It’s always fun to learn something new that is also kind of weird. Today’s entry is from Bruce R. McConkie, who while not very fun, was always weird. The other day while listening to a podcast on McConkie’s infamous Seven Deadly Heresies talk given at a BYU devotional in 1980, I found this gem from the talk:
Eternal progression consists of living the kind of life God lives and of increasing in kingdoms and dominions everlastingly. Why anyone should suppose that an infinite and eternal being who has presided in our universe for almost 2,555,000,000 years, who made the sidereal heavens, whose creations are more numerous than the particles of the earth, and who is aware of the fall of every sparrow—why anyone would suppose that such a being has more to learn and new truths to discover in the laboratories of eternity is totally beyond my comprehension.
McConkie, BYU Devotional, 1 June 1980
The above was part of his explanation why believing “that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths” was a heresy, (number one on his list!). So there is that big number, 2, 555,000,000, the number of years that God has been God of our universe. Is that the age of God? Is it the age of the earth? Was it counted from the day God was set apart as our God? Who set him apart? Was he God before that time? I’m sure if Bruce had lived longer he might have answered those questions also.
What I found fascinating was how he came up with that number. First he took a literal reading of D&C 77:6
6 Q. What are we to understand by the book which John saw, which was sealed on the back with seven seals? A. We are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.
D&C 77:6
So we have the number 7000. Now he takes another uniquely Mormon stripture, and uses the literal meaning again
4 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. This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time, according to the reckoning of Kolob.
Abraham 3:4
OK, now we get to use some math. One year = 365 days. So in 7000 years (the life of the earth) there are 7000 x 365 = 2,555,000 days. If each of those days, as written personally by the hand of Abraham, is 1000 years, then 2,555,000 x 1000 = two billion, five hundred and fifty five million years (2,555,000,000).
Now McConkie realized that we have not quite reached the 7000 years, so being ever so carful to not get anything wrong, he used the word “almost 2,555,000,000” since we are not quite there yet.
This was all brand new to me, and it was truly a joy to learn something new this last week about this quirky religion that I was born into.
Did any of you know this about the age of the universe?
How come it is not more widely taught today in the Church, since it is still found on the Church’s (BYU) web site?
