{"id":8840,"date":"2009-07-07T10:04:58","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T15:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=8840"},"modified":"2009-07-07T10:04:58","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T15:04:58","slug":"grassroots-style-dispensations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/grassroots-style-dispensations\/","title":{"rendered":"Grassroots-Style Dispensations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Mormons exclusivists or universalists? I think the answer is pretty clearly a refutation of the dichotomy\u2014we\u2019re somewhere in between or perhaps a new animal altogether. (2 Nephi 33:12<\/a> would be a good slogan.)\u00a0 But when it comes to our discussions of dispensations and the legitimacy of other movements, I think we often emphasize our exclusivist scriptures and doctrine (e.g., D&C 1:30<\/a>) over the more universalist.\u00a0 After taking a quick look at one of our more exclusivist approaches, I want to highlight another uniquely Mormon approach that is more universalist.<\/p>\n

Our exclusivist rhetoric is paradigmatically captured within what I will call the Nibley Approach to analyzing similarities between Us and Them\u2014specifically as concerns dispensations of the gospel.\u00a0 While Nibley is by no means unique in employing this approach, I first started thinking about it on my mission while listening to his lecture tapes.\u00a0 Nibley employed his approach primarily when looking at ancient civilizations, but the approach gets used just as often when we look at our contemporaries.\u00a0 Nibley had an amazing talent for uncovering new or previously unrecognized similarities between aspects of ancient religions and the Restoration, or else reinterpreting well-known elements of ancient religions within the light of the Restoration in order to make similarities and dissimilarities appear (his essays in Temple and the Cosmos<\/em> are a good example).\u00a0 The framework for understanding these similarities\u2014what I\u2019m calling the Nibley Approach\u2014is typically the Dispensation-to-Apostasy framework, the descent from true to false priesthoods.\u00a0 Similarities between ancient Mediterranean and contemporary LDS temples, for example, appear within the Nibley Approach to be evidence for a full-fledged dispensation (known or unknown) that once flourished in the region at some point and then subsequently fell into apostasy.\u00a0 The observed similarities are thus \u201cechoes\u201d or remnants of true religion that survived the transition from a true dispensation or legitimate, authorized religion into a time of general apostasy.<\/p>\n

I think that this approach is firmly rooted in our Mormon outlook; we all seem to make use of it. For example, while touring Luxor with a group of BYU students in 2004 almost all of us expressed a significant relation between Egyptian and Mormon ritual, though there was a wide spectrum concerning how much significance individuals wanted to read into what as we gazed at the depictions on ancient temple walls. Some went so far as to speculate whether Abraham might have inspired or set up a minor dispensation in Egypt, the remnants of which can be viewed on the walls of the ancient temple today.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Mormon enthusiasts, archeology and other ancient studies are uncannily skilled at uncovering the apostate periods that contain the \u201cechoes\u201d of true dispensations, and lousy at uncovering and bringing to light ancient groups and religions wherein full-fledged dispensations flourished.<\/p>\n

I should state upfront that the Nibley Approach is not the only approach that Nibley used.\u00a0 Nor do I think it an illegitimate approach (at least not always).\u00a0 But we certainly have other means within our Mormon toolkit for looking at the past (and present).\u00a0 We can juxtapose the Nibley Approach with what I will call Grassroots-Style Dispensations.\u00a0 God has certainly inspired full-fledged dispensations (complete with divine investitures of authority and sanctioned ritual worship), and ancient and modern prophets have all spoken about these dispensations falling into various degrees of apostasy.\u00a0 But these same prophets have also taught us that God will reveal \u201cline upon line, precept upon precept\u201d to his children (see<\/em> here<\/a> and here<\/a>), without a clause restricting such piecemeal inspiration to full dispensations. \u201cGod giveth light<\/a> unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding.\u201d\u00a0 In addition to our \u201cspoken\u201d languages (English, Arabic, Swahili\u2026) this surely includes our cultural languages. Remembering that we\u2019re all of us\u2014whether living in \u201capostate\u201d or \u201ccovenant\u201d times\u2014children of God, and remembering Christ\u2019s teaching that our Father knows how to give good gifts to his children, it\u2019s easy for us to replace or supplement our Nibley Approach with a Grassroots Approach.\u00a0 Instead of only revealing truth in a top down manner within full-fledged dispensations, God also inspires individuals, families, nations, and civilizations from the bottom up.\u00a0 He answers the yearning for truth with light for the understanding\u2014whether this yearning comes from a prophet, a Canaanite pagan, or an atheist.\u00a0 Consequently, it\u2019s just as likely that a prophet like Abraham was inspired by the Grassroots Dispensation in ancient Egypt and so learned important truths (astronomy, temple worship, etc.), as it is that he inspired changes to Egyptian religion.\u00a0 We know that this is what often happened with Joseph Smith.<\/p>\n

Our modern leaders have made explicit statements that support the idea of Grassroots Dispensations.\u00a0 In their 15 February 1978 Statement, the First Presidency said,<\/p>\n

The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucious, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others received a portion of God\u2019s light.\u00a0 Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals. . . . Consistent with these truths, we believe that God has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We could multiply scriptural references and prophetic statements to continue making the point: God isn\u2019t merely content with a trickle-down dissemination of light and truth to his children who live without the benefit of authorized temple covenants. He also reveals light to any of his children seeking light, and speaks the truth to them in their own language.\u00a0 Thus, when looking in ancient history (or contemporary societies) we don\u2019t just see remnants of truth, which at one time were had in full; we also see light and truth that God has revealed without the umbrella of what we typically call a dispensation.\u00a0 And as stated by the first Presidency, this includes divine \u201ccallings\u201d to those without priesthood (e.g<\/em>., Bridget Jack Meyers).<\/p>\n

This Grassroots Approach has many implications for how we see and understand the world around us, and especially how we see other religions and claims to divine guidance.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to hold back and only mention two of them.<\/p>\n

First, I wonder how good we are at recognizing the voice of God in other languages.\u00a0 It\u2019s surely easiest and perhaps safest for us to take refuge in the obvious sources: those canonized in Mormonism and the revelation we receive in our own lives.\u00a0 Sorting out the truth from the interpolations of men in the Apocrypha<\/a> and other good sources is much more difficult.\u00a0 Serving a mission in the Bible Belt I often came across the gift of tongues used in Charismatic churches.\u00a0 At first it was very difficult to be comfortable focusing on the prayer I was saying while an investigator we\u2019d just taught mumbled unintelligibly all the way through it.\u00a0 A friend of mine once ran out of a church when the \u201choly rolling\u201d began because she could \u201cfeel the devil in it.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe the devil was in it.\u00a0 But maybe God was in it\u2014speaking according to those Christians\u2019 language.\u00a0 I often wonder how many of us would likewise run out of a Nephite Sacrament service; I\u2019m convinced that their services would appear even more exotic to us than those of our contemporary Charismatic cousins (it doesn\u2019t take a lot of imagination to read Mormon 6:9<\/a>, conducted in an ancient setting, as a little terrifying).<\/p>\n

Second, the Grassroots Approach suggests that other (non-Mormon) groups can have light and understanding that we don\u2019t have.\u00a0 Since we\u2019re commanded to search for additional truths, to study and learn, to seek out everything that is \u201clovely, virtuous, or praiseworthy, or of good report,\u201d we have an obligation to keep our eyes open for these truths.\u00a0 God certainly reveals truth to his prophets, truth we need to know and live.\u00a0 But, as Joseph Smith\u2019s experiences make clear, God often does so as the prophets are looking out at the world and what is available in other groups.\u00a0 And God tells us in our revelations that if we search other sources with the aid of the Spirit, we \u201cshall obtain benefit therefrom<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 As Brigham put it,<\/p>\n

[Mormonism] embraces all truth in heaven and on earth, in the earth, under the earth, and in hell, if there be any truth there.\u00a0 There is not truth outside of it; there is no virtue outside of it; there is nothing holy and honorable outside of it; for, wherever these principles are found among all the creations of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his order and Priesthood, embrace them. (JD 11:213)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are other ways of interpreting this quote than the one that I am urging.\u00a0 Someone I am very close to is very uncomfortable with my family\u2019s practice of incorporating Jewish elements into our Sabbath observance.\u00a0 She cites quotes like this one in claiming that if these \u201cother elements\u201d were really a good thing, God would tell his prophet this and all Mormons would then know and follow suit.\u00a0 I\u2019m much more of a we-must-be-anxiously-engaged-in-good-causes-and-do-many-things-of-our-own-free-will kind of guy.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s clear that Brigham is telling us that wherever we \u201cfind\u201d truth, we need to embrace it and recognize it as genuinely part of our religion.<\/p>\n

Consequently, I think we ought to be excited about studying other groups of our Father\u2019s children, their doctrines and practices.\u00a0 I believe that if we faithfully make as much use of the Grassroots Approach as we do the Nibley Approach, we will be open and led to the discovery of many of the truths of Mormonism that we don\u2019t currently possess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are Mormons exclusivists or universalists?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,41,18,1058,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-comparative-religion","category-general-doctrine","category-guest-bloggers","category-philosophy-and-theology"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8841,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8840\/revisions\/8841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}