Question
Gramps,
While reading in Moses Chapter 1 I noticed it states:
37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.
38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.
Can you tell me if there are truly multiple heavens, possibly one for each “earth”? Or some other meaning?
Jeffrey
Answer
Jeffrey,
I believe you’ve become the victim of multiple definitions. To explain, let’s take a look at the verses in question.
36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content.
37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. Moses 1:36-37
Here is the definition from Dictionary.com that is being used.
Usually, heavens. the sky, firmament, or expanse of space surrounding the earth.
So, to say that “the heavens are many” simply refers to objects in outer space.
President Brigham Young said:
“How many earths are there? I observed this morning that you may take the particles of matter composing this earth, and if they could be enumerated they would only be a beginning to the number of the creations of God; and they are continually coming into existence, and undergoing changes and passing through the same experience that we are passing through” (“Remarks,” Deseret News, Aug. 24, 1870, 343).
Elder Robert D. Hales also said:
Just think of what science and astronomy tell us about the expanse of the solar system and the universe. Our solar system centers on the sun, one of a huge group of stars on the order of 100 billion stars swirling around a huge pinwheel-shaped mass called the Milky Way galaxy, which is about 100,000 light-years across. Astronomers cannot see to the end of the universe, but evidence suggests that the vastness of space contains billions of galaxies stretching for an expanse of 5 billion to 15 billion light-years away from the sun. Compared with such distances, our solar system occupies a very tiny amount of space. The universe is virtually incomprehensible to man (see Compton’s Living Encyclopedia, s.v. “Solar System”).
We sing in praise:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
(Hymns, no. 86)
(“In Remembrance of Jesus,” Ensign, Nov. 1997, 25)
If we instead believe that he’s talking about the afterlife, then it wouldn’t really make much sense for those heavens to “pass away”, would it? So, this isn’t talking about that.
Gramps
