Light & Law #2 – The Key of Knowledge

by Eric Smith – March 28, 2021

Once there was an elephant keeper who could lead a full-grown elephant along with a simple rope. It was surprising to some onlookers to see a small person leading this powerful creature with such a small restraint. When someone asked why the animal didn’t simply turn and run away, they were told that the elephant had been bound by that same rope since its infancy.

As the animal increased in size and strength, it had become conditioned to believe it was truly bound by the small rope. Therefore, as a powerful creature, the elephant’s inability to move and be free was not determined by its outward conditions, but rather by its inward intellectual restraints, or, its lack of knowledge.

Diversity of Law

The rope is a good metaphor for the Laws that govern us. As I use the term Law in this essay, I am not limiting it to religious applications, but am also talking about the physical conditions anywhere in the universe as described in Doctrine and Covenants Section 88. Gravity is a Law just as well as the Law of Chastity; or Laws of thermodynamics apply just as well as spiritual laws of purification – they all go hand in hand and are equally defined by the spheres and realms in which they exist.

There are places in the universe, and even within the earth where Light and Law function differently than what we are used to. Imagine such physical phenomena as floating land masses like from the movie Avatar, or light that is produced through vibration rather than a combustible orb like the sun. These are real conditions, whether we have observed them in our earth or not. Light and Law define physical and spiritual conditions at any geographic location in the Universe.

We are experiencing changes spiritually and physically right now in our Telestial earth as it is transitioning into another realm bound by different laws. I can’t prove this scientifically, but many with God-given gifts are feeling these shifts. Therefore, in upcoming days and years as physical conditions change before our eyes, we should not be surprised to find some of the spiritual laws shift along with those physical changes.

Cosmic transitions between one degree of Light and Law to another higher or lower degree are rare. The only known recorded shift in Light and Law for our earth as a whole was when Eve and Adam partook of the fruit. The scriptures describe at least two future shifts, when this earth will transition from Telestial glory back to Terrestrial during the Millennium, and then one final time when it shifts from Terrestrial to Celestial glory and is unwrapped as a scroll, or becomesa sea of glass (Revelation 4:6; 6:14; 15:12; D&C 77:1; 130:7). They also speak of localized events and conditions when Light and Law changed for isolated groups of people, like the Cities of Melchizedek and Enoch.

Necessity of Law

Without law, there is no sin. Paul gave two verifying statements of this: “Where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). And, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Therefore, in Father’s eternal wisdom, He established the perfect testing ground by placing Eve and Adam, and therefore all of us, upon this earth, and immediately declared the Law, which in that kingdom was Terrestrial Law.

“All kingdoms have a law given; And there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom. And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions” (D&C 88:36-38).

When they fell, Father gave them a new law fit for their new Telestial world. In the process they lost some freedoms, as lower kingdoms are governed by more stringent rules. Thousands of years later, in a microcosm of the same pattern, the Lord added to the higher law of the Garden to the Israelites, but then deferred to the lower Law of Preservation (see essay #1 of this series) when they rejected it.

Then in Christ’s day, higher laws were added once again, transcending the lower Law of Moses. In Joseph Smith’s day, we see the same pattern of Higher Law being given, and rejected by the people. Thus, we continue in the Laws of Preservation with no collective ascension. In fact, we may even be collectively ripening for a realm of no glory in outer darkness.

But that is not the prophesied outcome for our world. Still, though prophesied, Terrestrial Law and its blessed conditions will not come about if we are only spectators to the game of life, but will only come about through individual and then collective ascension into Terrestrial living, by adhering to Terrestrial Law. To assume we as Telestial people will be handed a Terrestrial world before we live its Terrestrial Laws, is like expecting the diploma before completing the academic work.

For any kingdom, its inhabitants must first live the Laws of Preservation and then Sanctification, and then the planet will do her part to advance its inhabitants into a world whose conditions match their behavior and degree of light, which for us are considered the laws or principles of Zion.

Many have spoken and written of these Terrestrial laws, so I’ll glaze over them, but they basically include those higher-level qualities, such as having no jealousy, having all things common, having no lust, no poor among them, and so forth. But few have spoken on what I feel is an important principle to understand – and that is the key of knowledge in transcension.

Law is Dynamic

We are accustomed to thinking of Law as a fixed thing, not subject to change, but if we compare the world as we know it with the Terrestrial conditions of the Millennium through prophecy, it is easy to see how Law functions differently from kingdom to kingdom. Place a lamb before a wolf in this Telestial world and we can be sure of the outcome. Then consider Isaiah’s prophecy of Terrestrial conditions:

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11)

Law is law, whether spiritual or physical, and to God, all things are spiritual (D&C 29:31-35). Therefore, if we can conceive of physical law changing, like the terrestrial conditions described among the animal kingdom, should it be any surprise that spiritual law as we know it will also change? In other words, laws like the Law of Sacrifice, the Law of Obedience, the Law of Redemption, the Law of Tithing, and the Law of Chastity, will each experience change.

High School students are no longer required to use the arduous work of longhand math because they demonstrated that ability in grade school. They have therefore earned the right to benefit from the convenience of a calculator. Likewise, in spiritual ascension, the laws of a kingdom become less stringent as its citizens have been proven and advance in their understanding.

In descension, laws become more stringent of necessity, to maintain order among those who have shown less regard for law. Therefore, in ascension, the laws of gravity or chastity for example will have less bounds – not more. In descension, laws of gravity or chastity would have more restrictions and law than in higher realms.

We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Therefore, ascension is first an individual responsibility. But spirit children of The Elohim are not the only beings working toward ascension. The planets and animals, and all creation are also subject to Law, Light, and may therefore ascend and become Terrestrial.

It appears that the ascension or descension of a planet depends upon the collective heart conditions of the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, collective ascension occurs when they increase in righteousness and live its Laws of Sanctification, and not only its Laws of Preservation. Only after the many tests and projects of an academic program are complete is the diploma awarded, and so it is in spiritual ascension.

In order to ascend to Terrestrial Light and Law, the people must be pure in heart – the very definition of Zion (D&C 97:21). Therefore, achieving purity of heart is the work required to ‘graduate’. Any other end in mind is Telestial indeed and falls under the Lower Law of Preservation, or the breaking of that Law. Examine the institutions you are familiar with and assess whether they focus on outward actions (Telestial) as the means to Salvation or if they focus on motives of the heart (Terrestrial) as the means to Salvation.

Let us play these principles forward following the scriptural narrative for earth’s future to see the dynamic nature of Law in the eternal scheme.

The higher law of Sanctification as we know it in the Telestial world will become the Lower Law of Preservation in the Terrestrial world. Naturally then, a new Higher Law of Sanctification will be issued that will enable ascension for that kingdom into Celestial conditions, so long as the Terrestrial inhabitants choose to live the New Law of Sanctification. Laws change according to the actions and conditions of their adherent’s. I anticipate the New Laws of Sanctification will be among the Lords’ early sermons in New Jerusalem, after the earth and many of its people have become Terrestrial.

Qualifying Event?

What might cause the elephant to awaken in its true power, and stop being bound by the meager rope? In other words, what key of knowledge might enable the human race to realize they are capable of ascending Telestial Law by living Terrestrial Law – especially since the Higher Law has already been given? Is there some kind of qualifying event for knowing when it is time to live higher law?

I suppose there are many who believe by virtue of their church membership, that they are already living higher law. Others may be waiting for their ecclesiastical leaders to make some kind of declaration that it is time to transition from the Laws of Preservation to the Laws of Sanctification, which have already been declared. Some people may be waiting for a personal visitation from heaven, or the Savior Himself to issue an invitation to live Higher Law. Others may consider their past relationships or identities on other lives to be qualifiers for living Higher Law. I say it again – Higher Laws have already been issued.

The difference between Telestial and Terrestrial beings is observed in their actions and in their motives. In the Telestial world, law is broken by the things we do. Terrestrial Law on the other hand is broken by impure motives of the heart rather than outward actions. Consider the many phrases used by the Savior with their regard to the heart.

In the Lower Law, it is easy to see the Israelites were focused on outer actions rather than of the heart, and on revealed knowledge, rather than higher knowledge of God. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29 – emphasis added). The Israelites were full-size elephants bound by the string of damning intellect, and impure hearts.

Offenses under Telestial Law can be completely within reason under Terrestrial Law, if – and only if – the inward conditions of the heart are in alignment with the Law of Sanctification. This is as foreign in our understanding as the difference in gravity from earth to Jupiter, where a 200 lb. individual would weigh 500 lbs. Laws and their application are different in different kingdoms, but also vary within individual hearts.

Nephi slaying Laban can only be properly understood or explained in context of Telestial Law vs Terrestrial Law. What is wrong in the lower law may be acceptable in the higher law, if the heart is pure, which says a lot about Nephi. While subject to the same civil laws, according to God’s laws Laman and Lemuel appear not to have been authorized to take Laban’s life as their hearts were not pure, and they were bound by Telestial Law civilly and spiritually.

Therefore, while there appear to be a set of civic laws governing the countries of our world, we are each acting in the individual spiritual knowledge we possess. This is why the Savior told us not to judge, because no one but God can know what degree of light and knowledge a person has, and therefore what laws they are subject to. Truly, in a spiritual sense, no two individuals are subject to exactly the same laws.

What is the qualifying condition for living higher law? The answer is surprisingly simple: Having a pure heart.

Knowledge

There are likely many who have pure hearts who may be waiting for direction to live higher law, or who think they are already living it. With the qualifying condition of having a pure heart, what may be lacking is higher knowledge.

The qualifying condition for the elephant to burst through the small rope to freedom is already provided in its size. Its size then is like having a pure heart, the real qualifier of advancement in Law. But again, the only thing the elephant lacks to find freedom is knowledge; the realization that it has all the qualifications for living freely already. If we are already living higher law, then one could ask why we have not ascended. I would respond, because a sufficiently sized body of souls are not living the Law of Sanctification yet, because they haven’t been properly taught it. They lack knowledge.

I have found knowledge of ascension to come from three key sources as follows:

1. Intellectual knowledge / Worldly Learning
2. Knowledge from Within
3. Knowledge through experience

Many have asked me for books and sources that describe this higher knowledge. Seeking this type of knowledge is scriptural (D&C 88:118): While there are some great things written by modern authors, the best sources of knowledge of the higher law that I have found is the Garden of Eden narrative in its true light, when the Higher Law, or Law of Sanctification was originally given. Additionally, anything the Savior taught in His mortal and post-mortal ministries among the House of Israel contain much of the Higher Law.

But there are two other sources of knowledge. Scripturally speaking, knowledge is a gift like the other gifts you are familiar with, such as prophecy, visions, dreams, and charity. And like the other gifts, it is attained more naturally by some, but can be acquired or developed if it is heaven’s will. And while it may be added upon through the outward acts of studying, reading, or listening to podcasts for example, it is ultimately acquired in its purest form from within.

Jesus knew and taught this when He recognized the leaders of the church in His day were withholding this important key from themselves and from their flocks, even The Key of Knowledge: “Woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luke 11:52).

Some say this entering in is to access the higher self or source. I have personally tasted it through the principle of meditation, and you can too. It is accessing knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come (D&C 93:24). This is the type of knowledge that is needed to correctly interpret the parable of the Garden of Eden for example.

This key of knowledge is not taught by the institutions of men. It is hidden and we are told we “should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven – these should then be attended to with great earnestness” (D&C 123:12 ).

Once we attain this sort of knowledge, we are then held to a different level of accountability than one who has not acquired this key. The Lord gave a parable to illustrate this point on varying accountability:

“And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:47-48).

But even acquiring knowledge from within, may not be quite enough. True knowledge is having experience. It could easily be argued that while the child may have understanding about the consequences of touching fire simply by being told, they lack the wisdom and fullness of knowledge until they put forth their hand and like Eve and Adam, know good and evil through their own experience (see Genesis 3:5-7). True knowledge requires action and experience.

Having a pure heart is the first step in ascension. But without the second step of gaining knowledge through experience, having a pure heart in terms of ascension is like having a rocket pointed heavenward but with no propulsion mechanism. Or it is like a mighty elephant bound by a simple string and lacking in knowledge.

And so it is with us. Living the Higher Law, or Law of Sanctification lifts one out of Preservation into the Law of Sanctification individually. Living the Higher Law in communities, or metaphorical trees, is the way to raise the earth into its higher Terrestrial realm.

May we live purely, and gain the key of knowledge to ascend into that blessed Millennial realm is my most sincere prayer.