Approaching Zion: Holiness to the Lord

(Artwork in this post by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902.)

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
​Dreaming of Justice, Longing for Mercy
Desert Healers

"Songs of Everlasting Joy"

"Things are taken care of far better than you could possibly believe."

     ― Plato

Zion is joyful.

Isaiah long ago set the mood for Zion ― a city of celebration filled with tambourines and harps (30:32) and electric guitars (38:20, why not?), rejoicing as they:

   come to Zion
   with songs and everlasting joy.

(Isaiah 35:10)

Latter-day scripture picks up on this celebratory motif and runs with it, mentioning "songs of everlasting joy" six times.  In every instance, the context for this joyfulness is the establishment of Zion.  In other words, Zion comes with some stellar beats.

   The righteous shall be gathered
   out from among all nations,
   and shall come to Zion, singing
   with songs of everlasting joy.

(D&C 45:71)

Wouldn't you love to hear Zion's playlist (we won't find it on Spotify)?  Wouldn't it be amazing to feel the hills tremble and quake with delight as Zion's daughters return home, singing and rejoicing?

There is a special relationship between joy and music (for example, the morning stars sang together when the sons of God shouted for joy; see Job 38: 4–7).

Are you familiar with this kind of ecstasy ― a divine joy that is irrepressible, that wells up in your heart and demands release: a joyousness that makes you sing and dance and clap (Psalm 47:1) and holler, "Hosanna! Hosanna!"?

   The children of Ephraim . . . 
   shall be filled 
   with songs of everlasting joy.

(D&C 133:32-33)

"Tim, I'm not much of a singer, really.  My voice sounds like a chain-smoking frog.  Can't carry a tune.  The Ward Choir Director once threw garlic and holy water at me."

That's okay, friends: no musical experience is required because we "SHALL BE FILLED" with this joyful music, it says.

This joy is not summoned, but is a gift from God that courses through us, descending as the dews of Carmel, making our whole bodies and souls an instrument of praise.

   The pure in heart shall return,
   and come to their inheritances . . .
   with songs of everlasting joy,
   to build up the waste places
   of Zion.

(D&C 101:18)

Why are the pure in heart so joyful?  What reason have they to rejoice?  Is it because they bear upon their foreheads the mark of their King, their Salvation, their Father?

   And the Lord said . . . 
   I am Messiah,
   the King of Zion,
   the Rock of Heaven,
   which is broad as eternity
   (how big must this rock be, to encompass all of eternity? What is this trying to say?)
   whoso cometh in at the gate . . . 
   shall come forth with songs
   of EVERLASTING JOY.

(Moses 7:53)

When people ask me what I will do when the Savior returns, I answer, "Sing!"

The Holiness of Joy

"Ships cannot sail where the water is too shallow."

     ― Zhaozhou

"Tim," someone says, "I thought you were going to teach us about holiness.  What's joy got to do with it?"

Most people don't make the connection between (1) holiness and (2) what Peter calls the "joy unspeakable" (1 Pet. 1:8).

As I explained in Part 10: "Lord, To Whom Shall we Go?", the Three Pillars of Zion are:

   1. A Holy House (not the temple but a family, even the family of God: what the scriptures call the House of Israel)

   2. A Holy City (a festive city of peace where we dwell in brotherhood and there are no poor)

   3. A Holy Name (taking upon ourselves the name of Christ, having received a new name)

When we receive (1) - (3), we can't help but sing "the songs of everlasting joy!"  Look carefully:

   1.  "Songs" = music.  What is music but sound, and what is sound but vibration, and what is vibration but waves moving in particular ratios?

Do not limit "songs" to auditory waves only, but think of the songs (movement and frequencies and amplitude) of light and love and intelligence; think of the way God's glory dances through all of our senses.

Think of the song that Creation sings, that is seen in the snowflake and scampering of a squirrel, in a tree shaking itself in the wind, and in the whispers of a setting sun.  All creation exclaims the glory of God.

   2.  "Everlasting" = ah, so we're not talking about mortal music, are we?  These Songs cannot be composed by mortal hands, neither sung with mortal lips, for they are "everlasting."

This is a very particular sort of music, then: akin to the Music of the Spheres, which flows through all and is in all.  This is the heartbeat of God that reverberates throughout His dominion.

It is the voice of Eternity itself ("everlasting"!), meaning this music has no beginning, neither end.  The Tabernacle Choir has never performed anything like it, although you have heard it in the silence of winter as you watched the wood burn low in the fireplace as a child.

In this music we sense the movement of Galrazim, the hidden wave of God, the everlasting Tide that flows upon celestial seas, beckoning all into the unity of the ocean, which is "whole-i-ness."

   3.  "Joy" = what, exactly, is this?  How would you define joy?  What does it feel like to tap into the lifeblood of creation, filling our veins with the everlasting chords of Kingdom Come?  What does it mean to actually receive "a fullness of joy" (D&C 93:33)?

There is holiness in joy, and joy in holiness.

What is Holiness?

"Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name."

     ― Moses 7:35

We tend to think "holiness" is something reverent or monkish, reserved for temples and quiet voices.  We inscribe "Holiness to the Lord" on granite stones and think it exists outside of ourselves, apart from us.  We seek after it as if we were strangers.

We associate holiness with ritual linen, robes and aprons ― thinking holiness is held in special places and special occasions and special ordinances.

We fail to understand that holiness is finding the sacred in the common, in seeing the sacramental significance of each part of the creation, and in every experience, and every person.

That is why, eating a burrito at Taco Bell can be as holy as having our baptism of fire; taking the dog for a stroll can be as sacred as receiving from the Lord our new name; and running to Walmart to buy milk for dinner can be as profound as having our calling and election made sure.

Am I serious?  More than I usually am, for I speak from personal experience.  The holiness of God is not found in being set apart, but in being set together ― in setting those things which find themselves apart into the Whole, so all may become one.

If holiness is found in the heart of God, then shall we not place all things in the bosom of Him whose blood circulates holiness, and thereby give life to all things?

The Many

The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first,
nature is incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on,
there are divine things well envelop’d,
I swear to you there are divine beings
more beautiful than words can tell.
 
    ― Walt Whitman

​Philosophers and prophets have long puzzled over the problem of holiness, of the Many and the One.

Everything we see around us, like a garden of roses, is the Many.  We can pick a rose and smell it; and yet we sense behind each physical specimen (all different, and yet the same) the existence of the One they are modeled after.

However, the "One" is unseen ― but we intuitively feel that the One is more real, somehow, than the Many we can see and touch.

When we search for Truth, we are seeking the One ― the Prime, the First, the Alpha ― upon which all others are fashioned in its image.

How do we find the One?  Where is holiness kept?  How do we approach what is hidden from view?  Well, that's simple: through the Many!

   Inasmuch as ye have done it
   unto one the least of these
   my brethren (the Many),
   ye have done it unto me (the One)

(Matt. 25:40)

Holiness is seeing the One in the Many, and returning the Many to the One.

Philosophers and prophets and poets have spent their lives searching for the One, trying to understand what is "real" and eternal.  The scriptures define truth as "things as they really are" (Jacob 4:13).  How do we discern reality from figment and illusion?

Plato and the Greeks zeroed in on four subjects they believed were best suited to uncovering the One: types and shadows that revealed the veiled Face of God.

These subjects may surprise you, for they are not taught in Sunday School ― but if we want to comprehend God, they’re a good place to start.

The Greeks called these four areas of inquiry the Quadrivium:

   - Mathematics (the study of numbers)
   
   - Geometry (the study of shapes)
   
   - Astronomy (the study of the stars and planets)
   
   - Music (the study of vibrational frequencies and ratios)

What does the Quadrivium reveal about the nature of holiness?  What does it reveal about the unseen world?  How do these subjects inspire "songs of everlasting joy" in our breast?

Don't despair!  I am not good at math, either.  I never even took Calculus.

But that's okay: we're not getting a Ph.D; we are seeking instead a Puri.D (of heart), which yields clarity of sight so we may "see God" (Matt. 5:8).

Seeking the One is the working of holiness, sanctifying the seeker.

"I Call to the Stand, Isaac Newton"

Isaac Newton, the OG, was a master student of the Quadrivium.  He concluded that space and time were absolute and immutable, providing the universe with rigid, unchangeable laws.

Newton's equations are still used today (think of the laws of motion we learned in High School, like, when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction).
 
There are many people (including members of the Church) who want the gospel of Jesus Christ to be like Sir Isaac Newton's laws.  They treat the laws of the gospel as if they were rigid and fixed, as if the gospel were an equation to be unpacked.  You’ll hear them quoting D&C 130:20-21, like President Nelson, "There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven. . . ."
 
However, things get interesting when someone like Albert Einstein comes on the scene and shows space and time are actually part of a unified whole, and gives us general relativity, which teaches that cosmic evolution is flexible and dynamic ― a far cry from Newton’s rigid, unchanging structures.

You see, Newton's laws are useful (and still helpful) on the earth, at small scales; but as we leave the earth and find ourselves in larger systems, awash in the galaxy, Newton's laws don't work.  That's where General Relativity comes in.

So it is with the gospel.  General Conference contains some useful information if you're a Newtonian member content to remain on earth, working with the lesser laws and ordinances of the gospel.
 
But Newtonian Christians have trouble leaving the Aaronic order, the letter-of-the-law.  They become dogmatic.

You see, as we ascend to higher heavens, we find that Newton’s laws don’t apply (or work) anymore.  Nevertheless, many members of the Church content themselves to stay earth-bound, on pews fashioned for comfort rather than progress.

(This is one reason our churches have become like hospitals, places of palliative care for those who do not wish to be healed, but prefer to remain in the chlorine-soaked corridors of modern religion with its attendant priestcrafts.)

For those brave enough to leave the chapelled confines of religious orthodoxy, and who choose to come unto Christ at all costs, they soon find themselves in need of a purer framework, a more elegant view of the universe.  Einstein's General Relativity, let's say, represents the Melchizedek order.

(And those strapped to heart monitors and IVs see us from their hospital gurneys removing the needles and patches from our chest, getting up and setting aside our gowns and putting on Christ instead, and as we walk out the doors the bedridden think we're the crazy ones.  "Get back here and take your pills!  Nurse's orders!")

Think we're done?  No, because no matter how high we ascend, there will yet be kingdoms above that.

One of the most important points made in D&C 76 ― one that most people gloss over ― is that those who have ascended have a loving responsibility to minister to those lower on the ladder (D&C 76:87-88).  The higher we stretch upwards, the greater our reach downward.

But this does NOT mean (as I've heard mistakenly taught in Church many times) that the "fulness" of the Father does not extend into the lower kingdoms.

Good heavens, how we've butchered the Vision!  God's plenary fulness is extant and present in all of His kingdoms, at every level, without exception.

The scripture says, rather, that the inhabitants of the lower kingdoms are unable to "receive" of the Father's fulness (D&C 76:76-77).

This is the distinguishing feature of the kingdoms of glory: the capacity of the inhabitants to "receive" God's glory.

The difference between a telestial and celestial kingdom is not the amount of the Father's glory that is available (which is the same), but rather the capacity of the persons to "receive" it.

Those in the lower kingdoms have a harder time perceiving God's presence because their spiritual awareness is diminished.

And thus we see that holiness is not "higher," but pertains to and imbues all of God's creation, at all levels.

"Holiness to the Lord" means we find Him wherever we stand, at all times, and in all places.

The One
   
   "In them hath he set a tabernacle."

        ― Psalm 19:4

In the Doctrine and Covenants we're told the Spirit of God "enlighteneth every man through the world" (D&C 84:46).
 
What does it mean to be "enlightened?"  How does one shine a light on what is hidden, so it becomes manifest in the darkness (which is one way to view "sanctification"), as Jesus did?

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God" (1 Cor. 3:16)?  I would suggest that the light we're searching for is already within us: we simply do not perceive it (we do not "comprehend" it).

   The light shineth (it's always on)
   in darkness, and the darkness
   comprehendeth it not.

(D&C 88:49)

The Light we seek is not "out there": we don't need to search for it in cathedrals and temples and basilicas and pagodas and monasteries: for WE ARE THE TEMPLE.  The Light is within us.  The problem, though, is we are blind to it.  We are unconscious of it.
 
Consciousness refers to a person's awareness of the world around them.  But "consciousness" is not who we are; it is not the same as the "self."  It merely describes a person's ability to perceive ("RECEIVE") things "as they really are."

Animals are conscious, but they are not self-conscious like we are.  There are different levels of consciousness.  In a similar way, as we ascend higher, the gods develop a sort of pan-consciousness in which they "see as they are seen, and know as they are known."

Our consciousness is not the same thing as our Spirit or intelligence.  As we ascend Jacob's Ladder, our spiritual consciousness expands: our faculties are enlarged so we may see things we cannot presently conceive of ― the same way we cannot hear the high pitch of a dog whistle or see infrared and ultraviolet light with our natural senses.

Now, let me clarify something.  When I speak of Jacob's Ladder, we usually think of stages of progression, going from one kingdom to another, from exaltation to exaltation.  This view is "outward" and is correct, for we do inhabit and move through environments of varying glories.

As I've pointed out before, we are currently at the top of the third rung on Jacob’s ladder, collectively (that is, the earth).  We're currently entering the fourth, or paradisiacal glory (see, Seven Heavens). 

But there is also an aspect of Jacob's Ladder that we largely ignore, which is the "inner" character of the Ladder.  The important thing to understand is that all seven rungs (representing the seven heavens) of the Ladder currently reside in each one of us.  At this moment.  Heaven is not just something we ascend, but something that ascends in us.

This is why I say we don't have to "go" anywhere to find God, because the Kingdom of heaven is within.

The kingdom of glory we inherit in the resurrection after the harvest is commensurate with the heaven we have ascended to inwardly in this life, which is to say, the level of light we have infused into our souls.

This may sound strange, because we look into the vastness of space and imagine Kolob being "out there" somewhere near Sagittarius A.  But what if, as we go "inward" and deeper, things become much more expansive?

Take physical matter, which appears solid, right?  Well, it isn't solid at all (even though that is how we perceive it).  Walk up to a tree and examine a single leaf.  As you hold it to your eyes, you’ll begin to see detailed veins on the leaf.  Now pretend you could peer deeper into it, and you’d see the molecules and atoms.  Keep going.  What we find, the further "inward" we go, is endlessness: emptiness and space ad infinitum. 
 
As the poet William Blake surmised:

   To see a world in a grain of sand
   And heaven in a wild flower,
   Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
   And eternity in an hour.

But there is a correspondence between the outer and inner, the seen and invisible, the higher (hidden) and lower (manifest).

All things are united by, and joined within, the light and Spirit of Christ, which is a name for this divinity that lies within each of us: call it light, or the glory of God, or intelligence, or the light of Truth ― however we describe it, it dwells within us (see D&C 93:17).

​Holiness is seeing the threads of this Light in all things, through all things ― uniting all things in One.

Heavenly Bodies

"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?"

     ― Job 38:33
   
​"Tim," someone says, "Why did we come to earth to receive a physical body, then, if all the action is on the inside?"

Good question.  Perhaps I have misled you into thinking consciousness was a thing, something that belonged to you and me.  I think it is more helpful to conceptualize that there is a single Consciousness that we all tap into to varying degrees, a unified whole we all perceive subjectively, which the Lectures on Faith call "the Mind of God."  The amazing thing about the Mind of God is we can actually add to it.

Spiritual death is to be trapped in the illusion that we are "cut off" from God.  The fig leaves of Eden, the desire to "hide" from God, represent this self-imposed isolation and separation from our divine nature.

Christ taught us to see the Truth: we do not have irreconcilable differences with God (for we all share in godhood), and through faith we can be reconciled to the family of God after our brief Rumspringa.

Now, you are conscious of your toes; but being aware of your toes does not mean you can move them.  Consider how awful it would be to possesses consciousness but be unable to interact with what you perceive.  Imagine a person who was comatose but still conscious of everything going on around them, unable to speak or move.

And so consciousness without the ability to act is hell (and vice versa).  How do we interact?  It requires at least two things: agency (free will) and a vehicle in which to interface with and impact the environment around us (a body) (which the scriptures often equate with power, even the power of God).

​Now this next point is esoteric, very subtle.  Please understand that each rung on Jacob's Ladder (each "heaven" or spiritual estate) has associated with it a body.

On the third rung we find ourselves, we've been given a mortal body commensurate with this 3D stage.  As we ascend higher, our body-form takes upon itself new and different aspects.

Now, because God does not experience time as we do, pretend, just for a moment, that all seven of our bodies were somehow connected to us at all times, even right now.  Consider the possibility that our present physical body is linked to the seven energy fields of our total Being.

Are we beginning to understand what it means, "the Body of Christ?"  People wait for Jesus to pop into their bedrooms as if He were a castmate on the set of Friends, not realizing that the Body of Christ is quite literally composed of the grace shared by believers ― which is more "real" in higher planes than flesh and blood.

   Know ye not that your bodies
   are the members of Christ?

(1 Cor. 6:15)

And do you know what this means?  In order for us to experience this estate in innocence, to assist our spiritual growth, we would need to be veiled from our other bodies (our higher selves).  But even in our stunted, mortal state, we remain gnolaum (Abr. 3:18), or eternal.

This is how I think we can reconcile Joseph Smith's King Follett statement that God the Father was once a man, with the seemingly contradictory doctrine that God has always been God, from all eternity to all eternity.  Both are correct, just as we are now men and women (in the relative view), but ― when viewed from the eternal and timeless perspective of God ― possess the characteristics of our complete, integrated, and total Being.​

Quantum [Spiritual] Mechanics?

     Here, at the end,
     I will smell the sun
     in the evening soil,
I will listen to the march  
of the field vole
and foxes’ feet;
 
I will taste the cold
on my wings as snow
spreads a shroud
across the meadow—​
     and I will see​
     one last time
the vine
​that drew love
from our fingertips.

​   ― The Meadow

Earlier I presented an analogy of Newton and Einstein representing various priesthoods.  Now enter: quantum mechanics.  Oh boy!

Our spirits expand and exist beyond the point we can consciously perceive; but just because we are unaware of our total beingness does not change the fact that we are multi-dimensional gods having an incredible mortal experience (remember that the next time you forget where you put your glasses, or when someone cuts you off in traffic).

This life exudes holiness in all its parts.

Our spirits stretch into the unknowable past, and into the unseen future, for we are without beginning of days or end of years.
 
In a way I do not understand, we exist at all these points of time.  Like a musical score that is written before a single note is played by the orchestra, all of the parts of our Self are held in the Mind of God.

But what would happen if all of the notes on the sheet music were played simultaneously?  It would be a big noise!  Time is a gift, and the worlds are "numbered" as a composer numbers the musical notes in sequence, giving them rhythm and rests, so that when the maestro plays, the musical score becomes coherent and beautiful.

In other words, eternity exists in totality now, all of its parts ― but, we experience it in sequence and stages, as time flows forward.
​
The music we hear being played "now" upon the stage in this lifetime is part of a greater musical tapestry that stretches in all directions, but we ARE the embodiment of the entire Score, even as I AM ― even if we are only aware of this single, brief measure of music we call "mortality."
 
Imagine it!  Yes, Moses learned that "man is nothing" (Moses 1:10); but don't forget that was only half the lesson.  For Moses also learned that we are children of God, sons and daughters of the Creator, and therefore, man is everything (Moses 1:39).

Before the Nephite Twelve had even been born, hundreds of years before they would ever blow out any birthday candles, the Angel told Nephi:

   And, behold, they are righteous
   forever; for because of their faith
   in the Lamb of God
   their garments are made white
   in his blood.

(1 Nephi 12:10)

You see, under Newton and Einstein, using either classical physics or general relativity, we find that the past and future are etched into the present, and have certainty.
 
But in quantum mechanics we approach something holier, perhaps, than certainty: probability.  The more we delve into the universe and learn of things "as they really are," the more we find its elegance in unpredictability, where Reality is "not one way or another, but is in fact, partly one way AND another."  (Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos.)

Here is holiness: in the blending of the relative and objective view; the harmonization of duality; the integration of the One and the Many, the balancing of eternity upon a needle's nose ― in all of these we find God's handiwork.

The closer to God we come, the more we find ourselves swimming in potentiality and possibilities, where forms are not fixed while awaiting faith (being "perceived"); this is what the Lectures on Faith describe when talking about "the worlds being framed by the Word of God: so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Lecture 1:14).

You see, "things as they really are" are NOT fixed!  Re-read that statement, please.  Here is the Good News that Christ's blood sprinkles upon our hope: for we believe Truth is also "things as they really WILL BE" (Jacob 4:13).

Reality remains somewhat ambiguous, in flux, until we apply our faith, as particles remain in play until they are perceived and measured.

What we thought was "fixed" under Newton, and settled under Einstein, is not the whole story.

As you read the following quote from physicist Brian Greene, I want to you to apply these words to our relationship with God.

"[Under Newton and Einstein], if you want to control what's happening on the other side of a football field, you have to go there, or, at the very least, you have to send someone [there].

"Quantum mechanics challenges this view by revealing . . . a capacity to transcend space; long-range quantum connections can bypass spatial separation.  Two objects can be far apart in space, but as far as quantum mechanics is concerned, it’s as if they’re a single entity.”  (Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos, p. 12.)    
 
Spiritually speaking, there is a law deeper than that which we call the higher law, and greater than that which we deem to be greatest, which is:

   All things are possible
   to him that believeth.

(Mark 9:23).

And we of little faith continue to doubt?  Doubt not, but be believing!  For we are a single Being with God.  We are "one" ― just as Jesus said (John 17).

When we "comprehend" this reality, we shall become holy.