"The Time of Harvest is Come": Part 2

In order to understand the Law of the Harvest, we have to first wrap our minds around cause-and-effect.  And in the spiritual realm, "cause" is "truth."

Oh Say, What is Truth?

Is truth subjective or objective? 

The difficulty in defining truth is that "my truth" may differ from "your truth."  Why is that?

Because the truths we cherish are constructs of:

   - Lived experience
   - Bias
   - Tradition
   - Perspective
   - Memory
   - Finite knowledge
   - Feelings
   - Linguistic limitations
   - Religion
   - Culture
​   - Education

Everything on that list is equivocal, subjective and susceptible to manipulation. 

So how can we discern what is universally true?  Is it possible to agree on common, self-evident truths?

Experiment

C.S. Lewis expressed his views on Moral Law in his book Mere Christianity.  Lewis showed we all have an instinctual moral compass (what I like to call a "fairness bone").  And he can prove it. 

Use this experiment the next time someone tells you they do not "believe" in right or wrong:

Say to them, "Oh really?" and steal their wallet.  Kick them in the groin. 

"Hey!" they'll yell, and just respond, "What's the matter?  There is no right or wrong."

Since we're quoting C.S. Lewis, I might as well share my favorite quote of his.  It is relevant to this discussion:

   It doesn't really matter
   whether you grip the arms
   of the dentist's chair
   or let your hands
   lie in your lap. 
   The drill drills on.

(C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, 1996, p. 33)

While there may be something to the power of positive thinking, some things simply are -- whether we wish them to be or not. 

There are realities beyond our control, like the tides of the ocean and the phases of the moon. 

To understand the Law of the Harvest, though, we have to know which things we can influence versus those things that are immutable.  Otherwise we'll be knocking our heads against the wall with false hope, having faith in the universe acting contrary to the nature of reality.

How can we apply the laws of cause-and-effect if the outcome we seek simply cannot be affected by our agency?  We need to know what we have power to affect.

But here's the problem: what if the realities of a telestial kingdom -- speaking of those things we cannot change -- can change in a higher kingdom? 

Einstein demonstrated that time is relative; what if reality itself was relative?  

Three Common Examples of Relativity

​   1.  Gravity.  We all experience the same gravity on earth.  It is not subjective. 

If a person chose not to believe in gravity and jumped from the top of the Eiffel Tower, they would fall regardless. 

Spiritual laws are just as real, and impactful, as natural laws.

But we get confused when a bowling ball falls at the same rate as a ping pong ball in a vacuum, where there is no air resistance, misapprehending the nature of reality, assuming a heavy bowling ball should plummet at a greater velocity than a ping pong ball.    

Spiritually we wonder, "I did all the things I thought I was supposed to.  Where are the blessings?"

But let's throw a monkey wrench into our faith crisis: something as constant as gravity is actually relative.  The force of gravity is caused by our planet's mass and density, which results in a "gravitational strength" of  9.8 m.

Now imagine we are standing on the moon.  It has a completely foreign gravitational strength: 1.6 m.  So gravity on the moon is about 1/6 of earth's.  In other words, if I weighed 185 lbs (I wish) on earth, I would only weigh 30 lbs on the moon.  

The point?  Apply the "spirititual gravitational strength" of a telestial kingdom to that of a terrestrial, or celestial kingdom.  How will the differences be manifested?  Can you run the same way on the surface of the moon as on the earth? 

   2.  Boil Point.  Everyone knows water boils at 100 Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).  Or does it? 

The standard boiling point applies only to sea level (as if we were all lucky enough to live in San Diego).  The boiling point changes based on elevation (due to pressure).  So on Mt. Everest water boils at 71 Celsius (160 Fahrenheit).  

The point?  Picture a person pounding the pulpit in San Diego testifying that water boils at 212 degrees.  "I know it; I am certain!  I can prove it.  You must accept the truth of Water's Boiling Point." 

Well, what if you were visiting the congregation from La Rinconada, the highest habitable place on earth, perched in the Peruvian Andes mountains at 16,000 feet above sea level?  Guess what.  The preacher is wrong in your case. 

   3.  Time Zones.   I have two brothers.  One served a mission in Italy, the other in Hong Kong.  I could pick up the telephone and speak to both at the same time.  But Italy is 8 hours ahead of me in MST, so if I made a call at 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon, it would be 9:00 p.m. at night for my brother; and when we conferenced my other brother in it would be 4:00 a.m. the next day in Hong Kong. 

Imagine that -- at the exact same moment, my brother and I exist on separate days.  Now think of 1,000 years being like one day for God.

The point?  For one person it may be bedtime; another is ready for their morning coffee; and yet another is taking a lunch break.  We are all at different stages in our spiritual progression.  When we tell people, "Okay, everyone needs to say the same things, teach from the same manual, sing the same songs," we ignore reality.

A Tale of Two Cities . . . or Kingdoms
​
What are the implications of different spiritual kingdoms having different laws? 

Do the cause-and-effects change based on what kingdom we are in?  Do we see the Law of the Harvest (you reap what you sow) as being contingent?

   We don't get college calculus answers from a second grader's math quiz. 
 
   We don't get 24 karat gold from a copper mine.

   And we don't get Zion from tithing and home teaching/ministering.

The fruit depends on the tree.  A cherry tree will produce cherries; a celestial law will produce celestial blessings.  A telestial law will produce telestial blessings.  

Circumference (Perimeter) of Ignorance

Albert Einstein said, "As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it."

As we grow in truth and knowledge, our expanding awareness reveals how much more we have yet to learn.  In other words, the more we know, the more we realize we don't know.

What's interesting is that the greater our ignorance, the less aware we are of our ignorance. 

Our Circumference of Spiritual Ignorance ("CSI") is very, very great. 

C.S.I.: Telestial Kingdom (or Miami, same thing)

Well, I have some bad news.  Unfortunately for all of us, "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance" (D&C 131:6). 

Our ignorance is so great that we were D.O.A. thanks to the Fall.

   You hath he quickened,
   who were dead
   in trespasses
   and sins

​(Ephesians 2:1)

Spiritually speaking, this is how we must look to the angels:

And then a miracle!  Christ reaches out and raises us from the dead.  We are spiritually reborn as his sons and daughters.

And like little children, we know nothing.  We are some of the most ignorant beings in the universe.  And like children, we ask our parents questions about everything.  We hunger and thirst after truth and righteousness.

​"Knowledge is revelation.  Hear, all ye brethren, this grand key: knowledge is the power of God unto salvation.”

(Joseph Smith, quoted by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, May 21, 1843)

Why is knowledge so important to our salvation, if Christ has saved us?

"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth."

(Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:588; Apr. 10, 1842)

What knowledge is critical to our salvation?

I SUBMIT the knowledge we seek above all else is the knowledge of the law of the celestial kingdom, which we must abide in order to dwell there.

What's Up With Unbelief?

I SUBMIT a definition of "unbelief" is to resist the higher law, settling instead for the comfortable fruits of a lesser a law.

   Jesus appeared unto the eleven 
   as they sat at meat, 
   and upbraided them 
   with their unbelief 
   and hardness of heart, 
   because they believed not 
   them which had seen him 
   after he was risen.

(Mark 16:14)

​​Truth-as-Reality

I SUBMIT that the knowledge (or truth) of the celestial kingdom is communicated by Christ and through His Spirit.  

   I am the Father,
   I am the the light,
   and the life,
   and the truth
   of the world.

(Ether 4:12)

   The Spirit speaketh the truth
   and lieth not.
   Wherefore, it speaketh
   of things as they really are,
   and of things as they really will be.

(Jacob 4:13)

I SUBMIT the ultimate reality is the singularity of Christ's sacrifice. 

I submit that "there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ.  He is the life and the light of the world.  He is the word of truth and righteousness" (Alma 38:9).

​Anti-Christ

I SUBMIT following a lesser law than Christ's law of the gospel, which is His celestial law of love, is by nature Anti-Christ because it keeps us from experiencing a fulness of His intelligence (or glory), causing us to remain in gross darkness.

   The light shineth in darkness,
   and the darkness
   comprehendeth it
   not.

​(D&C 88:49)

The Time of Harvest is Come

I SUBMIT the time has come for us to stop filling our bellies with the husks that swine eat, and to gird up our loins and seek after the celestial law of love that resides in Christ Jesus, and be done with lesser things.