Correcting the Narrative of God's Law
The celestial kingdom is the goal for most Latter-day Saints. We enter into sacred covenants within the walls of temples and keep them the best we know how. We have been led to believe that doing so ensures our achieving of celestial glory.What is difficult to realize and swallow is that we have misjudged for Celestial Law, that which is only Law Telestial, the only suitable one for the world we know in the now.
What constitutes the laws of the celestial kingdom is unknown to us. All we do know is that the Lord admonishes His disciples to find the gate that is narrow, “strait” (Luke 13:24) and few are allowed to enter (Luke 13:27). What we have perceived as a celestial golden ticket, was only a preparatory fee to get to the ticket counter...
Enough?
Christ’s Jewish contemporaries appeared extremely adamant about the temple. It was His statements about destroying the temple that largely became the foundation for their accusations and ultimately rejection of Him, who brought them a higher Law to abide by. It was the adamant “temple recommend holders” that failed to comprehend the greater Light (John 1:5). The “we have enough” crowd twisted Pilate’s arm to crucify the Messiah...Needless to say, we, sadly, stand the risk of doing the same...
While the ordinances and covenants of the temple are important, it is these ordinances that teach us to “seek for further light and knowledge”and commune with the Lord face to face. This vital part of the temple experience is undermined and glazed over, allowing the participants to walk away with the false impression of “having arrived”.
The covenants of the temple
Before anyone has the intention of throwing rocks for disclosing things pertaining to the sacred space of the temple in the discourse that is to follow, it seems pertinent to point out that ALL of this information is available on the public domain. And those that can not resist the desire for throwing, may rest assured that all rocks will be “caught” and safely added to an already decent collection of such geological samples...
During the endowment we enter into five covenants with the Lord that are as follows:
1.The Law of obedience 2.The Law of sacrifice 3.The Law of the Gospel 4.The Law of Chastity 5.The Law of Consecration
The Law of Obedience: obeying the letter of the Law
The Law of Obedience has been largely reduced in our interpretation to compliance. Doing as you are told has its place, but is only a lesser law. While there is definitely merit to obeying inspired counsel, the covenant is to obey the Father, no one else. Following instructions given by man with perfect exactness would obliterate all and any need for Agency! As well as the need to hear the voice of the Lord personally.
Strikingly our God does not operate in the space of uniformity. And quite often what He commands one is different, if not opposite of what He asks of another. Peter was invited to walk on water, while the others were to stay in the boat. Some have been told to raise their swords, while others were instructed to bury them. Some are commanded to stay modestly clad, while the fiercely obedient, like Isaiah, are told to walk around naked for a few years...The list goes on.
Obedience to God is custom-made for our individual journeys, not determined by accurately adhering to a universal “covenant path “ that allegedly brings us into the Lord’s presence.
The Law of Sacrifice: from some to all The law sacrifice is as ancient as Adam and is divinely appointed. The endowment invites us “to sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary”.
The wording of the ordinance suggests that at some point such sacrifice may be necessary, although it is not clear when such time may arrive. The implication and the hope of those participating is that it will never arrive in this lifetime. After all, most are not guided to the Guillotine on having completed a session. Walking away from the temple experience the patrons revel in a sense of “having done their part”.
But once again our custom has set a much lower bar when it comes to sacrifice than the one set by the Lord.That is clear from a statement by Joseph Smith conveniently removed from our scriptures that clearly states that a sacrifice of “all earthly things” is necessary in order to enable us to have sufficient faith to enter His kingdom (Lectures on Faith, Lecture 6).
The Law of the Gospel:from a charge to practice
This Law extends “a charge to avoid all lightmindedness, loud laughter, evil speaking of the Lord's anointed, the taking of the name of God in vain, and every other unholy and impure practice”. Aside from the ecclesiastically tainted advice to not contradict the presumed anointed, the charge seems sound. The adherence to it is not measured or made a priority in temple recommend questions, which focus on the external, presuming such expressions to be a reflection of internal commitment to a sanctified lifestyle.Sometimes they are, but sometimes not...
Just like there is a difference between having hands laid on our head and hearing the admonition to “receive the Holy Ghost” is different from actually receiving it, there is a gap between being admonitioned to sanctify our lives and actually doing it, of living in the space of holiness.
Comparative Analysis
The endowment sheds some light on the varying degrees of glory and the laws that correspond to each, which is easy to miss when immersed in the endowment experience. The table below captures this correlation:
The narrative of the endowment, if indeed accurately preserved for us (dare we assume such a thing?!?!), presents a continuity between the Law of Sacrifice and the Law of Consecration. The wording and requirements seem nearly the same, except that the latter “takes it up a notch”. The Laws of the Gospel and Obedience appear to have amalgamated into one. Perhaps, living the Law of Chastity becomes a natural byproduct of keeping the two.
Looking at the above comparison we can conclude:1.The number of laws in the lower kingdoms exceeds those in the higher ones. 2.The laws of the lower kingdoms transmute into the higher ones requiring more of those adhering to such laws.3. Having lower laws available to us we can project what the higher ones might be.
When ascending up a spiral staircase we can stand leaning against the paparpet of divinity at the same spot of the stairs, only on a higher plane. This analogy seems to apply to God’s Law, where looking down we see the same principles lived at a lower level and looking up we can recognize the same tenets lived with greater commitment, sacrifice and sovereignty.
Celestial Law
It is difficult not to notice a complete absence of Celestial Law in the endowment. It’s simply not there. We can speculate about what it might be... But it is not revealed here or elsewhere. Our scriptures include descriptive passages that disclose what the inhabitants of the celestial kingdom are like ( D&C 76:50-70), but they completely circumvent the laws that govern that glory.
What we find in the scriptures is that His method of revealing celestial law, also known as the mysteries of the kingdom, is drastically different than His approach to teaching the lesser laws.To “those who serve Him in righteousness and truth “ (76: 5) the Lord reveals the laws of His kingdom through the Spirit: 7 And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.
9 And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught.
10 For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.(D&C 76:7,9-10)
Entrenched in the telestial paradigms we simply do not have the bandwidth to grasp the celestial, which is why the knowledge of the kingdom of God is delivered through the witness of the Holy Ghost (D&C 76:116).
Can anything different be expected here, where Satan, the king of this world, pounces at Truth at its inception, attempting to either put it out like a spark,mutilate it beyond recognition or produce a counterfeit? Reserving sacred knowledge for the private chambers of our hearts is the only way to protect it from extinction.
Within the telestial realm more Light accompanies a lesser need for restriction, less Law, but also more accountability and opposition. Being rejected by the majority has always attended genuine disciples of Christ. As polarization and tensions between the church of the Lamb and the great and abominable institution increase(1Nephi 13), it’s reasonable to expect the turning up of the furnace of opposition. Once again, those following the lesser law will revile against laws of a higher order that they cannot comprehend. The honors of men are reserved for those of lower kingdoms. But a brighter Light will be welcomed by all seeking to know the mysteries of His kingdom and willing to embrace its Laws.
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