The Creation as a Vision and a Drama

The Creation and Garden of Eden stories are masked with mystery. But one way of looking at these stories can provide keys to better understand them. Those keys are "Vision" and "Drama". In other words, in all three scriptural sources of the Creation story (the Old Testament, Book of Moses & Book of Abraham) we can see that these accounts were given as visions, only partially based in history. Therefore, trying to reconcile science with a symbolic, spiritual account doesn't make a lot of sense. These accounts were written as temple liturgy. Moses, after seeing his vision while on the mountain, built the tabernacle according to the vision of the Creation and its seven days.

Because Genesis starts with "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth" we assume that this is all history. It is not. It may have historical elements and real characters, but it is a vision of how to build the temple and to create the temple drama. The Garden of Eden story which follows the Creation story is a part of that drama. It is about YOU. YOU are Adam or YOU are Eve! It is a ritual "drama" made so that you can participate in it. So that you can follow the steps of Adam and Eve.

The odd names and symbolism in Abraham chapter 3 such as "Kolob" can more easily be understood as a temple vision. This is hierarchy! It is not a physical or scientific explanation of the cosmos. It is theology. It is an account created for a temple drama!


General Authority Quotes:

"Even the most devout and sincere believers in the Bible realize that it is, like most any other book, filled with metaphor, simile, allegory, and parable, which no intelligent person could be compelled to accept in a literal sense. .. The Lord has not taken from those who believe in his word the power of reason. He expects every man who takes his "yoke" upon him to have common sense enough to accept a figure of speech in its proper setting, and to understand that the holy scriptures are replete with allegorical stories, faith-building parables, and artistic speech. ... Where is there a writing intended to be taken in all its parts literally? Such a writing would be insipid and hence lack natural appeal. To expect a believer in the Bible to strike an attitude of this kind and believe all that is written to be a literal rendition is a stupid thought. No person with the natural use of his faculties looks upon the Bible in such a light." [Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Bookcraft, 1956, vol. 3, pg. 188].


"What a fascinating story is inscribed upon the stony pages of the earth's crust! ... The opening chapters of Genesis, and scriptures related thereto, were never intended as a textbook of geology, archaeology, earth-science or man-science. Holy Scripture will endure, while the conceptions of men change with new discoveries. We do not show reverence for the scriptures when we misapply them through faulty interpretation." [James E. Talmage, "The Earth and Man," address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, 9 Aug 1931, and published by the Church under direction of the First Presidency].

"On the other hand, to limit and insist upon the whole of life and death to this side of Adam's advent to the earth, some six or eight thousand years ago, as proposed by some, is to fly in the face of the facts so indisputably brought to light by the researcher of science in modern times, and this as set forth by men of the highest type in the intellectual and moral world; not inferior men . . . These researchers after truth are of that class. To pay attention to and give reasonable credence to their research and findings is to link the church of God with the highest increase of human thought and effort. On that side lies development, on the other lies contraction. It is on the former side that research work is going on and will continue to go on, future investigation and discoveries will continue on that side, nothing will retard them, and nothing will develop on the other side. One leads to narrow sectarianism, the other keeps the open spirit of a world movement with which our New Dispensation began. As between them which is to be our choice?" [B. H. Roberts, The Truth, the Way, the Life, originally written 1931, published by Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, UT, 1994, pg. 364].

 

 Raw Transcript

 

all right
in the beginning god created the heaven
and the earth
what is it that we are reading here
there is so much controversy there has
been for a long time
over the account of genesis
the creation story is this literal
is it symbolic it is at the crux of
such debates as evolution and
intelligent design a fundamental
approach would be
the earth was actually created in six or
seven days
science versus faith etc i get a lot of
feedback a lot of
questions about my take
on the creation story and of course the
subsequent story which is the garden of
eden story
so i want to go over a few of my
thoughts on this and it's not just my
thoughts
this is obviously sourced in several
different places
but there's a certain way to look at
these stories what i just read to you is
at the very beginning
of the book of genesis this is a problem
for us
it may not have always been the first
verse
in the book of genesis it may not have
been the first words
that moses put into place
the problem with the way that we have
the
chronology of the book of genesis
is that it appears that we're looking at
a history
right we start off with the beginning
the creation of the world
and it follows with adam and eve and
then we get cain and abel
we move down to enoch and noah
abraham isaac jacob
joseph and his brothers and then move
down into the story of
the israelites and moses there's a
problem with this
this may not have always been the way
that this story was told
this may not have always been the way
that the scriptures were composed
remember that we are getting
reiterations of
these stories and reiterations of these
books of scripture
as they get handed down from generation
to generation
you have a small group of people that
would have been in charge of these
scriptures of the written record of the
people
and with a mostly illiterate group of of
worshipers
of adherence to the judeo-christian
religion anciently much of what was
passed down was done
orally through an oral tradition and
over time what can happen
with scripture is that things get
compressed
and you find excerpts of stories
conflated with other stories
abridgments
like we get with the book of mormon
until we have a result
that is brought to us today that may not
tell the real story
or tricks us a little bit into thinking
that what we are
reading is history now i'm not saying
the bible isn't history
what i am saying is that the creation
story
and the garden of eden story
are not history now let me clarify that
a little bit
that does not mean that some of the
principles that are used in the
creation story in genesis are not true
they certainly are but because of the
opening of genesis
in the beginning god created the heaven
and the earth
it immediately sets into our mind that
we're talking about the beginning of
time
and that everything after that is a
chronology unfolding before us
this is a mistake this is not
the way it was meant to be and with the
restored gospel and with restored
scripture
we can easily see that that is the case
why is the creation story and the garden
of eden story
a central part of temple worship why has
it always been
in many cultures and civilizations
anciently
whether it's in the middle east whether
it's in the
the far east whether it's in the
americas
the creation story the beginning of man
on earth
story and the flood story
are pervasive throughout all periods of
time
and throughout all geographies but those
stories are not
based on history they are based on
principles
they are based on a drama that is
created
in a spiritual setting in a temple and
at least with the judeo-christian
tradition they are based on visions
dreams perhaps and that's the way that
we need to look at them
not as moses writing down hey this is
how this happened
but as temple liturgy something that is
a script
that is written down for worshipers in a
temple
that's what it's about it is a message
a spiritual message to the worshipers
at those temples let me give you an idea
of what i'm talking about
as you go through the book of revelation
and you read
what's in there it can become very
confusing there are very
strange things that are brought up that
make
zero sense to us because they're not in
our setting in a modern time
and in a western culture and if you take
it literally
it seems preposterous and if we're not
careful
we can look at things like this and they
become a part of a faith crisis for us
and they open us up to attacks
not just with the church the lds church
but with the bible as a whole so if i go
to
revelation chapter four and here's what
it says in verse one after this
i looked and behold a door was opened in
heaven
and the first voice which i heard was as
it were
of a trumpet talking with me which said
come up hither and i will shoe thee
things which must be here after
this is the common theme of a vision
think about nephi and the angel that
visits him
and he starts showing nephi certain
things
this is a dream or or or a vision
of sorts it is going to be presented in
a very different way
primarily with objects of symbolism
think of lehi's vision the tree of life
the
the great and spacious building the the
rod of iron
the valley of judgment the fiery darts
what is going on here what is happening
with this
it's symbolism it's not a record of
actually what is happening
not in a physical literal sense
verse two here in chapter four and
immediately i was in the spirit
ah there's a clue for us i was in the
spirit
and behold a throne was set in heaven
and one sat on the throne so we're put
into again
kind of a temple environment
because this is the idea of having a
throne in the holy of holies that's
where the throne of god is
it's temple imagery verse three and he's
he that sat was to look upon like a
jasper
and a sardine stone well what are these
well that's the first and the last stone
of the 12 different colored stones on
the breastplate of a high priest
representing the 12 tribes of israel
it's symbolism and there were 24
seats and upon the seats i saw four and
20 elders sitting
what is this this is a council this is a
hierarchical
display of the priesthood
also in a temple setting and we get the
seven lamps we get the seven seals
we get the beasts and the four horsemen
this is a vision right and if we go
to the beginning of the book of
revelation we see that that's what is
going on we need to
capture that and understand that what's
going to unfold throughout all 22
chapters
of the book of revelation is a vision
we're looking at this with
spiritual eyes as john says and i was
immediately
in the spirit that means what he's
seeing is not literal
at least not all of it and there's a
heavy emphasis on l
symbolism verse 1 of
of uh the book of revelation says the
revelation
of jesus christ now joseph smith
corrects this and says it's the
revelation of john
right which god gave unto him
to shew unto him to shew unto him his
servants
things which must shortly come to pass
to vision
and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto his servant
john so that's the stage that is being
set up here
if we take the book of daniel
and we look at the dreams that he
interpreted
with king nebuchadnezzar again what
we're looking at here
is symbolism we're looking at him being
in the spirit
to interpret these things it's a
different language
it's strange to us especially in the
ancient
middle east and probably everywhere
anciently this was not strange to people
you can see this in some of the heritage
and tradition
and culture of the native americans
still
so this whole movement especially now
that we see out there where we get these
there's a lot of young earthers right
that
that are young creationists where
they're saying the earth was created in
six days
okay that doesn't really make any sense
to try and fit
science into that type of a narrative
there's no reason to do it it's not
literal and all of this kind of fringe
science that's coming around
about how the waters and the core of the
earth
and how the heat of the earth could
create
something that changes the carbon
readings of artifacts and geology and
geology
it doesn't matter right this whole idea
of
science versus faith is is really to
some degree worthless
if you understand what is happening with
the creation story
and with the garden of eden story now
with the restored gospel
we have an additional three examples
support to the genesis stories
of creation and the garden of eden i
want to go through those three so that
we get additional context
to this whole idea of their these all
being a vision
in every instance you can see that it is
a
vision it is not a recording of history
the first place that we should look is
going back to
moses and him being up on mount sinai
what is happening while he's up there we
don't talk about this enough
the setting the stage for
the book of genesis for the torah
for the ten commandments what is
happening with him
as he is up there on the mountain here's
exodus 25 9 according to all that i shew
thee
there we get it again what is he showing
after the pattern of the tabernacle it's
the temple
and the pattern of all the instruments
thereof the objects
even so shall ye make it so
moses sees in vision on the mountain
the creation story it's a vision
and he builds the tabernacle and puts
the objects in it according to
that vision they all represent what he
saw so we have to think to ourselves
what's the purpose of this vision
if he immediately goes out and builds
the tabernacle
it's not the knowledge of history but
it's the
core of worship temple worship
it's the core of the entire religion and
that's where all the detail comes in
here as you follow through chapter 25
here
also in deuteronomy of how this is built
how the tabernacle is built
it's very precise measurements
materials architecture etc
it has to do with the idea of creation
and if you understand that the creation
story and the garden of eden story
are a vision that was given to moses
for the purpose of creating the temple
then we have a better idea of why those
stories
are in the temple for our worship
for our understanding as a part of what
we do with covenants
we don't get these stories so that we
can have a better understanding of how
things started
that is a byproduct it is a lower law
look at those stories and that's where
the attacks mostly come from
it's very similar to say for example the
translations
of joseph smith right with the book of
abraham
and with the book of mormon if we're
trying to figure out scientifically
what were the materials what was the
exact process
did he look at a seer stone in a hat did
he use the urim and thummim
how many people witnessed what was going
on how many people witnessed
the plates themselves the the golden
plates
those are all interesting things but
that's all the physical
portion that we can get caught up in
without looking at the higher purpose of
the book of mormon itself
what matters is the fruit of it what
matters is the theology
what matters is the message that we get
from it it's the
what what is it what is the book of
mormon
and the why what is its purpose what is
its meaning
and the attacks are almost always down
below
right because we get caught up in the
science of it all when i say
science i mean physical science
which is important but it's not primary
and if we move that up into the primary
reasoning for our
faith behind the book of mormon we're in
trouble we are anchoring on
a foundation of sand and the same goes
with the book of abraham
all of the really excitement from both
sides if you look at it those that
critique it those that are critical of
the book of mormon and those that are
excited about it which are small amount
of people really that
really get into that but that whole
focus in there on the manuscripts and
what was lost and what wasn't lost and
what was in the the museum in chicago
and
what came from the met on the fragments
that we do have of those and what do the
egyptologists think about the
translations that joseph smith gave of
the facsimiles
and what was really there was it the
book of breathings the book of the dead
is it all funerary texts that we don't
have today
that's all great stuff and it's really
interesting
it's really kind of exciting but
it's a lower law issue it's kind of like
looking at
the creation story and saying yeah this
is how we can fit in
everything into these six periods of
time
scientifically with geology and physical
science and physics
that doesn't make any sense that's not
what this is about
and if we look down at the bottom of
exodus 25 here
in verse 40 we get another piece of
support here for this idea of what was
shown to him
and this vision that he had when he was
he was up in the mountain
it says and look that thou make them
right this is about
the objects in the temple that thou make
them after their
pattern which was shoot thee in the
mount
so our temple experience is anchored in
a
vision not in history
the beginning of the bible is not
history
right yes there was an adam and eve but
the story that we're getting
right is not for the purpose of history
for us
it is for the purpose of making
covenants it's for the purpose of us
understanding who we are because as we
are told
you and i are either adam
or eve that's what that story is about
it's about you you partook
of the fruit of the knowledge of good
and evil you fell
from the presence of god you are in the
lone and dreary world
you need to follow through with
following the apostles and the hierarchy
of the priesthood
and getting baptized and receiving the
message of the gospel and of the
atonement
to help yourself get back to the
presence of god
again and i'm not going to go much into
the garden of eden on this episode
but again this is not history that
you're reading you're not reading about
somebody else
you're reading about you you're reading
a drama
right imagine that you are in a theater
and there are
different characters adam and eve and
satan or lucifer the serpent and
peter james and john and elohim and
jehovah
and you're watching this in a theater on
a stage with these actors
and they're teaching you something as
you watch them
and by the way any actor can come in and
play one of those roles their roles
to be played it could be you
but the story in all of this is that you
are
adam or you are eve
and you're the one there watching this
as an observer but also as a participant
that's what a temple drama does
the creation story should be looked at
the same way
it is temple liturgy it is written down
here
in genesis for the temple
experience now we can also go and look
at
another example here which is which is
the book of moses what is the book of
moses
well as joseph smith was going through
translating that's a very loose
word and understanding what translating
means with both the book of moses and
with the book of abraham
we don't know exactly what that means
especially the book of abraham because
we have
really very few to none direct examples
of how that
process worked but we get some really
heavy clues
as to what's going on with the genesis
story and the garden of eden story
right moses 1 1.
this is a inserted here
before in the beginning right
so this is again a large amount of
setting up the stage
for the creation story that we do not
get in genesis
here's chapter one verse one the words
of god
which he spake unto moses at a time
when moses was caught up into an
exceedingly high
mountain so what we're going to get here
is a vision this is the vision
of the creation and adam and eve and
more
it's a vision and he saw god face to
face and he talked with him and the
glory of god was upon moses
therefore moses could endure his
presence
and in verse 4 and behold thou art my
son
wherefore look and i will show
thee the workmanship of mine hands
but not all for my works are without end
so we get an idea that
you know of the cosmology here of
restored scripture
it's not just this earth but not all for
his purposes
and also my words for they never cease
and in verse 7 another clue and now
behold this one thing
i show unto thee and then again and down
in verse 36
and it came to pass that moses spake
unto the lord saying
be merciful unto thy servant o god and
tell me
concerning this earth right this is
again this is this vision that he's
getting
and the inhabitants thereof well that's
going to start with the adam and eve
story
and also the heavens and then thy
servant will be content
and finally here at the end of moses 1
these words were spoken unto moses in
the mount
the name of which shall not be known
among the children of men
and now they are spoken unto you that's
us show them not unto any except them
that believe
even so amen all right well why would
that be well because this is
temple liturgy right there that he's
he's he's couching this
in something that is sacred that is
precious so this is what he's getting up
in the mountain here this vision
and then over into chapter two what are
we gonna get here we're gonna get the
creation story but again
he's on the mountain this is where this
happens
and it came to pass that the lord spake
unto moses saying behold
i reveal unto you concerning this heaven
and this earth write the words which i
speak this is going to be genesis 1.
i am the beginning and the end the
almighty god by
by mine only begotten i created these
things
yea in the beginning i created the
heaven and the earth
upon which thou standest and then it
moves right
into something very very similar to
genesis 1.
and the earth was without form and void
and i caused darkness to come upon the
face of the earth and my spirit moved
upon the face of the water for i am god
and i god said
let there be light and there was light
and then it goes on
right and then from there as we go
through the different days
of the creation story again very similar
to
genesis 1. we then move over into
the garden of eden story in verse 26
let us make man in our image after our
after our likeness and it was so and i
god said let them have dominion over the
fishes of the sea and over the fowl of
the air
and over the cattle and then chapter
three is going to go right into the
garden of eden story so
what we're getting here is not moses
writing down a history he's writing
something down from a vision like
the book of revelation or like we get
from daniel or like we get from lehi
and so again what are we looking at here
we're looking at symbolism we're looking
not at
literal talk literal language we're
looking at
spiritual language it's completely
different
in the beginning god created heaven and
earth well what is the temple it's it's
the center point for that
it's bringing heaven and earth together
now joseph smith thought that this was
crucial for us to understand
and yet we keep stepping away from this
it seems to me
into some kind of a literal idea of what
is being presented to us
instead of understanding that it is a
vision and the way it is presented is as
a
temple drama and this is what he says
about us
understanding the true nature of god he
says
in the first place i wish to go back to
the beginning
to the mourn of creation there is the
starting point for us to look to
in order to understand and and be fully
acquainted with the mind
purposes and decree decrees of the great
elohim
who sits in yonder heavens as he did at
the creation of this world
we always have the idea of the throne
right a throne theophany
it's temple imagery it's the holy of
holies it is necessary for us to have an
understanding of god himself
in the beginning if we start right
it is easy to go right all the time but
if we start
wrong we may go wrong and it'd be a
hard matter to get right so this is
important for us to understand
it's why oftentimes in the episodes that
i do with come follow me or or
other episodes on the scriptures and the
gospel principles
that i so often go back to the creation
story
and the garden of eden it is
foundational
right it's foundational for lehi and
nephi when they go through their vision
of the tree of life
that is temple imagery that is about the
temple
the book of revelation is about the
temple
and much beyond that but it's its core
is about the atonement and and the
temple experience
now in addition to the temple
example of the creation story in the
garden of eden story
in addition to genesis in addition to
the book of moses
we also have a creation story in the
book of abraham
which is very interesting right these
are all why do we keep getting this
over and over again why do these
dispensational prophets
the heads of these dispensations all
have the same experience
why do they all get this same vision
it's because it's at the core
of the temple you need need these for
certain covenants you need these for
certain understanding and principles of
worship
so if we go to the book of abraham we're
going to see the same thing
right and we go to chapter three here
this is the
the chapter that we get kind of all
these strange names with right
and coca bm and all these different
things that represent the heavens
a hierarchy a structure why do we get
these things because
they're spiritual words it's
spiritual language it's not literal
abraham is having a vision before he
right before he goes into the land of
egypt
and where is he getting this vision from
well we're told right at the beginning
of chapter 3 this is how we need to read
these creation stories it says here
3 1 chapter 3 1 and i abraham had the
urim and
thumb which the lord my god had given
unto me
in ur of the chaldees again setting the
stage for
where all this information is coming
from this is how he sees it
this is how he sees the creation story
not writing down a history
that's not what's happening and in the
urim and thummim the very next verse
it says and i saw the stars
right he sees this through the urim and
thumb and that they were very great and
that one of them was nearest under the
throne of god
and there were many great ones which
were near unto it that's co-op
so the the craziness of these things in
chapter three
if you understand that this is
a drama in a sense it's a parallel as
was often done anciently
of the cosmos with priesthood authority
and with a hierarchy of the heavens
then we understand that this is
symbolism its focus is on
principles not on literal
translations and as he goes through
this hierarchy this this cosmological
hierarchy
which is a centered in temple doctrine
is what it is and is found on facsimile
2
we see this language here again of what
he sees in the urim and thumb
he says here again in verse 4 supporting
the same thing and the lord said unto me
by the urim and thumb that kolob was
after the manner of the lord according
to its times and seasons
and the revolutions thereof again if
we're taking this literally if we don't
understand that he's seeing this
as a vision as he's looking through the
urine and thumb he's a seer
then we just say this is crazy talk this
is the four
this is the beasts and the four horsemen
and the 24 elders standing around
the throne of god the woman cast out to
the wilderness and the dragon of the
book of revelation
unless we understand that it's it's
spiritual talk
and it's symbolism and its core is uh
an experience and a drama to
to go through to
to sympathize with to make covenants
with
then it's just going to seem very
bizarre and strange to us
let's look again here at verse 12 and he
said unto me my son my
son this is to abraham and his hand was
stretched out
behold i will show you all these
and he put his hand upon mine eyes it's
a
vision and then he goes on with a
stranger named shine
kokob kokobim olea etc
right it's imagery symbolism
again in 22 now the lord had shown unto
me
abraham the intelligences that were
organized before
the world was and among these were many
of the the noble and great ones that's a
familiar scripture to us
one of the few out of the book of
abraham because we don't study it enough
right so again this is being shown to
him through the urim and thumb
now we continue and this rolls right
into guess what
the creation story and then the adam and
eve story
he's seeing this through the urim and
thumb 24
says and there stood one among them that
was like unto god
again going through the the hierarchy
that you would get
think about your temple experience
especially before last year
and he said unto those who are with him
we will go down
for there is space there and we will
take of these materials
and we will make an earth whereon these
may dwell
right so we're getting some combination
here with the the temple account of the
creation
our temple account of the creation but
again it's going into a hierarchy
that's going into a structure
just like he was just going over first
with kolob and all of the other
crazy names that we think are kind of
different but we're not usually
understanding what's going on there
right he's making a parallel between
these stars or
planets with actual hierarchy of the
priesthood
and the creation that we participate in
it was done all the time
right messengers angels are equal to
stars
cherubim are equal to stars often times
that's how the ancients would think but
it's it's symbolic
and so we get a little bit more of the
an account of the pre-mortal life
that finishes off here in chapter three
he's still in a vision and then it rolls
right over
into chapter four and what are we
getting here in chapter
four well this is the creation story
right and then the lord said
let us go down and they went down at the
beginning
and they that is the gods organized and
formed the heavens
and the earth and the earth after it was
formed was empty and desolate because
they had not formed anything but the
earth
and darkness reigned upon the face of
the deep and the spirit of the gods
was brooding upon the face of the waters
and they the gods said let there be
light
and there was light again he's looking
through the urim and thumb
so this is crucial for our understanding
we have the the the
scriptures and the temple experience of
the restoration
we need to apply it we need to
understand what is going on here
these things are visions and we should
read them as such
they are temple liturgy what that means
is they are
recorded for us for our temple
experience
primarily and to ponder on
the principles and to look at it as a
temple drama
right where we are participants we are
adam
we are eve and others can fill the roles
of
whether it be the stars and the planets
or whether it be
elohim and jehovah and adam and eve and
peter james and john
and lucifer cain and abel etc
if we understand that that it's a drama
based off of a vision we can look at
this completely different and we don't
have to try and
force science into this narrative
that wouldn't make any sense right
trying to think to ourselves oh well
the lord says that one day equals a
thousand years one day to him is a
thousand years demand so maybe
it was the earth was made in 6 000 years
no again we're we're going down a road
here
of the lower law we're trying to fit
this into a science
which is important to know the science
is important
but this is not a scientific account
it's not a historical account
think of stories that we get from
shakespeare right that are about
actual characters at least some of them
are actual characters
but there's a story based on principles
and understanding conflict
and decisions and tragedy that is there
for us to observe
the difference with this is that this is
based on actual visions to profits
that are that is given over and over
again
and that it's created for us to not only
observe
in a theater but to actually be
participants in i want to finish with
this
which is a a quote from a book of
scripture
that's not in our canon but it reflects
an understanding of
many of the of the ancients especially
christianity
and their understanding of this creation
story and who it was given to
right here's what it says this is second
baruch chapter four verses two to five
it says on the palms of my hand have i
graven thee this is temple imagery
that which was prepared beforehand
or from the time i took counsel to
create paradise
the garden of eden and showed it to adam
before he sinned
and after that i showed it to my
servant abraham by night and again i
showed it to moses
on mount sinai coincidence no
right coincidence that in the pearl of
great price
we have an anchor from a dispensational
prophet
prophet known as moses that gives us
genesis if we read the book of moses
we need to read the pearl crate price
more if we read and understand
the book of moses we see that this is a
vision in genesis
and then again here as second baruch
references
abraham sees the vision as well and we
know from the book of abraham
that he is in a vision he's seeing this
through the urim and thummim
and of course going to the temple
account why do we have the creation
story
and the garden of eden story as the core
narrative to begin things off in
the temple experience of the endowment
it's because that's what it was written
for the whole tabernacle the whole
temple of solomon
is constructed after a vision
and if you follow it through day by day
you can see that
day one is the holy of holies day two
is the veil day three comes outside of
the veil and i'm not going to go over
that right now i'll say that for another
episode
but the temple the tabernacle is built
after
a vision and so not only the words that
we get
in the temple experience are from this
vision
but the actual building of the
architecture
and of the emblems in the temple of
solomon are exactly
for the same purpose to reflect the
vision
that these prophets received and to
place the
drama which is what that vision is
into the actual process of making
covenants
and telling a story about ourselves
while
also giving us principles of
creation of human existence
of mortality of agency
and of the need of an atonement allowing
us to go through a temple process
that is built around the fall and then
helping us to get back to our heavenly
father
i hope that can help for some of you in
understanding and looking at
these creation stories in a different
way and i wish
more broadly that christianity could
have a greater understanding
also that this is a vision and it's for
the temple
and this nonsense between trying to go
through evolution on one side and
creationism on the other and
science on one side and faith and
scripture on the other
but it just doesn't make any sense it's
apples and oranges
no pun intended i'll talk to you next
[Music]
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Cwic Principles

Creation Garden of Eden

Adam & Eve

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