It's Not Easy Being Green

At the risk of being ridiculed or scoffed at for being too open, let me briefly pull back the author/researcher curtain to let you see the inner mulling and musing of the mind behind all these “peculiar” notions.

To put it simply, I’m at the end of my rope. And I have been for some time.

Kermit the Frog sings a woeful little tune that best characterizes my predicament. “It’s not easy being green,” he chants, plaintively. I know how that feels when your fellow church members perceive you as the purveyor of odd knowledge, someone saying something different than what they’re accustomed to hearing.

Like the Whos in Whoville, I cry out, “I am here. I am here! I am here!!” But, no one hears. No one sees.

You see, to the majority of church members, I’m invisible … and so is my research. I believe I have stumbled across a most valuable truth, one that was once fairly common knowledge among early church members, one that was taught by Joseph Smith and preserved in our temples. That’s what I work to share with my fellow Saints. But, therein lies the rub. Very few care to hear it.

Actually, I feel more like Horton than the Whos. I know what I know to be true. But most Mormons don’t believe me because of their preconceptions. They prefer to reject me and my “strange notions,” dismissing me as a kook or a fraud rather than examining the issues more closely. Strangely, others see me as a threat, worthy only of their disdain and reprehension. They seek to suppress my ideas.

Just so you know, here’s my song. It’s a little longer than Kermit’s, but it rhymes just about as well. It sounds like this …

About 30 years ago, I came across a book that changed my whole view of the Restored Gospel. The concepts presented in that book set me on a path that led me first to the comprehension of past planetary catastrophes, then to prophecy, to the language of the prophets, to obscure statements by Joseph Smith, to a completely revised understanding of ancient planetary history, to an interpretation of religious symbolism worldwide and finally to a thoroughgoing grasp of latter-day temple symbolism and ritual (not necessarily in that order).

If that sounds to you like a lot of ground to cover, it is. It took me into heady intellectual country — Hugh Nibley kind of stuff — a place I never dreamed I might venture. But true to my quest, I soldiered on, invigorated by the soul-expanding concepts that periodically washed over my mind and heart like emotional and intellectual tidal waves.

It took years of study, research and a willingness to follow the clues—no matter how unlikely or unpopular they seemed to be. But, it was worth every moment because this study, which began with a burning desire to understand the scriptures, has opened doors to knowledge and understanding that I never expected find, least of all to open. Just when I think this line of inquiry has yielded all there is to learn, it inevitably shows me more.

As a result, my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restored Gospel has expanded beyond anything I thought humanly possible. My understanding of gospel principles is more profound, by many orders of magnitude, than I had ever imagined. And perhaps most importantly, I can ‘read’ the temple experience as though it were a book or a familiar and treasured story.

What about you? When you read prophecy, is the imagery and message crystal clear? Or is it confusing and bewildering? When you contrast present scientific views with the scriptural record, do you start scratching your head? When you attend the temple, is the intent and the meaning of each ritual and all its symbolism as plain as a child’s primer? When you try to make sense of these things, does your head start to hurt and your brain begin to reel? As I did at first, do you simply avoid contemplating all these things because it all seems too much like an exercise in futility?

Given those nagging misgivings and because most of these things are a mystery to most Saints, you’d think that they’d be anxious to get a few pointers. But, just the opposite is true. In my experience, any effort to draw attention to these gospel blind spots is met with suspicion and disbelief. Rather than ask questions, they begin to avoid me, ignore me, criticize me or pretend I’m not even in the same church.

So, it’s not easy being seen. In fact, it’s a lot of hard work. I’ve labored for over 30 years in an effort to gain a foothold on the LDS imagination. I’ve written books, prepared and given daylong lectures with a slideshow, produced a documentary, several video clips with 3D animation, created a web page advertising my ideas and a blog that contains the results of years of research and study. None of that was easy. It cost me precious personal time and considerable resources. Yet after all that, I don’t seem to be getting significant traction among my fellow Saints.

So, here’s the question at the heart of the matter: How does an average Latter-day Saint like myself with a vital message make his voice heard in the church? Since I’m not a General Authority, how do I make an impression on others? What can I do to make enough of an impression that most Mormons will inquire further? After trying every initiative I can think of to put this information in front of church members, what more can I do that I’ve not already tried? I’m flat out of initiatives.

So, that’s my sad song. Like Kermit, it’s not easy being green.

So, what do you think? How can I put this message before the membership? What approach can I take that I have not taken already? Which among you cares to lend a supportive hand? Who can point me down the path to access? Any ideas?

© Anthony E. Larson, 2009

The Prophets' Language

Prophecy, the unique province of prophets, is filled with bizarre, obscure and confusing images. Attempt to read any of the great prophecies in scripture, and your head will soon be spinning, overflowing with figures and metaphors strange and bizarre. A few of the most prominent examples are found in Revelation in the New Testament, Ezekiel and Daniel in the Old Testament and in Section 88 in Doctrine & Covenants.

Starting with the beasts

The array of images found in prophetic texts is plentiful. The list includes beasts of many kinds: lions, calves, eagles, lambs, horses, leopards and bears, as well as more fanciful things such as dragons, which come complete with wings and tails. Additionally, one finds rainbows, thrones, crowns, elders, spirits, angels, earthquakes, suns, moons, stars, mountains, temples, seals, trumpets, hail, fire, blood, a bottomless pit, scorpions, chariots, horns, kings, armies and alters, just to name a few.

More than a few questions immediately pop into mind. Why do the prophets report seeing these odd images? Why did they feel compelled to substitute imagery in their narratives rather than simply reporting what they saw? Why are there so many images? Prophecy reads like mythology or fables. Why so? Are these images substitutes for things in our day, as so many assert? What are we to make of such allegorical mayhem?

Rediscovering our true past

These are good questions, all. The answers are quite simple, but they require a good deal of explanation. Such explanation is needed because we’ve lost something: our true past. So, although the proper interpretation of prophecy and the future is the focus of our quest, it will lead us to far-flung antiquity, the distant past in search of our answers and to topics that seem, at first glance, to have little relevance.

Let’s begin with a categorical statement that is substantiated elsewhere: Prophetic metaphors are anchored in heavenly, cosmological events of ancient history that very nearly saw the destruction of this planet.

Those catastrophic events, like the Creation, the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Exodus, Joshua’s Long Day and Elijah’s contest with the priests of Baal, took place in the earliest epoch remembered by mankind, and they reoccurred from time to time on a variety of occasions down through the ages. These events weren’t only recorded in scripture. They fill profane accounts as well. The destruction of Atlantis, the Battle of Troy, the story of Phaeton and many, many other mythic stories recount those same destructions. They played out in Earth’s ancient skies, the heavens above and the ground beneath. Accompanied by a monumental auroral light and sound show, they were earth and heaven shaking, mind numbing and spectacular beyond anything seen in the skies we know today. (Good evidence for this claim, which will not be considered here for brevity’s sake, is presented in numerous books and articles by this author.)

Only when we allow the full impact and meaning of the words that the ancients used to describe what they experienced do we get a proper view of those events. Otherwise, they seem like little more than manic hyperbole.

Once obtained, that novel perspective leads to a stunning revision of this world’s past history. We see the Creation, the Patriarchal Age, Noah’s flood, the days of Abraham, the Exodus, the work of the Prophets and the career of Israel in a whole new light. Even the Savior’s mission, teachings, life and times become more understandable.

But perhaps most importantly for today’s Latter-day Saints, this novel viewpoint on the past reveals truths about the restored gospel and the teachings of its founding prophet, Joseph Smith, that have gone unnoticed, misunderstood or ignored.

So, it seems quite reasonable to expect that if we can decipher the imagery of prophecy, we might also get a handle on all scriptural imagery. And it almost goes without saying that such an accomplishment would greatly enhance our understanding of the scriptures, if not the entire restored gospel, making this effort a most worthy and worthwhile quest.

Applies to all scriptural imagery

With that corrected view, we now have a perspective that will allow us to get a clearer concept of the events that shaped the prophets’ language. (The details of those astral, celestial or cosmological events are amply enumerated and elucidated elsewhere by this author in extensive specificity.) Suffice it to say, the metaphors, found in religions, myths, legends and traditions the world over, universally originated in the events seen anciently in Earth’s skies and experienced by all mankind.

With that view in mind, we can turn to prophetic accounts and see them with new eyes. Therefore the pursuit is circular: As we pursue our quest, one topic leads to another until we find ourselves back where we began, only to see the first topic with more clarity than we ever did before.

Prophetic argot

Use of the term “language” to typify the prophets’ discourse may be a little confusing, though useful in the course of our exposition. It would be more correctly defined as a vocabulary or argot, because it is not a separate language. A doctor, a mechanic, a lawyer or an accountant is inclined to use a vocabulary peculiar to his or her profession, even though the language is still English. So it is that the prophets used a vocabulary unique to their calling.

But the prophets’ language is much more than just a distinctive vocabulary. Much like letters in ancient alphabets began as symbols, prophetic imagery grew up with a set of symbols or icons as well.

Prophetic symbols

When we consider that the masses were largely uneducated in the past, the need for icons or symbols becomes apparent: When one cannot read, meaningful symbols or images become an effective means of communicating and retaining information.

That same power to convey considerable meaning with a single, simple icon made symbols ideal devices for recalling long narratives. This is an ancient device, used by pre-literate cultures, since they committed to memory their sacred traditions. To aid in recalling those traditional stories, symbols were employed. So, symbols, icons or images became the mnemonic devices of choice, and grew up alongside language and writing.

Naturally, literate societies retained those symbols, due to their communicative power. That is, they could covey substantial meaning while occupying only a fraction of the space that text might on walls, tablets, papyri, parchments or metal plates. The members of the priestly class in any society were responsible for preserving those traditions and reciting them to the people. (A relevant example of this would be the so-called “Book of Breathings” that came into Joseph Smith’s hands.) To do so, they ‘read’ a series of symbols to aid in the recollection of their culture’s sacred stories. Some were epic tales of great length and detail. We receive them today as myths and legends. But what is more likely, as we are beginning to see, they are verbal records of this world’s ancient past.

A picture is worth a thousand words … and vice versa

Thus, the prophet’s language is icon-based. That is, each metaphor or narrative has a corresponding symbol or set of symbols—an illustration, if you will, that matches up with a specific, equivalent story. We see that most prominently in Joseph Smith’s Egyptian papyri where a single image in those illustrations corresponds to a specific description, whether a metaphor as in “grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides,” or a definition as in “signifying expanse, or the firmament of the heavens.”

So, memorize the following vital formula: icon = metaphor. That is, an icon or a symbol has a corresponding story or narrative. The mirror image of that formula is: metaphor = icon. That is, every story or narrative can be illustrated with one or more symbols. Metaphors and icons are, therefore, two sides of the same informational coin.

Symbols were seldom included or used alongside the written word since drawing the symbols in ancient texts may have seemed redundant and complicated. They were seldom included with the written word. Instead, the authors substituted a name for the image or icon (ex. beast, dragon, horse, bear, lion, etc.), assuming that further description was unnecessary since everyone in their day and age understood what was meant. The terminology and iconography employed was traditional, well known to all. It was taught in ancient schools as well as to the masses.

The ancients could not conceive that such common knowledge would be lost to later generations, that we would have no idea what words like beast, dragon, horse, bear, mountain, king, star and a thousand other such allusions actually referred to. Could they return to see our day, they would be stunned at our ignorance of their traditions and beliefs, especially our lack of knowledge regarding these icons and the true history of our planet, which they laboriously and repeatedly recorded for our benefit.

Thus, these symbols, in their rhetorical form, appear in ancient texts, including the scriptures, as fabulous gods, creatures, objects or angels, etc. So it is with all prophetic imagery.

It’s likely that this situation is what Joseph Smith alluded to when he said, “The prophets do not declare that they saw a beast or beasts, but that they saw the image or figure of a beast. Daniel did not see an actual bear or a lion, but the images or figures of those beasts. The translation should have been rendered ‘image’ instead of ‘beast,’ in every instance where beasts are mentioned by the prophets.” (History of the Church, p. 343.)

Joseph’s use of the term “image” makes his meaning clear. Similar terms used by today’s scholars are “icon,” or “symbol.” In this context, all three words mean the same thing.

Beasts aren’t the only images in prophecy. As we’ve seen, we read of kings, stars, mountains, highways, temples and locusts as well, to name just a few. Drawing on Joseph’s statement and what we have considered thus far, we can infer that all these are meant to replace an icon, symbol or image in order to convey meaning and not depict real creatures, individuals or objects. “When the prophets speak of seeing beasts in their visions, they mean that they saw the images, they being types to represent certain things.” (Ibid., p. 343.)

This is a concept that largely eludes most of us today. Scholars certainly do not acknowledge it. The notion that one, small symbol can evoke a long, narrative meaning is disparaged by most students of ancient language. They are adamant that each symbol, like letters in an alphabet, represents only one consonant or vowel sound. And while that may generally be the case, the idea of a direct association between a traditional narrative or metaphor and an icon or image is equally valid and correct.

A universal language

Because prophetic language is based in imagery and symbolism, it is universal. It need not be restricted to any one culture or tongue. Thus, anciently, it crossed all cultural and societal boundaries. It became a universal language, used by prophets, sages, shamen, priests, and clerics from cultures the world over. So, while the terminology and the story in religious metaphors may vary from culture to culture and language to language over time, the base imagery from which it was drawn, called an “archetype” by mythologists, will remain constant.

And again, it remains constant simply because it’s based in a common source: ancient cosmological events seen in Earth’s skies by all ancient cultures.

So, this is the symbolic language of the prophets, and it can be written with words as well as illustrated with symbols because they are two halves of a unified whole. Both are ways of retaining cultural and religious traditions; both are capable of conveying the same message.

More than just prophecy

But, the prophets’ peculiar terminology doesn’t stop with prophecy. Nearly all of scripture contains imagery that is puzzling when we stop to think about it. However, most of us never take the time to consider the otherwise odd use of such figures of speech. We simply accept such usage as part of our belief system. Everyone seems to understand what they’re getting at, so why hurt one’s head over it? After all, it’s colorful language, which makes the reading a bit more interesting.

Yet it’s clear, after thoughtful analysis, that there is more here than meets the eye. This imagery is clearly meant to convey meaning—profound meaning, perhaps—that simply eludes us because we have no training in those peculiar, prophetic figures of speech.

A good example of this is our unquestioned acceptance of the terminology applied to a temple, where the Lord’s house is repeatedly called “the mountain of the Lord’s house."

Almost certainly, this usage comes from the scriptures, where it is so used. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” (Isaiah 2:2, italics added. See also Micah 4:1 and 2 Nephi 12:2.)

So, we get that usage on good authority. But, why is it so used? How does a building equate to a mountain in the prophets’ jargon? It’s easy to understand how a temple might be considered a “house” of God or his dwelling. But, how is a temple equated to a mountain? Such odd juxtaposition makes no sense in the real world where mountains are natural, geological phenomena and temples are constructed by the hand of man for sacred ordinances, worship and instruction. So, this is clearly a metaphor, a symbolic figure of speech.

Like the prophetic tendency to resort to animal imagery in prophetic revelation, how are we to understand such usage? Is such an allusion simply an odd turn of phrase used anciently, a colorful way of describing a sacred temple? Or, is there hidden meaning in the term?

The key is in the past

This author would argue that the mountain/temple equivalency derives from astral or cosmological events as old as time, that all cultures conceived of God’s house as a place in Earth’s heavens that sat atop a splendid, celestial pillar of light whose base spread out upon the curve of the horizon and whose peak terminated in a great planet that stood magnificently at its apex. The copious and ubiquitous evidence for such an eccentric assertion can be found elsewhere in this author’s writings.



The “mountain of the Lord’s house” metaphor finds its iconic or symbolic counterpart in this image. In this artist’s conception, the temple or “Lord’s house” sits atop the mythic “world mountain,” which all ancient lore places at the celestial pole where we see the North Star today and the prophets referred to as a “mountain.”

The appearance of this celestial phantasmagoria—a constantly changing heavenly scene that played out across earthly skies in antiquity, composed of a variety of planetary and electrically active plasma forms and elements—is a theme we will revisit again and again in this essay because it is the very origin of the world’s religious, cultural and mythological tradition and belief.



This Egyptian stele directly corresponds to the proceeding artist’s conception. In fact, it is very nearly a snapshot of the ancient Celestial Mountain. It shows the mountain beneath a crescent, thought to represent the moon. But, no astral arrangement would permit an orb to appear within the moon’s crescent, nor does it ever appear in such a horizontal position. This suggests a planetary order far different than today.

Called the “cosmic mountain” or “world mountain” by scholars and mythologists who study its role in ancient belief systems, this impressive peak or pillar is found replicated in ancient art of widely divergent cultures. It was described in their texts not only as a mountain, but also as a bridge of light or a great tree that connected Earth with heaven.



The Sumerians and the Babylonians knew this mountain or pillar as the “Khursag” or the “Kur,” and identified it as the home of the gods. Note the star at the apex of the astral mountain. Observe, too, that it appears to have an orb at its center, a wholly impossible configuration in our present heavens. It was illustrated on this victory stele of King Naram-Sin of Akkad.

In many cases, these illustrations are remarkably accurate representations of the astral mountain that once stood over the Earth—virtual snapshots in many cases. Yet scholars dismiss such an interpretation as nonsense. They see these images as representative of a metaphorical construct rather than a real phenomenon because of their bias. They believe that the ancient heavens were the same as ours. The idea that the skies—and by implication the present order of our solar system—were ever any different than they are today is considered scientific heresy.

This divine peak went by different names in each culture. The Egyptians called it the “Primordial Mound.” The Israelites knew it as “Sinai” and “Zion.” The Greeks named it “Olympus” and “Parnassus.” The Aztecs told of “Colhuacan,” while the Indians saw “Meru” or “Sumeru,” and the Chinese envisioned “Kun-lun,” to name just a few among many, many others.



Their proclivity for building pyramids, ziggurats, towers, spires and obelisks in nearly every culture the world over stems from this same symbolism. These were man-made replicas of the cosmic mountain imagery. Some were crowned with a temple or shrine at the summit; others were not.



One stands in awe and wonder before such colossal monuments. We wonder why they were built? What drove the ancients to create such engineering wonders? The effort and the resources devoted to the construction of these massive monuments is a clear indication of the importance the ancients put on replicating the real cosmic mountain of antiquity.



When we consider the scope and size of such undertakings, we begin to perceive the importance the ancients placed on the image of the cosmic mountain. In fact, we see that they dedicated a significant portion of their meager assets to replicating these symbols in stone. Keeping the ancient history and the memory of those celestial apparitions alive was everything to them.



It also tells us how imposing the original, cosmological structure in the heavens must have been. It so impressed itself on the minds of our ancestors that they compulsively replicated it again and again. And we unknowingly continue that practice today. Look, for example, at the primary icon of our Christmas holiday, the Christmas Tree. It’s a conical shaped tree with a star or angel at the top.

Even our Salt Lake Temple replicates this same icon: a pyramidal spire or tower with a ball at the top. It should surprise no Latter-day Saint that such ancient and venerable symbolism might be included in a temple erected to the restored truth.



The six towers on the Salt Lake Temple are seldom considered sacred imagery, but they are. Most think of them as mere decorative architecture. But in fact, they are as valid astral symbols as the Earth, Moon, and Star Stones. They are one more iconic instance of the “cosmic mountain” imagery, in effect saying what they replicate: “This is the mountain of the Lord’s house.”In fact, these traditional and architectural icons are simply more symbolic manifestations of the “mountain of the Lord’s house” metaphor found in scripture and ancient tradition.

If it is surprising to you that so much is derived from or indicated by one, simple turn of phrase in the scriptures—“mountain of the Lord’s house”—prepare yourself for an astonishing revelation: There are hundreds of such metaphors in scripture that stem from cosmological events and conditions in antiquity. Each of these has an equally rich and complex lineage of symbols or icons.

Revisiting Isaiah

Thus, when we reread the verse in Isaiah we cited earlier in light of the new meaning it helped us discover, we get a new, amplified or augmented reading. Not only was that prophet predicting the construction of temples in the last days as part of the great restoration, as today’s prophets properly apply the metaphor, this verse originally alluded to the restoration of the great cosmic mountain in Earth’s skies in the last days.

A systematic method for interpretation

So, the incredibly complex system of icons and images found in all ancient societies—some of them as bizarre as they are intriguing—are simply elaborations erupting from a handful of basic motifs. These few, basic motifs are called archetypes. That is, they are the prototypes, the original models and the source of a multitude of metaphors, images, icons or symbols. This is why the symbolism of the prophets’ language is so complex, containing virtually thousands of variations on a few basic themes and symbols.

The good news is that once one understands the origin of each archetype, the variations are easy to spot and interpret. Mastering those few basic images and understanding their original look, form and behavior in Earth’s ancient heavens gives one the ability to readily spot them wherever they might be encountered—in rituals, pageants and dramas, in temples, tombs, texts, monuments and architecture, in tradition, customs, holidays and festivals, as well as in scripture. Knowing the origins brings richness and texture to all these things that is lacking otherwise. With these few interpretive tools or keys, we begin to see a multitude of things that were invisible to us before.

You can do it

Learn the origin of the metaphors and their symbolic counterparts. See the underlying archetypes, the basis for each. Discover the many manifestations of those ancient cosmological powers, and you’ll then be able spot them whenever they’re used and by whichever culture at whatever time in history. You’ll find that they illuminate your perspective on the past as well as the future. More importantly, you’ll easily recognize them as the prophets employed them in our scriptures, you’ll find them on and in our temples and you will realize that Joseph Smith understood them as well because he correctly used them.

This, then, is the origin of the prophets’ language: Earth’s ancient heavens. As long as we ignore this crucial precept, we will remain largely ignorant, blind to the truths that the prophets—indeed all the ancients—sought to communicate to us. We find that all our vaunted scientific understanding of the past is really nothing more than fantasy. We learn that what most of the world considers utterly fantastic and fabulous—traditions, myths, legends and scripture—are actually the bedrock history from the past. This is truly an unexpected and shocking dichotomy.

This is a far cry from the standard system of interpretation employed today by Christian millenialists: guessing the meaning of those icons. Such expositors look around in their contemporary world for people and conditions that seem to fulfill the imagery of prophecy. But in so doing, they assign meanings to those icons that are completely erroneous, entirely foreign to the original intent of the authors, the prophets. Thus, any modern interpretation that seeks to find fulfillment of those images in a modern context is defective, and we should avoid them entirely.

There is no mystery here. It is only our ignorance of ancient history and the origins of gospel symbolism in our distant past that causes us to regard them as mysterious. All the prophets, including Joseph Smith, used this symbolism regularly, properly and with ease. It’s certain that Joseph gained this information through revelation. But, it can also be obtained by research and study.

I urge you to investigate further.

© Anthony E. Larson, 2008

Children of the Light?

Latter-day Saints' opinion on the subject of potential planetary near impacts, past and present, differs little from that of the general public. Sadly, most Mormons seem as indifferent to this concept as their secular and sectarian contemporaries. Yet, it probably should not be so.

Joseph Smith clearly held a catastrophist view of history and prophecy that included disasters originating in the heavens, which would have had devastating effects here on Earth. Speaking of the Second Coming, he said, "It is not the design of the Almighty to come upon the Earth and crush it and grind it to powder . . . ." (History of the Church, 5:337.) These words are not those of a gradualist or uniformitarian. They bespeak a catastrophist point of view. It is well established by this author that Joseph Smith's teachings on past and future events are patently catastrophist. (See The Prophecy Trilogy, Vol. 3, Ch. 1.) Given that fact, why are so many Latter-day Saints loath to accept this interpretation of history and prophecy? For the answer to that question, we will have to examine history.

Abandoning our roots

The restoration of the gospel began at the same time as a revolution in geology and biology. Popular opinion in Joseph Smith's day held that the Creation and Noah's Flood had largely shaped the world. Today they would be called creationists. Geologists like Hutton and Lyell disputed that view, noting that a rational interpretation of the geologic record argued for a very old planet altered only by slow processes over eons of time. They were gradualists.

In Joseph Smith's day, the gradualists were a minority, but by the latter half of the 19th century, the scientific and academic communities had spurned creationism and catastrophism to embrace gradualism completely. The general public was somewhat slower to shift opinion. Still, by the turn of the century, gradualism dominated the thought of the general public since it was, by that time, the only way the subject was taught in almost all academic settings.

Mormons in flux

This ideological shift presented a problem to Mormons who were in the process of trying to integrate with the larger American culture. Historically, the church and the government had been at odds, as any student of early church history knows. The Saints' exodus to the Great Salt Lake Valley originally put them outside the confines of the United States. However, they eventually found themselves once again within its boarders due to the westward expansion of the nation. This left the Saints with a difficult decision: move yet again, just as they had left Jackson County and then Nauvoo, leaving behind another city and temple erected from raw land, or accommodate the laws and cultural standards of the United States so they could keep their new desert home. The decision to remain and conform prevailed, and the Saints undertook the daunting task—-as history records that painful adversarial process—-of qualifying for statehood and citizenship.

To diminish tension and facilitate the process, Mormons sought to emphasize cultural similarities with the rest of America and suppress dissimilarities in hopes of reducing the antagonism of earlier days. This, they trusted, would help avoid further confrontations—-like the Johnston's Army incident, for example—-and ease tensions so that the church could finally put down permanent roots and better carry out its revealed mandate to preach the gospel.

Like the larger American population, the Mormons eventually embraced gradualism and for much the same reasons. Even though the position of the Prophet and early church members had been catastrophist, Mormons eventually found the idea of gradualism irresistible.

As a result, a new generation of Mormons did not entirely share their forefathers’ worldview because of the pressures from the greater society around them to conform to the common precepts taught by almost all educational institutions, including gradualism.

This ideological reversal on the Saints' part produced the desired effect. It opened doors to Mormons in American society that had formerly been closed, allowing them to pursue careers in politics, science and education; some eventually even attained tenure in prestigious institutions. There was now one less difference between Mormons and their American contemporaries.

A split personality

Yet, all this progress came at a price. The Saints' ideological shift to gradualism created an intellectual dichotomy in the 20th century. Their scriptures—-especially those new revelations that came with the restoration—-tell of a catastrophic Earth history. They also proclaim, emphatically and dramatically, a catastrophic future. Yet, the cultural beliefs Mormons had adopted to "fit in" with the rest of the Americans precluded such notions, categorically denying any such possibility.
This produced an intellectual dichotomy in the Saints’ worldview, creating a spiritual and academic scotoma that has only grown larger in the many years since.

This resulted in church members shifting ideological gears on a consistent basis. In a religious setting, they read and mouthed an ideology with catastrophist underpinnings; in a secular setting, such as the public and private educational system, they espoused the opposite ideology of gradualism. This has endured, strangely, to the present. It has become institutionalized, resulting in a sort of intellectual and religious schizophrenia.

In addition, there may have been one other, even more profound loss: Mormons no longer understood their scriptures as they were meant to be understood. While Joseph Smith's interpretation of prophecy and history may not seem essential to our salvation, it performs a vital function in our interpretation of revealed knowledge. Revelation regarding past or future events comes from a perspective that acknowledges the role of planetary catastrophes in Earth's past, present and future. The language of the prophets is steeped in it. So, if our paradigm does not include this perspective, we have no frame of reference with which to completely understand the revelation.

This is what the Apostle Peter meant when he wrote, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:20,21.) If the parties involved in any exchange do not share a common understanding—if one is a gradualist and the other a catastrophist—there will be a fundamental misunderstanding in the exchange of information. They do not share a common view, background or experience. Therefore, they do not interpret the data, information or truths, in the same way. Hence, there can be no "private interpretation" of the scriptures or prophecy. Both parties must have the same frame of reference. The fallible "will of man," or opinion of man, will only lead to misunderstanding.

To correctly understand the scriptures, prophecy or revelation itself, one must have the same frame of reference as the text itself, which is catastrophist. Thus, it may be that this paradigm shift in the last century left Mormons incapable of properly interpreting what had been given them by revelation regarding historic and prophetic events.

A systematic method of interpretation

The systematic method for interpreting historic and prophetic events, given us by Joseph Smith, is based on symbolism. (See The Prophecy Trilogy, Vol. 1, Ch. 3, for a list of such metaphors and their origins.) This puts the prophet squarely in the center of ancient prophetic tradition. In both the revelations he communicated to us and in the sermons he gave, Joseph used these symbols correctly and consistently.

For example, history speaks of water turning to blood, of stars falling from the heavens, of migrating seas and oceans. Knowing what has occurred in the past to give birth to such descriptive metaphorical phrases, one can determine what is meant by the same metaphor in another context—-prophecy, for example. That knowledge allows a consistent system of interpretation, rather than the extravagant guesswork and speculation engaged in by most scriptural exegetes. It also acknowledges a celestial origin for most religious iconography, ritual and metaphor.

The two faces of symbolism

Such symbolism has two aspects or facets: one literal, the other metaphorical. The literal aspect in the water-turned-to-blood example refers to a time in the past when Earth's waters were polluted by exogenous, ferriferous dust. Its use in prophecy refers to a repeat of this phenomenon. Its metaphorical aspect is simply a rhetorical, poetic representation of a physical event or phenomenon. The water does not turn into anything, much less blood. Such is the nature of all metaphor.

This aspect is also a reflection of the ancient mind that turned to dramatic imagery in order to describe the inexplicable. This does not imply that the ancients were somehow less intelligent, that they could not discern the reality in what they saw. Indeed, some—-Plato, for example, or Mormon—-clearly grasped the true nature of catastrophic events and so described them. (See Helaman 12: 8-17.) However, the extraordinary nature of the events ensured that most of the time they would be characterized in symbolic terms, as opposed to analytical terms. The colorful nature of metaphor is always more dramatic and appealing than cold, dispassionate analysis. In any case, the imagery of past catastrophes captured the imagination of the masses, leading to its widespread adoption and use.

The past is the key

It is vital that one have a firm grasp of the events and conditions in antiquity that produced gospel symbolism. The Lord alluded to that fact when he revealed that ". . . truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come." (Doctrine & Covenants 93:24.) The intimate relationship between past, present and future events implied here must be recognized in order to correctly understand the truth when it is presented. This tripartite concept (past = present = future) is often repeated in the scriptures, especially in prophecy.

Undoubtedly, one of the functions of the School of the Prophets, if not the primary function, was educating the brethren in the many prophetic metaphors and symbols employed anciently, their variations, elaborations, their proper application and interpretation. By teaching the systematic interpretation of scriptural metaphors, religious rituals and iconography, the prophet ensured that the priesthood brethren understood their proper use and interpretation. They could interpret this symbolism wherever they came across it and not be misled by doctrinal distortions.

Equipped with this knowledge, any Latter-day Saint can also see that temple and religious iconography is the physical counterpart to rhetorical metaphor. That is to say, the metaphor reflects the meaning of the icon and the icon reflects the meaning of the metaphor. Those things depicted in religious art, architecture, rite and ritual, can also be found in religious rhetoric.

Knowledge: a key to discernment

Indeed, this is one of the keys used to discern a false prophet in a day and age when the meaning of these symbols and metaphors is largely unknown. Because a false prophet is not schooled in the knowledge of these things, he or she lacks the ability to properly use and interpret such symbolism and metaphor. Thus, the pretender's "revelations" and teachings lack these elements. They fail to properly employ the time-honored literary devices known to all true prophets because they are ignorant of the iconography of antiquity. Hence, they interpret prophecy no differently than any run-of-the-mill evangelical exegete.

For much the same reason, the apostate who has turned against the true religion can be a threat. Once intimately schooled in this knowledge of symbolism, the perpetrator has the power to do tremendous damage because he or she can deceive even the "elect," or those who know these symbols and their proper use.

This, too, is an excellent test for a true prophet: He will employ this symbolism properly and in a manner consistent with ancient tradition. While only the whisperings of the Spirit can completely confirm a prophet's claim to revelation, this is additional, intellectual confirmation, if you will. A true prophet will easily and correctly employ traditional, scriptural symbolism in his teachings, and that symbolism will certainly be present in all revelation he passes along to the Saints. In this respect, as in every other, Joseph Smith passed the test successfully.

Left to their own devices

Once the Saints had abandoned Joseph Smith's symbolism-based interpretation of scripture and prophecy, a vacuum appeared in their theology. They no longer had a yardstick or touchstone for interpreting most gospel symbolism. Since nature abhors a vacuum, a ready replacement was soon found in the eschatological thinking of sectarian Christianity. Mormonism, therefore, has largely adopted the prophetic interpretation of sectarian Evangelism, epitomized today by the writings of Hal Lindsay in his book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, or the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, a popular millennialist and radio evangelist of the 1950s, in his radio program, "The World Tomorrow." One can see evidence of this when comparing the views of the aforementioned evangelists with those of recent Mormon writers Cleon Skousen and Dwane Crowther. As one aphorism has it, "There ain't a dimes bit of difference between 'em."

Hence, we find Mormons generally interpreting prophetic utterances, ancient and modern, in remarkably similar ways to their evangelical, Christian cousins: metaphor is made literal and symbol is made modern. This leads to gross distortions in the interpretation of prophecy. For example, consider the unfounded interpretation of the year 2000 as the date for the second coming or the obsession with the number 666. It also leads to the creation of fictitious characters such as the Antichrist and fictitious events such as the Rapture. It seems apparent to this author that we may have allowed harmful sectarian notions to find their way into our catechism, just as Elder McConkie repeatedly warned before his death.

Time to reevaluate

Given all the recent discoveries coming out of the sciences regarding impacts and the prophetic warnings that repeatedly forewarn us of spectacular celestial events before the Second Coming, would it not be prudent for Latter-day Saints to reexamine our views? Would it not be wise for us to acknowledge, as modern science already has, that such things may happen? Should we not want to return to our roots in catastrophism, given us by Joseph Smith? If it was once our desire to conform to a trend that led us to abandon our catastrophist base, then why not conform to the newest trend of science, neocatastrophism, in order to return to our former beliefs?

Signs, ancient and modern, in the heavens

When we consider the magnitude and import of seeing the Shoemaker/Levi comet impact giant Jupiter in our own time, one wonders if this astronomical visual aid might not have been God's way of making a point. Was it done merely to amaze or amuse us? Was it done to keep the astronomers, scientists and scholars busy? Or was it, indeed, a sign, meant to awaken us from our apathetic complacency about the times we live in and the planet we live on? Should not Latter-day Saints be the first to recognize this?

The Nephites were given a sign of the Savior's birth. “. . . for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; . . . . And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given. . . .

“And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word.” (3 Nephi 1:15, 19,21.)

Thus, we see that God used the heavens, a celestial canvas, upon which to paint the sign of his Son's advent.

Recent history has given us a rather remarkable sign of our own. “On July 16, 1994, the first fragment of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 entered Jupiter's stratosphere traveling at the speed of 60 kilometers per second—-that's about 134,000 miles per hour. Seconds later it exploded. A plume of shock-heated cometary material mixed with hot gases from Jupiter's atmosphere soared more than two thousand miles above the tops of Jupiter's clouds. As material from the plume fell back into the stratosphere of Jupiter, it left a large, crescent-shaped dark spot partly surrounding a smaller intense dark cloud that formed along the entry path of the comet.

“Two days later, Fragment G hit Jupiter with such force that its plume was, in some wavelengths of observation, fifty times brighter than the entire planet. By the end of impact week, Jupiter was bruised with the markings of 21 impacts, dark scars larger than Earth. Not in the 400-year history of the telescope has any planet displayed such dramatic new features. Nine months after the impact ended, Jupiter's southern hemisphere was graced with a belt of dark material, still easily visible through small telescopes.

“We are only now beginning to grasp the magnitude of what has happened.” (Cosmic Collisions, pp. 6, 7, from the foreword by David H. Levy and Carolyn & Eugene Shoemaker.)

Was the impact of a comet with Jupiter in our time any less of a sign than that given to the Nephites? The intent of that sign was to verify that, as Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied, the Son of God had been born. Could it be that the Shoemaker/Levi event was a demonstration to a disbelieving world—-Mormons in particular—-that such things can happen—-indeed, will happen—-to us?

Certainly, it was a verification of assertions by this author, the scriptures, the prophets and a multitude of modern catastrophists that such things do happen; that we live in an uncertain solar system that has seen numerous cosmic disasters in historic times; that old assumptions about a steady-state Earth wherein ". . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . . ." (2 Peter 3:5.) are flawed; that we have been "willingly ignorant" in this enlightened, modern age, of the truths that the ancients sought to preserve in ritual and stone; that ". . . the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the Earth, which are now . . . are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment . . . ." (Ibid. 3:5, 6.)

As Latter-day Saints who have been given the restored gospel, we have a greater obligation to recognize and receive these things than does the rest of the world. Are we not designated as the “children of the light?”

© Anthony E. Larson, 2003

Out of the Past

Joseph Smith lived his life with one foot in the present, the other in the past. That is, in order to effect a ‘restoration,’ he had to know what from the past had been lost in order to restore it.

It’s evident from the abundance of information he bequeath the church that he had a profound understanding of the past. In fact, his entire journey as a modern prophet began because he sought for the original, primitive church. The gold plates entrusted to him contained the ancient history of at least two migrations to the New World long before Columbus. The Egyptian papyri, which he explained with self-assured confidence and considerable accuracy at a time when scholars knew little or nothing about their meaning, dealt with an ancient culture with a rich heritage that scholars are still trying to fully fathom.

One could go on for pages, listing his research into and exposure to the past.

So, ancient history played a huge role in the prophet’s life and career. Given that fact, it would be natural to expect that if anything closely approximating what this author affirms about dramatic changes in the heavens and the earth occasioned by past planetary catastrophes, Joseph would have had something to say about it.

In fact, this was the question that prompted one of the early searches this author initiated into ancient history: Did Joseph Smith describe a world in the past that was in any way notably different from the one we know today? The search yielded a wealth of evidence, some of it direct, some of it anecdotal, that, indeed, Joseph knew of and taught about a very different heaven and earth than the one we see today.

For example, speaking of the Tower of Babel story, Apostle Orson F. Whitney said, “… the object of the people who built the Tower of Babel (was) to reach heaven, to attain one of the starry planets, one of the heavenly bodies.

“… I cannot conceive how … a race of people … could cherish the idea that they could actually reach the sun, moon, or one of the stars simply by piling brick upon brick and stone upon stone.

“But the Prophet Joseph Smith, whose job it was to shed light upon the darkness of this generation, is said to have declared that it was not their intention to reach heaven, but to reach Zion, which was then suspended in mid-air between heaven and earth, or at such a height as to render the project feasible. This certainly is more reasonable.”

Orson Pratt, another Apostle, amplified on this idea, saying, “About the time of Abraham, the Tower of Babel was built. … They thought that the City of Enoch was caught up a little ways from the earth, and that the city was within the first sphere above the earth; and that if they could get a tower high enough they might get to heaven where the City of Enoch and the inhabitants thereof were located.”



Of course, we have the Philo Dibble illustration, presented to him by Joseph Smith, which gives us a virtual picture of Earth in a tandem arrangement with other planets that makes the above statements meaningful. This was Joseph’s vision of what the ancient heavens looked like, what Orson Hyde called “one grand constellation of worlds,” a concept that he undoubtedly learned from Joseph.

This picture of the ancient Earth with its companion planets explains the following statement by Apostle Orson Pratt: “The Prophet Joseph once in my hearing advanced his opinion that the Ten Tribes were separated from the Earth or a portion of the Earth was, by a miracle, broken off and that the Ten Tribes were taken away with it, and that in the latter days it would be restored to the Earth or be let down in the polar regions.”

Fast forward to the present, and we find that most Mormons today know nothing of such accounts because they seem extravagant, far-fetched and implausible in light of the modern, scientific model of our solar system. They simply have not taken the time or made the effort to learn all that Joseph Smith taught. And LDS scholars have simply avoided quoting such observations because they don’t fit the “scientific” or “logical” worldview we embrace and are therefore an embarrassment or an enigma to them. So, they avoid them entirely.

Yet, as it turns out, the very information that mainstream, LDS scholars have an aversion to is actually what the Prophet believed.

Unlike our founder, it can correctly be said that we Saints today live with both intellectual feet firmly planted in the present. Our motto seems to be, “Forget the past,” a position diametrically opposed to our founding prophet’s perspective.

Even when studying the scriptures, we mostly restrict ourselves to an analysis of their content for a spiritual message. We rarely strive for a contextual, temporal picture of the ancients’ world in order to more fully understand the perspective offered in their writings. Instead, we tend to spiritualize what we don’t understand, substituting metaphysical or supernatural explanations to fill the gaps in our understanding. Hence, the entire study of the gospel has become an exercise designed to give everything a spiritual meaning, entirely ignoring the temporal side of all the scriptural accounts.

Try suggesting to most modern Latter-day Saints that a thorough study of antiquity is necessary to understand the restored gospel, and you will note how their eyes glaze over, their brain switches to the ‘off’ mode and they start looking for the exit sign.

Given the unbounded interest of their church’s founder in the past, one must ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

© Anthony E. Larson, 2006