Talk:Abr 2:1-16

Verse 7: God's place of dwelling

A couple rough thoughts I'd like to think about more (or have help thinking about):

(1) A common view (among non-LDS) is that humanity kept failing God in the OT, so God kept trying different things. Ultimately, one of those things was to "descend from heaven" in the form of Christ to redeem mankind. This notion of descending from heaven seems to work itself out one step at a time—from high in the remote heavens (i.e. Kolob), to a cloud, to the ark, to the temple. Perhaps the last step of this progression is the notion of the Kingdom of God within (where's this scripture?) and the Holy Ghost dwelling inside of us. I can't think off-hand about how temples were introduced in BOM accounts, so I'm not sure the BOM would support this notion....

(2) Before the preceding con/descension of God occurred, there's a sense in which God was more remote and had a stronger reason to reveal to Abraham about the mysteries where he dwelled. As God's dwelling place became less remote (or, more importantly, as mankind's conception of where God dwelt became less remote), there was less reason to give prophets revelations about remote planets, stars and such. This would explain why this revelation to Abraham seems so unusual compared to other extent scripture.

--RobertC 18:41, 28 Jun 2006 (UTC)

I don't think this addresses your point, but as a side note I don't read this particular verse as a statement that God dwells far away as opposed to close. I think the point of this verse is to emphasize God's power. By telling us he dwells in the heavens it tells us of his power because: a) God is over us--looking down b) the people at the time believed that the heavens controlled what happened on earth; God dwells in the place of power. c) Maybe also because it is someplace we can't get. --Matthew Faulconer 03:30, 29 Jun 2006 (UTC)