Sep 17, 20235 min read

Harmonic Dichotomy

Oneness of Two in Marriage

God is amazing. He wants to help us unite things that would naturally otherwise be at war, to create more of the two than they could ever be alone. The symbolism of unity despite dichotomy has many parallels. He is the master of oneness despite dichotomy.

Consider these elements joined in Christ:

Oneness in spirit and body.

At-one-ment in Christ.

One-ness in marriage.

One-ness between Christ and the Church

One-ness between Earth and Heaven ([])

ONENESS OF MALE AND FEMALE IN MARRIAGE

Perhaps the most obvious oneness in the face of dichotomy, is oneness in marriage. Men and women are very different creatures. Yet, the Lord teaches us in 1 Cor. 11:11-12 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

As for oneness in marriage (1 Cor. 11:11), The best object lesson about God’s divine plan for life and how his children participate in this glorious co-creation is marital intimacy. An outwardly manifestation of oneness in marriage. Men and women are meant to be one, and pro-creation takes oneness of two. But the pinnacle of such connectedness, such unity, is not just physical oneness outwardly, but spiritual, emotional, intellectual oneness inwardly, as Elder Holland has taught in Of Souls and Symbols and Sacraments (BYU 1988). It is true that a little body can be created even when parents are one physically, but without the core connectedness between the parents to raise that child up in the way they can go, such creation is partial, requires more, and will be sorrowful as incomplete if the creation does not continue. The first step is getting a body, but a human soul (spirit and body) needs the personal restoration that only Christ can provide to have true oneness of the body and spirit for their soul to become its eternal, true-self.

We knew the end from the beginning before coming to earth (Pres. Oaks April 2020). Many made covenants. And our lives were foreordained. We saw who we were meant to become and who we must become to receive a fullness of joy, and that failing to meet the measure of our creation would feel as damnation, and cause our souls pain. Look at Mozart, Einstein, Michelangelo, DaVinci - creative geniuses as children because they were creative geniuses before coming to earth. I believe we co-created our temporal lives spiritually and now on earth we are making manifest those spiritual creations, physically through faith, hope and charity. Through the two greatest commandments of loving God (obeying Him and keeping his commandments) and loving others as ourselves - for upon these two great commandments hang all the prophets (Christ).

In other words, as for oneness in spirit and body, we are meant to make manifest our true spiritual selves here and now in this plane. We all yearn to BELONG and to BECOME (p. 50 Sexual Wholeness). Our innate desire to BELONG comes from our spiritual roots where we belonged perfectly in our heavenly home with loving Heavenly Parents, and our yearning to BECOME comes from the spiritual foreordination of who we were meant to be, why we came to earth, to become like our Heavenly Parents, but even more than that, to become our unique selves empowered by Christ, and his unique gifts and qualities to each of us, turning our talents into more until we lay ahold upon every good gift, ever good thing, as Paul teaches.

How do we best keep the two great commandments? We love others as ourselves - especially our spouses. We start this path by feeling God’s love, his compassion, his understanding, and letting it work deep into our souls, reawakening our pre-mortal awareness, experiences, the love that led us here. It warms and softens our hearts and helps us love Him in return as is commanded first. When we feel forgiven, and see the divine grace of Christ’s love, we likewise begin to love others - eventually as ourselves, turning the gift of charity into a tool of vision where we see others as Christ sees us (seeing as we are seen). But the pinnacle of this, the acme, the greatest evidence of this, is the love, the unity, the oneness (emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical), we find in loving our spouses. Sin and pain, and fear, may detract us from that oneness, yet God’s love is boundless, endless, and eternal, and overcomes these discomforts. It is why we are here.

Think of how powerful this is, that we literally bear one another through pro-creation, bringing little bodies into this world, and then are invited to help those souls become their true selves in the Lord. We are invited to raise them in righteousness and love through communion with the spirit, receiving the power of ordinances along the covenant path - chasing away contention so the spirit may dwell in their physical temples - and helping them become their true divine selves, oneness in spirit and body, as Christ (the Great I AM) did. This is priesthood power (D&C 121:45). It is creative. It is restorative. It is eternal life (John 3:17) the glory of God (Moses 1:39), knowing Him (John 3:17) and when we look at others with this vision, our eye being single to God’s glory of helping his children thus become, git fills our temples with light so that we comprehend all things (D&C 88:67).

This is the restoration of the person, the church, the world, the becoming our true selves - through a personal restorative awakening in Christ. From beginning of life to end of life. It’s how we overcome spiritual death and return to our true pre-mortal selves, and return to God, and how Christ overcame physical death, transcending the disconnect between, the divorce, the death arising from separation of spirit and body through oneness as the Great I AM. For He is. He who liveth and he who was dead. He who tread the wine press alone, but also he who is the true vine and we are the branches. He who we are meant to follow to become. (MOSIAH 5:13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?). For we are the body of Christ and meant to be one with Him.

As we follow Him, and keep his commandments, and live by his word, the Lord has promised that there will be oneness in our own hearts, oneness in marriage, and eventually oneness in Christ and the Church, for he is the Bridegroom. And eventually, heaven will return and earth will rise and heaven ( ) and earth [ ] will be again, one. Not only the return of Pangea, but the return of the Cities of Heaven (Enoch) and others, the blooming of Zion. The unified, the Church of Jesus Christ, the pure in heart. Bringing all things in one, when the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and the Fig Tree will bear fruit and leaves.