In his
recollection of Moroni's initial appearance to him, Joseph Smith wrote:
After this communication, I saw the light in
the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been
speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark,
except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right
up into heaven, and he ascended till
he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this
heavenly light had made its appearance . . .He commenced, and again related the
very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least
variation; which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were
coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence;
and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation.
Having related these things, he again ascended
as he had done before . . . After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I
was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced;
when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed, and I found
that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the whole
of that night. (JS-H 1:43, 45, 47)
The use of
the active voice ascended as opposed
to the passive voice “was assumed” is evidence in favour of theosis. How so?
Being assumed into heaven means that one was taken up by the power of God, an
external force. This was the case for Enoch and Elijah. For example, following
the LXX, Heb 11:5 says the following of Enoch:
By faith Enoch was translated (μετετεθη, the
third-person singular indicative aorist passive of μετατιθημι) that he should
not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before
his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
In Acts 1:9,
we read, not of the assumption, but the ascension of Jesus, which makes sense,
as, after his resurrection, he received a glorified, heavenly body:
And when he had spoken these things, while
they beheld, he was taken up (υπελαβεν third-person indicative aorist active of
θπολαμβανω); and a cloud received him out of their sight.
The ability
of Moroni to go up to heaven by his own power, not an external power, makes
perfect sense in light of the doctrine of “Christification” (we will become
glorified, by grace, as Christ is; cf. 1 John 3:1-3; Rev 3:9, 21).
