The Ooold Testament

Here are some thoughts on the readings from the Old Testament and the Pearl of Great Price that everybody else has already moved on from.

• Being made in the image of God means that creation, rest, and recognizing that our own creations are good are all part of what we were made for
• Subduing the earth was a command given before the fall.  What does that mean? What exactly needed subduing? Of course, so was the command to multiply and replenish which 2 Nephi 2:23 pretty clearly states was impossible until after the fall, so maybe the command to subdue is anticipatory.
• Having dominion is a command to Adam.  D&C 121’s command to avoid unrighteous dominion is not obeyed by avoiding dominion any more than Origen was being chaste by taking a knife to his tallywhacker.
• Dominion is power with responsibility.  In the long run, power without responsibility is just as much gibberish as responsibility without power.
• Moses was given the power to “endure” God’s presence.  Moses 1:2.  The common understanding of ‘enduring to the end’ is that we are waiting out the clock until salvation.  How does it change your view if you think you are being enjoined to learn to endure God’s presence and glory?  It makes me reel to try to see it that way.
• Contra C.S. Lewis, the heaviest weight of glory you have to bear is your own.