The world is flooded with things that consume the time of our lives. What of it is truly useful and important - REAL vs. just real? It’s like we are in a “plastic world", but will we be content to live "Ken and Barbie plastic lives"? Will we learn as Pinocchio did what it takes to become "a Real Person"? Will we be found with God, or against God?

• “What is Real?” 1: Science, facts, pursuits - what is "capital R" Real?




“What is Real?” 1: Science, facts, pursuits – what is “capital R” Real?

• Real things have a Capital R. Like Pinocchio, our quest is to become Real.
  
  
• The Great I AM is Chief among all entities that can say “I am”.
  
  
• Possible source or mechanism for God’s Power.
  
  
• The role of Christ: Saved by Grace? By Works? By Both!

Preface: There are Really big deceptions designed to distract us from what is Real to what is just plastic. I use a capital R to signify that in this work Real is not defined as simple facts, or even as activities that may even be good, but they are not Great. Real things cut beyond the haze to solid, beyond this world Realities. Things that have true value are Real. Experience (good and bad) is Real. Acts that comfort others, or bless their lives are Real. The facts regarding God and His purposes are Real.

A popular Latter-Day Saint asks, “What is Real?”

Glenn Beck is a popular conservative talk radio host who is on a quest for truth. He has correctly observed that the earth is awash in propaganda, lies, unknowns, incorrect “conventional wisdom”, knowing enablers of evil, and unwitting enablers of evil. He also has expressed my own feelings when he admits he is mostly just a regular guy and doesn’t know how to find his way out of the mess completely. I count myself as a seeker of truth. But the truth is, I probably buy into a lot of stuff that simply isn’t true, but I just haven’t figured that out yet. I like to think that if all humans were placed on the scale of “how much of what you think is correct actually is correct,” I would rate well above average.  Individually even Einstein didn’t really know very much compared to our 7-billion person collective knowledge.  And even our collective knowledge is still nothing relative to all knowledge (or God’s knowledge).

I mention Glenn Beck because he often ponders out loud on “What is Real?” It struck me when he first asked that because I’ve been pondering that for as long as I can remember. He is bugged by a world where so many things seem pointless or of little lasting value, and mentioned that once in church he saw a sister scratching her brother’s back with a casual comfort that could only come from years of familiarity, respect, and love, and he said to himself “now that is Real.”

Pinocchio wasn’t Real, but he became Real

Pinocchio exclaimed to his fairy godmother, “I want to be a Real boy”. As a puppet, he walked and talked, but couldn’t feel, couldn’t understand, couldn’t love. The story shows how, in his “Pursuit of Happiness”, he was tempted to Pleasure Island where he nearly lost even his wooden life. It then goes on to show his efforts to save his maker, Japetto, and through these heroics he learned to feel and love. All of the experience, good and bad, taught valuable lessons and opened his heart and mind. In the end he was Real. I believe we likewise live unwittingly almost as wooden puppets, or what I like to call “plastic lives”. Like Pinocchio, our challenge is to discover the key to becoming Real.

“I think, therefore I am.”

Let’s start at one the most infamous undeniable Realities. Rene Descartes was one of the greatest philosophers of all time, and was a believer in God. In his quest to find what is Real, he went into a frame of mind where he attempted to devise alternative explanations for everything, even for God and matter itself, in an attempt to identify what few things were truly undeniable. Such mind games as “if I touched a hot stove, it would seem as though I touched something real (hot matter), but what if there is a Being out there who observes me thinking that I’m about to touch a stove, and feeds my mind a sensation of touching a solid object and resulting pain, even though I have touched nothing.”  If you’ve ever seen “The Matrix”, or “Inception”, it’s a little like that.

So in these mind-games, he is able to deny matter, God, and everything. I should say, while he still believed in these things firmly, he had to admit that the fact that his mind had constructed a potential alternative explanation held the remote possibility of being correct from a purely logical point of view. After years of struggle, he finally struck on a single, undeniable “Reality” that he could see no other way to explain. He had denied his very flesh as possibly just an image that some unknown being was casting before his mind. But his mind itself – “I think, therefore, I am!” He could deny that his flesh existed, that the world existed, that his contemporaries existed.  While he firmly believed in God, he accepted that it was not difficult to devise an alternative reality in which God was not necessary.  But something down deep, something with self awareness, something with intelligence, something known to himself as “I,” was still thinking and therefore he MUST exist even if nothing else in the universe existed.

The Great “I AM”

I have found it very interesting that God refers to Himself in the bible as The Great I AM. It’s as if He knows this undeniable truth also, and is telling us that it is true not only for each of us, but also for He Himself. Of all things that are able to say “I am”, HE is the Greatest of all of these. LDS scholar Cleon Skousen once wrote an essay on this subject. His thoughts are rarely part of a Sunday School lesson, in part because they are pretty speculative (though backed by extensive research of existing scripture and seemingly consistent with statements of the prophets), but also because they are “pretty meaty”, and is the kind of stuff that only a few among many active Saints would be able to hear without a lot of obsession or unnecessary confusion, possibly driving them away from what is most important.

I am very reluctant to continue on this thread because I am nervous to put “pearls before swine”, but I also want to help honest truth seekers discover what I’ve found to be one of the most prized pearls! I’ll continue carefully and will gladly pull this or tone it down if ever requested by those in authority.

When The Father names Himself “I AM”, He is placing Himself at the head of all things that can say I am – which is more than just mankind. Man is the only order of intelligence that is fully capable of exercising free will, or in other words, the only entity capable of acting against the will of God. This gets at the very heart of why God is all powerful, or rather it explains the mechanics of how God’s power exists. It is because as an “I am” of the highest order, His is capable of exercising agency, or in other words, theoretically capable of breaking His word. But He has not broken His word, and the Universe of intelligences or “I ams”, whatever that means, respects and trusts Him completely for that. Thus when God speaks and a mountain moves, there is no magic involved, but rather the very mountain itself is aware of and has perfect respect for God. The mountain is capable of acting, but not capable of choosing to act against God – unless – God were to violate His own word and lose the trust of all “I ams”. Clues to this truth lie in scriptural statements such as “If it were not so, God would cease to be God”. This is implying there is a theoretical mechanism by which God Himself would no longer be God if He went against His word.

Possible source of God’s Power

So what is that mechanism? God is King, so maybe we can discover it by looking at the structure of a kingdom. In a kingdom, where does the king’s power come from? The king has power because the majority chooses to obey him.  (Note that with a wicked king, a minority may actively support the king, and a large remainder end up supporting out of fear, but always the sum is a majority – some willingly, some reluctantly). If the King acts wickedly against his supporters, he may insight a rebellion by those who would have willingly supported him if he had treated them with respect. This happened to King Noah in the Book of Mormon. After much wickedness against his people, they finally rose up against him and burned him at the stake when he ordered the men to abandon their families to their enemies in order to save himself.  After that, he had no respect, and was no longer the king because he had no one who would obey him.

God is the All Powerful King because He has the respect and admiration of all matter and intelligence. He is always on display before the Universe, and if He were to violate His word, they would quickly know it and would no longer lend Him their support. In this vein, it is almost natural to view God the Father as who He Really is – a glorified man. It is perhaps easier to see Christ in this light, since we know He is a glorified and resurrected man. But He is also a God. He is the Creator, and all of His Creation loves Him and respects Him for never having violated His word nor any of the commandments (i.e. His sinless state).

When the Universe watched their sinless Creator suffer unjustly on behalf of sinners, they endowed Him with the redeeming power. In other words, the Universe of “I ams” who have obeyed their commandments (animals that were commanded only to multiply, matter that was commanded only to “form an earth”, etc.), stands against us for even the slightest sin. God the Father has stated that every sin must be paid for, and the Universe stands guard at the gate making sure the unclean cannot get in. If God were to make an exception even for the slightest thing, He would instantly become a fallen man not all that different from ourselves. Having lost respect for God, the Universe would no longer hold Him as King, and would cease to obey His command. So where the earth’s present command from God is simply “exist as a habitat for man”, it is conceivable that the earth may simply disintegrate into space dust in rebellion against its former King. If this is anywhere near correct, then the Priesthood really does hold our very planet together minute by minute as many have suggested.

The Role of Christ

This is where Christ’s role is so vital. We have sinned and cannot work our way out of our sins. We cannot be “extra good from now on” and still take away the fact that a law was broken and a consequence is attached to that by the word of God. We could try to repent and live a Mother Theresa life, and there would still be no salvation for us because once fallen we cannot lift ourselves up. Here is where Lutherans and others are correct in noting that we are not saved by our works, but by the grace of God.

Thus a dilemma: our sins must be paid for, and we have insufficient ability to pay for them ourselves. It requires a scapegoat (after the original Old Testament meaning) – a sacrificial lamb (which is why the Jews did sacrifices, but sadly they didn’t understand the sacrifices were all aimed at helping them recognize the Real sacrifice). When the Universe watched their creator suffer unjustly though He had not sinned, the Universe offered to accept this unjust suffering in trade for what would normally be just suffering by those who have broken the law.  Society requires that a law breaker make whatever payment is required for a given broken law. Killers often claim they’ve “found Jesus” in their 10th year, and hope we’ll let them out. A just society rightly says, “Good for you. I hope it’s true. You must still pay your price.”  (Sadly, our legal system is often very confused regarding justice).

The Courtroom

In the Final Judgment, I think the Universe plays the roll of society, or think of the Universe as both witness to our sins, and expecting enactment of God’s word stating there is a punishment required for sin – namely that unclean things cannot be in Heaven. Therefore, “society” will not allow fallen man in Heaven without the right payment, which payment we are not capable of making on our own behalf (hence the need for Grace). It’s as if we killed someone, and the only acceptable payment is to bring the dead back to life. We can pay a billion dollars and give our own life, but society says, “No thanks, God has written that only life restored is acceptable, and if God takes your billion dollars even for a good cause, He will cease to be God because He will have broken His word, and we will not obey Him. And if the King’s subjects will not obey Him, then there is no King and no Kingdom”. I think of the court dialog as something like this:

Christ: “Before the Bar of Judgment we have the man Michael Brown. I know Michael, like Adam before him, has partaken of the tree which We told him not to partake and deserves the affixed punishment, which is to be removed from God’s presence forever. However, since then, Michael has made great effort to repent, and to obey My commandments. I recognize that this alone does not change the fact that He is accountable before the Law, and that the Law must be satisfied. As your Creator, you have seen my infinite and unjust suffering which I endured just for the likes of Michael. Since his knee first bowed down confessing me as his Savior, he has consistently made great effort to do what I have asked. Therefore, I ask you to accept my unjust suffering as payment for his just suffering.”

The Jury: “It pained us greatly to see your infinite and unjust suffering. You have certainly suffered sufficient to pay Michael’s debt. Therefore, we judge that you may own him and do with him as You will – even to set him free in the Kingdom of Heaven if You will. This Court is satisfied with your argument and payment in his behalf.”

Christ’s Grace satisfies the Universe; Our Works must satisfy Christ

Indeed, all the good works in the world cannot of themselves save us – we do need the Grace of God. But the Grace of God is not as easy to obtain as some would have us think. A wise man once said, “What we obtain too easily we esteem to lightly”. This is why paying for freedom with blood makes us value freedom all the more. Christ is now the “the richest man in the world” in the sense that only He can pay our debts before the Universe.  Still, He is a wise investor and doesn’t pay off our debts without getting something He wants more in return. He will not pay our debts for us until we work for Him – until we give our hearts to Him. 

Here is where the “Saved by Gracers” don’t quite have it right. They claim all you need to do is “state that you accept Christ”, and then you’re saved. It doesn’t matter what happened before or what happens afterwards. I know they’d say it’s not quite like that, but close enough for illustration. Thus the Atonement takes something that was unattainable (Society’s strict rules of justice), and makes them still not easy, but attainable (Christ’s rules for obtaining Grace and mercy).

Thus a few things that I know are Real:

God is the Great Governor of the Universe, and all entities in the Universe that can say “I am” obey His command because of their great respect for his proven reliability.  We exist also, and we are of the same order of intelligence that God is (i.e. capable of agency).  We are “I ams” also, but have disobeyed His commands.  We are fallen, but gaining knowledge that is obtained through experience. God created the earth as a setting in which we could prove ourselves and gain wisdom. Christ, having suffered unjustly, is now vested with power from those “I ams” (intelligences) that have broken no laws. Christ is infinite in their eyes, and they will release their just claims against us if He requests it. They give Him ownership of us if He will have us. While we still often suffer the earthly consequences of sin, we are at least free from the eternal consequences if we will but do as He who bought us with His blood requires (repent).

Israel Is Real!

Some time ago I discovered that God like to leave little gems around for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Our languages are filled with such gems. Here are a few I have discovered. In English, the Sun gives light and life to all the earth, and the Son also gives light and life to all the earth. Why are these words, so different and yet so the same, pronounced the same?  In Portuguese, the word for “heart” is “coracao” and the word for “prayer” is “oracao”. Coincidence? Or has God left us a clue through one of our languages that we should always have a prayer in our heart? There are one or two others that I’ve forgotten about, and no doubt there are many more. If they come back to me I’ll add them.

And on the theme of what is Real, the House of Israel has a special role in the world, and ultimately we must be a part of Israel if we are to be saved. Israel has the same letters as “Is Real” – therefore we can conclude that Israel “Is Real”.

• “What is Real?” 2: The War in Heaven rages on Earth, and is Real.




“What is Real?” 2: The War in Heaven rages on Earth, and is Real.

• What is the purpose of Earth? Gain experience and demonstrate before the Heavens which side we’re on.
  
  
• Why the veil between heaven and earth makes for a perfect proving ground.
  
  
• There are only “two churches”, and every soul will be judged as having been in one or the other.
  
  

What is Earth for? It’s the “School of Hard Knocks” for critical knowledge that comes in no other way.

Latter-Day Saints believe that the “I am” inside each of us has always existed and always will. We believe that we are spirit children of God, and that we lived with Him before this earth. While we existed as “highest order” intelligences (literally the same type of intelligence that God is), we had a lot of “growing up to do” before we could really be like God. This is hard for many outside our religion to accept, in part because they’ve grown up with a much different concept of who God is and who we are relative to Him. It is simple to see if you know where to look.  We all call Him our Father, and who ever saw a son that did not have the potential to become a Father himself? Children are clearly far from adults, but with time and experience they become adults. Likewise as the “children” of God, we are far from Godlike, and many of us will never become Godlike, but we all have that potential.

So what was it we were lacking that compelled God to create the Earth and send us here knowing full well that many would not “spiritually survive?” A word I think sums it up well is EXPERIENCE.

If you have children or observe children, they exist in a wonderfully blissful state of unawareness. Their lives are Real, their problems are Real to them, their joy is Real. But their understanding is limited by inexperience. We know they will grow and learn, and a good parent is eager to help them learn to react positively to life’s lessons and help them desire to choose for themselves the better parts. God is the same way. He knew there was critical knowledge that could never be had unless we were to be isolated away from Him and set on a stage in which we could be pushed, tempted, pained, pleasured, proven. He and we needed to see what kind of metal we were made of. There was no way to reach our full potential without passing through mortal Experience.

The War in Heaven

This set the stage for the War in Heaven (another essay). Basically, Lucifer in a quest for power, lied to us all and convinced many that there was another way for us to get what God had (knowledge and the respect of the elements), but without having to pass through the trials that are what bring knowledge and respect. One third ultimately bought into this easy way, but the rest sensed that Freedom and Liberty were Real.  They yearned for a chance to make their own way; to learn and grow; to have a shot at saying “I did it!”; and in the same breath to risk the possibility of having to report “I didn’t do it”.  But either way, they wanted to have ownership of the outcome and believed in themselves in spite of the risks.

The Veil makes for a perfect proving ground

So we now find ourselves on Earth with a perfectly thick “veil” drawn between our last existence and this. So thick is that veil that it is very easy to get caught up in this place and to forget or never know that we have a high calling – that the things we do and experience we gain is all aimed at a larger purpose beyond this fleeting existence. The veil is intentional. We may seek for signs of God, but God will not reveal His hiding place to the world so cavalierly. He will not allow “proof” in a “captured on CNN” way (not at the moment, anyway, but Revelations suggests it may be that way in the end).  He will provide spiritual proof, and support to reinforce your faith, but we typically must first exercise Real faith.  That is, really desire to believe for good reasons, and prove it first by being more committed to a God you may feel you don’t yet know, rather than claiming you’ll cease mocking believers if God will put on a magic show.

The “magic” is out there. I’ve felt it, and I’ve seen in hind sight the unfolding of events in my life, the odds of which are beyond Powerball Lottery.  Others can explain it away, but for me “coincidental” is an insult to God because I know better. Further, the events were accompanied with a sixth-sense communication of spirit to spirit that confirms for me it wasn’t just crazy luck or naturally occurring chemicals that affect your senses or psyche. Even further, the continuation of small things seemingly from the other side builds a mountain of evidence in my life that to deny would be like staring at the Sun and claiming it is dark. But personal miracles or communication is in fact personal, and when you tell it, it makes a nice story for other people and may build their faith, but no one will ever be moved like you are.  This is why ultimately you need and can get your own spiritual experiences.

It’s as if God and the universe of God’s supporters were compared to your mom putting a hidden camera in your dorm room at college to see what you’ll do when she’s not around.  But it’s even bigger than that since in this case you can’t even remember you ever had a mom or a life before college! But truly everything we do is known and recorded. It’s like Candid Camera. We can do our hidden works seemingly in complete anonymity, but are we really playing to a Super-Bowl audience? This side of the veil looks so real sometimes, but is it Real? Some charge forward convinced this is all there is and all there ever will be, and mock and scorn any who believe “God is watching”.

Though the list is much longer, I know at least these things are Real:

Family; love in the family; pure love between husband and wife; gratitude; concern for the well being of others; Christ’s suffering; Christ’s forgiveness; God’s children and our duties concerning them; Priesthood; Courage; a noble heart; compassion for others; service to others as they deal with the merely real; Faith in a reality beyond our plastic world, and effort to learn what is required to obtain that better Reality; the talents we were given and what we do with them is Real; the Great I AM is Real; the lesser or developing I ams are Real;

Evil, or the refusal to follow God, is also Real, and it is allowed to exist to challenge our minds, hearts, and souls with the invaluable experience that is so critical for us to become like God as we succumb to it and are pained to repent, or as we fight against it. The fight against evil is Real and never-ending during our lives. The War of Heaven rages on here in the earth. It is a war for the hearts and minds of God’s children, and it occasionally boils beyond just philosophical camps to actual wars that require the brave to take up guns and forcibly send those on the wrong side of the fight (even if propaganda and lies has fooled them into thinking they’re right) on to Spirit Prison where they can hopefully learn and repent.

The world’s two “Churches” are Real

Any war by definition has only two sides even if there are various nations involved and committed by different degrees. It’s like a football game, with the coaches and starters on one extreme and the fans on the other. Even the fans participate on one side or the other. People that claim neutrality – who won’t even come to the game – have in Reality chosen to enable evil by withholding their support of the righteous. If you’re not for the Right, you’re against the Right. “So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

The camp we end up in IS Real. Nephi’s vision reveals there are but two camps, or “churches”. The two churches are themselves arrayed in different costumes, in different places, and at different times. It is too narrow an interpretation to assume that the “church of the devil” was the Popes who sold forgiveness, and engaged in all kinds of wickedness. It is likewise to narrow to conclude that the Church of Christ is just a handful of Mormons when there are billions of good and decent people.  The camps are all encompassing – like Shiz and Coriantomer at the last battles of the Jaradites where they gathered in all people to one side or the other.

The “churches” are all encompassing umbrellas that sort the righteous of the world from the wicked. From within each nation will emerge many who will be saved in the Kingdom of God, even if few from their nation find the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” in the second estate. Their lives reveal that they support righteousness inasmuch as they can find it.  This habit of accepting truth once understood means they’re already in harmony with the Church of God (it just becomes “official” later).

Within the two churches are subcategories for politics, professions, philosophies, economics, and even religion, etc. The righteous may not presently be engaged in organized religion, but it does not mean they are outside God’s Church. I view being classed as “among the righteous”, not as a function of whether you were born to a life that had Mormonism in it somewhere, or any traditional religion at all. It’s not even a prerequisite to know many truths.  Many are diverted because they’ve been fed a stream of lies, propaganda, or just do not know all the answers – but they can still be counted righteous if they obey in good spirit what truths they know, or what they believe to be truths (so long as they are prepared to act on knew knowledge). We are not accountable for what we do not know.

Saul unwittingly participated in the martyrdom of Stephen and thought he was doing the right thing for God!  God did not hold it against him, but instead led him to the light where he became the greatest missionary of all time. Today, while most terrorists are truly evil, there may be a handful of souls who can be convinced they really are doing God’s will, and God will be more apt to forgive them when they blow themselves up and He’s able to teach them. (Actually that’s probably too extreme, because I think your soul has to wallow in a lot of obvious evil to kill mothers, kids, and yourself in a supermarket.  Thus all terrorists are evil. But there are still many who act incorrectly in the name of God who will easily repent when they understand a better way).

It is “What did you do with what you knew? Where was your heart? Do you accept truth when you recognize it? Do you have essentially more good marks than bad marks?  Will you repent of those bad marks you have?”

Summary

What we do with what we have is Real. Where you’re at on the line between God and Satan is less real than whether you are moving toward God or away from God. However if you’ve spent a lot of time in Satan’s camp that can make it Really hard to muster and keep up the courage it will take to continue moving toward God. You may have gone a long way toward Satan, but if you’ve figured that out and are prayerfully clawing your way back, that is Really GOOD! Present position on the scale of earthly blessings (poverty vs. wealth) is less real. The prophet Job lived a VERY “real” life on the outside (small r), because physically he had it both as good and as bad as anyone. But on the inside he was VERY CAPITAL-R REAL. Because his heart was honest, pure, and trusting through both good times and bad. Thus he gained CAPITAL-R REAL eternal life, which is beyond this world glorious!

• “What is Real?” 3: What is NOT Real.




“What is Real?” 3: What is NOT Real.

• The facts of our birth, and what others do TO us, is not Real.
  
  
• Our “Ken and Barbie” plastic pleasures and lives are not Real.
  
  
• Moses discovered that “Man is Nothing, AND Man is Everything”
  
  
• Can you see the dolphins?
  
  
• Our choices in “the pursuit of happiness” can be both Real and not real.

Our “costume and setting” – our birth and what happens to us – is not Real

There are many things that are Real within the sunrises and sunsets that make up our time here.  Let me start however with what is NOT Real.  The circumstances of our lives, or the stage, costumes, props, and setting, are not real.  They are second estate factual, but if we get caught in the trees we will never see the forest.  It is virtually irrelevant if we are born rich or poor, black or white, American or Iranian, Nephite or Lamanite, far from the truth (as a “confused-but-swear-I-see-the-light” Ivy League liberal), or very near the most valuable truths (such as in a solid LDS family).  These are only the props we were handed and the scene we are acting in.  However, our reaction to them is Real.  Our reaction to others is Real.  The Experience we gain from our setting is Real.  If much is given, much is required to get the same reward as someone of whom little is required because little was given.  This is made plain in the Parable of the Talents. 

Suppose our stage sees us born into a war torn environment where children are taught to hate; where rape, murder, torture, starvation, are the lot of many in your circle and maybe even you.  Whatever momentary gratification the evil perpetrators obtain seems real to them and many of us, but it is not. The pain we experience ourselves or vicariously as we see the suffering of others is Real, but there are greater Real and valuable opportunities here.  Any time we relieve suffering, stand against evil, or maintain our faith when faith is all we have and it’s hard to hold on to, that is all REAL and demonstrates to the Heavens that we are becoming Christ-like!

Our “Ken and Barbie” plastic lives

More on what is not Real.  “Stuff” is not real.  Earthly kingdoms and power are not Real.  Consider for a moment “Ken and Barbie” of dollhouse fame.  From our vantage point, they are NOT real.  They are “made in our image”, but as plastic they are missing out on a lot of the wonders that it is to be human.  Imagine for a minute that Ken and Barbie could move like us, but that they had a veil drawn over them that made them completely unaware that there may be any type of existence beyond their plastic world.  They would sit in their plastic world doing what plastic world people do.  They would eat plastic hamburgers (just like us – when buying from the dollar menu).  They would watch the little TV with nothing on it and marvel at how nice it is (just like we worship all the crap that amounts to nothing).  They would drive around forever in a plastic pink Corvette that never runs out of gas. 

They hear stories from crazy “prophets” who say there is a life beyond their world which is wonderful – like the life of the child who he says governs over them.  He says they may even have a chance to experience such a life it if they will simply believe it is there, stop the infatuation with a TV that won’t turn on, and live as if they really belong in that better place.  However, Ken just can’t get over driving the plastic car or Barbie’s slender figure.  Barbie is desperate to have the biggest plastic house there is, and she just can’t get over her infatuation with clothes.  It never seems to rain in their world, so they ask themselves what could be much better than what they’ve got?

Being plastic or “mortal” and never having seen what our world “beyond their veil” is like, it would be hard to let go of what they have and trust the prophets.  But it is easy for us to comprehend not only our world, but theirs also.  We can judge that the plastic house, the Velcro clothes, and everything that is their world is nothing to brag about, and it would be well worth their time to do what they could to get into our “real world”.

I believe that from God’s perspective it’s very comparable.  Our world is pretty much plastic, and just not that cool to Him.  But because we cannot see or comprehend God’s world, it is hard to value it or even to trust that it exists.  To us, this is an exciting enough place, and many work really hard to gain whatever they can from this life.  Our plastic pleasure seems real.  Our plastic pain seems real.  They are Real in the sense that WE ARE REAL, and how WE react to them can have a Real outcome either positive or negative. 

The Plan of Salvation brings structure and meaning to our lives.  It puts our plastic world into context, and reminds us that the plastic and the Pinocchio are necessary steps to obtain something Real.

The Plan of Salvation, with its first estate, second estate, and third estate is the all-encompassing Reality that helps place the experiences of our world into proper context.  Inherent in believing in this plan is an admission that there are other places, perhaps best described almost as other dimensions to use a sci-fi description, that have a definite X,Y,Z coordinate in space, and that are inhabited by beings who have a different reality than that which we wake up to every day.  For those yet in the first estate, our reality is a step beyond theirs, even if they may be more aware of our reality than we are of theirs (not sure if they are or are not).  For those who have passed beyond this state, they are a step beyond us, and may have an awareness not only of their new place, but perhaps a remembrance of this place and the first estate also.  Our challenge now is to just trust that there is something greater than simply acquiring a billion dollars or marrying a sexy spouse “as seen with the eyes of the world”.

How cool is Mankind…really?

Moses was one of the few earth dwellers whose mind was opened to an awareness of the greater Realities.   As a Prince of Egypt, and party to the most impressive works of mankind to that date, he stated after he was privileged to see the works of God, “Now I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1, verse 10).

The works of man are arguably more impressive these days, but how impressive are they really?  An awareness of the greater Realities still dwarfs anything we will ever do.  You know how kids come running to show you something they’re so proud of?  You are in fact proud of them.  What ever it is they did is cool in relative terms (relative to them as children), but just really isn’t that cool in absolute terms (compared to the space shuttle or something).  I imagine God is like that with us.  We work for untold years, spend billions of dollars, and figure out what?  Lasik surgery, hearing aids, and the like.  God is proud of us, no doubt, but knows that what is “cool” for us is really amateurish in the grand scheme of things.  “Oh yeah Lasik surgery?  Watch me cure that blind man, and it won’t take even 10 seconds or require an army of PhD’s.”

Man is nothing, Man is everything

So man is nothing, and yet man is everything!  God says, “This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”.  We understand this when we look at small children.  We know their works amount to nothing, that their problems are minor, and that they have an awful lot of progress to make, but to a loving parent that progress means everything!  It becomes the reason we get up and head out into the plastic world.  Sometimes we misjudge and think that loving our kids means giving them for free the plastic stuff that we always wanted, when actually loving our kids means helping them see the greater vision beyond the plastic.  It means enabling them mentally, physically, and spiritually to achieve the most good they can with whatever talents they obtain.  It means helping them find God, and then them helping others to find God.

The plastic world and what is Real can be well understood with one of my favorite analogies that I call “3-D dolphins”. 

3-D dolphin picture analogy:  A fascinating world of spiritual knowledge is available if only you “have eyes to see”

You know those 3-D pictures made of randomly-sized shapes all of varying shades of say green and blue?  Someone may tell you there’s a dolphin in there, and you stare at it for awhile, but can’t see it immediately so you give up and move on.  They seem trustworthy, but you ultimately don’t believe them or consider them well-meaning but senile.   But then someone comes along and you ask, “Can you see anything in there?” They respond, “Oh yeah, it’s a dolphin”.  You find many people think they see a dolphin, but you never can, and decide it isn’t really worth the effort to keep trying.

 They tell you to look cross-eyed, peripherally, and anything they can think of until you finally have to move on with your day.  Many give up there, but others will try again on a different day and finally begin to “see the dolphins” – an entire world that was right before their eyes, but to which they were previously blinded.  That is the world that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has opened to my eyes.  I don’t see that spiritual world all that clearly yet, but I have “seen some dolphins” and I can tell there is probably a lot more that I can yet see if I look long enough and correctly (prayer, faith, diligence, etc.).  In this case, it’s a lizard!

The Pursuit of Happiness

Real and unreal things can also be found when contemplating that unalienable right that Thomas Jefferson well labeled “The Pursuit of Happiness”.   His insightful and inspired choice of words reveals one of God’s major purposes for life.  He has placed us here with an instinct to seek for things that will bring us happiness, but with a host of competing voices trying to define for us exactly what happiness means.  Yet He does not define happiness for us, and leaves us completely free to “pursue” what ever we think happiness might be. 

Many are born as “Lamanites” and hear few voices advocating from God’s camp on actions and lifestyles that bring Real and lasting happiness.  They are tempted into a life of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll”.  The tainted pleasures that these bring counterfeit for a short time as happiness.  Others so lack God in their lives that they think happiness is being rid of those who have claim on them, so they leave their families or may even murder.  Many born as “Nephites” are raised to understand things that really do bring Real happiness, but they don’t or won’t see the dolphins, and they seek an easier way in short term gratification.  Then there are Lamanites who find Real happiness, and Nephites also.  Real happiness has so many facets.  You can search for those multi-faceted gems and find none, find a few and miss most, or find many.  I doubt anyone has ever found all or maybe even most facets of happiness.  Key is that we all have the same freedom to chase our dreams, and to seek out what we believe will bring Happiness. 

I can say with confidence that I have been at the Tree of Life, tasted some of the fruit, and found it to be very desirable – it truly brings Real Happiness.  I am grateful to live in a free society that places high value on our right to seek after happiness.  I can also say that it is clear that though everyone is seeking, few are really finding Real Happiness.  Sadly, I have also spent some time window shopping in the Great and Spacious Building.  I can report that whatever measures of short-term pleasure are available there, you come away in the end more hollow, shallow, and disillusioned.  There is nothing Real in the Great and Spacious Building, except the fact that we Really will lose our shot at becoming Real if we dwell there too long.

Some things I know are not Real:

Keeping up with the Jones; failing to have a large family or devaluing your family in order to pursue worldliness, or even to pursue a significantly beneficial role in the world; the world’s obsession with sexual sensations (Real in the right setting, but very plastic otherwise); exploiting other people for wealth or selfish purposes (not the same as employing people respectfully, ending up wealthy in the process, and using your wealth to achieve things that are Real); Our costume and stage play is not real (black, white, American, Iranian, middle ages, vegetable IQ, PhD, endless pain, or seemingly endless luxury). 

Are Corvettes Real?

I’ve always wanted to believe that great automobiles are Real.  I’ve hunted around and I believe the creative genius behind them is Real, but our trading valuable assets for vanity instead of for things God would condone is what makes them not real.  Somebody Real had to make Barbie’s plastic Corvette, but the ‘Vette is still plastic.  In other words, there is nothing wrong with the process that seeks to improve upon something – either in its physical quality, utility, or beauty.  The “wrong” comes in our motive for improving or in our purposes for having the improvement.  The makers of Ferraris go wrong when they build into their designs features whose sole purpose is to tempt our vanity into setting ourselves above our brothers and sisters.  But to make a Ferrari purely out of the challenge of making it, and for the beauty and utility it can bring into the world, I do not think is wrong.  We go wrong when we want a Ferrari, not because of its quality and beauty, but because we can then look down on others.

All of these thoughts have helped me immensely to comprehend the larger Realities.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of “What is Real.”

If you have valued from this, please feel free to email a link to www.latterdaylogic.com to those you believe may be receptive to this essay.