{"id":230,"date":"2019-08-01T06:02:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T12:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2020-02-25T12:55:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T19:55:31","slug":"chiasmus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiasmus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_9539\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-230-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=230-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2010.09.18_Chiasmus.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 52:06 &#8212; 60.5MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/light-and-truth-podcast\/id1474389927?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This lecture by Denver Snuffer given at the \u201cChiasmus Conference\u201d was originally recorded in American Fork, Utah on September 18, 2010, in front of a live audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/transcripts\/2010.09.18%20Chiasmus,%20American%20Fork%20UT_Transcript_v1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Transcript (opens in a new tab)\">Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">\u03c7We all know that the name of \u201cchiasmus\u201d comes from the Greek letter \u201c\u03c7\u201d [Kai], which is an X. We know the date on which Chiasmus was discovered in the Book of Mormon to the exact day: it was Wednesday, August the 16th of 1967. And it was a missionary to the Church in Germany who made the discovery after going and attending some lectures about the subject where they we were using the Bible as an example, and the account of that you can read in an article that is available online. The title of the article is <em>The Discovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon: Forty Years Later.<\/em> If you just do a word search\u2014\u201cDiscovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon\u201d or \u201cChiasmus Forty Years Later\u201d\u2014you can\u2026 It\u2019s in the journal \u201cBook of Mormon Studies\u201d; the article is written by John Welch, and it\u2019s about his discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In there you\u2019ll learn that the first occasion in which the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon occurred as the consequence of a revelation. He [John Welch] quotes a voice that spoke to him, and these are the words: \u201cIf it\u2019s evidence of Hebrew style in the Bible, it must be evidence of Hebrew style in the Book of Mormon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, as a consequence of a revelation, John (our young missionary at the time) went out, pursued the subject, and found, among other things, the largest single chiasmic passage in literature in Alma chapter 36, that we\u2019re now all familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also wrote an article about determining criteria for identifying and evaluating the presence of chiasmus, and that also appears in the general Book of Mormon Studies. And he gives a list of some fifteen criteria that can be used to determine the presence or absence of chiasmus. And throughout the day today, there will be those who are speaking about how this pattern has been located in a variety of places.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I\u2019m more interested in the issue of <em>why<\/em>. It\u2019s really interesting to note its presence, to study it\u2014and the theory that underlies the presence of chiasmus in the Hebrew text is the idea that this made it easier for people to memorize it. If you have this <em>progression<\/em> and you have this <em>regression<\/em> and there\u2019s a single point at which it flips, then it makes it easier for people to study and memorize and preserve things in oral tradition. But juxtapose that with the statement you find in Abraham chapter 1, verse 28 about how <em>the records have come into mine hands<\/em> (see also Abraham 2:3 RE)\u2014and the records that he\u2019s talking about are those that run back to the beginning of the creation\u2014 and that\u2019s in Abraham chapter 1, verse 28. And then the comment that is made, also, in the book of Moses about Adam keeping a record. And if the record keeping\u2014see Moses chapter 6, verse 5: <em>And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto&#8230;many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration <\/em>(see also Genesis 3:14 RE)<em>.<\/em> By then the children were taught to read and write, having a language that was pure and undefiled\u2014this is chapter 6, verses 5 and 6. So if writing was with us from the beginning (that is, at the time of Adam\u2014the language of revelation was not transmitted orally), then perhaps the pattern has nothing to do with the ease of which one can memorize and preserve passages of traditional understanding from one to another. It may have another deeper and more profound underlying purpose behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See I\u2014 I want to skip right to some things that are important, in my view. I\u2019ve written a paper that will be published as part of this thing, and you can read all those words in there. I want, given the fact that it\u2019s an opportunity to talk live\u2014 I really detest reading talks to people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a theory that underlies the reason why we find this pattern that appears over and over.&nbsp; And this pattern appears: it\u2019s a <em>progression,<\/em> and then it\u2019s a <em>regression<\/em>. And if you take those and you close them in, what you wind up with are two triangles\u2014one pointing upward; the other pointing downward\u2014with the suggestion that if this relates to the heavens and God, then it suggests the notion that God is actively in the process of reaching down to man. And if this suggests mortality, then implicit in that is that it\u2019s the obligation of man to reach upward to God. And that implicit in this may be embedded a message about the point at which\u2014the contact at which\u2014the \u201cX\u201d crosses one another is at that moment, that instant, a revelation\u2014that point at which we get perfectly aligned with heaven and heaven is able (because of that alignment) to reach down and make contact with us. And perhaps implicit in the message of why this would appear is the suggestion that it\u2019s the obligation of man to reach upward because God is permanently in a state of reaching downward in order to make the contact with man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>progression<\/em> and the <em>regression<\/em>\u2014if you look at the pattern that you find in the menorah, \u201cABCDCBA,\u201d what you\u2019re seeing in the pattern of menorah (which was a deliberate symbol located within the holy place of both the tabernacle and later the temple of Solomon and down from there) this symbol is suggesting in another way the exact same pattern of <em>progression<\/em> and <em>regression<\/em> and convergence in the center. See, those that take the chiastic literary form and explore why it was done\u2014in addition to the ease of memorization\u2014they say the point that you locate in the center of the chiasm is the point at which the central theme of the idea is presented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you go into Alma chapter 36 and you look at Alma chapter 36\u2019s suggestion of what the center point is, it\u2019s that moment which the conversion occurs; it\u2019s the moment which the contact between the man and God occurs; it\u2019s the conversion point. And so it would also be consistent with there being an underlying <em>why<\/em> to chiasmus that\u2019s perhaps more important than detecting its presence elsewhere. Because if Alma (or Mormon, and I think the greater light is that it was Alma and not Mormon that wrote that chapter because of its literary form\u2014that\u2019s beyond this, but I think it was Alma that wrote it) experienced it and understood the underlying <em>why,<\/em> then of course the central theme would be the point of contact between God and man, because that is the point at which redemption occurs\u2014the point at which the process goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, the other thing that this does is, particularly here, this <em>progression<\/em> and this <em>regression<\/em> is the process of walking you backwards; it\u2019s the process of returning you to somewhere, as opposed to going somewhere. You\u2019re already somewhere\u2014you need to get away from where it is you are and back to something which was better and preferable and earlier. And so the <em>regression<\/em> is a question about, What is it that regression would deliver to you, would fetch for you, if you were to take it seriously?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matthew chapter 18 has this little incident in it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. <\/em>(Matthew 18:1-3; see also Matthew 9:10 RE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so the idea of <em>progression<\/em> and <em>regression<\/em> and becoming something converted from what you are today\u2014where you find yourself at this extremity\u2014back to where you once were at the other end of the scale may also be a reminder that, although your mind is currently filled with all of the issues and all of the experiences of adulthood, there was a time when, previously in childhood, you were capable of much more and much different kinds of things. Christ\u2019s comment that you\u2014&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question that drove the answer was the question about who\u2019s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So the issue on the plate was: \u201cWhere do we find something that is great; show us one of these; tell us.\u201d (And I suppose they were hoping for some mention of themselves.) But instead, what Christ did was He asked for a little child. And the narrative suggests that this is quite a young child\u2014a toddler, the younger that could toddle over the better. So He has the little child, and He puts the child in front of Him, and He says, \u201cThis\u2014here is an example\u2014this is what the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is like.\u201d Well, why is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven something that has regressed from the complexity and the sophistication\u2014particularly of <em>our<\/em> kind of thinking\u2014back into a point at which there is this child-like faith, there is this child-like approach to whatever is out there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We put away childish things. In fact, Paul in one of his passages makes a comment about childish things and putting them away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>King Benjamin had something to say about the character of a child, and he gives this in his big talk, beginning in Mosiah where they\u2019re all together for his farewell address. This is Mosiah chapter 3, verse 19: <em>The natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child<\/em> (see also Mosiah 1:16 RE). Then he elaborates\u2014what it is about the child that is so useful in yielding to the enticings of the holy spirit, putting off the natural man, becoming a saint through the atonement of Christ\u2014all of those are driven by these kinds of characteristics, which are childlike: <em>submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father<\/em>. Those are the characteristics of a child that manages to change their mind or to facilitate their development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I heard again (people keep trying to calculate this and come up with a new number all of the time)\u2014but I\u2019m sure all of you have heard it said that most of what you\u2019re going to learn in your entire life you learn by the time you\u2019re five years old. The personality of a person is fully developed at five. There\u2019s another study that came out and said almost all of the education that a person is going to receive in their lifetime has been completed by the time they\u2019re in fourth grade, then they simply reapply and reapply the same techniques as they had acquired by the fourth grade, repetitively thereafter, to increasing levels of complexity; but nevertheless, it\u2019s the same tools. Well, why is it, then, that at the early front-end there is this capacity for absorbing everything there is from the universe around them, and then that begins to quiet down or slow down or to become resistant thereafter? It\u2019s because, by its very nature, the mind of the child is open. <em>Submissive<\/em> is a characteristic that says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>I am open to, will submit to, and looking forward to something you can give to me. &nbsp;<\/li><li>I don\u2019t come here with a hard attitude.<\/li><li>I don\u2019t come here with my predisposition.<\/li><li>I don\u2019t come here with a bundle of things that, if you\u2019re going to present a truth to me, it must fit within the boxes that I have constructed.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>[Speaking as a hard-headed adult] <em>\u201cI\u2026 if you want&#8230;wait a minute, wait a minute\u2014how do you reconcile that with&#8230; well wait a minute, I&#8230;Now Elder McConkie wrote in this book\u2014we have to have bibliography okay?\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s an idea: It\u2019s a truth, but it\u2019s truth that you must relax, open your heart, open your mind, and accept and see if it contains light and truth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Speaking as a hard-headed adult again]<em> \u201cNo, no, no, no, no, no, no I want a bibliography; if you don\u2019t fetch a bibliography for me, and I want footnotes. Then\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, I have been so tempted\u2014 I have been so tempted to write a book without a single footnote in it. My wife just thinks that\u2019s a terrible idea. The most important chapter I ever wrote had no footnotes in it when I wrote it, and it\u2019s my wife\u2019s fault that it\u2019s now riddled with footnotes, because she says, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that; they won\u2019t\u2014 You\u2019ll get in trouble! You won\u2019t&#8230;it\u2019s not\u2026.\u201d And she\u2019s right. She\u2019s right because the reader\u2014the typical reader\u2014is not at a point where the typical reader will simply relax and say, \u201cIs it true? Does it resonate with light? Is there something about this that is fulfilling?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve been able to put more information about God and man into ten short parables than I\u2019m able to put into 170,000 words in<em> The Second Comforter<\/em>, simply because parables don\u2019t require you to vindicate or justify; but what it does impose upon the reader is the obligation, then, to open themselves up and say, \u201cWell, how do we do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, there was a time\u2014 There was a time and it was back here in your life, there was a time when you did not need to go down to the firing range and have a skeet machine firing off a clay pigeon and a 12-gauge [shotgun] loaded with birdshot in it to be able to enjoy yourself. If you had a stick\u2014 If you had a stick, it was enough, because your mind was alive with the kinds of things that allowed you to have just as much\u2014if not more\u2014joy pretending, as does the adult with the gun and the ammunition and the skeet range and the machine and the clay pigeon and the thing blowing up in the air, and \u201cOooo, isn\u2019t that fun, and don\u2019t you wish there was more of that from Hollywood.\u201d Too bad we can\u2019t load blood in clay pigeons; then we\u2019d all be at the firing range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of submissiveness is another way of reckoning into the idea of openness\u2014the same with meekness; the same with humility and being humble; the same with patience\u2014and we ought to clarify the point about the child and patience, because at first blush, you look at a child, and you say there is nothing less patient than a child: <em>\u201cCan we&#8230;? Can we&#8230;? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Can I, can I, can I&#8230;? Please! Please! Please! Are you sure? <\/em>[speaking as a child crying]<em> Aaaahhhh! (<\/em>[internal thoughts of the child]<em> Crap, how does this work?) Can I? Can I? Can I&#8230;? Okay, what if I <\/em><strong><em>give<\/em><\/strong><em> this, can I <\/em><strong><em>get<\/em><\/strong><em> that?\u201d<\/em> See, they go through all of the tantrum stuff until they begin to negotiate, and sometimes that negotiation thing works, particularly if the kids are bright. (And we\u2019ve been playing with really bright kids, so they tend to go and negotiate everything.) They are not patient in <em>that<\/em> sense. They are\u2014 Children are patient in the sense that relentlessly, endlessly they are studying to learn more. They <em>want<\/em> to know more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I write a blog, and on it I ask more questions than I give answers, because what people need are not a bunch of answers. And answers end the discussion. Once you\u2019ve got the answer, then that\u2019s the end of that. What you need is a question, and you need a question so that you\u2019ll open your mind. And you need to open your mind so you can become like a child. And you need to become like a child so that you\u2019re a suitable environment in which revelation can take place. And you need to have revelation take place in order for you to reconnect with heaven. And you need to reconnect with heaven so that you get to know who God is. And you need to get to know who God is so that He can, in turn, make you a member of His own household and redeem you from this current plight in which you find yourself: in darkness and distrust. And what people want from me are answers, and I can hand you an answer and cripple you. Or I can teach you to ask and turn you into, potentially, someone that can make this trek backward, that can make this climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/9lYdqz9EwteMOCuiazQ01UZPFuL0ktyFacBohlGZZrx4Bq_xZKrI19LpA27ldsUHtycZQ4d7CGexJ0IrktN8LM3bOaWoNRN4dqoGAx1OLPesbXeBUKYydluA5JTrIhpYnHycry55\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"133\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When you take the symbols and overlay them upon one another, you wind up with the symbol that was adopted by David as one of the symbols of Ancient Israel, United Kingdom, Priesthood, the Star of David. When you place them side-by-side, if you read the account given by Lucy Mack Smith of the Urim and Thummim, the Urim and Thummim were similarly these two triangular-shaped (and this is in the stuff that is going to be published, you can find the sights and description in there) set in a bow that he would look through. And you ought to ask yourself again the question of: If the Urim and Thummim has that symbol contained within it, again the question becomes, Why? Why would we wind up with it embedded in the Urim itself, an instrument in which the contact between God and man is to take place? Why would it bear the symbol that appears there?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Urim and Thummim becomes another interesting issue to think about as a device, as a mechanism. Joseph Smith would begin the process of translating the Book of Mormon, in using the Urim and Thummim, [he] found that it was so filled with light\u2014his comment was that \u201cI can see everything in looking through it.\u201d It was so filled with light that he wound up having headaches because it was physically painful using the device. Later, Joseph would use a seer stone, and he would block out light because it was less painful to make the process. And later still, towards the end of the translation process, the book wasn\u2019t even open, the seer stone wasn\u2019t even used, because this \u201cprop\u201d had resulted in Joseph acquiring this capacity. And at the time that we get Joseph in the section 76 revelation, Joseph\u2019s just sitting in an upper room dictating the transcript from heaven while in open vision, without possession of any instrumentality, because the process has changed the person into being in contact with the heavens, which was the purpose behind it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, there is another statement made by King Benjamin that I want to suggest, too, as another way to look into the same meaning. Mosiah chapter 2, verses 20 and 21: <em>I say unto you, my brethren, that&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Oh that\u2019s right, we\u2019re not in sacrament meeting\u2014you can actually open your scriptures if you have them. By that I mean no disrespect. I\u2019m honoring the letter from the First Presidency that says, Stop opening your scriptures in sacrament meeting.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another\u2014 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another\u2014 <\/em>(see also Mosiah 1:8 RE)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then he goes on to say that you\u2019re still <em>unprofitable<\/em> after all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if you find yourself out here at the extremity of the mortal condition, you are still supported from moment to moment. The breath that you are taking in is loaned to you by God who gives you the power to live and breath and move and sustain you from moment to moment. So if that\u2019s where you find yourself, then the deeper you look inside yourself\u2014the farther in you go\u2014the closer you will come to the point of contact between yourself and God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have a very coarse kind of intellect in the West. We have a \u201cgive us a rule; give us a formula\u2014if I follow the steps, then, as a result of following the steps, I will produce the relevant gas, explosion, fire, compound, cake, cookie, whatever. So, all I want from you, therefore, is a list. And if I follow my list, I will produce, at the end, the fire I want, the taste I\u2019m looking for, the whatever-it-is-that-I\u2019m-trying-to-build.\u201d And so when <em>we<\/em> pick up the scriptures, it ceases to be for us a Urim and Thummim, and it turns into a rule book. It ceases to be a contact point between God and us, in which God, himself, can be speaking, and the manner of revelation that He gives to us are the words contained by other prophets elsewhere. It ceases to be that, and it turns into a bibliography for our behavior; a justification for what we\u2019re all about; a way to say, \u201cI\u2019m right; you\u2019re wrong.\u201d It becomes clutter and noise and nonsense\u2014and useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is inside you, sustaining you from moment to moment, is God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What organized you and keeps you intact, moment to moment, is God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What lies at the deepest core inside you is God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What you should be trying to regress back to, and find within yourself, is God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe kingdom of heaven is within you,\u201d said Christ. Well, if the kingdom of heaven is within you, if\u2014in your core\u2014there is a contact between you and God, then our rule books don\u2019t do us a whole lot of good.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s another way of looking at the mangled mess that we find in the minds that we have with us. And, by the way, the vision of Daniel (where it was necessary, in the last days, to grind up Babylon into dust)\u2014despite the fact that Babylon has been gone for 2500 years\u2014is because Babylon\u2019s still alive and well and running around inside your head. That\u2019s the manner in which you think. You\u2019re the product of Babylon; you\u2019re the product of the Medes and Persians; you\u2019re the product of the Greeks; you\u2019re the product of the Romans. You\u2019re the product of all those things, as they\u2019ve accumulated and been handed down. Therefore, IT must be ground to dust in a regression back to a point where\u2014within you\u2014you find that simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s another tradition: it hails from the East; it is, in fact, the tradition out of which Christ Himself came, and that was one that focused upon the transcendent. The Gospel of John was written by someone who fully bought into the notion of transcendence, that there is this great and powerful and over-governing word (or order or truth or light). And that the greatest embodiment of that word (or notion or truth or light) finds itself embodied fully in the person of Jesus Christ. And that great light, that great truth, came down here in the person of Jesus Christ and dwelt among us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See, there\u2019s a statement rather on point with that in the scriptures as well. Doctrine and Covenants section 88, beginning at verse 6:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in&#8230;and through all things, the light of truth; Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; [And] the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made; And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which shineth, which giveth&#8230;life, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space\u2014The light which is in <\/em><strong><em>all things<\/em><\/strong><em>, which giveth life to <\/em><strong><em>all things<\/em><\/strong><em>, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. <\/em>(D&amp;C 88:6-13, emphasis added)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we read that, we say, \u201cCool, wonder how that science works? Wonder what rules we\u2019ve got to learn in order to have that happen?\u201d But an Eastern mystic would say, \u201cYes, I have seen that; yes, I have felt that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have stepped outside the door of a house, on a perfectly still day when there was no wind, and the temperature outside was the same temperature as what is in my body, and there was no difference in the feel between myself and the air all around me. And I was, at that moment, connected by my body and by my mind to all that is and all that ever was. And I felt behind me a bird flying, because the pressure of the wings of the bird in flight touched me, though it was distant from me; because I was it, and it was me, and the light in it and the light in me were all one. And I could feel the freedom of flight, and in that I saw God. And we would say, \u201cOh I get it, it\u2019s poetry! Okay, so now, let\u2019s see; that\u2019s probably \u2018free verse\u2019\u201d [audience laughter]. And we miss what is going on. We miss the Divine connection that exists. To stand in the presence of God results in people feeling inadequate and ashamed. Isaiah\u2019s words were, <em>Woe is me! &#8230;I am undone; &#8230;I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell [among] a people of unclean lips <\/em>(Isaiah 6:5; see also Isaiah 2:2 RE). Well, why is that? Because the accumulation of junk that exists inside the clutter of our minds\u2014and the inability to see in the simplest of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m sitting at a baseball game, and my son is playing on the Alta Hawks, and there\u2019s a bird overhead making a relentless noise, and it\u2019s distracting. And I\u2019m the scorekeeper, and I don\u2019t spend much time paying attention to those things. But I finally look up between innings, and it\u2019s a hawk; and there aren\u2019t many hawks that fly in Sandy, Utah around baseball diamonds. And I think, \u201cHuh, that\u2019s strange.\u201d Then I thought [internal dialogue], \u201cWhat are you doing?&nbsp; This might be a message. There might be something to this.\u201d So I thought, \u201cWhat on earth could the meaning of the hawk be? If it\u2019s a message, what is it?\u201d And I came up with nothing, as is almost invariably the case. When I come up with a good question, I usually have to get a lot of help to get a good answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, the next time I look up, there are two hawks circling the ball field at the Jordan baseball field\u2014so we\u2019re on hostile territory\u2014this is being a [BYU] Cougar up at Utah State: we\u2019re on \u201cevil\u201d ground here. And there are two hawks circling the field above, going in a clockwise fashion. So it occurs to me: \u201cI know clockwise generally means blessing; counter- clockwise generally means cursing. So, two hawks circling the field\u2014a blessing of some sort.\u201d And I think, \u201cWhat on earth\u2014 what on earth could that mean?\u201d We make it a regular habit to pray for our kids, no matter what they\u2019re doing, and on this particular occasion, we\u2019d been praying, and my son is involved in a baseball game, and there\u2019s a hawk overhead\u2014which is the symbol of his team, and there were two of them\u2014and my kid comes up to bat, and I look up, and the hawks are gone. And I think, \u201cHuh, that\u2019s strange.\u201d But we\u2019d been praying about everything, including our kid. My son hit a double. And I thought to myself: \u201cOkay, <em>so that I would not miss the point that God answers prayers. So that I might not miss the point that<\/em> <em>God\u2019s hand is in everything<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the greatest baseball movies ever made is <em>The Last Samurai,<\/em> which all you good Mormons have not seen because it\u2019s rated R. It is a terrific baseball movie, because when this Western, alcoholic, civil-war veteran soldier gets immersed into this Eastern culture and tries to assimilate to their method of warfare, he\u2019s completely unable to master the art, and he\u2019s beaten every time he goes up against the fellow who is his chief nemesis. Until finally, the kid with whom he had been residing comes up to him and says, \u201cToo many minds; too many minds. One mind.\u201d And so the character, the soldier, he finally gets it, and he ceases to worry about anything other than the reaction to the moment in which he finds himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the reasons why skiing is appealing\u2014snow skiing\u2014is appealing to people is because you can\u2019t plan for tomorrow, and you can\u2019t worry about yesterday, because if you take your mind off this moment, if you\u2019re anywhere other than the now, you\u2019re going to go down, and you\u2019re gonna get hurt. Riding a motorcycle\u2019s rather the same way. If you take your mind off\u2014 Skiing and riding a motorcycle are both very childlike experiences. God is in everything. He\u2019s absolutely everywhere. It\u2019s necessary for you to pay attention to that, in order to open yourself up to that. Because the process of revelation\u2014 In the East, what people would do to try and get a revelation would be to ponder, to meditate, and to open themselves up. In the West, what we would do to get a revelation is to fast and pray and offer God commitments of 50 different things if He\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please, please, please, please, please, please, just this one time, just oh, please, please ever so much this, and I\u2019ll do that; I\u2019ll do that, and I\u2019ll agree to do this. And okay, what am I not doing and why&#8230; What else could&#8230; I didn\u2019t wear a white shirt to sacrament last\u2014I\u2019ll always wear a white shirt every time I go&#8230; and I believe they ask for dads to volunteer to bless the sacrament with their sons, but I know it\u2019s something I need to do&#8230; I\u2019m gonna bless the sacrament&#8230;&nbsp; <\/em>and there\u2019s a list of 50 things<em> I think, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And God\u2019s up there saying, \u201cHey I put the answer to the prayer right there\u2014it\u2019s in the front yard, ya know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Oh, ooooh! I gotta bake some bread and go make some bread and take it to the neighbor and welcome him to the neighborhood, and this next door neighbor who\u2019s got this attitude problem&#8230; I\u2019ll go over and tell them how wonderful sacrament meeting is\u2014I\u2019ll get it done, I\u2019ll get it done, I\u2019ll get it done\u2014<\/em><strong><em>Give me the revelation, will ya! <\/em><\/strong>[audience laughter]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the revelation was sitting right in your front yard, waiting for you to come out and to notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we look upon those things and we keep ourselves distracted from, disconnected with, and incapable of opening ourselves up to the revelation which God, at all points, is offering to us. <em>The world is filled with revelation<\/em>. And our problem is that the manner in which we choose to go about asking for and opening ourselves up to it is so limited in scope, so poor in quality, so alien to the teachings of Christ, that it doesn\u2019t matter that the Lord is shouting at us all around. We simply won\u2019t pay any attention or give any heed to what it is that He has been offering all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full of love. By the way, \u201cpatience of the child\u201d is the relentless openness that a child has to instruction\u2014to receiving more\u2014the perpetual walking about with the empty cup.<em> \u201cI would like my cup to be filled.\u201d<\/em> It is always\u2014 The child is always standing with the cupped hand, asking for you to fill it. And <em>we<\/em> go about saying, \u201cI\u2019m gonna offer a prayer now\u2014what\u2019s that formula? Oh, we thank thee; we ask thee.\u201d We close ourselves off, when the child would open themselves up and extend a hand in a petition asking for God to give them something. And it doesn\u2019t matter how many different ways the Lord goes about trying to teach us that, either with scriptures or symbols or signs\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter. We, nevertheless, remain committed to closing ourselves off from\u2014and refusing to open up and receive\u2014what things the Lord would offer if we simply would be patient, humble, submissive, and come to Him with an open recognition that we lack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full of love. Full of love is one of those things which\u2014 It\u2019s really a reflection of how close you\u2019ve drawn to the center point. John, who we call Beloved, seems to have had his eyes opened as to the Savior, because at one point he defines the Lord as love. God is love. You draw nearer to that\u2014and it\u2019s not a process of drawing nearer without difficulties. When you read, in particular, the strugglings that Enos had in the Book of Mormon, the closer you draw to the center point, the closer it is you reach to the point of love. And you begin to realize that there are people you don\u2019t love; indeed, there are people you despise. But the nearer you approach to God, the more you realize that\u2014despite the fact that you have legitimate reasons for harboring resentments or grudges or attitudes about others\u2014it is, nevertheless, the case that if you love, you can\u2019t hold onto those things. I could say \u201cI hate it, I just hate this love that I have to show to other people, but I can\u2019t resist it [audience laughter]. You know, that guy, he deserves to get what\u2019s coming to him, and here I have no more disposition to give it to him. I can actually look upon him with compassion.\u201d And yet in my rational mind, \u201cI sure hope the Lord doesn\u2019t because he deserves to get stomped on at some point. I\u2019m not going to do it. You know, live and let live; let him go. I bring no accusation against him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the phrase, <em>Willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father<\/em> (Mosiah 3:19; see also Mosiah 1:16 RE). That\u2019s a long phrase that\u2019s capturing one idea; that is, that from the vantage point at which the connection is made between the two, at the moment in which the clarity comes, at the moment when you realize what it is God would have you do, it ceases to be a question of whether or not you\u2019re willing to do it. If you knew God wanted you to do (I don\u2019t know, choose the \u201cthing\u201d)\u2014sell all you have and give it to the poor? That was what was asked of the rich young man, and he didn\u2019t do it. But I commented on that fellow in <em>Come, Let Us Adore Him<\/em> and what he would have been involved with had he sold all he had and gone with the Lord. He would have been there for those\u2014that final trek into and all of the events that occurred at Jerusalem. He said, <em>Come follow m<\/em>e\u2014sell all he had and give it to the poor and come. In essence, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna be right there for the greatest moments in history. You\u2019re going to ride alongside of me.\u201d Now, we look at that as kind of a fool\u2019s bargain, because he went away mourning because he had great riches, and he didn\u2019t want to give them up. But what he didn\u2019t know was this was the last opportunity he had to see Christ alive, and he would have and could have been there for everything\u2014all the way from there to the resurrection\u2014had he been on board and done what he was invited to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I\u2019m running out of time. There are portions of the endowment (if you\u2019ve been through the endowment) that suggests this chiasmic pattern. But the biggest problem is that as adults, we don\u2019t see things that children <em>can<\/em> see because our minds are cluttered with craftiness, cunning\u2014we are suspicious of other people; we can be mean; we can be manipulative; we can be jealous; we can be skeptical. Much of the clutter that\u2019s in our mind we learned as we entered into and participate in adulthood and the adult services. In order to go forward, we need to go back. In order to get back in contact with God, the regression that is shown in the symbol of chiasmus is part of the process of going back to both an earlier point in time (that is, your childlike attitude) and a more open and a more spiritually-welcoming portion that lies only deep withinside you, at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know I think enough of what I\u2019ve said is what I would be willing to stand on in the presence of God and defend, and so let me end by bearing testimony to you that this stuff and this symbol and this meaning and this process is, in fact, the path back to God. When you go all the way out to the farthest reach of the universe and you find God sitting upon His throne, one of the shocking realizations that you\u2019ll make when you meet God is that God has always been with you, and that He is as close to you as the very next breath you take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This lecture by Denver Snuffer given at the \u201cChiasmus Conference\u201d was originally recorded in American Fork, Utah on September 18, 2010, in front of a live audience. Transcript<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chiasmus - Restoration Archives Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chiasmus is a pattern that suggests a progression, and a regression. 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This progression and this regression is the process of walking you backwards; it\u2019s the process of returning you to somewhere, as opposed to going somewhere. You\u2019re already somewhere\u2014you need to get away from where it is you are and back to something which was better and preferable and earlier. 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And so the regression is a question about, What is it that regression would deliver to you, would fetch for you, if you were to take it seriously?","og_url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/","og_site_name":"Restoration Archives Blog","article_published_time":"2019-08-01T12:02:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-25T19:55:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/9lYdqz9EwteMOCuiazQ01UZPFuL0ktyFacBohlGZZrx4Bq_xZKrI19LpA27ldsUHtycZQ4d7CGexJ0IrktN8LM3bOaWoNRN4dqoGAx1OLPesbXeBUKYydluA5JTrIhpYnHycry55","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Brent","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brent","Est. reading time":"33 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/","url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/","name":"Chiasmus - Restoration Archives Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/01\/chiasmus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/9lYdqz9EwteMOCuiazQ01UZPFuL0ktyFacBohlGZZrx4Bq_xZKrI19LpA27ldsUHtycZQ4d7CGexJ0IrktN8LM3bOaWoNRN4dqoGAx1OLPesbXeBUKYydluA5JTrIhpYnHycry55","datePublished":"2019-08-01T12:02:37+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-25T19:55:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075"},"description":"Chiasmus is a pattern that suggests a progression, and a regression. 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