The following is a guest post by Daylan Darby
What is Glory?
The first answer that comes to mind is D&C 93:36 “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth”. Many (most?) scriptures that use the word glory match this definition.
I’d like to limit this discussion to the dictionary use of the word glory: “praise or honor.” This usage is found in Moses 1:39 “For behold, this is my work and my glory…” and other scriptures (see http://scriptures.lds.org/tgg/glory)
We can somewhat quantify intelligence/glory (IQ tests, etc.) or light/glory (Lums), but how can we measure honor/glory? Intelligence and light have a meaningful purpose and can be used to help others. What purpose does honor/glory serve? How can praise be used to bless others?
What does glory mean to you?
The rest of Moses is scripture well worth considering “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39) It seems that this ties God’s glory with a kind of relationship with his children. Whether this just is, as you suggest from the dictionary, increasing the number of beings who praise him, or something more. It does suggest that it is tied to us, his children.
I agree with Clark, but I think it is more than just the praise that we can give, it is the love that we can give. Anyone can praise someone, but it only means something if the praise is backed by love. That is why those that “love [Him], keep [His] commandments” and return to live with him. If praise meant something without deep love then there may not have been a restriction on who can return to His presence.
I agree–
The “glory of God is intelligence” dove-tails nicely with the idea that we are intelligences.
One alternative to that is to argue that by bringing intelligences into the world and allowing them to maximize their potential he is increasing intelligence. Not just in the sense of maximizing spirits or creating, but also by creating more intelligence (i.e. information) in existence. That is moving from potential to actuality. Since potential is infinite this suggests an infinite process.
When I think of this “praise/honor” in “work and glory” I think more along the lines of when we say things like “I was honored to accompany her.” or so forth. In other words, It made me very happy. I have always thought of this as the Lord truly reveling in the work of helping us to be like him.
Why is that (or those) the work and glory of God?
Interesting ideas.
#1 Clark. What good/purpose (from God’s viewpoint) is praise. Is a perfect being limited by lack of praise? Does a perfect being need/want praise?
#2 Andermom. I tried to replace “glory” with “love” in those scriptures listed at http://scriptures.lds.org/tgg/glory and a lot of them made sense. However there were still a few that didn’t read right. Also what does a perfect being do with love?
#5 Matt. I think you are saying glory=’very happy’. This makes some sense in the scriptures.
ALL. “Rev. 14:7 Fear God, and give glory to him.” What are we giving Him?
I think praise, in English, has negative connotations – perhaps because of our association with European royalty. I think the way Blake tends to put it as love is better. And in that regard, yes, I think a perfect being needs and wants to be loved. And perfect beings can love better than imperfect ones.
I think of this more in terms of what happened to me this last Christmas. All of my brothers and sisters brought their families to my parent’s house for Christmas. After eating, and singing, and stuff my Dad stood up and said with tears in his eyes “This is what life is for.” I don’t totally understand what he may have been feeling, and it is probably one of those things that you have to be a grandparent to feel. But the love that he felt for us, and the love that we felt for him and eachother was a form of praise/glory to him. I think it is a feeling like the one my dad felt that Heavenly Father is after. So what does a perfected being do with love? They return it, and are made happy by it.
Cleon Skousen (RIP) pointed out an interesting verse. D&C 29:36
Skousen finds a lot of importance in the equation of honor with power. He talks a lot about how the very elements of the universe will obey God because they honor him. All he has to do is speak, and they obey. Water? Wine. and so forth. I’m not sure what to make of this point on the whole, but it is a thought provoking one. It seems to be related to this concept of glory being discussed here.
I appreciate Matt’s notion.
One definition of glory is “the beatific happiness of heaven” and one definition of the verb, to glory, is “to experience intense delight”. To me, the scriptures that tie God’s glory to intelligence, light, truth and bringing to pass the immortality of man, point out that those things are what bring God the greatest joy.
An admonition to do things for the glory of God, or to give him glory, therefore, is not an admonition to increase praise for him, but rather a call to do things that will further light, intelligence, truth and salvation; the things which give him the greatest happiness and delight (and us too, if we are like him).
There is a book called Return to Life, I think, by George Ritchie. And he died and had a near death experience and he tells about meeting Christ. He saw Christ as an intensely powerful and loving person. Jesus asks him something about what he did good on earth, and he gave an example, I can’t remember and I seem to have lent my book out, darn, I hate when that happens because I can’t remember who borrowed it. I break legs if people don’t return my books.
Anyway, he tells some good thing he did, and Jesus says, “That glorified you.”
So that always comes back to haunt me as I ponder and try to understand and absorb the concept of glory.
I think the book is called Return from Tomorrow.
If Satan wanted God to give him God’s glory, are we talking about the same glory? Intelligence? Good accomplishments? Praise?
It’s interesting to me that, in Moses 4, Satan wanted God’s “honor”. Christ says, the “glory” be thine. I think this indicates that the former really doesn’t understand God’s glory. He sees it as a hierarchical power thing, where others honor, laud, respect and obey him because of his dominion and control. He’s interested in the rush that comes with the control of others’ respect, fear and obedience. He doesn’t understand that God’s work isn’t a power trip.
Christ, on the other hand, understands glory; a joy that is the result of righteousness born of work done with unselfishness, persuasion, long-suffering, charity, gentleness, unfeigned love, kindness and pure knowledge.
It strikes me that this is the same misunderstanding and understanding of priesthood (the power of God) that the Lord discusses at the end of Doc. & Cov. section 121.