Thank you for the encouragement. I do actually have some personal experience with how treacherous some ideas can be. I once had a bout with a pastor of another church, and he would go very far back into history, and translation, and original text, and I noticed, he was getting lost in all of his own interpretations and ideas. Granted, very intelligent individual, but without having the spirit of prophecy in which the Bible and other manuscripts were originally written, we should be very wary indeed of how we interpret things.

As I understand it, some original Greek words can be translated 9 different ways, therefore giving many interpretations of the same scripture. But, I propose that there are those who are called and authorized, in the same manner they were in the Bible and other canon, who can interpret these things, and are called by God to do so, and share them with the rest of the world. At the same time, I believe that there are those who not only interpret what previous servant’s of God have spoken and written, but that there is also continuing revelation. Such is how the Latter-Day Saint church is.

The reason modern cosmology is beginning to come to have many of the same ideas as restoration prophecy is because as the truth is taught, so does intelligence increase. Men begin to learn and grow. Take for example the time known as the dark ages. Christ and His apostles were rejected, and Christ’s church fell away. It was prophesied this would happen in many of Paul’s writings. And, with the truth being twisted, or simply not being taught, men digressed. Became primitive almost.

As the time period of the Renaissance began, and men began to seek for truth once more, people such as Martin Luther or many of the Reformers began to realize that what they were being taught was not true. To keep a long story short, those men helped set in motion the events that would allow for the restoration of the gospel. And where did that restoration take place? In a place where there was freedom of religion. In the U.S. And, does anyone notice that in the early 1800′s and on, the human race has begun to advance, until the point where now it’s commonplace for something that can change millions of lives to be developed almost constantly?

One idea that I have is this: It is prophesied that when Christ returns that ‘every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess’ and we will all see Christ with our own eyes. How is this to be accomplished? Through modern technology. We are reaching an age where communication around the world is almost instant. I’m rather excited to see all this progression myself, because I believe that once we have reached a certain technological stage, and once other prophesied events have occurred as they are now occurring, that that is when Christ shall come again.

I appreciate very much what we are learning from modern cosmology, because when I look out into space, or at images of pictures taken by the hubble telescope, I see God’s work taking place. Worlds being created. New dominions being formed. Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that the time is soon when we will all have to make a choice as to which side we will choose. It is inevitable. With all the corruption in world governments, with all the atrocities that men are able to commit, with all the ‘wars and rumors of wars’, we should choose now who we will follow. And, I personally know that it is through Christ that we will all be redeemed.

Anyway, I look forward to further comments or questions! Ya’ll have a blessed day!

I should at least give you the scriptural reference, so I’ll quote the following portion of my own blog post “You’ve Read this Post Before” that contains the Scripture:

Both the Latter-day Saints and Community of Christ contain within their canons what the former calls “The Book of Moses” and publishes as a single document within the Pearl of Great Price. The CofChrist splits the same material into several component parts, which it includes within portions of Genesis in the “Inspired Version” (Joseph Smith Translation) of the Bible and/or as independent sections of its Doctrine & Covenants.

The material includes the following excerpts:

“…Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the Spirit of God. And he beheld … many lands; and each land was called earth and there were inhabitants on the face thereof. …And the Lord God said unto Moses: ‘For mine own purpose have I made these things …And worlds without number have I created. …For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them…The heavens they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.’”

So both modern cosmology and Restoration prophecy are converging on a notion of “worlds without number inhabited by humans”.

I am suggesting that there is a way to interpret the above Book of Moses passages that may be helpful to some Mormons in growing in their understanding of God, if not to others.

As I said, I’m not evangelical about getting people to believe this or any other interpretation of cosmology — unless it becomes a theological error that justifies hurting people. Misinterpretation of Mormon cosmology HAS been used to justify hurting African Americans in the past. Some percentage of Mormons question whether similar misinterpretations are hurting Mormons today. If these ideas help them, fine. If they do not help you at this point of your life, that’s fine, too.

You have spoken well. Especially, your last paragraph and, if I were you, I would never forget that last paragraph, for these internet blogs are very treacherous and will challenge you to your core, at times.
But, perhaps you already know that.

This does feel very similar to a discussion I once had with another CofChrist member. Pastor actually. I find that the members of this church are incredibly intelligent people, as you seem to be as well. But, I’m afraid that while I do like intellectual/theoretical/conceptual discussions, and I very much enjoy trying to imagine what is out in the universe that I’ll one day get to explore, I always fall back on the basics. When it comes down to what really matters, I don’t waste valuable time getting lost in what ‘may be’ but, I always have to return to my purpose for being here.

Multiple spouses in Heaven? There may be those in the universe who have that, but with what little understanding I have now in this life, I don’t think I’ll be wanting another spouse. I’ll stick with the one. Single wives on multiple earths? That kind of leaves the feeling of being unfaithful to all of them, or, only being able to be with one of them at a time, which is something a ‘god’ wouldn’t do. Millions of children? Well, there’s millions, BILLIONS, here on earth, so of course there are in Heaven.

Gender attraction in the pre-existence? Of course there was. I believe that I have already met my future spouse in the pre-existence, and that one day we will be led to each other. Or, maybe we already have and it’s simply a matter of timing and God’s will. One gender? Definitely not. Our very existence here on earth is a model for the larger picture. Earth is a training ground, a proving ground, whatever you want to call it, and the family relationships we have here on earth are, or maybe aren’t but should be, a way for us to learn and prepare for the life to come.

Again, not sure of the reference, but there is a scripture in which the Lord is explaining that ‘All is before me, everything that was, now is, and will be’. God exists outside of time. With the understanding that He has of natural laws, time being one of them, He is able to keep all things in order. He is aware of everything on every level. Again, an INFINITE being, and one that we can’t possibly comprehend while in this mortal existence. Alpha and Omega, those kind of statements.

God, being an infinite being, must continue to progress. But, if He is already perfect, which He most definitely would have to be, otherwise He would cease to be a god, cease to be God, how then does He continue to progress? How can He both already have reached perfection, and yet at the same time continue to progress? You and I are the answer. God continues to gain glory when His children become like Him.

Therefore, as sxark states in p.2 #9, Moses 1:39 reads ‘This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ Helping us become like Him truly is His purpose. We will are all immortal, we will always exist, but our choices that we make here on earth, and also the ones we made in the pre-existence, as well as those we’ll make after this life, will decide whether we are entitled to eternal life. (And yes, I am aware that may very well open another can of worms when it comes to faith, works, and grace)

Here’s what it comes down to: agency. We have the agency to choose for ourselves what we’ll become and how far we’ll progress. We have the right to decide for ourselves whether or not we’ll bother with following God’s ways. We have the agency to choose whether or not we’ll allow Christ’s Atonement to have affect. He suffered for our sins, yes, but it is still up to us to decide whether we’ll use the gift of repentance or not. He suffered for us knowing full well there would be many who would not accept His sacrifice.

I’ll admit, I’m feeling as though I should post these things for a reason. As to what that is, I’m not sure. But, again, while there are infinite possibilities that exist, we ourselves are mortal and finite. While we should try to understand and learn all that we can, we should stick with what we know, namely what is taught in the scriptures. I have never read or heard anything referring to ‘parallel universes’ in any known scripture, or in any talk given by those I believe have the authority to teach those things, therefore, I won’t dwell on that possibility. I will continue to try to do the Lords work, and aid in bringing about man’s, and woman’s, eternal life.

Well, the question of whether theor is One God or many in a parent-child progression has always been a point of departture between LDS and CofChrist. We follow the more mainstream Christian idea and do not equate Celestial Glory with becoming creators of new universes.

I do think the ideas I’m personally working with get some of the Mormons’ unique beliefs to pop out in a natural way. Multiple spouses in heaven? Well you had single wives on multiple earths? Monogamy on earth; polygamy in heaven. Millions of children in heaven? Well, you had/are having/will have millions of children throughout spacetime.

Gender and gender attraction in the pre-existence or in heaven? Well, there’s room here for the overwhelming probability of being one gender, yet nothing to marginalize the copies where things were different. Room for the singles, the children, the divorced, the widowed, or the remarried. Room for the nuclear and the blended and the extended families. The two sides of the “veil” see things from different perspectives, but they’re seeing the same thing, IMHO.

The spiritual and physical are truly one soul: they make each other and develop together.

More interestingly, what you are concerned about is really another version of the conventional question about what age are you in heaven. Time comes in chunks so small that there are quadrillions of quadrillions of trillions of them per second. So in our single life experience. Does God keep only one of those instants in resurrection and toss the others? Or does He keep the best of us at all points of life in some sort of blended form. If it’s the latter, than doing the blending throughout the rest of spacetime seems to pose no fundamental problem to me.

Because we are bound to time in a linear fashion, we can’t help but think that things in different times and places are different things. But from the “other side” things may not appear that way. I suspect that there is a dual description of reality where dissimilarity of information content plays the role of distance in space, but I’ll stop there before everyone’s eyes glaze over.

Here’s another thing I believe: While there isn’t more than one physical copy of myself, I do believe in parallel universes. How else could God achieve his work if there weren’t parallel planes coexisting within each other? I have felt many other spirits throughout my life, and the veil as we call it was very thing, much like when your grandmother came and visited your daughter. There’s also a scripture supporting this, and while I don’t know the reference, it simply says ‘There are kindgoms within kingdoms.’ Again, not a scriptorian by any means, but one of my old institute teachers often introduced new ideas like this to those of us he thought would understand them.

I mean, who’s to say how small matter gets? Even beyond what we know about physics and such, what’s between the spaces between two neurons? Or, reverse that? Who’s to say that what we can see in space with our hubble telescope or any other scope that there aren’t yet larger kingdoms? Like, that part at the end of Men in Black for example. There isn’t an alien is playing marbles with our universe by any means, but yet, what truly is out there?

Another thing: Our spirits reside within our bodies. THE Spirit communicates with our spirits. Our spirits can sense other spirits. So, our spirits are matter and are very much real, only more pure, more fine, something we can’t perceive with our physical eyes. Going along with this idea of THE Spirit communicating with our spirit, I believe that in that process, there is sometimes a physical response. I myself get goosebumps when I have a spiritual experience, and many times the chills, or the hair standing on the back of my neck. And it’s not the creepy chills like they depict in horror movies, but more like when someone says something really powerful to you, like the first time you hear someone say ‘I love you’.

Yet another idea: There is a scripture in Hebrew’s that states ‘Though there be lords many and gods many, to us there is but one God.’ I gather that there are in fact many God’s and many Christ’s and many Holy Ghost’s, but, ‘to us there is but one God.’ So, who’s to say that all these heavenly beings and all these planes of existence don’t overlap one another? Just as a personal opinion, I gather that all these heavenly beings are those who once were like us, progressed and became gods and goddesses, and, being perfect beings, who’s to say they don’t communicate with each other? Sort of a ‘Hey, how are your children doing?’ kind thing.

Anyway, sorry, I’m getting carried away again with all the ‘infinite’ thinking. Like I said in another post, it all goes back to the basics and that’s all that is important. And like sxark stated, we will have to wait for the time when all things will be revealed. So, just keep workin’ on it! The closer we can become and the more we can learn about our Heavenly Father in this life, the better off we’ll be!