Creation Accounts Are Initiation Ceremonies
First, the qualifiers:
We have a fragmentary scriptural account - not
everything has been included or retained from what might have been included
initially.
From reading the text, it is difficult to
understand what is literal from what is figurative or symbolic.
We don’t know how much Adam and Eve knew and
understood prior to the Fall (i.e. what does “innocent” mean?).
The creation accounts were not given to us as
a scientific dissertation by God regarding how He created the universe; while
He could have done that, He did not – implying that what we have received from
Him in scripture is for a different purpose.
How
many accounts of the creation do we have?
Four.
Genesis, Moses, Abraham, the Temple Endowment.
Do
they differ?
Yes.
Which
one is “right”?
They are all “right”.
Each account can be viewed as a separate
revelation - they highlight different teachings.
Why
is this the case?
They are not a literal, scientific account of
the creation.
They are all initiation or ordinance ceremonies;
they are all Temple ceremonies or dramatic presentations. They are
ritualized explanations of the origin of human life (this is true of all
of the ancient accounts we know of including those from the Egyptians,
Babylonians, Israelites, Hopis, etc).
God says to Moses “write the words which I
shall speak” (see Moses 2:1) – God is dictating a ritual. From what Moses saw (including every particle
of the earth at a sub-atomic level), he could have tried to have written a
scientific thesis but did not (or at least we don’t have it) – but it wasn’t
the message that God wanted to give Moses for his book.
Quantum physics only describes the unfolding
of the universe, it does NOT tell us why or even how the universe was created –
that is for God to reveal because that is what really gives meaning and context
to our lives.
What
differences in perception exist between western and eastern mindsets regarding
the scriptures?
Western: scriptures are a history of objectively
and chronologically recorded facts.
Eastern/Hebrew: scripture is an attempt to
preserve significant truths in meaningful or memorable ways whether or not
details are objective facts.
What
are these rituals or ceremonies designed or intended teach us?
How we got here? (by a deliberate, planned act
of God).
Why are we here? (to gain light through
experience/choice and to find our way back to God).
Why are the conditions here difficult? (in
order to gain knowledge of good and evil there must be an environment where
agency/choices and sacrifice/suffering matter).
How must we live while we are here?
(obedient/in alignment with the way God lives/is – the eternal laws of light;
submissive to God and serving/loving/sacrificing to each other - Saviors on
Mount Zion – perfectly following the example of Christ, the prototype of the
saved being).
Where are we going after this life? (back to
God’s presence).
What
are these ceremonies NOT designed to teach us?
The literal, scientific particulars about HOW
the Elohim created the world and universe.
It is not that God doesn’t want us to know
these things, but that these creation revelations were not intended to teach
them. Moses inquired and was shown every
particle of the world (see Moses 1), so God is willing to give us a scientific
(quantum) understanding but Moses did not write a scientific paper to us as a
result of his new found knowledge.
Scientific
Understanding of the Creation
Will
God reveal the literal, scientific account of the creation to us?
Yes – He gave Moses and Enoch a comprehensive
view of the science at a sub-atomic level (Moses 1:27,32,35; Moses 7:30).
But the intent for a vision and knowledge such
as this is different from the insights gained from an initiation or ordinance
(it’s about “marveling and wondering” - Moses 1:8; or comprehending all things).
What
must we do to receive this level of comprehensive scientific knowledge?
Ask (Moses 1:30).
Seek – including studying as much and as many
scientific theory/knowledge as you can find; and always being open to more and
willing to change thinking as its proven wrong or incomplete.
Believe that you can receive revelations and
knowledge such as this – God wants to make these things known unto us so that
we can be sharper tools in His hand (because we understand the science upon
which His miracles are accomplished); for instance, would Moses’ faith in
parting the Red Sea (which happened after this vision) have been increased if
he understood the science behind how it would be done vs blind faith in God’s
greatness and mercy? Particularly if he
(Moses) was responsible for initiating the miracle with his words and intent.
A fullness of knowledge like Moses received won’t
just come from seeking after the scientific knowledge from other mortals
(because they don’t know it all or correctly) – it will come in the form of a
vision with angelic or divine guidance because 1) we cannot understand all
things as mortals - we don’t have the capability (Moses 1:4-6,35,37) so we must
be filled with the glory and light of God to comprehend these things and 2) we
need a guide or tutor to help us understand what we are seeing when shown it.
Why We Should
Understand the Creation
Why study the creation?
We can’t successfully understand the scope and
need for the Atonement of Christ without also teaching the Fall.
We can’t understand the Fall without the
context of the Creation.
What
is the creation?
It is the “transplantation” of man onto this
world.
And subsequent to that, the organization of
that world and the universe to enable sustained mortal life.
What
is the purpose of the creation?
To bring to pass the immortality and eternal
life of man via the creation of a probationary state where choices can be made
to follow God while in a mortal state outside the presence and memory of God,
that allows us to sacrifice, suffer and die as a consequence of these choices,
as well as to inflict these things on others (Moses 1:39).
The Creation
READ Genesis 1; Moses 2-3; Abraham 4
Was
the earth created out of nothing?
No - it was organized from “materials”
(Abraham 3:24 and Abraham 4:1).
“The word ‘create’ came from the [Hebrew] word
baurau which
does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man
would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had
materials to organize the world out of chaos—chaotic matter” (Teachings of
the Prophet Joseph Smith, 350–51).
What
do we learn from these scriptural accounts/creation ceremonies about how the
Earth was created?
It was a three-step process.
First, a Spirit Creation (Moses 3:5) –
everything is first created as spirits: man, animals, plants, etc.
Second, a Physical-Spiritual Creation – the
six creative periods. A physical,
tangible creation, but no blood, death, reproduction, or sin.
Third, a Mortal, Temporal, Fallen World –
resulting from the Fall of Man. A
physical, tangible world with blood, death, reproduction, and sin. Man, the first to fall, became mortal and the
other forms of life became mortal after man.
Now, what is interesting about these three
steps is that time as we experience it on earth now is not called out in the narrative
(other than the unfortunate use of the word “day” in some accounts); so the
question of “when did time begin” is unclear.
What is more clear is the difference in energy/matter/frequency of the
spiritual vs the physical/spiritual vs the temporal physical worlds – they seem
to be a descending level of frequency, light/energy and matter refinement.
Who
created the Earth?
The Elohim - Christ and those who were with
Him (Abraham 3:24) (the noble and great who were doing the “proving” of the
rest of us); it was done through the power of the Priesthood, under the
direction of the Father.
It is interesting that Stephen Hawking proved
that the Initial Singularity is not in time or space but outside both – in other
words, it was transcendent to space and time; the Gods created the universe via
intention (word, see Moses 2:5) which set in motion the whole of creation that
was to follow – but God sits outside of it – outside of time and space as we experience
it here.
Was
the earth created in seven days or seven thousand years?
The “periods” do not represent a set number of
days or years but are symbolic of completeness (seven).
The various periods don’t even need to be the
same length of time – some could be millions of years and others could be done
in minutes.
Based on the speed of light and the distance
of the farther observable stars, the universe is estimated to be 13.7 billion
years old.
When God says “in
the beginning”, what is being referred to?
The beginning of the world and its universe.
The beginning of energy and matter.
The beginning of time and space.
It describes the Initial Singularity from
science’s big bang theory; what is interesting about this theory is while
scientists believe they understand how the universe has unfolded from the first
unit of time (a Plank unit or 10 to the minus 43 seconds), no one can tell what
happened or existed before that moment using any of the scientific equations modern
science knows of. That doesn’t mean that
there was nothing there – it just means we have no way of figuring it out using
the tools of modern science.
The nature of cosmic background radiation
means that the “universe was once so dense that it was a single, continuous body
in thermal equilibrium, one that can be characterized by a single temperature”
(David Schramm, University of Chicago), which means that it started at a single
point – it had a “beginning”.
And since it had a beginning in a single point,
“certainly there was something that set it off.
Certainly, if you are religious, I can’t think of a better theory of the
origin of the universe to match with Genesis” (Robert Wilson, co-discoverer of
cosmic background radiation).
What does it mean
that the earth was “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2 and Moses 2:2)?
In the very beginning of the creation, right
after the big bang, there was only energy/information – nothing material
existed yet.
It is also interesting that all of the accounts
put the creation of the heavens before the creation of the earth – “the earth”
in this case seems to refer to the physical creation itself – as a whole, not
the specific planet upon which we now live.
“Nahmanides, in the year 1250, described the
process with uncanny accuracy: the initial creation produced an entity so thin
it had no substance to it… As the universe expanded from the size of that initial
minuscule space, the primordial substanceless substance changed into matter as
we know it” (Gerald Schroeder, “The Science of God”). We would call that “substanceless substance”
energy.
What does “let
there be light” refer to?
None of the accounts name the sun at this
point in the narrative – the light is the initial energy of the big bang, as
light is energy.
Why does it talk
about the “face of the water” if the earth hasn’t been created yet?
Matter came into existence a few moments later
as the superposition of the wavicles (when observed by God) went from energy
probabilities to super hot and dense matter.
That initial matter was liquid (quark-gluon
plasma), which is why the account uses words like “water” and the “deep”.
It is possible that Moses was trying to
describe something he saw using a non-scientific vocabulary that today we have
more precise words to describe, in addition to having the theoretical knowledge
to fill in some of the blanks.
After the liquid matter formed, there was a rapid
expansion (called “inflation”) where quark plasma produced slight variations
that eventually led to areas of space that were of higher and lower densities.
“Separating the waters” is a phrase which
describes this differentiation in matter.
What does it mean
that the light was divided from the darkness?
In liquid universe, it doesn’t likely refer to
what we think of as “day” and “night” on earth – at least not yet.
As the matter in space continued to expand and
cool, protons and neutrons began to form and atomic nuclei came into being;
free electrons were then captured by atomic nuclei creating complete atoms and
at this moment the opaque liquid universe immediately became transparent and the
light of the cosmic background radiation became visible – separating it from
the darkness.
It’s not referring to a universal or single
ocean on the earth – there are many oceans.
The first massive stars coalesced from the
cooling material and ignited – creating the “firmament” or stars in the
heavens.
These burned out quickly and exploded, sending
rich dust clouds into space and enabling new stars and life-sustaining planets
like our earth to be formed – the “dry land” appeared after the “waters” or
liquid matter was gathered together to form the original stars which then went
supernova and spread all over the universe in dust clouds of “dry” matter.
What does all of
this imply about evolution and the rest of the periods/days of creation?
It gives me pause – it shows me that God uses
natural processes (He abides by eternal laws) in His creations. It implies that Moses was actually shown the
scientific creation of the universe and described it as it was dictated to him
by God. It tells me that God wanted me
to have the narrative because it described what really happened but in a way
that focuses me on what is most important to me – that I am part of His work
and glory, that He has a work for me to do, and that I can know all of these
things for myself if I can get out of my own way and come unto Him to receive
it.
Bottom line is that I have a lot of things
which I’ve “put a pin in” for later – I’ve decided to not let them derail me
from seeking after God and I have faith that God will make them known unto me
when the time is right; but seeing the science of the big bang reflected in the
scriptural creation ritual narrative helps me to relax a bit over these things
that are amazing (and actually now a proof for the existence of God to me) but
are not my primary focus today.
READ Moses 2:27-28 and Abraham 4:26-27,
5:12-13
What
do we know about the creation of mankind on the Earth?
Created male and female - in Gods’ image.
The Gods are male and female.
Physical bodies were formed and organized from
the elements.
What
were the conditions of life in the Garden of Eden?
No death for Man or animals (2 Ne 2:22).
No children (2 Ne 2:23).
No sin, until the transgression (ditto).
Lived in God’s presence.
Innocence.
No progression.
No pain.
No challenging work.
What
commandments were given to man in the Garden of Eden?
Multiply and replenish the earth (Moses 2:28).
Do not partake of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. (Abraham 5:12-13).
The Heavens Are for Signs
READ Abraham 4:14 and Jeremiah 31:35-36
Why
does the Lord use heavenly signs?
Men cannot change the heavenly signs, as they
have changed the scriptures.
God uses alignments or intersections of heavenly
bodies to mark important points in time to provide markers - not so much for
timing but to provide markers for significant events, especially when tied to
the Holy Days in God’s Biblical calendar.
For example, the fact that the true Feast of
Trumpets in 2017 occurred on September 23 (not the 20-22, as celebrated), on
the same day that the sun was in the constellation Virgo (the woman), with the
moon at the foot of the constellation and three “stars” or planets as a crown,
with a fourth, Jupiter the “King” planet or the one representing God the Father
in her “womb” where it had been for the previous 9-10 months, means that this
instance of a rare occurrence of heavenly signs together (as there have been
other occurrences), is one to take note of – because it takes place on a Holy
Day.
How
does the Lord use the sun, moon and stars/planets as markers?
The sun and the moon are God’s “two faithful
witnesses” (see Psalms 89:37).
The “male” sun is the marker for the seasons;
it moves north and south on the horizon, when it dawns and sets – its most
northerly dawn happens on the Summer Solstice and its most southerly dawn
occurs on the Winter Solstice; the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes mark the middle
point, which is why many ancient peoples set up two standing stones for the sun
to shine through exactly on those two equinox days on the horizon, so they knew
exactly where they were in the year; the Zuni’s used Zuni Mesa for the same
purpose.
The “female” moon with its phases is the
marker for months and days.
The stars or constellations are tied to years.
Conjunctions of relevant planets (the “coming
together” of two planets in the sky from our perspective of those on the earth)
creates greater light and speaks to “creation” events; i.e. the coming together
of Jupiter the “king planet” with Venus the “virgin planet” for the conception
and birth of Christ is what likely formed the “new star” the Wise Men saw.
Eclipses of the sun and moon curtail or lessen
or block light and speak to “judgement” events; “black suns” or total solar
eclipses and “red” or “blood moons” which are total lunar eclipses, or “new
moons” which mark the first day of the new month.
Other alignments like solar system alignments
which lead to earthquakes, tidal waves and significant weather events or
changes, and planetary alignments like the grand sign of the coming of the Son
of Man are a transfer of light and energy, and are tied to either re/creation
or judgement.
Additional intersections like massive heavenly
bodies entering our solar system (changing orbit paths or relationships) or
comets entering our solar system speak to disruption and change and are markers
of both re/creation or judgement.
The Lord’s monthly calendar adheres completely
to the phases of the moon; every first day of the month is a new moon (no
light) and every 15th day of the month is a full moon; we no longer
use this calendar, to our condemnation.
READ Exodus 31:13, 17 and Exodus 12:14
What
are the Lord’s Holy Days?
They are tied symbolically to a marriage-like
relationship with the Bridegroom; we are the bride and Christ is the groom.
They are a part of true worship as they help
us remember His redemptive mission for us on each Holy Day (see Moroni 4:3 and
5:2); we fall into idolatry (worshiping something or someone other than the
Lord) when we don’t remember and honor the Lord via performances and ordinances
He has commanded us to remember (see Mosiah 13:29-30).
They are marked by the heavens in connection
with life giving agricultural events (Spring – planting, Fall – harvest, etc)
on His calendar and occur on the actual day of the event; Christmas and Easter,
for instance, were modified, renamed and moved.
God said they are a sign between He and us
through our generations.
They are ordinances on God’s Holy Calendar to
be observed forever.
The four Spring Holy Days mark past fulfilled
events in His redemptive mission (i.e. Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread,
First Fruits, and Pentecost).
The remaining three Autumn Holy Days mark
future important events tied to His Second Coming in glory (Feast of Trumpets,
Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles).
The Holy Days will be observed again
(correctly and universally) in the Millennium (see Zechariah 14:16-20).
What
do each of the seven annual Holy Days represent? (Passover, Unleavened Bread,
First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles)
Passover/Peasach = atonement; liberty;
sacrifice the lamb and paint the cross of the doors to the home to protect the
first born from the destroying angel; Christ is crucified; the Lamb’s blood
provides a release from bondage; the bride is purchased.
Feast of Unleavened Bread/Hag HaMatzah =
burial; separation; Israel fled Egypt immediately; the days Christ was in the
grave; put away sin (yeast is the symbol).
Offering of First Fruits/Bikkurim =
resurrection; rebirth; offer up the first fruits of the season for gratitude
(grain; the bread of life or the firstborn); Christ’s resurrection day.
Feast of Pentecost/Shavuot = receipt of the
Spirit; betrothal contract; outpouring of the Holy Spirit; God gives His law
and covenant at Sinai; day of Pentecost for the New Testament saints and at the
dedication of the Kirtland temple; the first trump; engagement and gift or
endowment for the bride – promise of eternal life and “earnest” of that
inheritance.
Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah = repentance;
return; trumpeting for the return of the King; repent for the day of the Coming
of the King is near; the last trump; the king is washed and anointed to be
king; the marriage or wedding day (first day of the 7th month); (see
Matthew 25:6; D&C 133:10, 17-18; D&C 45:57; JST Matthew 7:25; JST
Matthew 25:10-11).
Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur =
atonement/Judgement; sealing; High Priest makes atonement for Israel in the
Holy of Holies; the king’s judgment is sealed; the Great Trump is sounded – no
more repentance; holiest solemn fast day; blood of the offering is spilled and
the scapegoat is released (10th day of the 7th month).
Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot = kingship; joyous
enthronement of the King and Queen; celebrate your marriage to the bridegroom –
you are the bride; at-one-ment with Christ; tied to fall harvest of grapes;
takes place in the Millennium; celebrate the marriage feast or wedding supper
or party for 8 days.
What
are the three types of Sabbath Days?
7th day of the week = day of rest
(from labor).
7th Sabbatical or Shemitah year =
release (from bondage and debts).
7x7 Jubilee Year = restoration (of covenant
land to their rightful heirs).
Note: Sabbatical Years of Release are 2001,
2008, 2015, 2022, 2029; 2016 was a Jubilee Year of Restoration.
Case
Study: What was the significance of the four Holy Day blood moons from
2014-2015? (for additional help read Adrian Larsen’s series of blog posts
“Scripture Overhead” from 2015 on totheremnant.com)
This was the 8th tetrad of Blood
Moons on Holy Days in history.
Blood moons are one of the signs foretold of
the coming of the Son of Man (see D&C 45:39-42).
The first blood
moon (April 15, 2014; first day of Passover): the blood moon appeared in the
constellation Virgo (the virgin; drawn with a sheaf of wheat in her hand) with
Mars and near Saturn; in this eclipse, the moon was in a direct line
between Saturn (civilization and social
order) and Mars (war and destruction) but was much closer to Mars; the warning
is that the world is headed for the loss of social order and coming widespread
war and violence – that the world is ripening in iniquity and waxing old as a
garment); the moon was touching the star Spica ( the ear of wheat) to remind us
that in preparation for the coming destruction, the Lord will harvest or gather
out the wheat from the tares (by angels, see D&C 77:11) and leave the tares
to be burned (see D&C 86:7); Christ acts as a hen not a rooster (Virgo is female)
when He speaks of gathering His people or “chicks” (see D&C 10:65); the
“wheat” will then be gathered to build a holy city of a Terrestrial nature (the
Moon); Mars reminds us the constellation Aries the Ram which Mars rules and the
promise that the Gentiles will be trodden under foot and destroyed (see 3 Nephi
20:15-19).
The second blood
moon (October 8, 2014; on the eve of Sukkot the Feast of Tabernacles): the
blood moon appeared in the constellation Pisces, covering the planet Uranus;
Pisces is a constellation portrayed as two fish connected by a band or “net” –
one fish rises up above the ecliptic while the other remains on it; Uranus is
the ruling planet of the constellation Aquarius and represents the “Father Sky”
or Father of Heaven; Aquarius is a constellation displayed as a man pouring out
a water pot; the warning is that at the end of the world, the angels will come
and sort the “catch” that was made in the “gospel net” (see Matthew 13:47-49),
severing the wicked from among the just; at the time of the blood moon, Uranus
and the moon are positioned to sever the net or bands between the two fish,
freeing the one to rise up to where the Father lives in the “sides of the
north” (see 2 Nephi 24:13-14; 3 Nephi 20:37; D&C 113:9-10) while the lower
fish remains on the ecliptic, forever circumnavigating, round after round (see
D&C 132:21-25); so the message is that the bands are cut and the sorting
has begun – this is the sifting of wheat and tares referred to in the message
of the first blood moon; it is the Father Himself who has a hand in these
events (see 3 Nephi 21:9; Joel 2:28-32; 1 Nephi 14:17) because the gathering of
Israel is His work (see 3 Nephi 21:26-28) with the aid of His angels (see
Moroni 7:29-31); the angels have started gathering those who will come!
The third blood
moon (April 4, 2015 on the first day of Passover): like the first blood moon,
this moon appeared in Virgo providing a “second witness” to the first message
about the wheat and the tares, but this time the moon was placed between the
stars Spica and Porrima; in this blood moon, Bootes the Plowman is the
constellation directly above the blood moon, preparing the fertile ground (see
Isaiah 28:23-24) for when the wheat and tares will be separated and the wheat
will be planted in its prepared place; Spica means “ear of wheat”; the Lord sits in judgement (Libra) over the
wheat and tares; as Spica is the wheat then Porrima (named for the Roman
goddess of prophesy) represent the tares but it is interesting that the star
refers to prophesy – in this case the tares are those who follow the prophets
who don’t prophesy because they have lost the fullness of the priesthood (see
Isaiah 28:1-10; Deuteronomy 18:20; Jeremiah 14:14; D&C 124:27-28; D&C
84:23-27); lastly, there was a straight vertical alignment in the sky from the
moon in Virgo to Arcturus (brightest star in the northern sky so it was used
for navigation; part of Bootes), to Izar (the veil), to Princeps (the prince);
to the left is Corona Borealis (the crown) – symbolizing a pathway laid out in
a straight course before us if we will rise up and look to the heavenly light
of the brightest star, and follow it through the “veil” to meet the “prince”
who waits for us on the other side of the veil with a crown of righteousness –
this blood moon sign is both a warning that the tares and wheat will be
separated, that the tares follow men who call themselves prophets while the
wheat are invited to rise up to rend the veil and meet the Lord
The fourth blood
moon (September 27, 2015 on the first day of Sukkot or the Feast of
Tabernacles): this blood moon was made even more special by being a “super
moon” where the orbit of the moon was as close as it gets to the earth so it
looked much bigger than usual (30% bigger and brighter); this final moon
appeared in the eastern sky inside a triangle formed by three planets: Uranus
(“Father of Heaven”), Neptune (“ God of living water”) and Vesta (“Goddess of
hearth and home” – symbolized by sacred fire)); the moon had moved out of
Pisces toward Aquarius and was located at the tail of the constellation Cetus
the Sea Monster or Whale; there are several parts to the meaning of this blood
moon. Part 1: Sukkot is the celebration of the harvest and it is the “wedding
feast” from the New Testament, so the message is that the harvest is soon at
hand followed by the great celebration where the Lord will slay a great sea
monster or fish called the Leviathan (Cetus) and serve it to the righteous,
using its skin as the tent under which the feast will be served (see Jacob
5:62-63, 67-69; Isaiah 27:1; Matthew 22:2-10); Part 2: the moon on Cetus’ tail is reminiscent of
Jonah in the belly of the whale on his way to warn the mightiest city in the
world, Nineveh, to repent or be destroyed (which they later were); but also of
interest is Christ’s statement about the “sign of Jonah” (see Luke 11:29-32)
being a sign to the wicked of Jerusalem that their time of repentance was
almost over (the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD) – this is again a “sign of
Jonah” to our wicked generation; Jonah means “dove” in Hebrew, so the “sign of
Jonah” is really the “sign of the dove” or the “sign of truth”; Part 3:
Zodiacal ages are calculated as the heavens rotate at the Vernal or Spring
Equinox through the 12 constellations over 25,800 years but each are different
sizes so it’s hard to tell exactly when one ends and another begins; we know that the Age of Pisces began around
the time of Christ and ends with the rejection of the gospel by the Gentiles
and the giving of it back to the House of Israel in the reverse order of what
happened at the beginning of the Age so that the last are first and the first
will be last (see 3 Nephi 16:7, 10; D&C 45:28-30; 1 Nephi 15:13-14); the
second blood moon (2014) was clearly in Pisces but this fourth blood moon has
moved out of Pisces and toward Aquarius – the next “Age” – this signals the
fullness of the Gentiles coming in (see JSH 1:41; Joel 2:28-30) with their
(our) accompanying destruction as we reach the fullness of iniquity (see Ether
2:9-11) and the Lord being ready to pour out His Spirit (Aquarius the Water
Bearer) on Israel again (see JST Luke 21:25); Uranus and Aquarius both
symbolize the Father of Heaven pouring out His spirit – the ancient
interpretation was a dual outpouring of water and fire, which symbolize a flood
(physical afflictions or natural disasters, although some wonder if it might be
a “flood” of refugees of Israelite blood escaping from the war-torn Middle East
into the Gentile West) and destruction by fire (spiritual warfare or man-made
disasters like war, famine and pestilence); sadly for the Gentiles, their
“watchmen” will not raise a warning (see Isaiah 56:10-12) because they have
lost the High Priesthood and cannot see; but the Waterbearer or Father’s dual
outpouring of water and fire also symbolizes cleansing through baptism by water
and sanctification through the baptism of fire and Holy Spirit (see 3 Nephi
11:32-35); the invitation to the Wedding Feast is accepted when you come and
are “born of water” so that God can fill or baptize you with fire and perform a
mighty change upon you, dressing you in a wedding garment of light (see Matthew
22:2-14) so that you might abide the outpouring of fire both natural and man-made,
both physical and spiritual, that is coming to destroy the wicked and prepare
the world for the Second Coming of Christ and the celebration that will take
place upon His return – but few will see this sign for what it is (see D&C
45:36-40).
For some additional
reading, check out Michael O’Connell’s Finding God in Science
