Presbyter wrote:Abraham 3 explains the metaphor
I suppose I was hoping for more specificity than a referral to twenty-eight verses of the Book of Abraham...
As to your metaphor reference: I propose the following...
Abrahamic astronomy was considered a literal revelation about astronomical topics in the decades following 1843... Only with the recent understanding of stellar evolution, of nucleosynthesis and of the various fusion reactions that power the stars has the literal interpretation of Abrahamic astronomy been shunted aside to make room for the metaphorical. Very much like the shift of considering the native peoples of America to
be the descendants of Lehi to the admission that they are mostly
not.
It seems to me that whenever the
status quo is altered, it is always God scrambling out of the way of new human discovery, and never the other way 'round. When was the last time an LDS prophet was vindicated?