Facsimile 1

(January 10, 2014)
I have looked at this Facsimile I don’t know how many times, read all of the arguments that it is illegitimate, read all of the apologists that the arguments for them being illegitmate are wrong, and answered those arguments in my mind to my own satisfaction.  But I have never, until right now, gotten the point of this Facsimile – the reason why it was included in Abraham at all.

Abraham, on the evil altar, is a symbol of us on the evil altar.  Like Abraham, we have been bound by the author of wickedness and we face our death to appease the evil king.  Like Abraham, we cannot make our escape, we face the terror of death, the pain and suffering of the inevitable destruction that awaits us, and our understanding that all we do is in vain to avoid this.  And like Abraham, only one option is available for our Salvation – God rescuing us from our impossible situation.

The symbolic nature of this Facsimile thus becomes clear – it represented a real event, but that real event represents something more.  Like Abraham, we are bound by our sins and left to die on an altar built for wickedness and presided over by idolatrous gods that represent the four corners of this fallen world.  Overseeing our death in gladness is Pharaoh, the evil king, who has ordered our death – in this case, a symbol for Satan.  But by calling out to God, we can be snatched from our eternal destruction by the power of God and the infinite nature of the Atonement.