They Shall be Changed in the Twinkling of an Eye

Saint Joseph and the Christ Child; Guido Reni (1575-1642)

Where Science Meets the Doctrine and Covenants, for the Come Follow Me lesson September 8-14; Doctrine and Covenants 98-101

We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 101:22-23, “Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places; And prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together.” I remember discussing that prophecy when I was taking Seminary in high school in the mid-1960s. I pointed out to Mr. Cottle, my Seminary teacher, that everyone cannot see Christ at the same time because not everyone can even see the sun at the same time. But that was before the era of cellphones. Now, it is easy to see how that revelation can be fulfilled: when Christ returns, everyone on the Earth will be made instantly aware because those actually present will be taking live mobile videos and posting them all over the Net. They will go viral almost instantly.

Doctrine and Covenants 101:24-28 goes on to say, “And every corruptible thing, both of man, or of the beasts of the field, or of the fowls of the heavens, or of the fish of the sea, that dwells upon all the face of the earth, shall be consumed; And also that of element shall melt with fervent heat; and all things shall become new, that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all the earth. And in that day the enmity of man, and the enmity of beasts, yea, the enmity of all flesh, shall cease from before my face. And in that day whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him. And in that day Satan shall not have power to tempt any man.” This is an amazing prophecy and I’m sure that when it is fulfilled, we will understand much more than we do reading it now. Maybe others can imagine what that great and terrible day is going to be like; I certainly cannot.

We are then told in Doctrine and Covenants 101:29-31, “And there shall be no sorrow because there is no death. In that day an infant shall not die until he is old; and his life shall be as the age of a tree; And when he dies he shall not sleep, that is to say in the earth, but shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up, and his rest shall be glorious.” Wow! For me, referring to a revelation that I have no idea what its fulfillment is going to look like, this is certainly one of my favorites!

I have discussed a number of times what we refer to as Dark Matter (Obscure Matter). Joseph Smaith told the Saints in Ramus, Illinois, May 16 and 17, 1843: “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8) This definition is almost exactly the definition of Dark Matter, all except the “purer eyes” part.

We are also told in Doctrine and Covenants 88:15-16, “And the spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul.” Then verse 28 states, “They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.” We are also told in Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-34, “For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.”

The only information we have at present about the practical qualities of a resurrected body comes from statements in the New Testament by eye witnesses of Jesus’ resurrected body. I have written a book, The Immortal Messiah: The Physiology of Resurrected Beings (Cedar Fort, Inc., 2022). That book centers around one scripture in the book of Luke 24:41-43: “And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.” My book then goes on to discuss the implications of the fact that the resurrected Jesus could eat. Christ’s resurrected, spiritual body could interact in such an intimate way with “natural matter” as to be able to digest food.

I also speculated, in my book, about what actually transpired within Christ’s tomb. I quote from my book: “…Christ’s body apparently remained hanging on the cross from about 3 pm until sometime after 7 pm…He was in the sepulcher for somewhere around 35 hours… In Christ’s case, His tomb was empty, His physical body was gone, He had apparently walked out of the tomb with the same body that had been laid in the tomb…In order for Christ’s body to be resurrected intact, so that it could walk out of the tomb, it needed to be preserved in pristine condition for those 40 hours…In my opinion, the most likely scenario is that Christ was not actually dead for that entire 40 hour period. It is possible that he was not yet dead when placed into the tomb but was initially in a state of catalepsy, torpidity, or coma, which, as discussed in the previous chapter [my chapter on Lazarus], may be characterized by a person being in a trance-like state, with complete immobility, no perceptible heart rate or respiration, and no apparent response to outside stimulation. These states may last from several minutes to several weeks or even months. Perhaps Lazarus was indeed a type of Jesus’ resurrection, pointing not only toward the event but also the higher law applying to both events. Not even the medical experts of the time could have distinguish catalepsy from death...in some way during that entire 40 hours, His body was preserved in such a manner that it did not decompose. Perhaps His body was in a state of catalepsy for most of that time, and then it was resurrected in the twinkling of an eye. (Doctrine and Covenants 101:30-31)…the time between His actual death and resurrection may have been extremely short, perhaps even as short as the twinkling of an eye, so that His cellular structure did not have time to break down between His death and resurrection. This conclusion in no way diminishes the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection or the impact His atonement has on our own resurrections… He was dead. But at that moment, by a means that we are still a long way from comprehending, His veins and arteries were infused with some other fluid, some Spirit blood if you will, of which we have no record or knowledge at present, and Christ was changed from mortal to immortal in the twinkling of an eye.”

In my book, I speculated about that “Spirit blood”. I proposed, “Therefore, as a resurrected body has Spirit and not blood in the veins and arteries, then that Spirit must in some way replace blood in transporting glucose after Christ’s meal of fish and honeycomb, as well as oxygen, to His muscle cells where ATP is produced in the electron transport chain to energize His muscles to step out of the tomb and walk to Emmaus and back to Jerusalem. We may wait with some considerable anticipation to discover the details of that other, Spirit, fluid carrier that can replace blood. In the meantime, we can exercise faith that the details will be revealed in God’s own time and in His own appointed way. So far, over the past seventy years or so, He already has been pouring down an amazing amount of knowledge upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints concerning how a body of Flesh and Bones actually works. What an exciting time to be alive!”

I also stated, “We cannot, at present, propose what the elemental basis of such [Spirit] fluid might be. Oxygen occupies a unique position on the periodic table of the elements, and there is no place, that we know of at present, for any other element to accomplish the task performed by oxygen. Furthermore, at present, parsimony argues that it is far more likely that the mortal and immortal systems are more the same than they are different. If God has a heart, which I believe He has, then He has blood or some other fluid pumped by that heart throughout His body.” If oxygen is the element needed for digestion after resurrection, then perhaps the solution is that there is an entire periotic table of obscure matter, including oxygen, in the same position as it occupies in the “normal” periotic table. If that is the case, then obscure matter and natural matter can, apparently interact much more readily than is so far apparent to modern science.

It is my opinion that the information we can glean from the accounts of Christ’s resurrected body can give us enormous insight into the nature of those resurrected bodies described in Doctrine and Covenants 101:29-31. After a person is as old as a tree and is changed from mortal to immortal in the twinkling of an eye, the physical nature of that person will apparently not change all that much, insomuch as that person will still be able to interact with the “normal substances” around him or her. Therefore, to my mind, there is some, as yet unknown way, that the “obscure matter” of a resurrected body can interact with “normal matter”. At present, I have no idea what that means, but, much like the pre-cell-phone me of the 1960s, I hope that when we arrive at the time, apparently soon to come, when we live to the age of a tree and then change in the twinkling of an eye, we may know a lot more about the science involved.

Trent Dee Stephens, PhD

trentdeestephens.com

stephenstrent7@gmail.com