Ancient models of history were circular (roughly).  Monarchy to Tyranny, Aristocracy to Oligarchy, Republic to Democracy, and then Monarchy again, and the cycle again.  Or the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, and rebirth into a new Golden Age.  History for the mass was something like reincarnation for the soul.

Then (again, very roughly) Christianity introduced a  model of history with a beginning and an end and a definite arc in between.  As with the salvation of the soul.

Mormonism is somewhere in between.History still has an arc.  We were created, fell, redeemed, and await the end.  Yet within that arc all is not smooth.  There are dispensations and repeated cycles of revelation and apostasy.  Each builds on what has come before, they are not just repeats, but within each cycle they are much the same.  Think one of those graphed lines that has had a sine term added to the equation.  We learn something and find a new revelation, it gives us a fresh spurt, but we get used to it and the same old dynamics set in.

The smaller cycles are probably fractal to the overall arc.  And within those smaller cycles, individuals probably follow their even smaller version of those cycles.  Then, at the largest level, when this creation is over, a new creation starts, but the old creation is not done away with, it still counts for ever.  Cycles, but they build on each other.  Both timeless eternity and time forever.

 


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