Sunday, August 22, 2021

Truman G. Madsen on D&C 93

  

D&C 93. The doctrine of our potential for godhood had already been revealed in 1833 and is recorded in section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The very first verse of the revelation teaches that all may approach God—and know him: “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am” (D&C 93:1).

 

“Section 93,” one scholar has written, “is an introductory text on how to come into the Lord’s presence and become like him” (Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour through Modern Revelations [2008], 345). Truman often taught that the objective of the missionary program is “to get Mr. and Mrs. Brown on their knees.” God is not “the Great Oblong Blur” constructed by the creeds—he is our Father. He is approachable and knowable (see John 17:3).

 

Indeed, the Lord himself explained why he gave the revelation recorded in section 93: “that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fullness” (D&C 93:19).

 

“Section 93,” Truman noted, was received “when Joseph was twenty0seven years old. It defines beginningless beginnings, the interrelationships of truth, of light, of intelligence, of agency, of element, of embodiment, of joy. Every sentence, every word, is freighted with meaning” (TGM, Joseph Smith, the Prophet [1989], 140-41 n. 27).

 

Based on this revelation alone, we need not be, as Kierkegaard suggested, “crucified on the paradox of the absurd.” “in one fell swoop,” Truman observed, “it cuts many Gordian knots.”

 

For example: How can there [be] something come from nothing. Answer: The universe was not created from nothing. “The elements are eternal.” [v. 33]

How can Christ have been both absolutely human and absolutely divine at the same time? Answer: He was not both at the same time. Christ ‘received not of the fulness at first, but continued . . . until he received a fulness. [vv. 12-14]

 

If a man is totally the creation of God, how can he be anything or do anything that he was not divinely pre-caused to do? Answer: Man is not totally the creation of God. “Intelligence . . . was not created or made, neither indeed can be. . . . Behold, here is the agency of man.” [vv. 29, 31]

 

How can man be a divine creation and yet be “totally depraved”? Answer: Man is not totally depraved. “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.” [v. 38]

 

What is the relationship of being and beings, the one and the many? Answer: “Being” is only the collective name of beings of whom God is one. Truth is knowledge of things (plural), and not, as Plato would have it, of Thinghood. “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” [v. 24]

 

How can spirit relate to gross matter? Answer: “The elements are the tabernacle of God.” [v. 35]

 

Why should man be embodied? Answer: “Spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy” [v. 33]

 

If we being susceptible to light and truth, how is it that people err and abuse the light? Answer: People are free; they can be persuaded only if they choose to be. They cannot be compelled. The Socratic thesis that knowledge is virtue (that if you really know the good you will seek it and do it) is mistaken. It is through disobedience and because of the traditions of the fathers that light is taken away from mankind. [v. 39] (Ibid.)

 

These doctrines from section 93, cutting through the paradoxes of orthodox theology, are at the core of Eternal Man. No wonder one reader wrote, “I can only express the feeling that came to me as I read your book as though someone had turned on the light in a dark room. Everything I had been wondering about found its answers in your book” (Richard Fairbanks letter to TGM, 21 March 1979; Journal 1979). (Barnard N. Madsen, The Truman G. Madsen Story: A Life of Study and Faith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016], 309-11)

 

Further Reading

 

Blake Ostler on Christology and Christification in Mosiah 15 and D&C 93