Is mankind spiritually more like a spider or a butterfly?

One of the greatest revelations of truth in the Restoration was the first one – the nature of God, and the relationship between the three members of the Godhead.  When the young boy Joseph Smith emerged from the Sacred Grove on that beautiful spring morning of his First Vision in 1820, he brought forth the solution to a theological “mystery” that had plagued mankind for almost two thousand years.  Joseph had been filled with the Holy Ghost so that he could endure the presence of God the Father.  Then like the Biblical martyr Stephen, who was killed by the stones of an angry mob in the book of Acts, he looked up and saw God the Son standing on the Father’s right hand.

In that divine encounter, he learned that the “creeds” written by well-meaning but un-inspired men centuries after Christ, were all wrong as they defined the “Trinity” or the “triune God” as “not three incomprehensibles but one incomprehensible”[1].  He learned that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not a numerical “1”, but they are a united “one” in the same way that a married man and woman are to become “one flesh”, and in the way that Jesus pled with his Father for his apostles and those who followed them, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”  (John 17:20)

Another popular teaching among many Christians in Joseph’s day was proclaimed in a landmark sermon by the famous preacher Jonathan Edwards in Enfield, Connecticut in 1741.  Drawing on the Reformation theology of Augustine and John Calvin, it was widely published under the title, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”.  He wrote, “The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some other loathsome Insect over the Fire, abhors you …”

Why would our loving Heavenly Father consider this kind of doctrine an “abomination”, like the creeds that confused our understanding of his nature?  Even though we are all obviously sinners, does God “abhor” us, or does he, like the father of the Prodigal Son, look for us afar off, and rush forward with open arms to welcome us home when we repent and seek him?

Those kind of teachings, believed by many during what was called the “Great Awakening”, grew from the Calvinistic view that we humans are only “worms” in the sight of God. Sometimes it is called “worm theology”.  And while Isaiah does truly say that God’s thoughts and ways are “higher than our ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth”, the Prophet Joseph restored Christ’s hopeful message that like a caterpillar, we are at least “worms” with great potential!  If the caterpillar follows God’s plan for it, someday it can become a beautiful butterfly, and it can fly into the heavens with power and glory that could not be imagined in its larval stage.

This imagery is seen in the New Testament where Paul tells the Philippian saints to “look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body”. (Philippians 3:20-21)  We are encouraged to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:2-4)  so that although “it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him”.  (1 John 3:2)

The “good news” of the Restored Gospel, revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, is that we are NOT spiders held over a fire by an angry God who abhors us.  We are indeed the “offspring” of God and if we, through the grace of Christ can “overcome” the world, we are invited by our Savior to sit with him on his throne (Rev. 3:21) and receive all our Father has, as our celestial inheritance.  Indeed, we can be transformed into glorious creatures.

Like beautiful butterflies.

Robert Starling has been a writer and producer for the NBC Television Network and has worked at Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, Osmond Productions, and the media production department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has served in various producing capacities on feature films such as: “Jack Weyland’s Charly”, “In Search of Historic Jesus”, “Tears of a King”, “Scout Camp: The Movie”, and “Abandoned Mine”. His recent book “A Case for Latter-day Christianity” is available in many bookstores, on Barnes and Noble, and on Amazon.com in printed and e-book versions. He lives in Riverton, Utah with his wife Sharon. They have four adult children and eleven grandchildren.

[1] Nicene Creed, and/or Apostles Creed and Athanasian Creed, 325 A.D. and following