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Today, Denver discusses Mary (the Mother of Christ), Mary (Magdalene), and Eve as prototypes of the saved woman.

Transcript

John wrote that Mary Magdalene saw, even embraced the risen Lord, and related to the others her testimony of having seen Him returned to life, resurrected from the dead!

These accounts differ in the details. They have similarities and differences. They are universal in the fact that Christ was seen by the women (or a woman) first, and not by His Apostles. John’s account records that Christ told Mary: ‘Touch me not.’ In the Joseph Smith Translation the words are changed to read: ‘Hold me not.’ (JST-John 20: 17.) Joseph’s change of the text was warranted. I tell you that when Mary realized it was Jesus, she embraced Him joyfully. She did not timidly reach out her hand, but she readily greeted Him with open arms, and He, in turn, embraced her.

It is difficult to describe what I saw of the incident, apart from saying the Lord was triumphant, exultant, overjoyed at His return from the grave! She shared His joy. I was shown the scene and do not have words to adequately communicate how complete the feelings of joy and gratitude were which were felt by our Lord that morning. As dark and terrible as were the sufferings through which He passed, the magnitude of which is impossible for man to put into words, these feelings of triumph were, on the other hand, of equal magnitude in their joy and gratitude. He had attained to the resurrection of the dead! Just as He had seen His Father do, He likewise held the keys of death and hell! I do not think it possible for a mortal to feel a fullness of either. And, having felt some of what He shares with His witnesses, I know words are inadequate to capture His feelings on the morning of His resurrection.

He had the deep satisfaction of having accomplished the most difficult assignment to be given by the Father, knowing it was a benefit to all of His Father’s children, and it had been done perfectly.

Mary and Christ embraced. There was nothing timid about the warm encounter she had with Him. Then He said to her, ‘Hold me not’ because He had to ascend, return and report to His Father. Joseph Smith was correct when he revised this language.

I then saw Him ascend to heaven. I saw the golden heavenly light glowing down upon Mary as she watched His ascent. All this happened while it was yet dark on the morning He rose from the dead. He has shown this to me and I can testify to it as a witness. (See, Come, Let Us Adore Him, pp. 256-7.) 

QUESTION: In the beginning you said that there was a woman first who saw Christ had risen. Was there any special reason you did not give her name?

DENVER: No, it was Mary. Any reason why I didn’t use the name of the woman? The reason I use the category is because we are categorical. Our defect and our impairment is we have the brilliant, the ingenious capacity for looking out over people and filtering out all the females. It’s a gift. I don’t know how we manage that but we do, we do manage that. The scriptures plainly tell a different story. And it’s that different story that’s our problem, not the personal identity of the woman involved, or her relation to the Lord, or her obvious reaction to Him. Joseph altering the text to say, “don’t hold me” as opposed to “don’t touch me”, which means that he removed “don’t touch me” from the text. She was touching Him, and tells you something else potentially about their relationship, because if she was embracing and attempting to hold Him, and He was saying, “I’ve got another appointment to keep, I’ll be back, but don’t hold me,” it suggests something else about what was going on there. Why was she there at that point in the morning? Why was it still dark? And why did He elect that moment to come and rejoin her? 

The notion that you are going to succeed in acquiring the glory likened to God, as a separate and single individual, is nowhere found as a promise in scripture. It is not a reasonable expectation. It is a non-scriptural expectation. It is a foolish hope. Because it does not reckon according to the things God created as He created them. Understand, those verses that we read in Genesis? Those verses were before the Fall, and the condition in which Adam and Eve found themselves at the time those incidences took place included immortality, because they had not yet fallen from grace. The marriage and the union of the two of them was intended to last forever, because death has not entered yet into the world. As God put it, it was “good” for them to be together.

Consider the requirements:

• Marry a wife,
• “sealed,”
• “Holy Spirit of Promise,”
• then “pass by the angels,”
• “enter into exaltation,”
• obtain “glory, fullness,”

all these words are applicable only to the man and the woman together as one. It is only applicable to the exalted state of a marriage worthy of preservation into eternity. 

READING FROM TALK 7: The role of the woman is to become wisdom, because creation will only move forward if guided by wise counsel and prudent adaptations. Only together do they become complete, and therefore “one.” Alone they are sterile, but joined they are infinite because they continue. Knowledge alone may provide the spark of creation, but it is potentially dangerous when merely energetic. Creation must be wisely assisted to avoid peril. Wisdom alone is not an agent of action. Knowledge can initiate action, but wisdom is necessary to guide and counsel. The physical is a mirror of the spiritual. The seed of man provides the spark of life, but it is the womb of women in which life is developed to become viable. Likewise, the role of the woman in nurturing new life here is akin to the role of wisdom in eternity. Together these become whole, capable of both producing and then guiding creation. The woman sacrifices her blood to bring new life here. This physical world reflects the spiritual. This is the best I can think of to differentiate their eternal roles. In scripture wisdom is feminine.34 In Hebrew it is called “chokmah” (phonetically khok- maw’), which is a feminine noun. In Greek it is “sophia” which is likewise a feminine noun.

Without stating something inappropriate, Christ could not have done what He did, if He had not had a woman to fulfill a role in relation to Him. She anointed Him preliminary to His death, burial and resurrection. She was the first one to greet Him when resurrected. It was not possible, under the process required for salvation of a God, for Him to accomplish all that was needed without the presence of the woman. There is no Father without a Mother. There is no God without a Divine Consort at His side. She has a distinct role to accomplish some needful things in connection with finishing the path to godhood. 

DENVER: The account continues and describes the creation of the woman. Here the parable distinguishes between the process of creating the man Adam and creating his spouse, the woman Eve:

And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone, Wherefore, I will make an help meet for him. (OC Gen. 2:11.)

God the Father said to the Only Begotten and that He (God the Father), will be the one to make Adam’s “help meet.” It was not good for Adam to be alone because he was not complete without a suitable companion to help him progress and develop. The creation parable continues:

And I, the Lord God, caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and I took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof, and the rib, which I, the Lord God had taken from man, made I a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. (OC Gen. 2:12.)

The parable of the creation of the woman therefore differs from the creation of the man. She was not formed from the dust of the ground. She was formed from a “rib” –from an already existing part of the man. She was born from something equal to him and able to stand beside him in all things.

But the parable about the woman Eve means a great deal more. She was at Adam’s side before the creation of this world. They were united as “one” in a prior estate when they progressed to become living “souls” with both bodies and spirits. They were sealed before this world by the Holy Spirit of Promise and proved to be true and faithful. They once sat upon a throne in God the Father’s Kingdom. In that state they were equal and eternally joined together. She sat beside him and was a necessary part of his enthronement. Her introduction into this world to join her companion was needed to complete Adam. It was not good for him to be alone. They were “one” and therefore Adam without Eve was not complete—or in the words of the parable “not good to be alone.”

Like the man Adam, the woman Eve was the spirit offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. But unlike the man Adam, who was the physical offspring of Christ, the woman Eve needed to be the physical offspring of God the Father and God the Mother. Eve was Adam’s sister in spirit. Eve was also his biological aunt. She had to be the direct descendant of the Heavenly Mother in order to endow her with her Mother’s creative abilities. That power belongs to the Mother. The fertility of Eve, and thereafter of all the daughters of Eve, came because of the power given from direct descent from the Heavenly Mother. 

Women descend from mother Eve, who was born the biological daughter of Heavenly Mother. Women descend from Heavenly Mother to endow them with Her creative power of fertility to bear the souls of men. Eve was not beneath Adam, nor subject to his rule when first created. Eve was put beside him to complete him and to be his helpmeet.

There was another condition required to enable Christ to lawfully redeem the daughters of Eve as well as the sons of Adam. The parable of the creation includes this step to put Eve under Adam’s responsibility. The account explains that Eve (and by extension her daughters) was put under Adam’s rule. Adam was handed responsibility and accountability for Eve. These are the words in the parable:

[T]hy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (OC Gen. 2:15, emphasis added.)

Adam was made accountable to “rule” in the fallen world. All the mistakes, mismanagements, failings, wars, and difficulties of mortality are the responsibility of the appointed “ruler.” Adam would not have been accountable for Eve unless she was made subject to his “rule.” Once under Adam’s rule, the redemption of Adam also became the redemption of Eve. Therefore Adam and the sons of Adam, and Eve and the daughters of Eve, were all rescued through Christ’s atonement for mankind. 

Adam and Eve declared and cried repentance together, they labored side-by-side, they received the garment at the same moment, they were instructed on sacrifice at the same time, they were taught and received the Holy Ghost at the same moment, they experienced the baptism of fire, and Adam prophesied at the same moment that Eve was overcome by the Spirit, and in the Spirit of Wisdom, was able to interpret and define what was going on. All of this was suitable and appropriate in the lives of our first parents, for they two were one. 

You hear those who say, “The Church has all the keys but we do not yet have the keys of the resurrection.”22 That is true enough. That is because even when you are resurrected, you will still not have “attained to the resurrection of the dead” nor hold the keys of resurrection until you, like Christ, have gone from exaltation to exaltation, until you likewise attain to the power to resurrect all that depends upon you. John 5:19 says, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” The Father went before, and the Son follows after.23 If you think that you can at some point, like Him, attain to the status of godhood, then you are going to have to do precisely what it is that the Gods do. Therefore, to understand Christ is to understand the challenging destiny about which Joseph Smith is speaking in his last Conference talk in 1844. You too must progress, “Until you attain to the resurrection of the dead and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.”

READING FROM TALK 7: God’s patience for us is infinite. It will require going “from exaltation to exaltation” before we ascent to the place of Christ, “the prototype of the saved man.” But we have all eternity to work out our salvation.

Those who think it is enough to merely “get into heaven” are really talking about “the deaths” and not what God offers His children. God offers eternal lives. Those who will endure to the end, worlds without end, will receive eternal life and obtain the resurrection.

We must be exactly and precisely like Christ to receive all power in heaven and earth, including the power of the resurrection. It was only after His resurrection Christ claimed this power.

DENVER: I want to mention that beyond there being a fellowship of man or males, and a brotherhood, there is also a fellowship that is extended as well to women. If you find a woman in scripture who has had the ministry of angels, you have a sister who has joined in that association. I won’t take time to do so, but if you look and Judges chapter 13 verses 2 to 5, you have Samson’s mother being ministered to by an angel, promising the coming of the one would be a judge in Israel. You have in Genesis chapter 18 verses 9 to15, Abraham’s wife entertaining with her husband angelic ministrants. The most obvious case would be Mary in the book of Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 31 in which Mary is ministered to by Gabriel, one of the Elohim, who came to announce she would conceive and bear a child though she knew no man.

You should take note that there are on a number of occasions, women who conceive and bear children, whose births are miraculous. In the case of Mary, the child was conceived in a miraculous way. So also was Samson. So also was John who baptized Christ. Whether it’s infertility and barrenness, whether it’s being past the age of menopause, or whether it’s not having had intercourse, there are these children who come into the world as a consequence of something other than the normal manner of conception. Yet everything else unfolds biologically the same as a normal birth. Any of these children born through these miraculous means obviously inherit mortality, through the blood from their mother.

Who would you reasonably expect to be the woman chosen before this world was organized to become the mortal Mother of the Lord? Who would you expect Heavenly Father would want to bear His child, if not His Spouse? Together God the Father and Mary can be acknowledged as the Parents of Christ. The scriptures shift the focus of the “condescension” from Christ, to His Mother, and then back to Her Son, “the seed of the woman.”

Lectures on Faith identifies Christ as “the prototype of the saved man.” Lecture 7 focuses attention on Christ as the Savior and Redeemer. But the lecture extends the requirements met by Jesus Christ to also apply for every saved man. In other words, for any man to be saved they must “attain to the resurrection,” like Christ. Shifting attention for a moment from Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and Savior to His Mother, we could acknowledge Her as “the prototype of the saved woman.” In other words, we could consider what She did a Divine pattern to be followed by women. 

If God the Father obeys the same commandments He imposes upon His children, then for Him to father a child with any woman other than His Wife would violate His decrees about adultery and chastity. Marian theology is largely absent from Mormonism other than to suggest that because the Father impregnated her she is destined to be added to His eternal harem as an additional spouse. Traditional Mormon teachings have been crudely fixated on the mechanics of Mary’s conception. There is almost no interest in whether she has any pre-earth role with the Father, or whether she was the Mother in Heaven, the Divine Spouse of the Father, who condescended to come to earth to bear Their Only Begotten in the flesh. If She were to be acknowledged in that role, it would require a complete re-envisioning of Her. It would raise the issues of why or how She, an immortal and exalted God, could return from that exalted state back to mortality to bring our Redeemer and Savior into this world. It would draw a contrast between the Father’s involvement with this creation and the Mother’s.

The Father can, and does, acknowledge others as His. But, unlike the Son who has repeatedly visited this earth, walked upon it, been handled by people, [and] eaten here, the Father does not come into contact with this earth in its fallen state. The only time the Father had contact with this earth was before the Fall, in the Paradisiacal setting of Eden—which was a Temple at the time. Whenever there has been contact with the Father thereafter, He has been at a distance from this earth.

There is a formality with the Father that does not exist with the Son. For example, the Son has eaten with mortal man while He was immortal, both before His ministry in the flesh and after. As our Redeemer, He is directly responsible for us and has contact with us to perform His redemptive service. The Father, on the other hand, is different in status, responsibility, glory and dominion. The Son can appear to mortal man without showing His glory or requiring any alteration of the mortal who beholds Him. To behold the Father, to endure His presence, one must be transfigured. Mortal man cannot behold the Father’s works while mortal, for if you comprehend them you cannot afterward remain mortal in the flesh.

That is taken from pages 383-387 of Removing the Condemnation , and there are a lot of footnotes to that which will be in the paper I put up. Like this description of the Son, the same description should apply to His Mother.

The Father is the source of glory and likened to the sun. The Mother reflects and shares this glory, and is likened to the moon. She reflects God’s glory, endures within it and is empowered by it. She can participate with Him in all that is done wielding that glory. “Knowledge” is the initiator or force, and “wisdom” is the regulator, guide, apportioner and weaver of that power. If not tempered and guided by wisdom, knowledge can be destructive. Wisdom makes the prudent adaptations required for order. The Father and Mother are One. But the Mother bridges the gulf between the Throne of the Father and fallen man. She made it possible for the Son of God to enter this fallen world for the salvation of everything in it. 

If Christ is the prototype of the saved man, is Mary the prototype of the saved woman? Yes.

How did she earn her place on the throne without having atoned?

Because she sacrificed and led the lamb to the slaughter. She had a lamb whose fleece was white as snow and she led that lamb everywhere she wanted it to go. And she gave up her son and attained to the resurrection and laid claim upon her body because she condescended to come here and to fulfill that work.

The foregoing are excerpts taken from:

• Denver’s conference talk entitled “The Doctrine of Christ”, given in Boise, ID on September 11th, 2016
• Denver’s talk entitled “Christ’s Discourse on the Road to Emmaus”, given in Fairview Utah on April 14, 2007
• Denver’s 40 Years in Mormonism Series, Talk #9 entitled “Marriage and Family” given in St. George, UT on July 26th, 2014
• Denver’s 40 Years in Mormonism Series, Talk #7 entitled “Christ, Prototype of the Saved Man” given in Ephraim, UT on June 28, 2014
• Denver’s conference talk entitled “Our Divine Parents” given in Gilbert, AZ on March 25th, 2018
• Denver’s 40 Years in Mormonism Series, Talk #5 entitled “Priesthood” given in Orem, UT on November 2nd, 2013
• Denver’s Q&A session at the Keeping the Covenant Conference in Boise, ID on September 22, 2019

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