And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.
-- Abraham 3:27-28
In the Pearl of Great Price, there is a vision that Abraham had by means of the "Urim and Thummim", in which he saw events that transpired before the creation of this world. The quote above is from that vision, in which a person who was "like unto God" suggested that an earth be made. Following this suggestion, which everyone seemed to agree with, someone called "the Lord" asked who should be sent.
It doesn't clarify in the text what it means to be "sent", but it seems that it is understood enough among the participants in this discussion that two beings volunteer to be that one. As quoted above, the first Being mentioned is one "like unto the Son of Man", with the second having no description other than that he says the same thing that the first does, but is not chosen to be the one. He is angry at not being chosen and many follow him.
In this story, there are a lot of words, terms, phrases, etc. that are not clear as to their meaning, and so readers have had to make a quite a few assumptions about their meanings. Words and references like intelligences and estates, along with character descriptions and titles like Lord or 'like unto the Son of Man', are not defined.
Mormon theology has attempted to standardize an interpretation of these words, and thus the meaning of the story. The conclusions that have been reached are not unreasonable in their theology, given words and stories found elsewhere, as in Moses' account as captured in the Pearl of Great Price that seems to reference a similar event and identify at least one of the individuals.
However, I believe that, since there is really no clear definition of these people and things, there is some room for additional interpretation of this story. I am therefore proposing an alternative reading that ties to some of the story elements and characters I have been covering so far - namely Eonwe-Faramir and Omar-Brigham.
In a traditional Mormon interpretation, the one "like unto the Son of Man" is Jesus. Here, 'like unto' is made to mean something more like 'is', in that this person appeared to be like the Son of Man because he was the Son of Man. Could be. I propose, though, that we could explore this phrase under the assumption that to be like something is not to be that same thing. So, it is possible, given the language, that the person Abraham is introduced to here is someone like or similar to Jesus, but not him. I also have to admit I am assuming "Son of Man" here refers to Jesus because I don't know of any other person called this, so will stick with that assumption for now.
To imagine that this person is not Jesus would be to blow up the traditional Mormon reading because this interaction is supposed to be Jesus being chosen as the savior of the world (this being what is understood by 'sent'), and Satan being the other option who is passed over by God (the Lord), who then angrily takes 1/3 of the individuals and departs Heaven (this being what is meant by not keeping his first estate).
Again, this could be, but to get to my hypotheses and work from there, I will rearrange the Beings as follows:
Lord = Eru/ Jesus
Like unto the Son of Man = Eonwe / Faramir (Holy Ghost male)
the other = Omar / Brigham
There is an additional Being - the one "like unto God" - who introduced the whole concept of creating the earth. It is not critical to the alternative storyline that I am working through here, but it would be nice to know who this person is at some point also. I have two potential guesses for this one currently, and they are:
Like unto God = Manwe (God the Father) OR Aule (who along with his wife Yavanna have responsibility for the earth itself)
I go back and forth between them, and its not important for this post to take a position. The biggest thing to note is that I consider this "Like unto God" being to be one of the Valar, and this decision spoken by the Being represents the choice made by these Valar to make an Earth - this is to be the work of their minds, hearts, and hands.
So, a Vala or group of Valar choose to create this Earth. As part of this, for reasons not fully articulated, one will need to be 'sent'. It is Eru-Jesus who seems to be the one that understands that this is needed, and both advises that this be so and also asks who it should be.
In this capacity, I think you have Eru-Jesus acting in the role of servant, guide and advisor. Eru is the greatest (as he also stated plainly to Abraham), but in this case he is condescending to allow the Valar to take the lead, and he will work under their direction. In this way, this creation will be free of Eru's direct control, and he will take on a subordinated role in working toward and supporting the realization of the Valar's desires. Ultimately, this is part of his submission to the will of the Father (Manwe) and the rest of the Valar in all things. And yes, I am using deliberate language here to expand an understanding of Jesus' work to be much more comprehensive (and different) than just what happened here on Earth.
As part of this, I think Eru puts bounds on himself as to his own direct intervention in their plans. Only in cases of extreme need (when all other measures will fail) AND at the request of the Valar, will he directly intercede. There are two such cases where this happened that I am aware: first, during Pharazon's assault on Aman, when the Valar turned governance over to Eru for a brief time, and second, when Jesus was born in order to bring to pass the Resurrection, which apparently mends what happened at the fall (and potentially with other subsequent actions to be explored in a later post perhaps). This is not to say that Eru cannot utilize the Valar's creation for his own purposes as well, but only that he will not subvert or overturn the Valar's objectives and leadership, and will actively support them.
Despite this limited direct intervention, Eru will select someone to still represent him and to stand in his place in the ongoing story of the Earth. This is a requirement for some reason that is not fully articulated, but can be somewhat guessed at when considering the jobs Eru asks this individual to perform, and the nature of this Being.
As listed above, I believe this Being - the sent one - is the Holy Ghost, who we see in multiple incarnations on this Earth. This Being is also referred to as 'the arm of the Lord' in various places, and this is why we see so many incarnations of this person. This 'arm' will be revealed in the Last Days, meaning that we will understand who this person is and the many incarnations they have had in representing Eru. It is at this revealing, I think, that you have the Holy Ghost fulfill the specific missions that Jesus said he would do as stated in my earlier post on John 14-16. Although the Holy Ghost was active on this Earth in various incarnations prior to Jesus' birth, he will not have incarnated again until it is time to wrap things up and transition to the next phase of this story. Jesus' return to Heaven was necessary, in part, to give further instruction, guidance, and advice to the Holy Ghost in preparation for this.
In addition to the father and son connection between Eru and the Holy Ghost that supports his choice as the sent one, there is likely a tutor-pupil relationship at work here. Mormons can think of the temple drama where a Jehovah and Michael are asked by Elohim to perform creative tasks. This is viewed, in typical Mormon fashion, as a structured and hierarchal relationship, where Elohim gets to tell Jehovah-Jesus what to do, and Jesus gets to tell Michael what to do... a series of bosses telling the next person down what to do.
Rather, in this alternative story, I think you have the Elohim (plural, by the way, so although one man plays this in the temple drama, view this as perhaps the Valar/Ainur - multiple Gods) who are asking Jesus, who has placed himself at their service through his own condescension, to bring their creative desires into Being. Michael, who I give here now as yet another name and title for the Holy Ghost, is brought along and tutored by Jesus in their efforts. This is so because Michael is Eru's son and shares his attributes. In other words, Michael is being taught by his father in his work.
So, it is Michael - the archangel - who is the sent one, and he is learning from his father how the great ones lead: through condescension and service, not by force or overpowering will. We see this explicitly as Michael takes on the role of Eonwe, placing himself at the service of Manwe as his banner-bearer and herald.
Anyway, so just to summarize some of the rambling above:
- Jesus has subordinated himself to the Valar, placing himself at their will
- Along with himself, he has chosen his son Michael/ Holy Ghost (male) to represent him in this creation
- In choosing Michael, Eru-Jesus allows himself to intervene only when absolutely necessary and to give Michael and the rest of the Ainur an opportunity to learn for themselves how light defeats darkness.
- Michael will incarnate over many times and ages in carrying out both the wills of the Valar and of Eru, ultimately being known as the Holy Ghost, but also as such characters as Eonwe, Enoch, Jared, Ether, Faramir, Abinadi, etc.
Into this picture, then, steps the 'other' - Omar-Brigham. As mentioned in previous posts, this Being is considered (and considers himself) to have the greatest and most powerful of all voices. He knows all songs and languages (i.e., is really powerful). He feels, perhaps, that the role of Michael ought to be his. He has been given other 'important' tasks to do and perform in the story of this Earth based on his unique traits, but he will ultimately forfeit these (i.e., kept not his first estate) and from then on he will use his unique talents not to the glory of God or in service of the Valar, but rather for his own selfish purposes and increasingly evil designs. He was not the 'sent' one, and anything less than that is unacceptable.
So, he desires to be that Being, or, in his own perverted way, to demonstrate that it ought to have been him. He will do this by both frustrating and delaying the plans of Michael/ Holy Ghost, thus perhaps causing a loss of faith among those in both Heaven and Earth in those plans, while also looking for ways to elevate his own station. And many have followed him apparently, perhaps some even still in the land we would call Heaven. While even more have partnered with him - evil spirits here on earth, for example.
In this effort, he will also incarnate many times, each time seeking to subvert Good and to elevate his own station. In a disturbed way, he may actually think that the ends justify the means, that once elevated above all, we would all be eventually grateful to him for doing things so much better than the other guy would have done. He is the misunderstood and underappreciated genius who thinks it ought to have been him.
The Stone represents a last chance for him, I think. He can either seek to delay or prevent it coming, or can perhaps use it to his own ends (in his own imagination). I don't think really either option is feasible for him at this point, so then it is matter of trying to prevent people from believing the story that comes from it. As I wrote before, evil succeeds by preventing just one of those who Jesus promised to redeem from being saved, so perhaps his efforts focus there. In the end, I don't think that will be possible for him, either, as the Family of Light will be naturally drawn to its message.
Thus, I foresee not much that Omar-Brigham can do despite his efforts, and his end might be anti-climatic. A sad footnote to be forgotten rather quickly in the end, I think. Omar-Brigham is not the source of all evil... he just fell victim to it and bent his soul beyond repair in this story. So, I think he and his influence is undone and fades, and the forces of Good are then free to go fry bigger fish and problems.
As an addendum at the end of this post ... there is one problem with the narrative I positioned above and I mentioned it briefly earlier when I brought up Moses. The problem actually could be a major one depending on your view of 'scripture'.
In the Book of Moses, it would seem that Moses is directly told who the 'other' being is, and that this person is Satan (not Omar-Brigham). I will try and address this later so as not to jump around too much here... I just wanted to call out that I was not unaware of this fact, and I do have a 'solution' or at least an explanation or possibility as to how this could be.
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