Complications of Temple Worthiness: Part 9

No More Quadratic Equations, Please! 

Once in high school our math teacher sat next to the overhead projector at the front of the class, writing math equations with his marker, while we all watched with fascination as a dryer lint sheet slowly crawled up his shirt and out his sleeve without him noticing.

Best 45 minutes of trigonometry I ever spent.

(Needless to say, I was not a math whiz.)

Does anyone remember what they learned in algebra and trigonometry (I never made it to calculus)?

Nowadays I couldn't tell my sine from cosine.  But there's one thing that has stayed with me after all these years: the quadratic formula.

​​The quadratic formula is a way to solve algebraic equations that have squared integers (variables?).  It makes it easier to chart stuff on graphs.

   I think.

Anyway, here is the magic formula which high school sophomores everywhere get to cram before midterms:

What Does "±" Mean?

​Notice the Plus/Minus symbol in the equation?  It shows that there can be more than one answer.

   How can that be?

I thought math was black-and-white.  You know, two-plus-two-equals-four ― not five or three.

So how can there be more than one answer?

   Because we're doing algebra, not simple arithmetic.

What does this have to do with Temples? 

Well, spiritually speaking, it is tough for us who are stuck in an arithmetic mindset to think in algebraic terms.

To be clear: all of us have an arithmetic mindset.

   So what are we supposed to do?  How do we learn to rise above simple arithmetic?  

Well, the good news is the Holy Ghost comes along and expands our understanding . . .

The Temple is Much More than Plus/or/Minus

In the above example, we find that the same equation yields two different answers (one negative, one positive) on either side of the y axis.  

And if we can get two different answers on a two-dimensional graph, imagine what a fourth-dimensional equation might look like, spiritually. 

What is a "Singularity?"

Once I was at Barnes and Noble and purchased a book called String Theory for Dummies.  

I must still be a dummy because I still don't understand it.  

However, something that fascinates me is the idea of a Singularity.

"In scientific terms, a gravitational singularity (or space-time singularity) is a location where the quantities that are used to measure the gravitational field become infinite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. In other words, it is a point in which all physical laws are indistinguishable from one another, where space and time are no longer interrelated realities, but merge indistinguishably and cease to have any independent meaning."

(https://www.universetoday.com/84147/singularity)

   God himself shall come down
   among the children of men,
   and shall redeem his people.

   And because he dwelleth in flesh
   he shall be called the Son of God,
   and having subjected the flesh
   to the will of the Father,
   being the Father and the Son--

   The Father, because he was
   conceived by the power of God;
   and the Son, because of the flesh;
   thus becoming the Father and Son--

   And they are one God,
   yea, the very Eternal Father
   of heaven and of earth.

(Mosiah  15:1-4)

​There is so much more to the temple than just plus/or/minus.

   - In the beginning, the Lord divided the light from the darkness.

  - Then He divided the waters above from the waters below.

  - And in the garden of Eden the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to multiply.  

   He has inscribed a circle
   on the face of the waters
   at the boundary between
   light and darkness.

(Job 26:10, ESV)

Imagine the geometry we could do with the Lord's compass.  Where would the coordinates lead us?

   The city [of the New Jerusalem]
   is laid out as a square,
   and its length is as great
   as the width . . . 
   its length and width
   and height are equal.

(Revelation 21:16, NASB)

Imagine what we could accomplish if we used the Lord's square to become "equal." 

Are We Equal in the Temple?

The entire Christian endeavor is to become "one" as Christ is one with the Father, isn't it?

   Holy Father,
   keep through thine own name
   those whom thou hast given me,
   that they may be one,
   as we are.

(John 17:11)

Does the temple make us "one?"

Who has heard something like, "I love being in the temple, where everyone is dressed in white and all of our differences disappear!"

​Does the temple produce a feeling of unity merely by requiring everyone to wear the same attire?

Is conformity of dress the closest we're going to get to equality in the Church?

(Because if uniforms could bring Zion, the saints in Orderville would have been translated a long time ago.)

Have we created a temple experience that is largely framed by "outward appearances?"   

I mean, the clothing, the brass door knobs, decorations, granite, soft fabrics, naves and transepts, all the stained glass . . . it conveys a sense of sacredness based upon aesthetic.

Question:  When aesthetics become something we equate with holiness, have we obscured what is genuinely holy?

   Woe unto you,
   scribes and Pharisees,
   hypocrites!
   for ye make clean
   the outside of the cup
   and of the platter,
   but within they are full
   of extortion and excess.

   Thou blind Pharisee,
   cleanse first that which is within
   the cup and platter,
   that the outside of them
   may be clean also.

(Matthew 23:25-26)

Sacred Space

​Objection:  "But Tim," someone might say, "I'd rather worship in a beautiful, air-conditioned building with my family dressed all in white than in a greasy booth at McDonald's."

Answer: How fortunate, then, that we can pass under the golden arches in either case!

   The arch of your house
   is based on the waters;
   you make the clouds
   your carriage;
   you go on the wings
   of the wind.

(Psalms 104:3, Basic English Version)

I think the issue we need to resolve, then, is what "sacred space" requires.

What does spiritual Feng Shui look like?

"Be Not Moved"

If we were asked, "What is a holy place?" we'd probably answer, The temple.

So when we read the admonition to stand in holy places, is that referring to the temple?

Is that what it means when it says to "stand ye in holy places, and be not moved?" (D&C 87:8)

I guess we need to figure out:

   (1)  What are "holy places"; and

   (2)  What does it mean to "be not moved?"

There is something apocalyptic about these words.  In fact, in 1831 the Lord provided some helpful context:

   And in that generation
   shall the times of the Gentiles
   be fulfilled.

[So now we know when we are.  Moroni/Nephi told Joseph Smith on the autumn equinox in 1823 that "the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in" (JS-H 1:41).  Personally, I suspect we are getting pretty close to the times of the gentiles being fulfilled.]

   And there shall be men
   standing in that generation,
   that shall not pass
   until they shall see
   an overflowing scourge;
   for a desolating sickness
   shall cover the land.

[So this gives some clues to look for in a coming day, and it appears that when these things happen, the Lord will come again during that generation.]

   But my disciples shall stand

[What if "stand" referred to standing in the presence of God?  Remember when Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and said, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19).  Or when Moses "stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face" (Moses 1:31).]

   in holy places,
   and shall not be moved.

(D&C 45:3-=32)

My favorite passage that mentions "be not moved" was written by the apostle Paul:

   Now hath he reconciled
   in the body of his flesh
   through death,
   to present you holy
   and unblameable
   and unreproveable
   in his sight:

   If ye continue in the faith
   grounded and settled,
   and be not moved
   away from the hope
   of the gospel.

(1 Colossians 1:21-23)

What if the "holy place" was the temple of God, but not the one built by hands? 

What if it was referring to where the Body of Christ was gathered?  (Remember Part 7?)

Israel, Israel, God is Calling

Jesus explained something important about the future gathering:

   Even thus shall it be in the day
   when the Son of man is revealed.

   And they answered and said
   unto him, Where, Lord?

   And he said unto them,
   Wheresoever the body is gathered;
   or, in other words, whithersoever
   the saints are gathered,
   thither will the eagles be gathered
   together. . . 

   This he spake, signifying
   the gathering of his saints;
   and of angels descending
   and gathering the remainder
   unto them.

(Luke 17:30, 37, JST Luke 17:37-38)

I have been suggesting, and will continue to appeal to you, that a hierarchy does not reflect the equality to be found in the Body of Christ.

Ergo, we are not "gathering" in the scriptural sense anymore; we are not gathering any more than the Jews in Jesus's day, who gathered to their temple (for all the good it did them).

So . . . the angels (eagles) gather the saints to a holy place (we're not talking about missionaries brining converts into the Church), or in other words, to a place made holy by the hope of them that follow Christ's gospel (you know, the gospel where He commanded us to "be one" and to be "equal").

Whilst those that remain in their edifices of inequality . . . well, see for yourself:

​   I saw and bear record,
   that the great and spacious building
   was the pride of the world;
   and it fell,
   and the fall thereof
   was exceedingly great.

(1 Nephi 11:36)