Dr Val Larsen concludes this conversation with a discussion of theosis in the Book of Mormon. We'll also discuss his upcoming projects. Check out our conversation...

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Theosis

Val  00:29  Now I'm going to go on to a shorter description now of probably what is the most explicit theosis story in the scriptures. Let's finish with a final, and in many respects, the best example of theosis in the Book of Mormon, the second Nephi, the second person named Nephi. The discussion here is shorter. It's all pretty explicit. This Nephi provides the clearest example of theosis in scripture. He becomes the chief judge at the death of his father, Helaman. In that purely human role, he's not a success. Almost all the Nephite lands are lost during his judgeship, and then only half of what's lost is regained. He's the main politician. He's the head of state. Few politicians could survive as a leader in the wake of a military collapse of that magnitude. Unsurprisingly, this second Nephi loses his position as Chief Judge. The text blames the people for this loss.

Val  01:28  The Book of Mormon is, among many other things, a sympathetic history of Alma family rule. I've got a whole theory about that, that the Book of Mormon is a handbook, a governance handbook for the Alma family that got repurposed at the very end. I'm going to have that written up at some point. But one of the things it does is it never frames the Alma family as doing anything wrong. I mean it does initially, when they deviate from Christ, and it shows that's the key part of the handbook: Don't ever turn away from Christ. It doesn't matter how much talent, success you have, you're a disaster unless you have Christ. That actually illuminates the book a lot to think of it that way. Anyway, even though the Book of Mormon is letting Nephi off the hook here, the people wouldn't have. You don't get to lose half your country, as head of state. It's very unlikely that his resignation was voluntary. The other political party, we see them take over. "You lost half our country. All right, goodbye." No longer the Chief Judge, Nephi takes it upon himself to preach the Word of God all the remainder of his days. We get the great story about Nephi and Lehi in the same prison where Abinadi was imprisoned, having experiences like Abinadi that are described in words that echo Abinadi's story. Nephi and Lehi are transformed into beings of light, like Abinadi was, and all the people they have ministered to become members of the Divine Council. If listeners want to know the details, they can read them in a 2023 Interpreter article that Newell and I wrote, "Theosis in the Book of Mormon."

GT  03:18  Not Newell Bringhurst.

Val  03:20  What's that?

GT  03:20  Not Newell Bringhurst.

Val  03:22  Newell Wright and I.

GT  03:22  Okay.

Val  03:23  Yes, my co-author. So let's move on to the apotheosis of Nephi, who is given all God's power to move within and affect the world. The predicate for this conferral of power is the alignment of Nephi's mind with the mind of God. God speaks to Nephi using the same words Lamoni used when he equated his wife with divine beings, "Blessed art thou." That's what he says to his wife after he comes up and he has that vision. So here's the quote, "Blessed art thou Nephi for those things which thou has done, for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearingness declared the word. And now because thou has done this with such unwearingness, behold, I will bless thee forever and I will make thee mighty in word and deed and faith and works, yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word. For Thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. Behold, I am God. Behold, I declare unto thee in the presence of my angels, that you shall have power over this people. Behold, I give you power, that whatsoever you shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven, whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Thus saith the Lord God, who is almighty." At this point in his life, Nephi, like Christ, becomes an incarnation of God on the earth. That's--I know that's an odd way of speaking, but I think it's true. He's an incarnation of God.

Val  04:41  He has all God's power given to him. As he would be the first to insist, he didn't live a perfect life like the Savior. Unlike the Savior, he wasn't born as an incarnation of God. But through the grace and power of Christ's Atonement, he has become one with the Savior and one with God. He has become what Christ commands all of us to become, perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect. He's a full-fledged member of the Divine Council and by all, but the most abstract philosophical standards is a god, like the first Nephi. During his vision, he knows what only God can know. Like the first Nephi, he moves from place-to-place instantaneously as only a God could move. Unsurprisingly, as was true for Ammon, some of the people declare more in truth than in error quote," Behold, he is a God." That's them confounding a man and a God. This is right in the Book of Mormon, a man who becomes indistinguishable from a God with all the powers of God. And so in the other things I've read symbolically and bringing symbols together to make explicit the theosis that's happening there, and I think it's powerful. I think it's very cogent. Symbolically, it actually is, in a way, telling a deeper truth than this narrative is. But this is the narrative where it's made fully explicit that Nephi has given all God says. Anything that you say happen, can happen. You have my divine powers and then the people start calling him a god. Nephi's dual citizenship on earth and in heaven, but primarily in heaven, is signified like that of Alma the Younger. By the last thing we're told about him, his death was not witnessed or recorded. All we know is that he departed out of land of Zarahemla, 'Whither he went no man knoweth."

Val  06:25  We are left to infer that, perhaps, like Moses, this Nephi was buried by God or that, like Elijah, without dying, he passed from earth to heaven. These ambiguities in how he passed separate him from ordinary mortals, again, positioning him between earth and heaven, or just in heaven. Taken together with the account we have of his receipt of divine power, this Nephi becomes our best scriptural example of how mortal man receiveth all that my father hath. Therefore, all that my father hath is given unto him.' He has become a perfected Son of God, like his master and exemplar, Christ, and has thus become a Divine Being or another incarnation of God in the world. So, let's wrap things up here. I'm sure your audience has had way more than enough of me. While some scholars have suggested that theosis is a Nauvoo addition to restoration theology, evidence suggests that it was present in the Book of Mormon long before the Nauvoo period. The fact that theosis is independently articulated in the Book of Mormon and the King Follett discourse, is evidence that the doctrine is an integral part of the gospel. There's no reason to believe Joseph saw theosis in the Book of Mormon when he translated the book or that he developed his understanding of theosis from reading the Book of Mormon. Our ability to see it there, apart from this Nephi story, I would say, is a function of insightful modern scholarship and voices speaking from the dust at Ugarit, and other places that have given us an understanding of what was happening in Lehi's Jerusalem that Joseph couldn't have had.

Val  07:36  So the two articulations of the doctrine are independent and our understanding of theosis is made richer by these related, but distinct articulations. In his King Follett sermon, Joseph clarified aspects of theosis that are not fully explicit in the Book of Mormon. Joseph's pronouncements about the ontology of God and man are particularly forceful and clear. What he clearly states is only implied in the Book of Mormon. Conversely, some elements of theosis theology are developed with greater clarity in the Book of Mormon than in Joseph's, deservedly famous, sermon. For example, the close coupling of the Mother and Son as they play their linked role in salvation is especially clear in the Book of Mormon. Likewise, especially clear is the desire of the Father to feature the two most salient objects of His love, the Mother and the Son, who are the two most important gifts that come to us as humanity. We return to the Father, the Book of Mormon suggests, by coming to the Mother and Son, the Tree of Life and its fruit. That concludes my substantive analysis of theosis in the Book of Mormon. But let me say a thing or two about my sources. The first article that set me on the path to this analysis was Dan Peterson's, "Nephi and his Asherah," which Rosalynde also mentioned is something she was familiar with. That led me to Kevin Christensen, whose own contributions are significant, but whose biggest contribution was to bring Margaret Barker, the great Methodist scholar, to the attention of Latter Day Saint community. Margaret's voluminous work on the Old Testament converges with LDS theology on a remarkable number of dimensions. Have you ever interviewed her? Probably not?

GT  09:39  No, you need to give me her email address.

Val  09:41  Get a hold of Kevin Christensen, who's on the Interpreter board because he's pretty good friends with her. Actually, when you interview Dave, talk with him about it because he's been in touch with her, too.

GT  09:54  Okay.

Val  09:55  I think she's read those books of Dave's. I think she liked those books of Dave's, and some of what he was doing.