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Section 93 covers important teachings about the nature of God. A careful reading reveals that many of these scriptural teaching contradict the teachings of the modern institution. Mike Allison joins us and brings some amazing insights, as always.
JST Exodus 33:20
D&C 50:43-45
D&C 84:19-24
Mosiah 15:2-5
Malachi 3:1
2 Nephi 2:27
2 Peter 1:16-19
Psalm 2:6
Luke 8:18
2 Nephi 28:30
D&C 88:33
Moses 2:26
1 Nephi 22:22-23
I understand that some don’t believe in a pre-existence and I agree that as taught in mormonism it isn’t 100% accurate, however, section 93 and others to me shows that the part of us that is eternal has existed and will exist forever. It is that divine spark as some religions call it, that piece of God that is part of our spirit that has always existed. Our goal is to reunite and become one with God as section 93 so eloquently explains. Agency and opposition are necessary for existence as this section also says. Personally this has always been one of my favorite sections as it explains so much about who we were, are, and can be, just as christ was, is, and will continue to be. Another interested point is on the “resurrection”. The physical body aka temple that is defiled will be destroyed according to verse 35, and yet to have a fullness of joy element and spirit must be united. So will a loving God allow those whose telestial temple is destroyed a chance to try again? Or are they doomed to hell forever? Section 76 says that those in the telestial kingdom are “104 These are they who suffer the wrath of God on earth.
105 These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire.
106 These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work;”
It’s interesting that they suffer wrath on the earth.
Taylor mentioned he thinks the John referred to is John the Baptist because he bore record of the events of Jesus’ baptism. This does not exclude John the Beloved though because he may have been there also. John 1:35 tells us that the day after Jesus’ baptism there were two disciples with John (one unnamed, the other was Andrew). There is some likelihood that they were also there the previous day, or it is also possible that John the Beloved was shown a vision, similar to what Nephi saw, at some point prior to writing his gospel.
I am also not convinced that the “fulness of John’s record” we are waiting for is a written record. If John recorded that he “saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was…” isn’t it possible that when we receive the fullness of this record we could see what he saw and know what he knew, not through secondhand reports, but from our own experience? Isn’t this what the early apostles were told to obtain for themselves?
Digging into other possibilities to understand this section, the Webster’s first meaning for “face” is the surface of a thing that presents itself to a spectator. “Fullness” is a perfection of something where nothing is left wanting. And a “record” may be something deeply imprinted on the mind or memory.
Back to 93:1. Several years ago when many people were leaving the LDS church in search of personal manifestations, I spent some time trying to put D&C 93:1 into context of how God has been manifest to me in my own life, and how that verse correlates with JST Matt where Jesus clearly tells his disciples that “ye shall not see me henceforth and know that I am he of whom it is written by the prophets, until ye shall say: Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord, in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with him.” To make a long story short, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on the subject of learning to see the face of God, and used some visual aids – you might be familiar with pictures made from dots on paper that some people can identify the shape of the image, and others just see random dots – as I was talking I displayed the pictures so people could see if they could identify which group of dots was the picture of Christ (some of the other choices were a cowboy, an elephant, a couple dancing, etc.).
My current belief on the meaning of the verse is that God is present in our lives, particularly with those who forsake their sins, call on his name, obey his voice, and keep his commandments. He can show that he is with us, without a physical manifestation, as the dots are connected into a coherent picture. I believe God cares much more about whether we can see him with our spiritual eyes, and begin to understand the work he is doing in the world today, than he is is proving his existence with personal manifestations. Once we have seen Him with an eye of faith, a personal manifestation may be possible, but is it always necessary? Maybe the abstract nature of the descriptions of God in D&C 93 are a hint for those early apostles so they didn’t get led off track praying for a vision when they needed to first learn to see God with their spiritual eyes.
One last point relates to the verse about translation of the scriptures. Webster’s 1828 entry for “translate” includes “to explain”. That seems to fit the meaning of what the JST does, more than the traditional meaning of translating between languages.