Approaching Zion: Dreaming of Justice, Longing for Mercy

(Artwork in this post by American painter Frederic Edwin Church, 1826-1900)

Previously in the Approaching Zion series:

Childlike Consecration
Polygamy
Beauty and the Beast
The Doctrine of Christ
The Pure in Heart
One Heart and One Mind
A Refuge from the Storm
Go Ye Out of Babylon
The Seventh Seal
Watchmen and Waste Places
The Seven Heavens
The Kingdom of God on Earth
The Destiny of America
The Mystery of the Atonement
Walking with God
Enduring to the End

"I Dreamed a Dream in Time Gone By"

   Life rarely travels
   as the crow flies―
         and therein lies
         the magic

When we were young, we sprinted towards our dreams.  Now?  The only time you'll see me sprinting is if there's a nearby Häagen-Dazs store (I am a sucker for a good waffle cone).

Youth was a time of seeking, striving, and uncovering life's secrets.  Now in middle-age, our dreams tend to limp along arthritically: they don’t feel nearly as passionate, so pressing, or mind-blowing.

Recently it occurred to me that my dreams have disappeared.  What happened to the guy who wanted to move mountains and turn rivers from their course?

Now I'm happy just watching Wheel of Fortune at night, hoping not to get heartburn after eating pizza for dinner.

What happened?  Where did our dreams go?  They didn't vanish, not all at once: but slowly, so we hardly sensed them slipping away.

Sure, we have lots on our plate.  We have high hopes for our health and our children and the cattle upon a thousand hills.  We go to the gym and do the weekly grocery shopping at Walmart.  We fix the leaky toilet and taxi our kids to their friends' houses.  We go to Church and take brownies to the PTA fundraiser.  We're busy!

But, you see, living is not the same as dreaming.

Life has a way of taking care of itself.  Dreams, though, fade if they are not courted and fed.

This is why, my friends, it is time to rekindle our dreams.

We need to remember how to dream, to really dream, like God does.

Be Wishers of Men

   God, I wish
   I knew
      how to Wish
      like You.

What could be more childlike than dreaming the impossible?  Christ's children are dreamers.  Are we?

While faith is the giver of great dreams, they will die in the lukewarm waters of unbelief.

As we spiritually mature, we begin to dream for a better world (Ether 12:4).  We dream that all mankind might be saved in God's kingdom at the last day (2 Nephi 33:12).

   And I would that all men
   might be saved.

(Helaman 12:25)

Joseph Smith said:

   A man filled with the love
   of God is not content
   with blessing his family
   alone, but ranges
   through the whole world,
   anxious to bless
   the whole human race.

(History of the Church 4:227)

I love the dreams of youth, for they stretched our hearts.  But I love even more the dreams of Zion that reach into the highest heavens.

​What are Zion's dreams?  Can you remember?

It is our privilege to turn to God and ask Him to fill us with grander dreams than we have yet dreamt.  For our Lord is a Dreamer, and oh! what dreams He dreams!

Let Him share His dreams with us.

A Dream for Zion

   green ice
   a mirror ceiling
   (love grown cold)
¡ N O W ¡
   we swim
   to the roof
   of our faith

It's easy to get carried away with life and forget about the Great and Marvelous Work afoot.

The work of Zion is really quite simple: it is (1) becoming pure in heart, so (2) we may become of one heart and one mind.

But remember, this Work bridges both sides of the veil; becoming "one heart and one mind" does not only apply to us here, but also to those on the other side.  This work joins not only flesh and blood, but also spirit and bone.

You see, Zion is not just a utopian experiment or social order.  Rather, Zion embodies the essential conditions required for exaltation.  Exaltation has always been a group effort.

The spiritual investment required to pierce into the highest heavens requires a soul group working as one.  We often call this group a "family" (think: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), but it is much more than just a nuclear family.

We've reduced the New and Everlasting Covenant to mean the marriage of two people getting sealed in the temple, but that's just a type and foreshadowing.  What the N&E Covenant is really about is the marriage of a people to God; this is the Path of ascension.

Lance Weaver explained:

"We all have to be unified in order to ascend to the higher heavens.  LDS scripture . . . make[s] it clear that we cannot be exalted in our fallen and divided state.  Only large cultural units which have learned to reconcile or atone all their differences ascend (as a group in a circle of harmony).

"Unity and oneness are the gateway to harvest into the complex systems of higher dimensional life."

(https://gatheredin.one/1677/the-only-true-church)

As eternal beings, we've come as far as we can on "our own."  Exaltation occurs when a Zion people is able to produce enough spiritual polarity (through loving one another) that the higher heavens open to receive them.  

The primary purpose of mortality is to generate this kind of stored spiritual potential, or power, that will propel us forward in our collective progression.

Until we achieve this potential, we can't escape the event horizon of the Terrestrial kingdom; in other words, we will remain "captive," or stuck, with the angels in eternity, unable to ascend (i.e., to become as) the Father.

​"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity." (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 5:588.)

I interpret Joseph's words to mean there's a "captivity" that comes after the resurrection to those who find themselves enduring another telestial experience in the rinse-and-repeat cycle of the laundry machine we call 'the lake of fire and brimstone'; and also among the terrestrial angels who are unable or unwilling to let go of whatever is holding them to their current estate (see D&C 132:17).

​I bring this up to say, if our dreams are individual and personal, we shall find they can only take us so far.

Now, there's nothing wrong with dreaming for a trip to Hawaii or for a hip replacement or for your children to get good grades.

Neither is there anything wrong with seeking spiritual experiences or favors from God.  But on top of all that, there is a whole other dimension to dreaming that encompasses the entire human family.  So dream big!

Our future is being formed by our present dreams.

Four Imponderables

According to the Buddha Gautama, there are four subjects we should avoid.  Not because these topics are bad, but because they are "imponderable" ― meaning, they're so far beyond our comprehension, it would be useless to speculate on them.

Unfortunately, I find these "imponderables" quite fascinating!  Just my luck.  And this post hits on several of them.

​The four Acintita Sutta (unanswerable questions) are:

   1.  The scope of God's power
   2.  The power man may attain through enlightenment
   3.  The workings of Karma
   4.  Cosmogenesis, such as the origin and nature of the universe

Perhaps Gautama was right, for the role of a revelator is not to give us the answers, but to show us how to obtain them from God (which is one way of understanding "enlightenment").

I find it curious that in LDS circles, we speak about intelligence and gaining knowledge and the pursuit of truth, not realizing that all of these things are merely means toward divine enlightenment ― which the Easterners know quite a lot about ― yet we are oblivious to Eastern teachings.

The East has a lot to contribute to Zion.  I hold with Joseph Smith who proclaimed, "One of the grand fundamental principles of 'Mormonism' is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may." (HC 5:499).

Joseph Smith bridged the West with the Middle East (think of the Egyptian Papers); had he lived another 10 years, I wonder if he would have taken us even further, into India and Africa and Asia.  Personally, I should have loved to hear Joseph preach his signature-frontiersman-style version of the Eight Fold Path; or see how he interpreted the Koran with the deftness he used to translate the Bible.

These latter-days are intended to bring a spiritual cross-pollination to the peoples of earth.  No longer shall we be ruled by the xenophobic beliefs of past dispensations.  Zion shall serve as a bridge between all peoples, tongues, kindreds, and nations.

The human family is facing a time of sifting.  The earth shall be shaken and reel to-and-fro, so that the pure in heart from every land shall be united.

Nephi's great summation of Isaiah's prophetic arc is thus:

   And he gathereth his children
   from the four quarters
   of the earth

This is quite comprehensive: not just three-quarters, or half, or part of the earth: all of it!

   and he numbereth his sheep
   and they know him

This is difficult, maybe, to accept: God has sheep among every nationality and tribe and race; that He is the Father of all, even those whose beliefs do not match our own.  In order to build Zion, we must lay aside our prideful notions that we are the elites (rather than the elect) of God.

   and there shall be one fold
   and one shepherd

We do not rule and reign over this fold, for it is not our own.  The fact there is only One fold means that our current divisions and sects are not the same as It.

   and he shall feed his sheep

God will feed us more than just an American diet of Captain Crunch Berries and fried eggs and sausage links with hashbrowns (as if the gospel were served in a Denny's diner).

God shall set before us a feast of chilaquiles, congee and shakshuka; muesli and nasi goreng and changua.  We shall break our fast on bibimbap and moo ping, pho and jian bing, and "of wine and lees well refined" (D&C 58:8).

   and in him they shall find
   pasture.

(1 Ne. 22:25)

You see, the Lord's "pasture" has no private fields and fences; all are free to graze and roam thereon as equals, no keys required; stretching without borders toward the hem of God's garment, which has no end.

Zion and Freedom (Moksha)

   not loss
   alone
      but loss
      of self

​Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष) is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism for being emancipated from samsara (the cycle of telestial death and rebirth, which literally means "running around in circles").  

The way we find freedom from samsara (what LDS members term 'exaltation') is through overcoming our ignorance.

These ideas and doctrines should be familiar to those who have grown up reading Joseph Smith's words, telling us "it is impossible for man to be saved in ignorance" (D&C 131:6).

Most souls are inextricably bound to the world.  "Few there be" that are able to find their way off the never-ending wheel of samsara.  We call it "hell." 

But why does the world have claim upon their souls?  How is it that Satan takes us captive?

Who can explain why the world is something that must be "overcome?"  Who, exactly (or what), are we overcoming?

Peter explained:

   For of whom a man
   is overcome,
   of the same is he brought
   in bondage.

(2 Pet. 2:19)

​I wish to suggest that we remain tethered to samsara ― repeating our lessons, unable to ascend further ― because of something the scriptures call "the demands of justice" (a unique term found only in the Book of Mormon).

I have struggled to understand the doctrine of divine justice.  Harmonizing God's attribute of love with His "justice" has not been easy for me.

​I am a bit like Corianton, and even though I have studied Alma's words for many years (see Alma 39-42), it was not until I began studying the companion books of Eastern religion that things finally fell into place.

Clark Burt’s insights into justice and mercy have also helped (see, for example, "Alma's Teachings on Mercy and Justice," July 31, 2022, fingerofgod.blogsot.com). ​

I have come to realize that justice lies at the heart of repentance, but not in the way most of us think.

You see, if our works "are evil, they shall be restored unto them for evil" (Alma 41:4).  But how?  How does the Lord restore evil unto evil, and good unto good?

Through justice.

Justice is the fulfillment of the Law of Restoration.  As we sow, so shall we reap.  This circle extends across lifetimes, worlds without end.

The way out of the cycle of re-embodiment in these lower heavens is through overcoming the world, which means, arriving at the point where the demands of justice can no longer hold us here.

   Heaven help us.

Justice OR Mercy

   searching ourselves
   for second opinions,
      for absolution,
      reaching home―
   finding home
   was not what we had thought

​Amulek tells us we need "safety" from the demands of justice.  This is quite telling.  The opposite of "safety" is 'at risk,' 'exposed,' 'vulnerable' and 'unprotected.'

Yikes!  Is justice so bad we need "armed" security?  Yes.
 
   And thus mercy can satisfy
   the demands of justice,
   and encircles them
   in the arms of safety.

Where is safety found?  Whose "arms" are these?  Jesus declared it to be "mine arm of mercy" (3 Nephi 9:14).

   While he that exercises
   no faith unto repentance
   is exposed to the whole law
   of the demands of justice.

(Alma 34:16)
 
Jacob compares the "power of justice" to a "lake of fire and brimstone" we cannot escape on our own (Jacob 6:10).

The good news, though, is the plan of mercy "appeases the demands of justice" (Alma 42:15).  "To appease" means "to pacify or placate by acceding to their demands." 

You see, mercy cannot rob justice; it may only appease it, or satisfy it.

Abinadi taught something profound when he said Christ stands "betwixt [us] and justice" (Mosiah 15:9).

(Of course, that means Christ is standing between our enemies and justice, too ― just in case you were waiting for their comeuppance.)

The Cambridge Dictionary defines "betwixt" as "between two positions, choices, or ideas; not really one thing or another."

Isaiah said "the Lord is a God of justice" (Isaiah 30:18).  So Christ is just, yet He stands betwixt us and justice.

Putting this all together, the law of mercy, then (which is just another name for the law of redemption), appears to be the harmonization of:

  - The law of Relationality
  - The law of Resonance
  - The law of Reciprocity
  - The law of Restoration

Now, if you put these four R-laws in a blender (and yes, I do like alliteration), what do we get?

We get knowledge.

Surprised?  Was that a curve ball?  Well, it shouldn't be because Isaiah told us!  In a single verse; look for the words "satisfy" and "knowledge" and "justify."

   He shall see
   the travail of his soul,
   and shall be satisfied;
   by his knowledge (!)
   shall my righteous servant
   justify many; for he
   shall bear their iniquities.

(Isaiah 53:11)

Mercy cannot rob justice because it isn't a short-cut.  Instead, mercy flows through, and around, and over justice.

You see, the only way for mercy to be just is when it is granted by One who possesses all knowledge.

​Building on this, let's discuss how it relates to Zion.

Lords of Karma

   small things form a wedge
   as sure as any mountain peak
      parting rainfall
​      flowing
   toward different
   seas

​​The Lord dreams of what we can become: He nurtures our growth and spiritual evolution as a Master Gardener.

He knew that our souls would be filled with weeds and worldliness.  And yet, He still gave us agency!

Agency is the primary driver of soul evolution.  But agency comes with a catch: with the power to choose comes the divine requirement that we experience the consequences of our choices, so we may be brought to knowledge.

Here in this life, behind a veil, we only experience one-half of the coin: the choosing and doing part.  But we don't really experience the effect of our choices (the butterfly effect).  In other words, we are ignorant.

Now this is very important, because we will ultimately experience the full-and-complete, multi-incarnational, consequences of our choices (whether good or bad).

Now, do you see the wisdom in this, in requiring all of us to experience the gamut of our actions as if they were done to ourselves?

To paraphrase Christ, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto yourselves" (Matt. 25:40).

You see, the demands of justice (what Easterners may characterize as Karma) are not a debt to be paid; nor are they a credit given to the faithful.  They are the irresistible (ineluctable) rope that connects and binds all of our past and future selves, forming a spiritual womb in which we become integrated with God as "one."

The demands of justice are thus educative, not punitive.  We may learn through experience (by knowledge of what our choices have wrought), or by repenting (mercy), which is, to receive the knowledge of God.

We will be judged by ourselves, as Alma implied (Alma 41:7).  And when we see justice in its totality, we shall be staring at the face of God.

What is ironic is that, in order to become like God ― having developed full self-responsibility and balance in our multi-dimensional Being ― we can’t do it alone.  For to see oneself, one must have a mirror.  We are each other's mirrors.  God is the greatest Mirror of all.
 
We are parts of a greater whole; and just as atoms form molecules, and molecules form matter, and so on, so does our divine House (or soul group) evolve as a family; we grow as a people.
 
The just law of restoration is intended to restore us to wholeness.
 
This work is supervised with meticulous care by the Gods.  You and I do not possess the wisdom for such things, not yet.

And so Christ came with a simple message: have faith in God, and love one another.

It amazes me how Christ taught next-to-nothing about the Four Imponderables.  Instead, He treated us like the little children we are.  He told us simply:

   Judge not.

(Luke 6:37)

   The same that judgeth rashly
   shall be judged rashly again;
   for according to his works
   shall his wages be; therefore,
   he that smiteth
   shall be smitten
   again, of the Lord.

(Mormon 8:19)

For now, all is held in abeyance by the merciful arms of Christ.

Blood and Sins of This Generation

   I want to love
   like the Nile
      overflowing its banks
      in summertime

Let’s say I spill my blood all over my mother’s floor, completely ruining her nice, expensive oriental rug. 

How do I make it right?  What does "restitution" look like?

The traditional theology says, "Well, Tim, you can scrub the bloody mess out and clean it (suffer for it), or you can repent and Christ will replace the rug with a nice new one."

Is this how Christ “satisfie[s] the demands of justice" (Mosiah 15:9)?

You see, the traditional atonement theory ignores the most important part of the equation: my mother!

Since the rug was hers, to appease justice is to satisfy her.

   1.  She may not care about the old rug and say, "Don’t worry about it."

   2.  She may want me to clean the rug, and dictate the manner of cleaning.

   3.  She may want me to pay her money instead so she can go to the store and select a replacement.

   4.  She may be happy with a new rug given to her by Christ (but please do not mistake me: I do not believe in a transactional theory of the atonement, in which Christ is a bank to pay our debts).

My point is, justice is not objective but subjective.  Justice is not fungible; the value of restitution is in the eye of the beholder.
 
Christ, then, becomes indispensable in such a convoluted mess.  Think of it!  He has to reconcile the entire human family with God, which is to say, with each other.

But wait: what if my mother has unreasonable demands?  At what point do the demands of justice become themselves unjust?

The eternal law of non-coercion (i.e., divine consent) is naturally self-selecting.  Those who desire to be cut-off shall be, until they come to understanding (i.e., knowledge).

Conclusion
 
In the Septuagint we find a fascinating dialogue with Job’s wife (unfortunately this part didn't make its way into the King James Version).

We always think of Job's suffering, but who ever wonders how all of his pain affected his poor wife?

Job's wife says to her suffering husband, "Thou sittest down to spend the nights in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer, and a servant from place to place, and house to house, waiting for the setting sun, that I may rest from my labours and my pains" (Job 2:9, Septuagint).

We have all been so busy worrying about our own sins, we have failed to notice that our spiritual standing is framed in a communal-context.

We have foolishly believed that we are cleansed from the blood and sins of this generation through our individual worthiness, when in fact, Jesus showed us the opposite by taking upon Himself the sins of all.

We would cut-bait and say, 'Sayonara' to the malefactors on either side, when Jesus stretched His arms towards them.

The devil's masterstroke was to get us to believe we were better than them, when in fact, we are them.

Let Zion dream!  Let Zion dream for mercy all the day long.

For, the New Song of Zion (D&C 84:99-102) concludes with this resounding chorus:

Glory, and honor, and power, and might,
Be ascribed to our God; for he is full of mercy,
Justice, grace and truth, and peace,
Forever and ever, Amen.

(D&C 84:102)