In the previous episode, episode 59, Jess read "First Visions and Last Sermons: Affirming Divine Sociality, Rejecting the Greater Apostasy", written by Dr. Val Larsen and published in 2020. In this week's episode, Jess interviews Dr. Larsen on how he first started contemplating Heavenly Mother and what he has discovered through careful reading of the Book of Mormon and studying associated historical works. He suggests that Lehi and Nephi, along with Joseph Smith, received and worked to restore the pre-deuteronomistic, old religion of Abraham in their respective dispensations. As Dr. Larsen and contemporary scholars have found, this ancient religion believed in a divine Council of the Gods, including Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Father, and their Son Jesus Christ. This belief in separate embodied, glorified members of a Heavenly Family makes the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints distinctive from other religions. Yet, as a church, we tend to deemphasize this point. Val suggests that this "Greater Apostasy" keeps us from fully worshiping the Divine Family, and that as we undo the removal of Heavenly Mother from our theology (which took place in the days of Josiah), we can continue to see the unfolding of the ongoing, modern-day restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and better help prepare the world for His Second Coming.

Tune in next Sunday for part 2 of this conversation. Read Dr. Val Larsen's articles on Heavenly Mother here:
"Hidden in Plain View: Mother in Heaven in Scripture"
https://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleLarsenHeavenlyMother.html
"First Visions and Last Sermons: Affirming Divine Sociality, Rejecting the Greater Apostasy" 
http://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/first-visions-and-last-sermons-affirming-divine-sociality-rejecting-the-greater-apostasy/
"Josiah to Zoram to Sherem to Jarom and the Big Little Book of Omni"
https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/josiah-to-zoram-to-sherem-to-jarom-and-the-big-little-book-of-omni/

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