Understanding Section 133

8/6/2019 Understanding Section 133

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THINGS ASTHEY ARE,WERE

ARE TO COME

Understanding

Section 133ANTHONY E. LARSON


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THINGS AS THEY ARE,WERE AND ARE TO COME

Understanding Section 133Copyright 2004 Anthony E. Larson

Section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants describes events immediatelypreceding the second coming of Jesus Christ. Without a grounding in the an-

cient imagery on which the prophecy is made, however, we, along with our

Christian cousins will continue to misunderstand these remarkable events.

he acquisition o vital inormation rom catastrophists and com-parative mythologists about the traditional, cultural archetypesthat dominate our scriptures and the inormation contained in an

anecdotal story related by Patriarch Homer M. Brown o his grandpar-ents encounter with Joseph Smith one evening in Nauvoo now allowus to turn our attention to one o the more symbol-laden, latter-dayrevelations about uture events given to the prophet.

In Doctrine and Covenants, Section 133, the Lord reveals much

about the changes in the heavens and the earth that will be seen one

day. But in order to ully understand what is recorded there, we must

combine our understanding o the Saturn traditions and the conceptsJoseph Smith communicated to Benjamin Brown.

A new reading

We turn our attention to the verses in Section 133 that ocus on

a series o events seen to occur prior to the second coming. For

behold, the Lord God hath sent orth the angel crying through the

midst o heaven, saying: Prepare ye the way o the Lord, and make

his paths straight, or the hour o his coming is nigh

. (Doctrine &Covenants 133:17.)

Tis verse sets the scene. We are about to be told o events that

will transpire immediately prior to the second coming. Tus, we now


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Te lamb in the polar conguration was the small, red planet,

Mars, the son o the sire, the ram, Saturn. Te use o this imagery

became highly anthropomorphisized in Egyptian art and was rendered

accordingly, as seen above.Given that imagery, it is iconographically correct to reer to the son

o the ram god as a lamb, an oen-used allusion in ancient symbol-

ism.

Naturally, the prophets would immediately see the symbolic valueo reerring to the Savior, the Son o God, as a lamb. It was an as-sociation that anyone steeped in ancient symbolism would easily

understand. So, the phrase Son o God became the Lamb o God.Once made in antiquity, the connection would persist to become parto the language o the prophets and the scriptures, right down into

New estament times.

Te act that revelations produced by Joseph Smith display the

proper use o such ancient iconography speaks eloquently or their

authenticity. False prophets in this day and age have no grasp o such

idiographic relationships and thus ail to use them properly, i at all.

Mount Zion

Looking urther, we see that Mount Zion mentioned in verse 18 is,

o course, the axis mundi, the world or cosmic mountain upon which

the polar conguration, the temple or city o god, appeared to stand,

answering to the this archetypical image.

Tis mountain is the basis or temple imagery the world over

Olympus in the Greek culture, Jeru-salems Mt. Moriah in the Israelite

culturewhere temples are oen ei-

ther designed to resemble a moun-

tain, mound or pyramid, or set on

top o one or next to one. It is also

the basis or a similar allusion inthe scriptures where the temple is

described as the mountain o the

Lords house.


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The 144,000

So, too, is the hundred and orty-our thousand named in verse

18. Tat symbolically derived number (12 x 12 x 1000) is simply a

metaphoric means o saying more than you can count. It was nevermeant to express a xed number, as it is so oen misinterpreted in

modern prophetic schemes.

Tese individuals are also prominently mentioned in Revelation

where they stand with a Lamb and are part o mount Sion. Joseph

Smith and the scriptures depict them in symbolic terms, as though

they were individuals, servants o God or priesthood holders. Origi-

nally, they were based in the thousands o illuminated prominencesthat radiated outward rom the edge o the celestial planet/god/city,

as seen in this exploded view.

Tey were characterized in tradition

and mythology as the inhabitants o the

celestial city, and as such are iconograph-ically useul in depicting those saved or

exalted souls who will stand with Christ

at the nal judgment, as John and Joseph

Smith explained.

The returning hero weds

Te next verses introduce a new di-

mension to our investigation, allowing

us to see the origins o Christian symbol-

ism in the more ancient cultural and religious usages.Whereore, prepare ye or the coming o the Bridegroom; go ye,

go ye out to meet him. (Ibid., v. 19.)

While the reerence to the Bridegroom, as every Christian knows,

is clearly an allusion to Christs role as husband to the church, this

reerence goes back to a more ancient, cosmological tradition.

During the evolution o the polar conguration, Mars was seen

to move away rom the center. In doing so, it seemed to the ancientsto wander about heaven and grow much larger as it engaged in a

variety o metamorphoses in a planetary dance that engaged both

Venus and the Earth.


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Tese phases o the planetary epic spawned a multitude o myths

and traditions about cultural heroes who wandered away rom home,orphaned or dispossessed, who then engaged in a series o misadven-

tures, challenges or contests in which they perormed miraculously

and then nally returned home to discover their heritage, roots or

exalted station in lie. Tese mythical archetypes are recognizable tomodern eyes, or example, in recent incarnations such as the story o

Aladdin, the Prince and the Pauper, the story o King Arthur or the

tales o Hercules.

Eventually, Mars returned to the center place aer several eventul

excursions. Tis return was seen as a marriage ceremony wherein the

two planets, the warrior/hero Mars and the goddess/queen Venus,

were joined or wed aer the wanderers long absence rom the

center place or home.So the early Christian church ad-

opted this cultural tradition to de-

scribe the returning Christ, coming

to initiate the Millennium aer his

long absence rom the Earth. Hence,the Christian imagery o the bride-

groom and the bride, as used by theLord and Joseph Smith in Doctrine

and Covenants, nd their roots inancient planetary imagery.

Bigger than life

Te next verse leaves the impression that the Lords return will

see him as a giant standing on the Earth, with one oot on the Asian

continent and the other on the American continent. For behold, he

shall stand upon the mount o Olivet, and great deep, and upon the

islands o the sea, and upon the land o Zion. (Ibid., v.20.)


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Once again, such imagery is based on ancient symbolism spawned

in the Saturn conguration o planets when it assumed the prototypical

image o the heaven man with its arms stretched heavenward and

its eet planted on the limb o the Earth, as seen in this illustration.Tis Egyptian glyph, below, is perhaps the best example o the

heaven man archetype and a reminder that the primary symbols were

occasionally portrayed most precisely in ancient art. More than most,

this example approaches an accurate portrayal o the archetypicalsymbol derived rom the polar conguration and serves as strong

evidence that this symbol was the origin o much biblical imagery.

In this instance, the planet Venus,seen to sit in the center o Saturn, wasconsidered the head, Saturns crescent

ormed the outstretched arms, Mars at

the top o the column became the chest

or torso and the pillar the legs o theheaven man or angel archetype.

While the return o the Savior will

undoubtedly be a magnicent manies-tation, just as it was when he descended

rom heaven aer his resurrection toappear beore the Nephites, his stature

will not assume epic proportions as this

verse implies.

A celestial metaphorIndeed, it is the thesis o this presentation that these verses are not

at all meant to be descriptive o the Saviors coming, as it is commonly

supposed. While it is symbolically correct to apply these metaphors

to his advent, the imagery tells us more. It betrays a celestial scene

based in cosmological origins.

I we return to the rst verse quoted in this monograph, we nd

that we were introduced to an angel crying through the midst oheaven. Ironically, it is the very heaven man image rom which theancients derived the angel icon. Tus, this icon is likely the origin

o the angel image o prophecy, used by so many prophets.


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Tis opens the door to a more meaningul or amplied reading

o these verses. It is the concept that what is described here is not

Christs advent at all, but a planetary encounter between the Earth

and another planetary body

the harbinger o the second coming orlast grand sign o the Saviors advent. And, in act, when we consult

Joseph Smiths pronouncements as recorded in the Brown account

regarding these very verses, we nd that, indeed, he spoke plainly o

a planetary encounter.

Aer re-entering the house, the Prophet said, Brother Brown,I noticed when I came in that you were reading the Doctrine

and Covenants. Will you kindly get it?He did so. 125he Prophet turned to Section 133 and read,

commencing at the 26th verse and throughout to the 34th verse.He said, aer reading the 31st verse, Now, let me ask you whatwould cause the everlasting hills to tremble with more violencethan the coming together o the two planets? (Scriptural andSecular Prophecies Pertaining to Te Last Days, pp. 89, 90.)

What better way to impress on the reader the planetary nature othe events described in these verses than to couch them in symbolic

terms reminiscent o ancient times when Earth was a satellite o a gas

giant and a companion to other planets? I what will be seen in Earths

heavens just prior to the Saviors adventJosephs planet, cometis

a planetary display akin to that seen anciently, why not use all the

traditional metaphors to memorialize that act? o do otherwise

would be inconsistent with prophetic convention. Anyone well versedin the ancient traditions, such as a prophet, would be inclined to usethe proper and correct symbolism and metaphor. And, indeed, that

is what we see done in these once enigmatic verses.

Moreover, approaching these verses with this in mind, we nd im-

mediate clarication o the imagery. All that is needed is knowledge

o how these icons were employed anciently and we have the proper

interpretation. Or as Peter put it, No prophecy o the scripture iso any private interpretation. Prophecy is meant to be interpreted

systematically, using the imagery known in the times o the ancient

prophets who spoke these words, imagery common to all ancient

cultures. It is we moderns, who esteem this imagery as myth, that


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have stripped it rom our culture and our traditions, leaving us unable

to grasp its meaning when we encounter it.

Returning planet imagery

Looking back at the verses examined thus ar rom Section 133,we nd that, indeed, all the imagery has its basis in ancient planetary

imagery, just as the ollowing verses. And he shall utter his voice out

o Zion, and he shall speak rom Jerusalem, and his voice shall be

heard among all people; And it shall be a voice as the voice o many

waters, and as the voice o a great thunder, which shall break down

the mountains, and the valleys shall not be ound. (op. cit., vs. 21, 22.)

Sound was an integral part o the ancient events. Electrically en-

ergetic planets in close proximity were easily capable o generating

a multitude o electromagnetic oscillations that became audible in

Earths atmosphere, rom the most subtle to excruciatingly loud. It

is proper to reer to the sounds as coming rom a geographical loca-

tion he shall utter his voice out o Zion, and he shall speak rom

Jerusalembecause the sound or voice would seen to emanate rom

there since the entire Earth would become a planet-sized transducer orspeaker, oscillating in response to electromagnetic waves propagated

by nearby planets.

Tunder and crashing water are probably only somewhat remi-niscent o those sounds since they were heard to accompany the

tremendous shaking o the ground, as alluded to in these verses.

Furthermore, it is appropriate to connect these colossal sounds with

the transormation o Earths topography

which shall break downthe mountains, and the valleys shall not be oundbecause theylikely went hand in hand.

Te next verse urther conrms our thesis. He shall command the

great deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and

the islands shall become one land. (op. cit., v. 23.) Lets learn what

this means in Josephs own words rom the Patriarch Brown account.

Relative to the waters rolling back to the north, i you take avessel o water and swing it rapidly around your head, you wontspill any. But i you stop the motion gradually, it will begin topour out.


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Now, he said, Brother Brown, at the present time this earthis rotating very rapidly. When this planet returns it will makethe Earth that much heavier, and it will then revolve slower. Tat

will account or the waters receding rom the Earth or a greatwhile, but it has now turned and is proceeding rapidly eastward.(op. cit., p. 91.)

Here we see yet another anticipated eect o the Earth joining in

a polar orbit with another, larger body. Joseph was exactly right in

assessing that our planets rotation might slow when electromagneti-

cally joined with a new neighbor, thus signicantly diminishing the

centriugal orces that maintain an equatorial bulge at the equator.Tis would have the efect o raising the ocean levels at the poles and

diminishing or depressing those around the equator.

But there would be another, even greater reason or this oceanic

migration that may not have occurred to Joseph: tremendous tidal

action due to gravity, which would also serve to draw Earths oceans

into gigantic tides, the primary one centered on the North Pole and

the secondary or reexive tide on the South Pole.A consequence o such permanent

polar tides would be the appearance oheretoore submerged land bridges be-

tween many o the continentsespecially

at the equatorial latitudes where the efect

would be the most dramatic. Water levelsin some places might subside hundreds o eet in great, worldwide

tsunamis as the oceans raced to the poles, thus receding rom theEarth. Imagine a ring o dry ground girding the equator, joining all

the continents.

Tus, we would see the literal ulllment o verse 23. the great

deep shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands

shall become one land.

A planetary docking maneuver

Having introduced the concept o intersecting planets, the com-

ing together o the two planets, Joseph next reers to a circumstance

that has no meaning except in a universe governed by electromag-

netic orces.

Tidal Bulges


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Now, he said, scientists will tell you that it is not scientic,that two planets coming together would be disastrous to both.But, when two planets or other objects are traveling in the same

direction and one o them with a little greater velocity than theother, it would not be disastrous because the one traveling asterwould overtake the other.

In act, the perception by science o such an event has not changedsince Josephs day. Scientists still speak, hypothetically, o such eventsas collisions, insisting that they would be, as Joseph said, disastrous.

Te Roche limit is the orbital distance at which the gravity o the

larger planet will begin to tidally tear apart the smaller planet asthey approach one another. Even i, as Joseph proposed, the planets

were traveling in the same direction or sharing a similar orbit as one

gradually overtook the other, their approach would eventually bring

them within the Roche limit, which would be utterly disastrous to the

smaller orb. It would be summarily sundered into so many chunks.

Yet, Josephs scenario sees no such outcome. Saying emphatically

that it would not be disastrous, he seems to understand what or-

thodox science denies to this day: Tere are greater orces at work insuch a scenario than gravity. Tese electromotive orces would serve

to both prevent an outright collision or dismemberment and, at the

same time, lock the two planets together in a tandem orbit.

In act, proponents o the electric universe theory insist that elec-

tromagnetic plasma layersonce called VanAllen belts but now called

Langmuir sheathssurrounding both approaching planets would pull

the planets together at a distance, yet also prevent them rom collidingby holding them apart as the distance between them diminished. In

eect, the two planets approach would rst be cushioned, then the

two would electromagnetically couple, held in stasis at a distance rom

one another, neither driing apart nor colliding. And while the tidal

efects would be tremendous, pulling the oceans to the poles, they

would be insufcient to destroy either planet.

Josephs prophetic insight

Joseph Smiths scenario, as we have read, suggests just such a cir-

cumstance. Yet, how could he know o this? Even today science denies

such a possibility. Indeed, electricity was only a novelty in that day.


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Tus, its role in creating electromagnetic efects was virtually unknown.

In act it still has no acknowledged role in planetary science even today.

Clearly, Joseph had learned through revelation that Earth was once

held in juxtaposition with another planet anciently beore being sepa-rated, even i he did not completely understand the mechanics o such

a coupling. For this reason he speaks o it returning in conjunctionwith the events described in Section 133.

Indeed, this is the only context in which these statements haveany meaning.

And this is the point: In the context o modern scientic notions,

Josephs statements in the Brown account sound like the anciul in-ventions o a ertile imagination. However, when seen in the context

o the Saturn traditions and the electric universe, it is a stunningly

accurate depiction and a testament to the prophetic prowess o Joseph

Smith. Moreover, the Brown account allows a much more meaningul

interpretation o Section 133.

Seen in the light o our new perspective on ancient history, we can

see that the next verse rom the 133rd Section has been grossly mis-

construed by Latter-day Saints. And the land o Jerusalem and theland o Zion shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth

shall be like as it was in the days beore it was divided. (op. cit., v. 24.)

Continents do not drift

Tis verse does not describe the popular geologic notion o conti-

nental dri. As we have seen, Joseph does not speak o shiing land-

masses in his interpretation o Section 133. However, he does speak oshiing oceans that will permanently reveal great tracts o land, thus

reversing the division o the Earth in Pelegs day.

More signicant still is the reerence to Jerusalem and Zion being

turned back into their own place. While such a statement might be

construed to be an indication o continents in motion to our ears, seen

through the lenses o ancient tradition, it tells a very dierent story.

Latter-day Saints tend to think o Zion as a people, or so it is used

in modern parlance. We also think o Jerusalem as an earthly city in

the Middle East. However, anciently this was not so. Te archetype o

the holy city, Jerusalem was the Saturn conguration, and Zion (Sion)

was the name o the heaven-spanning mountain that both held up


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the celestial city and connected it to the Earth. Tus, i the heavenly

city and its sacred mountain are turned back in their own place, the

phrase reers to the return o that grouping o planets that gave rise

to that imagery anciently.Tis verse, then, is not about earthly cities. It is, as is consistently

done in these verses, an allegory based in celestial constructs. And, inact, the return o a planet is what Josephs instruction to the Browns

was all about, lending urther credibility to this idea.

Te proposed explanation o these verses extends to yet another

verse in the 133rd Section. And they who are in the north countries

shall come in remembrance beore the Lord; and their prophets shallhear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smitethe rocks, and the ice shall ow down at their presence.

Josephs explanation o the melting ice is as ollows:

Now, what would cause the mountains o ice to melt quickerthan the heat caused by the riction o the two planets comingtogether?

And then he asked the question, Did you ever see a meteor allingthat was not red hot? So, that would cause the mountains o ice to

melt. (op. cit., p. 91.)

Once again, we see an explanation that not only supports the

contention that Joseph viewed these prophesied events as planetary

catastrophes, we also a reiteration o the joining planets theme.

Also, in this same passage, we come to one o the most misunder-

stood prophecies in all scripture in that many claim the they in thisverse means the en Lost ribes o Israel.

Not about the Lost Tribes of Israel

Because ancient tradition connected to the disappearance o the

Lost ribes tells o them disappearing into the north countries,

modern Saints have interpreted this verse to reer to those en Lost

ribes because o the identical reerence.

Once again, however, when we look at Josephs statement, we getthe picture o a returning planet.

He continued, Now, as to their coming back rom the northernwaters, they will return rom the north because their planet willreturn to the place rom whence it was taken. (op. cit., p. 91.)


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Tat is, their planet will once again take up its historic, traditional

position in the north. Tis, o course is indicative o the uniquepolar orbit posited by albott and illustrated in the Dibble acsimile,

as drawn by Joseph Smith.Note that nowhere in the Brown

account does the Prophet suggest that

the en ribes would come rom thatplanet, only that it was thought to be

their planet or the one that was con-nected to them by tradition.

Since Joseph attributes all the otherphenomena in this account to efectsgenerated by the return o the old

celestial or heavenly order, it seems

likely that he meant to convey thatsame point in this instance rather

than reerring to the return o any group o people. In act, placing the

en ribes interpretation on this solitary verse in an entire sequence

dedicated to planetary symbolism seems completely out o place. A

more sensible approach would seem to be to allow the verse to be seen

as complementary to the rest o the passage rather than interpreting

it as a parenthetical comment.

It bears mention at this point that many early Saints attribute to

Joseph Smith the belie that the Lost ribes inhabited another planet.

Tis, o course, is impossible to veriy since there is no direct state-

ment to that eect recorded by the Prophet.From the standpoint o the polar conguration o planets illustrated

above, such a circumstance would seem to be patently impossible.

First o all, no known mechanism would allow people to relocate rom

Earth to Mars or Venus, the two planets most proximate to Earth in

the Polar Conguration. Te natural orces unleashed in those events

would have been too traumatic to humans to see the Lost ribes sur-

vive the transit

even i a transport mechanism could be identied.Secondly, the distances were similar to those that separate the Earth

and its moon today. Bridging such a hostile gap would appear to be

even more o an impossibility.


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Since the traditions tell o no other, habitable planets parking in

a polar orbit above the Earth anciently that might have served as a

reuge or migrating Israelites, the Lost ribes interpretation o this

verse ails.Furthermore, space probes to those two planets have returned

no evidence that they are inhabited. Indeed, the environments onMars and Venus today could not support human beings, except one

imagines some supernatural intervention to miraculously preserve

them alive. Even i these two planets were to return to their ormer

location near the Earth, there could be no people living there to re-

turn. Tereore, the interpretation o these verses as the return o aninhabited planet also ails.

Te most likely explanation or the belie o many early Saints that

Joseph taught such an idea can only be considered a uniorm mis-

interpretation based on the way the prophet explained the concept.

Indeed, since the return o the Lost ribes will coincide with these

latter-day catastrophes, the two are closely connected in prophecy

and easily mistaken one or the other.

A celestial highway

Moving on, we see another, traditional aspect o the polar con-guration reused in the description o the coming event as recorded

in Section 133. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst o the

great deep. (op. cit., vs. 27.)

Once again, Joseph claries the revelation.

And relative to the great highway which should be cast up whenthe planet returns to its place in the great northern waters, itwill orm a highway and waters will recede and roll back.

Tis highway was also Mt. Sion support-

ing the holy city at its apex where it appears

to split into twin peaks.

In this phase o the congurations career,

the pillar or mountain could easily be con-strued as a road or path. It is the origin o the

symbolic notion that the streets o heaven arepaved with gold. It is the reason many ancient temples were accessible


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