Is the Internet a Urim & Thummim?

HawkgrrrlAsides, Culture, curiosity, history, Humor, inter-faith, joseph, LDS, missions, Mormon, mormon, Mormons, politics, prophets, questioning, restoration, smith, theology, thought 22 Comments

What is a Urim & Thummim, and how will the earth become like one?

Is this like the statement by Brigham Young that missionaries would teach people on the moon and the sun? (still waiting for that mission call)  Or is it an example of a pre-industrial man trying to explain 21st century technology in terms he understood?

http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/images/casting_lots/urim.jpgWhat is a Urim & Thummim?

  • Literal translation yields several choices:  “truth and light,” “lights and perfections,” “revelation and truth” or “truth and doctrine.”
  • An ancient form of communication with God along with dreams and prophets.  (like lds.org?)
  • Sometimes they were used by prophets, but the implication is that they could also be used by others to answer yes/no questions.  (Sounds like binary code to me, the basis of all computer programming . . .)

So, what was the prophecy? Joseph Smith said (in April 1843):

“The earth when it is purified will be made like unto crystal (or a computer monitor perhaps?) and will be a Urim & Thummim whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom or all kingdoms of a lower order will be manifest to those who dwell on it.”  (it could be called “wiki-worlds”  CK could stay in touch with lower kingdoms through open forums and chat rooms, perhaps a Facebook style application.)

“Then the white stone (a mouse?  or maybe a hard token? or a flash drive?) mentioned in Rev. c 2 v 17 is the Urim & Thummim whereby all things pertaining to an higher order of kingdoms even all kingdoms will be made known and a white stone (could be a white blackberry–I hope it’s got GPS and wi-fi!) is given to each of those who come into this celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word.”  (or password?  although some people will probably just stick it on a post it note in their desk drawer; do you people care nothing for security?)

Could the internet be a Urim & Thummim according to the prophecy and descriptions?  If so, did Al Gore know he was fulfilling Mormon prophecy when he invented it?  Does that, in fact, make him a Mormon (well, posthumously maybe)?  Speaking of Al Gore’s inventions (went there!), is global warming what is meant by the earth being cleansed by fire at the last day (maybe “by fire” was an exaggeration)?  What do you think?  Discuss.

P.S. Please forgive my shameless digs at our former popularly elected president.  All meant in good fun.

Comments 22

  1. In the book The Alchemist, a young shepherd boy goes on a journey of discovery and along the way meets an old stranger in a park (sort of a Morgan Freeman as God type of character) who riddles him a bit and then gives him two stones in exchange for all his sheep. One white stone, one black stone… together called the Urim and Thummim. The idea is to put the stones in your pocket, and when you have a question which you cannot answer, ask and then pull one stone from your pocket and then trust it to be the right answer. The idea is that the will of God is revealed through which stone comes out. I can’t remember which color was yes and which was no.

    When I first read it, I immediately Googled around to find out if the author was LDS. I came to find out that the Urim and Thummim were referenced in Hebrew scripture (never knew that before) and were described as two stones that were attached to a breastplate of the high priest, and interpretation suggests it was always used to obtain a Yes/No answer only, never used for detailed revelation or translation. And no, the author of The Alchemist is not LDS.

  2. I’ve never thought of them in terms of the Internet, but definitely have considered the Urim and Thummim, as well as peep stones, as computers. If we can do, God sure can.

  3. Post
    Author

    Clay – yes, I read the Alchemist, which is a pretty good allegory for those on a spiritual journey. I love the ending.

    I suppose I’m just a sci-fi geek to think of things in these terms.

  4. Clay, I’m not 100% sure as to the source, but I think it may have been Bushman in Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism who noted some statement of Joseph Smith’s about how the Urim and Thummim were superior to any seer stone he had previously used (including, presumably, the one still in possession of the Church). Something about how he could see “all sorts of things” in them, IIRC.

  5. On a related note, were the stones touched by the finger of God and made into lights another possible form of U and T? We seem to like stones a lot, don’t we?

  6. Is the Internet a Urim & Thummim?

    I dunno, but if you can convince people that it is we could make a ton of money selling rocks.

  7. “The earth when it is purified will be made like unto crystal…all things…will be manifest to those who dwell on it.”

    Well, crystal is a versatile communication medium.

    It can be electrically polarized to create a binary switch like to store information like computer memory. Crystal is a transducer; mechanical energy in results in electrical energy out and visa versa which is why it was used in record player cartridges. Crystals receive and amplify radio signals without a power source. Crystal can be used as a prism to refract light.

  8. Regarding JS’s prophecy:
    Many in the esoteric community believe that disembodied spirits vibrate at higher frequencies than mortals do. This might make sense when you consider the Mormon belief that spirit is matter and compare the huge differences in mass between a spirit and a mortal body. They also say this difference in frequency is why spirits are invisible to mortals. They believe that spirits with more spiritual light vibrate at higher frequencies than spirits with less light.

    So frequency differences might explain the separation of spirits from kingdom to kingdom.

    JS says “all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom or all kingdoms of a lower order will be manifest to those who dwell on it.” “It” is the crystallized earth or the Celestial Kingdom.

    Crystal might be used as a frequency transducer to allow those in the CK to keep up with the happenings in the lower kingdoms.

  9. I love taking the idea of the Urim & Thummim object and going a step past to consider the overall idea of expanded consciousness and revelation. Like other examples in scripture and history, I have a feeling the tangible objects are more of a crutch than a tangible machine needed for access.

  10. Thanks for the prompt. I have thought about this on multiple occasions, and I think of the Internet and my laptop as a little prototype of what a true Urim and Thummim could be. Of course the Net and our computers are all GIGO — Garbage In Garbage Out. The stuff we find is only as good as the stuff we (usually somebody else) puts in. I imagine the real deal will give us true light and knowledge — not this mortal stuff.

    More critically, I think that how we use our little prototype will be a good predictor of whether we are worthy of the real thing. Do we gaze into our laptops to see things we shouldn’t? If so, what would we do with a real Urim and Thummim? I hope my heart is / will be pure enough only to look for those things that will bless humanity.

  11. Urim & Thummim as I have come to understand and is described as 2 stones between a bow. This sounds like to me a pair of reading glasses. I never could get the bow part and then one day I realized that a bow has 2 loops held together by a knot. So how would a person describe a pair of glasses thousands of years ago before anyone had such a thing? 2 stones held in a bow! In reading the history of Joseph Smith and other books by ancient scripture scholars it seems that the prophets would look through these to see things past, present and future. Thus the danger of of an unrighteous person looking though them.

    The computer is a device, an example that only demonstrates the vast amount of levels and fields that we do not understand, comprehend. It certainly is a gift from God. I have heard from a General Authority (I think Merle J. Bateman) that the internet was given to us for the sole purpose of geneology work. Hence the tremendous onslaught of evil that has undermined the tremendous good it should be doing.

  12. I once prefaced a comment in SS with, “According to the Internet, the source of all truth and knowledge, …”

    I meant that as a joke, but no one laughed. I guess too many old people.

  13. BiV – opposition in all things in this telestial world. So long as www does not equal kkk, we’re probably in good shape.

  14. Dear friends,
    You can see something that is believed to be the UT on this site utmovie.com.I'[m convinced that this object shown is of some biblical nature.Posts your comments about what you think.

  15. No it doesnt make Al gore a Mormon…

    He’s a MORON but not a Mormon.

    Global warming?!?!?! I’m freezing my little petutskis off in JUNE here in warm southern cal.

    The Polar ice cap has melted yet the water level from my granpas dock hasn’t gone up one single inch so where did the water go?!?!?!

    I mean we were supposed to be flooded by now?!?!?!

    Ooops better stick to Climate Change, that fits all and there we can’t lose!

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