"Physician, heal thyself"

​There's a famous story from Zen Buddhism involving the Sixth Ancestor (a Chinese master who lived from 628 A.D. to 713 A.D.) (for those of you who are interested, I am referring to Koan 29 from the Mumonkan).

"The wind was flapping the temple flag and two monks started an argument.  One said, 'Look, the flag moves,' and the other said, 'No, it is the wind that moves.'  They argued back and forth but could not reach a conclusion.

"The Sixth Ancestor passed by and heard their argument.  He stopped and said, 'It is not the wind that moves, and it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves.'

"The monks were awestruck."

I want to invite you to join me in an attempt to "move our minds" in this post; I hope we will stretch our sights beyond the day-to-day and ponder our place in this vast, epic, inspiring universe (which scientists believe is approximately 13.7 billion years old).

I think Jesus was better than anyone at helping us to "move our minds" towards God (as well as moving our hearts towards Him).

It took a mental adjustment for Jesus's disciples to wrap their heads around the fact that this average-looking fellow with no political pretensions could actually be the Messiah (I love how the Lord is full of surprises).

After Jesus began His ministry, He returned home to Nazareth and received a cold welcome.  He quoted a proverb to His detractors who questioned whether this upstart, this 'Joseph's son,' could actually be the Light of the World.

Jesus responded to their doubts:

   Ye will surely say unto me
   this proverb,
   Physician, heal thyself. . . .

   Verily I say unto you,
   No prophet is accepted
   in his own country.

(Luke 4:23-24)

Jesus was quoting an ancient Greek proverb, popularized six hundred years before His birth in one of Aesop's Fables, the Frog and the Fox.

"There was a frog who claimed to be trained in the physician's art, acquainted with all the medicinal plants of the earth, the only creature who could cure the animals' ailments.

"The fox listened to the frog's announcement and, looking at the color of his skin, said, 'How can it be that you are able to cure others of their illnesses, but the signs of sickness can still be seen in your own face?'"

The moral of the story was:  Don't trust preachers who cannot produce the fruits they preach; don't trust a plumber with a leaky faucet at home; don't depend on a priest with leprosy to heal you of yours.

Jesus was so remarkable because He walked-the-walk (even on water).  Among all the reasons to trust in Jesus Christ (and there are a lot), this is the reason I believe: He did it!  He overcame death!  His resurrection showed it is possible.

There have been many wise teachers and gurus during earth's history (and I am grateful for them all); but only one of them can rightly be called "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20) in this cycle of creation.

Jesus was the Physician who actually cured blindness and healed lepers and lameness; He raised people from the dead!  Most importantly, He showed us how we can overcome death and hell, too.

His message was never "Look at me," but was always, "Follow me."  He wasn't interested in converting a bunch of listeners, who sat around debating His sayings: He wanted doers, disciples who would do even as He did.

So when Amulek taught that the atonement required something greater than the sacrifice of a beast or fowl or man ― it required the sacrifice of a Son of God (Alma 34:10, 14) ― we should remember that we are also (on Jesus's word) sons and daughters of God.

[Above: an image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius arm]

The Oneness of God

The Jews wanted to kill Jesus for saying He was the Son of God.  In John 10:30-39, He declared:

   I and my Father are one.

While these words are about Christ, yes, let's apply them to ourselves.  For wasn't that the point of Jesus's incarnation?  Wasn't the Great Revelation made plain at last, when God made Himself a Man to redeem His people (Mosiah 15:1-4)?

What else did He mean in His great intercessory prayer, but that we are all "one" (or can be)?  He wasn't calling us to a fruitless faith, but a powerful one: a faith that would perform the works He had (John 14:12).

So first and foremost, we must understand the fantastic truth that we are (or someday will be) One with God.  To be like Christ, then, is to be like the Father.  To be One with Them is godliness, or eternal life.

   Then the Jews took up stones
   again to stone him.

Why were the Jews offended?  Well, maybe it was because they were still stuck on the Law of Moses.  Someone claiming to be "one" with God implied they were God; and that was blasphemy.  And blasphemy was punishable by death.

   The Jews answered him,
   saying, For a good work
   we stone thee not;
   but for blasphemy;
   and because that thou,
   being a man,
   makest thyself God.

(John 10:33)

But Jesus had the perfect comeback, quoting scripture back at them, which they could not argue against.

   Jesus answered them,
   Is it not written in your law,
   I said, Ye are gods?

(John 10:34)

Question:  If we are gods, can you imagine what is possible?  What we could accomplish?  What miracles and good works are within our power to perform?  Think of the works of love with which we could heal this wounded world, as Christ did.

Jesus said, "For with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27).

What percentage is "all"?  

[Above: an image of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, as captured using radio telescopes]

"The Father is in me, and I in him"

For me, the most central teaching of Jesus Christ is the truth that we are children of God who have received His divine nature.

Ergo, we ARE gods (!), even the sons and daughters of God (D&C 76:58).

Now, it is true that our "intelligence" was not created by God ― for we have existed eternally, without beginning or end, as gnolaum (D&C 93:29; Abr. 3:18).

But being unattached and lonely intelligences is no good.  We needed to become part of a family, as organized intelligences ― meaning, placed in a social construct that, through the operation of birth and rebirth, becomes biological through successive "estates" ― (hence the "Begotten" part of Christ's moniker).

In other words, we needed a patron (a patriarch) to adopt us, to spoil us (D&C 84:38), to believe in us ― someone who would help us with our homework and show us how to catch a baseball in the backyard.

You see, people who want to "save" you are a dime-a-dozen (even Lucifer wanted to save us).  But those who want to be our parents, who desire children?  Those who are willing to sacrifice late nights and long hours caring for a bunch of babies?

Nope, Satan had no interest in sons.

All this to say, we needed to be adopted.  Luckily there was someone whose charity was great enough to put up with a bunch of brats, who wanted to raise us, and that was Christ.  He offered to make us His children; He offered a way for us to be fatherless intelligences no more.

Receiving of the fulness of the Son and of the Father changes our intelligence; it changes our nature.  It adds upon us glory and ability and capacity.  By inheriting His nature, we become far more than we ever could have been as undeveloped intelligence meandering through the ether.

For this reason, and with our consent, our intelligences were grafted into the heavenly family of God, which is represented as the Tree of Life.

Others refer to this as entering the New and Everlasting Covenant.

"The Creator of Heaven and Earth"

King Benjamin gave some of my favorite descriptors for Christ.  He said, quoting an angel:

   And he shall be called
   [notice these are names, or titles; they are types and symbols; they do not define Him, but rather describe Him]
   (1) Jesus Christ,
   (2) the Son of God,
   (3) the Father of heaven
   and earth,
   (4) the Creator of all things
   from the beginning.

(Mosiah 3:8)

How is Christ the creator of all things?  Is this metaphorical?  I want to suggest a different perspective.  By way of crude analogy, think of how a human life is conceived.  Our parents did not birth us fully-formed.  We started as a blueprint, an embryo.

All of the genetic material required to produce a living, breathing baby is received from two small sources: the mother's egg and the father's seed.  The sperm and egg each contain a single set of 23 chromosomes.

Everything we are, all 200 lbs. of us (well, in my case that is being generous) springs from something as small as 0.10 mm in diameter.

But how did we grow, then, so big?  Well, we drew upon the elements of the earth; we drank milk and grew bigger and bigger to our present stature.

Now apply this principle to our universe.  Pretend that a drop of Christ's blood contained the blueprint to encode the elements to gather, and form, and organize: drawing upon oxygen and hydrogen and carbon.

Pretend this symbolic seed burst into the deep darkness, the nothingness, the void, and from this tiny spark, the planets and stars and suns had enough information to form bodies, to which their spirits joined?

What if!  What if the entire universe sprang from the Christ-embryo, His intelligence ordering the elements into limbs and branches and children?

To Him, the elemental matter of our universe responded (which was not created neither can it be destroyed), it heeded and obeyed the blueprint of His blood, and over billions of our earth-years, it has expanded into solar systems and spiraling galaxies and Cindy Lou down the street.

Is the universe alive?  Is it intelligent?  Is it conscious?

Are we?

   For by him were all things
   created, that are in heaven,
   and that are in earth,
   visible and invisible,
   whether they be thrones,
   or dominions,
   or principalities,
   or powers: all things
   were created by him,
   and for him:

   And he is before all things,
   and by him all things consist.

(Colossians 1:16-17)

Imagine if all things emanated from His Person, from the beginning?

And just as our spirits govern our physical bodies, Christ's spirit governs all of the physical creation (D&C 88:7-13).

Fire Worshippers

If any of this sounds far-fetched, please consider Joseph Smith's cosmology as presented in the Egyptian Papers​​, specifically his comments to Facsimile 2.

"So what, Tim?" someone asks.  "How is this going to help me pay the cable bill or help my son's football team win on Friday night?  Why does it matter?"
 
Well, I think it is important we understand our nature; I would also like to understand the nature of existence.

When we understand the laws of God, we can begin to understand the reason for things (cause and effect).

The laws of God are of great worth.  We spend trillions of dollars every year on scientific research to better understand the physical workings of the world around us; how important is it to understand the spiritual workings of things?

We are the fruit of the Tree of Life, and are tapped into the Roots.  When we channel nourishment and strength from the Roots, which is the Mind of God, or Spirit of God, we are able to bear godly fruit.

To be "fruitful" means we share the seed God has planted within us, which is the light of Christ, whose rays become blended with our own spiritual energy to reveal the 'light of truth,' which is the glory of God.

How do we illuminate humanity as "the light of the world?"  How do we become a "city that is set on a hill" (Matt. 5:14) as Jesus wanted?

I speak of these things to offer encouragement; for within us is "the true light" (D&C 88:50).  If you have been seeking God, as if He were a separate being, try seeking Him within, and in your neighbor, and in the creation itself.  For He is there, in all things; even in us.  He is with us, literally.

There's a great legend about Moses, where the children of Israel pester him to invite God to dinner.  Moses hikes up Sinai and speaks to God, but fails to ask Him to join them for dinner.  God asks, "Moses, why have you not invited me to dinner, like the people wanted?"

Moses makes excuses, but God tells him, "Tell the people I will share a meal with them tomorrow."

So the people are overjoyed and begin to make lavish preparations to host God for dinner.  During their preparations, an old fire-worshipper (a follower of Zoroaster) wanders into camp, bedraggled and hungry.  The old man asks for food, but the people say, "Are you kidding?  God is about to feast with us, help us prepare and you can eat with the rest of us when it is time."  The man wandered off and was not seen again.

The appointed hour came and God didn't appear.  The people go to bed depressed, disappointed.

The next day Moses climbs Mt. Sinai and says, "God, why didn't you come to dinner?  The people were expecting you!  Are you trying to make me look like a fool?"

The Lord replies, "I came to dinner and the children offered me no meat," referring to the old man.

"Gaslighting Award is Given to . . . "

Recently I attended an Elders Quorum meeting and someone referred to members as "Mormons" (no, it wasn't me).  One of the presidency corrected him, "There are no Mormons.  We aren't supposed to say that anymore."

I was stunned by that statement.  "There are no Mormons."

Something about the way the speaker said it reminded me of Mao's Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976).  When Mao seized power, he sought to destroy the Four Olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits).  It was cultural genocide.

As I returned home, I wondered to myself, "Maybe he was right.  Maybe the Mormonism I knew and loved is gone."

'Mormonism' used to refer not only to membership in the church, but more importantly, to our cultural heritage.

And what a heritage it was ― the pioneers and Jell-O potlucks, the laughter at roadshows and Relief Society homemaking; seer stones and doctrinal cottage meetings; the Mormon Battalion and Hawn's Mill and J. Golden Kimball stories.

Then I recalled something my mother told me once, reflecting on the changes she had seen in the Church since she joined as a convert over 50 years ago (when David O. McKay was president), "This is not the same Church I joined."

Perhaps we should have remembered, back when the Lord called the Church "living" in 1831 (D&C 1:30), that all living things are prone to die.

Mingling Money with Salvation

The specter of death has hovered over this Dispensation from the very beginning ― from the moment the angel warned Joseph Smith against using "the plates for the purpose of getting rich" (JS-H 1:46).

Long before the foundations of this world were laid, God decreed eternal laws that prevent us from engaging in spiritual work for improper motives (chief among them personal gain).

It never ceases to amaze me how we kick against the pricks, seeking to profit from our service to God, like the family of General Authority Devin G. Durrant seeking to monetize his "Ponderize" catch-phrase.

To be blunt, selling t-shirts and mugs with "Ponderize" on them is chump-change compared to the more sophisticated forms of priestcraft, like selling Catholic indulgences ― or selling temple tokens for tithing.

The reason we are forbidden from charging money for admittance into the temple, or for performing priesthood ordinances, or for sharing our spiritual gifts, is because it puts what God has given freely behind a paywall; it pollutes the holy church of God (Mormon 8:38).

But why?  Why can't we have our cake and eat it too?  Why can't we build the Kingdom while growing our bank accounts?  I mean, besides the obvious reason that the Lord has forbidden it (Luke 12:13-21)?

Please consider the following:

"Buying or selling certain things changes their nature ― 'corrupts' them into something else.  In a democracy, we cannot allow people to sell their votes.  This is because if we do, most of those votes would be bought by the wealthy.  Similarly, sexual intercourse changes when it is paid for.  Another example is friendship; the very nature of friendship means that it can’t be paid for without fundamentally altering it into something else." (Justin Pack, Meritocracy Mingled with Scripture, BCC Press: 2024, p. 22-23.)

You see, charging money to stay on the Covenant Path fundamentally alters Christ's gift of redemption, which was given freely, "without money and without price" (2 Nephi 26:25).

​The Church's business model is the same as Babylon's; unless we repent and "cleanse the inner vessel," we shall be rejected as a people.  Or, I wonder, maybe we already have been rejected ― and for this reason "there are no more Mormons."

Where Paul Loses It

​There's an interesting story in the New Testament about Paul preaching in Philippi, a bustling city in Macedonia, when he encountered a young slave woman "with a spirit of divination" (Acts 16:16).

This young lady pestered Paul and his companion, following them around the city, day after day, crying out, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17).

You'd think they'd be flattered with the attention, with her public witness of their divine calling, testifying they were men of God, but no.  She was a soothsayer, a diviner, who had an evil spirit.

According to the commentaries I've read, the maiden was one of the priestesses of Delphi, having the spirit of Python, a pagan oracle.

The text goes out of its way to mention that the woman was skillful at her craft, for she "brought her masters much gain" through her sorcery.  Her work was profitable; she was raking it in, so-to-speak (at least for her masters).

So after "many days" of Paul being followed by the woman, he had finally had enough.  He "was grieved."  The NIV says:

   Paul became so annoyed
   that he turned around
   and said to the spirit,
   "In the name of Jesus Christ
   I command you to come
   out of her!"

(Acts 16:18)

And the evil spirit immediately exited the young woman.  Good news, right?  Well, it was a matter of perspective.  Good news for Paul and her, but not-so-good for her masters, who had lost their golden goose.  With the evil spirit gone, so had her gift of divination.  So had their gravy-train.

And so we come to the point of the story:

   When her owners realized
   that their hope of making
   money was gone,
   they seized Paul and Silas
   and dragged them . . . 
   before the magistrates . . . 
   [who] ordered them to be
   stripped and beaten
   with rods.
   
   After they had been
   severely flogged,
   they were thrown into prison.

(Acts 16:19-23, NIV)

The reason I bring this up is to point out that her masters didn't care when the young woman testified day after day that Paul and Silas were men of God.  They didn't care when Paul went around preaching his religion and faith in Christ; they didn't care ―
until Paul destroyed their priestcraft by casting out the evil spirit.

It was only when they "realized their hope of making money was gone" that they mobilized, wrathful, by throwing Paul into jail.

   He that exalteth himself
   shall be abased,
   and he that abaseth himself
   shall be exalted.

(D&C 101:42)

So long as General Authorities receive a stipend, salary, benefits, perks, etc., we may safely disregard their words ― for they have disregarded Christ's.

Let Zion Rejoice!

"A ceremonial sky / painted by artists / untouched by priests' knife / falling gently towards / forgetfulness."

   ― "Zion"

We are in uncharted waters, sailing through the Seventh Seal upon the Savior's skiff.

   And when he had opened
   the seventh seal,
   there was silence in heaven
   about the space
   of half an hour.

(Revelation 8:1)

I confess, I fear the silence; when I am home alone I usually have the TV on in the background.  I dread the day our voices will be quieted in the night.

That is why four years ago I began blogging on Owl of the Desert (I described the impetus for it in the post "Reflection").  We never know the time remaining to us, so I have tried my best to heed the Lord's call to warn my friends and neighbors.

   I sent you out to testify
   and warn the people,
   and it becometh every man
   who hath been warned
   to warn his neighbor.

(D&C 88:81) 

Over the years you have witnessed the evolution of my beliefs and faith as we have sailed the tides of God's garment together into the great unknown, always stretching towards the truth, reaching against the blackness.

The Lord has prepared spiritual Arks to carry His children during the coming storm.  We are windswept and sunburnt among circling sharks, praying for a favorable wind.  And yet we are not alone.

My friends, being a refugee on Christ's lifeboat has its perks.  There's nowhere else I'd rather be than here with you.  For it is here, in our seaweed rags, and with our sunken-cheekbones that testify of our spiritual hunger ― far beyond the vale of Land-ho ― that we may experience God fully beneath a dark sky.

For, who misses the light pollution produced by our spiritual suburbs?

At midnight the sea comes alive beneath the stars, so close you can reach out and touch them.

The one time I can bear the silence is when I am staring at the night sky; it fills me with wonder and peace.  Now we look up and see God moving in His majesty and power.

Cradled in the ocean of His arms, far from strongmen and spiritual czars, we can at last behold His face.

A vision of the earth returning to its paradisaical glory, giving birth to the Millennium, awaits.

Maritime Law
​
   There is no rainfall
   like that bestowed
   upon the open sea.
   Open faced we rise
   to the rainfall falling,
   flooding across the pores
   and grooves of our gopher wood
   skin.

   ― "Ark"

We are in the Ark.  The Ark is Christ.  The body of Christ is the Ark.  We are the Ark.

Here, there is no law but the Ark-law.  After all, the "law of the land" does not apply on the ocean, where Maritime Law governs.

   Wherefore, hear my voice
   and follow me, and you
   shall be a free people,
   and ye shall have no laws
   but my laws when I come,
   for I am your lawgiver,
   and what can stay my hand?

(D&C 38:22)

The land-laws (what we call today the "common law," which I am comparing to our religious rules) are powerless now we've set sail.  In international waters we are subject only to our Captain.

Having fled the land of our captivity, we've embarked upon a great adventure in Christ's humble craft.  We need no longer worry about the law of landfolk.  We are creatures of water and wine, having been baptized in the bosom of God's love.

If you're reading these words, chances are you've been cast overboard, jettisoned, thrown from the great Spanish Galleons towering over the horizon; or perhaps they made you to walk the plank of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson's ship, the HMS Victory, for refusing to declare loyalty to the Crown.

For us there is no crown but that made of thorns; and no brow we honor but the One who bore It.

Castaways are we, and yet ― gathered into the sails of Christ's blood ― we want for nothing (though we are poor and lack many things, as little children).

For us, victory is not found in the might of the British Navy, beneath her lofty masts ― but rather in the meekness of the manger, in the song of the Shepherd, and in the quietude of Gethsemane's fire.

We are Christ's starchildren sailing the heavens, the Elosh'arim (the gates of God), through whom His light shines upon the world (Matt. 5:14-16).

So we sail onward upon the waves of His wonder, not relying upon the combustion engines of Babylon to guide us, but upon the breath of God, filling our sails with His eternal wisdom.

Having dedicated our strength to Christ, we need no longer row as galley slaves for masters who make a mockery of Bethlehem with their feigned frankincense and fool's gold.

A Prism

"I ask / Was the ark / fashioned for dry ground? / Step into the rain"

​    ― "Ark"

Over the past four years I have tried to find different ways to shine a light through the Prism we call Christ.

For Christ is a Seer Stone (Crystal), and as light passes through Him, it splits into its variegated parts ― like white separating into the seven colors of the rainbow.

We typically think of Him as the Unifier, but let's not forget He is also the Great Divider:

   Suppose ye that I am come
   to give peace on earth?
   I tell you, Nay;
   but rather division.

(Luke 12:51)

What else did we expect from the One we call the Light of the world?  For light reveals what was hidden; it illuminates; it also burns with searing heat.

And so my intent has been to shine the light of truth through the Christ-Prism to split it into beautiful reds and oranges and yellow, greens and blues, indigo and holy violet.  The word of God is a many-splendored, colorful thing.

But then, always, to return the colors to oneness in Him, so that truth becomes white again, whole.

For four years on Owl of the Desert I have tried to shoot a beam through our Living Crystal, our Helpmeet, our Friend, to illuminate His face.  I have shot the ray of faith through the Prism; and of charity; of Zion; common consent and of God's law, His priesthood; the doctrine of prophets and stewardship and keys.  I've shot the ray of the Law of the Harvest and the wheat and tares; the temple and tithing; and of community and of the Holy Ghost Revelator.

But no matter our subject ― whether discernment or the role of the Church ― my purpose has always been the same: to reveal His lovingkindness and mercy.

But I have not stopped there.  What is the opposite of love?  What is the opposite of equality?  What is the antithesis of the gospel?  I tried to shine a black light through the Prism, too, so we might witness the workings of the adversary; I refer to the dark light of Babylon, the perils of priestcraft, religious authority and unrighteous dominion; the Handbook, and the pitfalls of obedience. 

What more can I say?   Well, since you asked . . . .

A New Age

​​"What are these swelling / phantoms elongating / across the water / day and night, night / after day?"

   ― "Ark"

And so we come to the point of this post.  I feel a sense of premonition, as if the earth were readying for birth.

​Perhaps you've also felt it: a shift in our spiritual evolution as the Lord hastens His work.
​
Don't worry, I don't think there's any risk of us being translated just yet (I still love Taco Bell’s Mexican pizza and Baja Blast too much).

But I am aware that the earth (and in consequence, our spirits) has begun a new course.  By way of comparison, if we were running in the Olympics, we seem to have completed a lap around the track; we race on for the race is not yet finished, but is accelerating towards the finish line.

We are changing; can you sense it?  The earth itself is changing.  Our spiritual orientation is shifting, awakening, along with the planet's (D&C 88:19-20).

Beneath the canopy of Christ’s cross, we are given agency to be co-creators in the life we lead, and also in the world we create for others to live in.  But listen now: the next step is to become co-creators with the earth to nurse a new age into existence.

The Father has opened a seal (a link) (a time) and as a result I have observed in my personal life two developments:

   (1) greater desire to join the angelic host in laboring in the vineyard alongside our Master for the last time (Jacob 5:62), and

   (2) greater disinterest in most of the things happening in the Church and in the news.

Heaven hears our cries; the Lord is listening to the thoughts of our hearts.  A new world is born in consequence of our faith.  Another Great Awakening is upon us, even as a Great Darkness rises in opposition.

We need, more than ever, true messengers sent from above to guide us.  We need, more than ever, to love one another tightly.

We need, more than ever, to turn to God and Arise.

The Time is Far Spent; We Have All the Time in the World

"Life was / an act of aching / the coaxing of an ember / breathless, trying to remember"

   ― "Goodbye"

This new age is following a pattern as old as time; for as in the days of Noah, "so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37).

The Second Coming may not be what we expect.  As Clark Burt noted:

"The way future end-time events unfold may surprise us.  They may not resemble in the slightest what we 'thought' God was going to do.  We may be deceived if we cling to our traditional, two-dimensional understanding of how things will play out."

Please re-read that quote and let it sink in.  Clark continued:

"There [will be] unknown factors that enter into the redemption of Israel [in the end times] that constitute a trial or test of the Lord's people.  These trying elements result when the ancient types combine in unexpected fashion to form the new events.  The new events serve as a test because they may or may not conform to a person’s worldview."

(Clark Burt, "Repentance: All But the Very Elect Will Be Deceived, Part 2," July 23, 2024, Given by the Finger of God blog.)

Now, a bit of mystery.  All things held in the hand of God exist in opposition (2 Nephi 2:11).  But remember, opposition is not necessarily a bad (or negative) thing.  Think of gravity: two objects are held together because of the force they exert on each other.  Or consider the earth's magnetic field, which contains both positive and negative polarities.

There is a foundational duality woven into the universe, so that all eternal coinage contains flip sides.  Opposition describes and defines the relationship between things, such as life and death, good and evil, light and dark, male and female.  One cannot exist without the other.

The contours of a thing are manifest at the boundary where it meets its opposite.

The Lord does not utterly "destroy" the opposition, for doing so would result in imbalance and topple the scales of eternity.  He overcame death and hell, but did not obliterate them.  Death and hell continue to exist, because they are eternal (as He is) (see, D&C 19:7-11).

A thing is overcome not through its eradication, but through placing it in the proper order relative to its opposite.  In this way the light governs, through oppositional order.  Opposites attract; the divine interaction of opposites (think of male and female) is a nexus for creation.

By way of analogy, consider our immune system.  During the flu season we get sick if our immune system is weakened.

We each have a spiritual immune system.  The goal is not to avoid the darkness, but to maintain our health (our light) in its presence, despite its influence ― as we would build physical immunity to pathogens.

You don't strengthen your immune system by living in an hermitically-sealed bubble (that actually weakens it).  Our immunity grows through being exposed to harmful bacteria and viruses. 

There are evil spirits all around us; the key is not to live in a bubble, avoiding them; the key is to develop an immunity to their evil influence so we may walk among them unfazed, untouched ― as a doctor, who somehow doesn't get ill even though he's around sick people all day.

But please do not misunderstand: neither do we seek after the darkness, for "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matt. 6:34).  So be wise.

Christ's gift was to embrace and reconcile the opposition inherent in all things so they became ordered as one, and thereby He was able to encompass both, and all.  This allowed Him to transcend the duality, the back-and-forth, in order to achieve Unity.  Why is His House is a house of order?  Is it because He places His children into a hierarchy, like in military ranks?  Heavens no.

The order of God is fundamental, not social; it is cosmological, not cultural.  It speaks of the nature of light, of existence, of intelligence ― not about ordering pawns on a priesthood chessboard.  It is so all things may become "one."

This explains, perhaps, the reasoning behind Christ's cryptic saying to "resist not evil" (Matt. 5:39).  The more we resist (oppose) something, the more power it has over us.

As the world falls apart, and as the earth delivers her treasures to her children, we will find the path forward is not in opposition to the "bad" (for that just keeps us entangled with it), but in transcending it through submission.

Christ showed us to not just discern between opposites, but to discern the opposite that exists in the other.

​This is the spirit of the Seventh Seal.