Newtonian Salvifics

The prophet’s address on rest hit on an old conundrum: how are we supposed to enter into eternal rest when the destiny of the faithful is to do greater and greater works, and enter into God’s endless works.

Hear his talk if you want his explanation. In short, he suggests that divine rest is available to us now and consists of peace, divine aid, and overcoming the world and its weariness.

Consider Friday’s post and this one as fillips on that explanation.

Last conference President Nelson spoke about spiritual momentum. This conference, rest. For anyone with a smattering of education, momentum and rest inevitably bring to mind Newtonian physics. An object in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an outside force. An object at rest remains at rest unless acted on by an outside force. Inertia, in other words. Inertia is clearly an important psychological fact in addition to being the keystone of classical mechanics. We might speak of Newtonian psychologics.

With credit to President Nelson, now let us speak of Newtonian salvifics. We now understand Newtonian physics to mean that with no preferred frame of reference, whether an object is at motion or at rest is a question of perspective. Rest=spiritual momentum. They are the same thing.

If there is a preferred frame of reference, a center point, then rest means being still in relation to that center point or even being at the center point. In spiritual matters, God is the center point.

Finally, rest looks different if you consider the time factor. At this moment, a grease fire starts on my stove top. My feet are up on my easy chair and I’m looking out my window where the breeze is rippling the trees. Getting up to throw baking soda would be less restful. But in a few minutes, it will be much less restful as a I flee my burning house. Tomorrow it will be much less restful as I huddle in the ashes in the rain.