the Speed of Light:

In many of their writings, LDS Scholars seem to hint at a type of unseen light that travels infinitely faster than the speed of light. It seems to travel at the speed of thought.

Scientists describe light as being both a particle and a wave, and this kind of visible light is clearly limited by the speed of light. However, the LDS Scholars and the LDS Scriptures seem to talk about a different kind of light that travels at the speed of thought. I personally have wondered what would happen to light if it were pure wave and no particle. Would it then be like gravity and have its influence be instantaneous all across the universe?

Some scientists have suggested that the affect of gravity happening right now on the other side of the universe is being felt instantly by us here and now. If the scientists are right, how does gravity do that? Apparently, the affects of gravity can travel faster than the speed of light, which of course makes me assume that gravity is some kind of pure wave rather than being a particle. Who knows? Nevertheless, gravity seems to be one of those unseen things that are very much real but that we have a hard time detecting and measuring in any reliable fashion. When we measure gravity, we do it indirectly by measuring its affect; we are unable to observe directly the actual thing in operation with our detectors or naked eye. Likewise, I assume that there is some kind of unseen Light, Intelligence, or Thought that is capable of traveling faster than the speed of light. We won’t be able to measure it with our physical detectors, but our spirits can feel it or sense it from time to time.

Hugh Nibley talks about light in “Of All Things! Classic Quotations from Hugh Nibley, 2nd edition”, pages 73-74:

With all its perfect unity and harmony, the system [of worlds] presents a scene not of monotonous uniformity but rather of endless and delightful variety: "They are all different one from the other, but He hath not made anyone of them superfluous; the one exchangeth what is good [in it] with the other." At a new creation there is a reshuffling of elements, like the rearranging of notes in the musical scale to make a new composition. . . .

Such a thing is possible because of a force that is primal and self- existent, having no dependence on other matter or its qualities. This is that "light-stream" that no power is able hold down and no matter is able to control in any way. On the contrary, it is this light that imposes form and order on all else; it is the spark by which Melchizedek organizes new worlds; it is the light that purifies contaminated substances, and the light that enables dead matter to live. Reduced to its simplest form, creation is the action of light upon matter. Matter of itself has no power, being burnt-out energy, but light reactivates it. Matter is incapable of changing itself – it has no desire to, and so light forces into the recycling process where it can again work upon it – for light is the organizing principle.

If Melchizedek is in charge of organizing worlds, it is Michael and Gabriel who direct the outpouring of light to those parts of chaos where it is needed. As light emanates out into space in all directions it does not weaken but mysteriously increases more and more, not stopping as long as there is a space to fill. In each world is a gathering of light . . . and as each is the product of a drive towards expansion, each becomes a source of new expansion, "having its part in the expansion of the universe." ("Treasures in the Heavens," CWHN 1: 182-84.)

The mere mechanics of the creation process as described in our "treasure" texts display truly remarkable scientific insight. For the making of a world the first requirements, we are told, are a segment of empty space, pure and unencumbered, and a supply of primordial matter to work with. Mere empty space and inert matter are, however, forbidding and profitless things in themselves, disturbing and even dangerous things for humans to be involved with. Contemplating them, the mind is seized with vertigo until some foothold is found in the void. The order and stability of a foundation are achieved through the operation of a "spark." The spark is sometimes defined as "a small idea" that comes forth from God and makes all the difference between what lives and what does not: "Compared with it all the worlds are but as a shadow, since it is the spark whose light moves all (material) things." It is the ultimate particle, the "ennas which came from the Father of those who are without beginning," emanating from the treasure house of light from which all life and power is ultimately derived. ("Treasures in the Heavens," CWHN 1:184-85.)

End of quotes from Hugh Nibley.

In the above quotes, we can take the word “light” and replace it with “Intelligence”, and the result is pretty much the same. Light is Intelligence, and Intelligence is Light. Of course, we don’t know what kind of light the LDS Scriptures and LDS Scholars are talking about; but, I personally assume that it is a kind of thought-filled unseen light that travels much faster than the speed of light and cannot be detected with any kind of physical detector. It’s the universal broadcast or the universal intelligence that some of the science fiction writers like to talk about, the ability to think about a place anywhere in the universe and simply be there, traveling at the speed of thought.

I know that it sounds like science fiction and that it is pure speculation and nothing more; however, my mind has often wondered what Light as a pure wave or as pure thought would be like. It would have no particle associated with it, and thus it wouldn’t be detectable by any of our physical detectors, unless it actually deliberately started broadcasting on a wavelength that we can detect with our physical senses. I imagine that pure thought wouldn’t be limited to the speed of light either, as anything that we can measure with our physical detectors is. If we detected it at all, it would be detected by its influence, and not by our physical senses. The Pure Light or Pure Thought would be felt by our spirits, or thoughts would simply enter into our minds. No physical detector would ever sense that it was there.

It’s All about Choice:

Abraham 3: 22-28
22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.
24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: 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;
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.
27 And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.

Satan chose to be angry and chose to reject God and Christ. Satan and his minions kept not their first estate, the pre-mortal spirit realm, because they rejected God to His face. These rebellious spirits refused to have anything to do with God, this second estate, or God’s plan. Their evil spirits were cast down to this earth to become Satan and the devils; and, they now whisper into our minds thoughts and ideas that will prevent us from keeping our second estate, which is our time of probation here in mortality on this earth.

We are here on this earth to receive a physical body and to prove whether we will keep the commandments of God of our own free will, or not. Those who keep this second estate will have the glory of God the Father added upon their heads forever and ever.

It’s a decision or a choice. It’s a test.

One day I realized and decided that I want this glory, or light, or love to be in my heart forever and ever rather than the bitterness and hatred and darkness that I had been harboring all of my mortal life. I am slowly learning to discern the difference between the two, which is the purpose of our mortal existence.

Trying to Find Myself:

Sometimes, I get the feeling that I am here inside my physical body somewhere. I am choosing what to do, and I am choosing what to think about. The spirit or the intelligence that I identify as me is the thing inside me that chooses what to do and what to think about. It directs, and it chooses. It decides which direction I will go.

Every now and then, though, something else comes into my consciousness or into my physical body, unbidden and as a total surprise. It redirects my thoughts instantly to something else completely different than what I was thinking about before. It doesn’t try to take over my physical actions. It simply impinges or intrudes into my thoughts. One second, I am thinking about my accounting work and going through the grind, and the next moment something intrudes seemingly out of nowhere, and I am in tears and instantly thinking about how Joseph Smith communed with Jehovah. Then I have to stop and think, “Where did that come from?” Tears and overpowering feelings of joy were not exactly what I wanted right in the middle of my work; yet, there it is.

There are times when I can trace the instigation of the message or the feelings or the tears to the music in the background or to something I was working on; and, there are other times when I get a message out of the blue and I have to stop and start to wonder what that had to do with anything or what the message is really trying to convey to me.

This other person or entity, who periodically intrudes upon my chosen thoughts, takes some getting used to. That good feeling or influence is more frequent whenever I am reading the LDS Scriptures, listening to the words of the Prophets, or purposefully thinking about things that are right, or good, or true. During those times, I can have a hard time detecting where the outside influence ends and I begin, because my thoughts seem to be its thoughts or its thoughts seem to be my thoughts whenever I am actually purposefully thinking about the things of God. I just get the feeling at times that I am in the presence of overwhelming goodness or light.

It is during those times, that I am going about my boring mundane work thinking about nothing in particular and suddenly something impinges out of nowhere and takes my thoughts into a completely different direction, when I get the distinct impression that someone else besides me is actually trying to communicate with me. It really does seem like someone else is truly there. One second, I am thinking about the mundane or going through the grind; and then suddenly out of the blue, thoughts of a completely different nature take me into a completely different direction, a direction that I had no previous intention of going into. For a brief moment, I am not the one who is choosing what I am going to think about, and I am not the one who is choosing the thoughts or the feelings that are entering into my heart and mind. Something else intervenes or intrudes.

John 3: 8: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Whether we are born of the Spirit or borne by the Spirit, the Spirit of God seems to come and go as it pleases.

If the new thoughts that come from nowhere suddenly take my thoughts in a good or loving or hopeful or wholesome direction, then I assume that those thoughts came from the Holy Ghost. If the new thoughts that intrude suddenly have me thinking about committing immoral acts or sinning against the commandments of God as I understand them, then I assume those uninvited thoughts or intrusions came from Satan and his minions. I am slowly learning to discern the difference between the two.

1 John 4: 1: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God [or not].”

For a long while there during my adult life, when I entertained hateful or depressing thoughts all day long, I no longer could tell the difference between Satan’s thoughts and my thoughts, because they were in fact one and the same. I didn’t need thoughts or ideas from Satan and his minions when I was in fact deliberately harboring hateful and depressing thoughts of my own. Cognitive Therapy taught me to identify depressing and unproductive thoughts and to deliberately replace them with better thoughts of my own choosing. I rather quickly after a few years of Cognitive Therapy got rid of the depressing thoughts I was harboring, but it took me a couple more decades to learn how to identify and get rid of the bitter and hateful thoughts that I was still harboring.

As I slowly learn how to prize the good and how to reject the bitter and the hateful, I have noticed that my thoughts, whether bidden or unbidden, are more and more often of the good variety. Five or six years ago, my heart and mind was filled with bitterness and resentment, and I didn’t even know it or recognize it; but, as I finally learned how to reject the bitter and the dark and the fearsome, I slowly instead opened my heart and my mind to thoughts of joy, peace, hope, light, and love. I continue to work on it; but, I am at least now starting to realize what’s going on. For decades there, all I seemed to do was harbor bitterness and resentment and hatred, and there really was no light in my soul. Some people want me to go back to that; but, I really am trying to put it all behind me.

Nowadays, I am sincerely trying to invite and harbor feelings and thoughts of peace, joy, light, and love. Instead of planning my revenge, or nursing my anger, or strengthening my hatred, or deepening my bitter silence, or rehearsing my ‘witty come-back’ all day long like I did before, I am purposefully choosing to forgive instead. Choosing to forgive deliberately empties our hearts of bitterness and hatred, thus making room for peace, love, and joy instead. Choosing to forgive actually takes a weight off my soul, a weight that I harbored and carried around for decades of my life. I am learning to sense that reality, as my spirituality and spiritual sensitivity slowly increases.

Sometimes awareness is half the battle! I once was blind to all of this, but now I see. I spent decades tasting the bitter, and now I am slowly learning how to prize the good. Without even knowing it at the time, I spent decades harboring bitterness, resentment, and hatred in my heart and in my mind; but nowadays, I am trying to invite the good, the loving, and The Light into my heart and mind. I had to get rid of the one, so that I could then make room for the other. It was a decision or a choice. It’s part of learning how to forgive, which is a part of learning how to repent or learning how to turn to God. I once was blind, but now I see.

Moses 6: 55-58:
55 And the Lord spoke unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
56 And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in His presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58 Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children.

Conclusion:

In these essays, I have tried to pursue greater knowledge or intelligence. I’m not always successful, but I have tried. Remember, intelligence isn’t just smarts or brain-power. From God’s perspective, real intelligence is knowledge of God and faithful obedience to God. It’s the kind of intelligence that can save our immortal souls. It’s like having a piece of God in our hearts or in our minds. When intelligence is defined this way as knowledge of God and His ways, the stark reality is that children and the mentally handicapped can actually have more intelligence than full-grown men.

Version: 10SEP2010

Of God and Godesses

Thursday, August 14, 2014

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