Cars Resurrection

Dear Readers,

I was watching the Cars movies, and afterwords had some interesting thoughts while in the shower. In a way, this Pixar world that was created gives a somewhat interesting and also horrifying insight into our lives here in mortality.

Lightning McQueen being trained by Cruz Ramirez in Cars 3

It is fairly obvious that the Cars are living automobiles or machines, but what I did not realize until watching the third movie is that they cannot see inside themselves. As most of us know, vehicles have speedometers so that as a driver, we can keep track of how fast we are going, usually because of speed limits. However, there is surprising emphasis in Cars 3 of Cruz Ramirez (McQueen's trainer) having to keep up with him in-order to scan his speed. This means that Lightning McQueen was unable to see the speedometer inside of himself, much like how a human needs a pedometer to keep track of the number of steps they take.

With this realization, I began thinking that if a car from our world was moved into this Cars Pixar world, it would be dead. No life in it like the other cars. Yet, if a human were to be there as well and drive the car, it would be a dead car, able to move. Essentially, this would make humans a parasite that reanimates a car's corpse.

This got me thinking of the Chevron with Techron commercials from years ago. In this world, living cars and people get along, in a true symbiotic relationship.

Looking at things from a more spiritual perspective, it is like a human is the spirit of the car, while the car itself is the body. While in mortality, our spirits drive around our bodies, making them seem alive. One day the driver will leave, and the car will be dead. While the Chevron with Techron world could be compared more to those who are transfigured like John the Beloved (Doctrine and Covenants 7). Loosely, they are alive as immortals, but will one day be changed in the twinkling of an eye, a transition equal to death, from this state into true immortality (3 Nephi 28:8). The fully living cars in Cars 1-3 are those who have the spirit and the body inseparably connected like a resurrected car/person.

Lizzie next to a memorial of her husband Stanley from Cars

Though, in this Pixar world, it is not a true comparison, for these cars still pass away. With Lizzie missing her husband Stanley, and others succumbing to rust as a disease, it is clear that though it could be compared with the resurrection it is far from the perfect state it would actually be.

Anyway, these were my interesting thoughts about Cars and the Gospel. I hope that you enjoyed them!

Love,
Jacobugoth

Thoughts about Christ

Dear Readers,

Again, in my institute class, we had another lesson about the nature of Christ and why He had to be the way He was in order to be our Savior. Of course, this got me thinking and speculating again. To explain my thoughts, I think I will begin with referring to my Adam, Eve, and Lilith post.

In that post I talked about a quote from Brigham Young "One thing has remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day. It is in regard to the character of the well-beloved Son of God, upon which subject the Elder of Israel have conflicting views... The question has been, and is often, asked, who it was that begat the Son of the Virgin Mary... Now, remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost." (Journal of Discourses v1 pg 50-51). Thus we see that in the portions I quoted earlier in my other post, he was clearly comparing Adam's birth to Christ's. Also, since Jesus was not born of the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost, Jesus was literally the offspring of an immortal Father and a mortal mother, the Virgin Mary.

Now, there may be many people and members of the church that might think that this means that God the Father had sexual intercourse with the betrothed Mary. However, I will declare unequivocally and irrevocably that God will not break His own commandments. My God is not an adulterer or a fornicator. Yet clearly Mary was not His wife. Therefore, I am lead to believe that the Father's divine genetics were infused into one of Mary's ovum. The genes could have easily been in the form of sperm, thus we would call this artificial insemination. Ironically, the television show of Jane the Virgin may have some enlightenment on this subject of how Mary the mother of Jesus could be a virgin who conceived the Son of God.

Nevertheless, we must remember why this was necessary. Christ had to be half-mortal half-immortal. Without those attributes, He could not suffer the eternal pains of all of our sins and yet live, for any mortal would either perish or faint before the full measure of the price could be paid (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18).

Nor could He die and raise himself from the dead, for if He were mortal, He would die just like us and like our bodies, remain in the earth, and if He was immortal, He could not die and bring to pass the resurrection for Himself or the rest of us. These two crucial and encompassing points of the atonement required the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the child of a true Immortal and a very mortal mother.

Now, with these things in mind, I became intrigued with the realization I had concerning Ectoplasm in immortal beings. What would a demigod hybrid have flowing through His body? Just blood like a mortal? Christ bled from every pore in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) and bled as he was beaten, scourged, crucified, and notably when His side was pierced (John 19:34). So He most certainly had blood, but did He have spirit in His veins too? Spirit which is too fine or pure to be seen with our natural eyes (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7).

Though He could die, Christ could not be killed, He would have to give up His life and relinquish His body, at least for a time. If He could not be killed, it implies that His spirit was connected to His body in a stronger way, like possibly flowing through His body. Maybe within even every cell of His earthly tabernacle.

In my Light of Christ post, I speculated about why Christ's resurrected "perfect" body still had scars. Maybe His scars were from parts of His spirit He had given us so that we could have the light of Christ in us. Though, what has satisfied my in query was the notion that Christ's atonement made Him suffer body and spirit, thus when He was nailed on the cross, the nails pierced His body and His spirit, scaring both.

The idea that maybe He had this spiritual connection to His body all along now makes me wonder if this was the reason why the scripture was written that angels would bear Christ up least He dash His foot against a stone (Psalms 91:11-12, Matthew 4:6), because maybe any damage His body received during mortality would forever scar His spiritual body and therefore resurrected immortal body as well.

This would also mean that the tokens, which we are taught about in the temple, were the signs of Christ that needed to be upon His body, His immortal body. Literally, like a lamb to the slaughter, He could have been spared from physical pain, or at least scaring incisions, until the end of His life. This would also explain why none of His bones would be permitted to be broken, because those breaks would forever disfigure His bones.

Alas, this is all fun to speculate, but when all is said and done, all that has been revealed about Christ's upbringing is that he grew from grace to grace (Luke 2:52, John 1:16, Doctrine and Covenants 93:12-14), and that His childhood is not talked about because of sacred reverence much like how we treat our Mother in Heaven.

Because of the silence and the holding of peace that is given to this subject, a friend gave me a different view. When I expressed these ideas I was having to him, he asked whether or not I thought that Jesus got splinters, or accidentally cut Himself while He was a carpenter working with His father Joseph. I don't know, it could go either way with the fallen world of mortality, or the subtle protection from harm that Joseph and Mary might have taken for granted, much like David Dunn (Bruce Willis' character in Unbreakable) who never realized his impervious powers until the Glassman blew up a train and David survived without a scratch. It is very likely that we can take health for granted, and Joseph and Mary could have taken Christ's the same way.

However, to compensate for the possibility for a normal childhood, what if His spirit was not merged with His body until He was at the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:2)? What if Christ's transfiguration was a activation of some of His Father's dormant genes inside of Him, preparing Him to suffer body and spirit during the atonement. Using a rough estimation, the transfiguration took place about halfway through Christ's three year mission (Harmony of the Gospels) which would mean that Christ would have been in this semi-immortal, yet vulnerable state for about a year and a half.

Ultimately, in either case, acknowledging both could be wrong, I consign that these are simply cool ideas and thoughts that I was having about Christ. Thoughts that I figured were worth sharing. I hope that they get you thinking, and might even inspire you in some new terrains of thought. Feel free to leave any comments, concerns, or ideas that you have below.

Love,
Jacobugoth