Joseph Smith and the Cosmic Channel

Many critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Joseph Smith often criticize Joseph Smith and the LDS Church over the Book of Abraham.  Joseph Smith purchased a collection of mummies and ancient Egyptian  papyri from a man Michael Chandler who was traveling through Kirtland Ohio back in the 1830's.  Chandler was exhibiting the mummies and papyri as a traveling show. The purchase of these documents was done decades before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, before ancient Egyptian could be decipheted and understood.  

Joseph Smith had already translated and published the Book of Mormon and claimed to be a Seer and Prophet and possess the divine instruments known in the Bible as the Urim and Thimmin.  The Urim and Thummin were special Seer stones touched by the finger of God and given for the purpose of translating unknown languages and revealing hidden knowledge. Similar stones were used by Moses and Aaron to judge Israel. 

Upon examining the newly obtained ancient documents, in addition to common funerary texts known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Book of Breathings, the Chandler collection contained another long scroll that contained the writings of Abraham known as the Book of Abraham. 

Joseph Smith used His divine gift of translation via the Urim and Thummin to traslate what we in the LDS Church call the Book of of Abraham.  The source papyri for the Book of Abraham is believed to have been destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.  However, some of the other papyri from the Chandler collection were later found in the storage of the New York's Metropolitan Museum.  While copies of the Book of Breathings ahd Book of the Dead believed to be part of the Chandler collection have been found. the source document of the Book of Abraham was not found, except for the 3 facilities or graphics that are referred to by the Book of Abraham and are presented together with the Book of Abraham as part of LDS Scripture known as the Pearl of Grear Price. 

One of the facsimile, called Facsimile #2, depicts a hypocephelus.  The hypocephalus was a clay tablet that was placed below the head the mummy wheh buried.  The circular clay tablet contained special information the person being buried believed he or she would be asked by angels who stood by the gates of heaven.  Egyptians believed certain key words or token information needed to be known to pass by these angelic sentinels in order to enter into eternal life with God.  In common terms, the hypocephelus was a celestial cheat sheet. 

Joseph Smith was a revelator not necessarily an explainer.  When Joseph Smith translated something, he didn't approach it like a scholar.  He wasn't necessarily interested in being exactly true to the source document in doing an exact gloss of the anciejt Egyprian into English.  In what some scholars refer to as the "catalyst theory", Joseph Smith is sometimes believed to reveal things that should be in a document, from God's divine perspective, over what may actually be there.  

In the case of the Book of Abraham, Facsimile #2, Joseph Smuth gave some interpretation of some of the glyphs. While modern egyptolpgists have attempted to check Joseph Smith's work using their current knowledge, I am more interested in what truth God is revealing here. I care more about what is actually true about God and the universe than what ancient Egyptians believed. 

The Bible story of Abraham, together with many apocraphal text that talk about Abraham, as well as Joseph Smith's "Book of Abraham" tell the story that God showed Abraham and sun, moon, stars and entire universe and explained to Abraham how it all was ordered and how it all worked.  It then says Abraham taught these things to Phoaroh while he was visiting Egypt. Some of these explanations are contained in the Book of Abraham Facsimile #2 Hypocephelus.  

While the idea of buring objects with you so you you could take and use those objects in your travels into the afterlife and enjoy in heaven, is not Biblical. (moth and rust corrupt)  The idea that there is special knowledge that one must know that Peter or other angels (cheribim with fiery swords)  may ask at the pearly gates is fascinating.  Maybe the wise virgins knew some key information to be allowed into the marriage feast that the unwise virgins lacked and therefore were not recognized. (you never knew me). 

So, when Joseph Smith went about translating Facsimile #2, this was the context of the translation.  And what did Joseph Smith reveal? The Joseph Smith translation talks about the order of the universe.  Science used to teach that the universe was homogenous, that everywhere you looked looked like everywhere else.  The universe was random and unordered. Now, cosmology has flipped and now talk about the grand order of the universe known as the Cosmic Web. 

While many critics of the Book of Abrahsm and Joseph Smith disagree with the exactness of certain aspects of Joseph Smith's translation of the facsimires, Several recent scientific discoveries are now supporting and vindicating what Joseph Smith revealed about how the universe is ordered nearly 200 years after the fact. 

The SRG/eROSITA diffuse soft X-ray background - I. The local hot bubble in the western Galactic hemisphere | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

In this paper. researchers using a new soft-xray observatory are measuring an asymmetric channel or tunnel of hot plasma that connects our sun and solar system to our surrounding intergalactic environment.  Joseph Smith guessed correctly here when revealing that there is a connecting medium between our Sun and the Great Cosmic Web.

Facsimile 2, Fig. 5.  "and is said by the Egyptians to be the Sun, and to borrow its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash"

The point of this is not understanding exactly what Kolob is.  It is absolutely false to say Mormons believe God lives on the planet Kolob with His wife.   That's not what this says or means.  The Book of Abraham says God lives nearest to Kolob, not on Kolob.  This seems to be speaking in a metaphorical sense. I dont know what exactly Kolob is any more than cosmologists can explain to me what dark matter is or what The Great Attractor is.  

I believe the main point of God showing Abraham and us the order of the universe is to reveal to us how God does things.  God is a God of order, and the Universe, which is God's creation is not random but a creation of miraculous and wonderful order.  And in the same way, the cosmos is a thing of exact and exquisite order, God's kingdom and Church on Earth is also a kingdom and Church of order and hierarchy with light and truth preceeding forth from God through the medium of the Holy Spirit via prophets and Apostles, to regional and local leaders, down to each individual. 

Another cosmological truth contained in the Bible and the Book of Abraham Facsimile 2 which is now being vindicated by modern science is the idea of time dilation or that the concept of dark energy may be an artifact or illusion of what is in reality time slowing down in response to matter. 

Facsimile 2, Fig. 1, "Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time. The measurement according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years according to the measurement of this earth,"

Physics of the Dark Universe, Volume 46, December 2024, 101703 "The significance of measuring cosmological time dilation in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program"  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212686424002851