The Light that Governs All Things

Recently I’ve been listening to some lectures on the special and general theories of relativity that discuss some of the surprising results of these theories by Einstein.  I’m far from being able to understand them very well, but I have been fascinating by the way the discussions have been centered around light.  The theories of relativity suggests that the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant and the same for any observer in uniform motion.  So instead of the speed of light appearing different for two observers who are moving relative to each other, the theory suggests that time and distance themselves will be different for the two and not the speed they measure for light.  The theories also suggest that there is as an upper limit on speed in a vacuum: nothing can go faster than light.  In hearing about this center place of light and a certain constancy about it lead me to think about the center place in the gospel of the Savior, the Light of the world.  The Doctrine and Covenants declares that Christ is “the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed.”  Just as light in a sense governs much of the rules of modern physics, so does the Light given us by God govern all things in a spiritual sense.  “He is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:7-13).  Christ is the symbolic Light of the world for us, but also the power by which all real light was made. 

               One of the results of the theories of relativity that is hardest to accept is that time itself is different for people who are in motion relative to each other.  It suggests that those who are traveling close to the speed of light away from the earth will have time elapse much slower than those who are at rest on the earth.  If one took a spaceship away from the earth close to the speed of light for some distance and then turned around and came back at that same speed, they would find that they have aged at a much slower rate than those on earth.  The idea that time is not the same in different places is certainly alluded to in scriptures.  For example, in Peter we read, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).  In the book of Abraham we have more detail about this fact: “And the Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest” (Abraham 3:4).  I’m not suggesting that these are making the same claims as the theories of relativity, but they do seem to confirm the general notion that time in some way can be different in different places.  

The theory of general relativity also makes the astounding claim that if an object enters the event horizon of a black hole—basically the point of no return where the things could never get back out because it would take a speed greater than the speed of light to do so—then the time that takes place in that black hole will be infinitely far in the future as compared to time measured in earth.  This reminds me of Alma’s surprising statement to his son Corianton that “all is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men” (Alma 40:8).  Here Alma suggested there is some absolute fundamental difference in heaven about what it means for time to pass as it does for us on earth.  Again, not the exact same thing that relativity proposes but certainly the themes are similar: time in eternity is not what we expect and is fundamentally different from what we know here.  In short, we really know little about what life and progression will be like in the eternities.  As the Prophet Joseph said, “Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject.”  Some day we will understand all of these mysteries about light and eternity and time and space—what matters most now is that we seek after that Light which “giveth life to all things.”