Partakers of the Divine Nature

Partakers of the divine nature is a phrase from the second epistle of Peter in the New Testament in which is recorded:

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:1-4; emphasis added).

A number of years ago, while studying this apparent state of being, I came across this story in the Improvement Era:

On May 5, 1961, Mr. John Cook, a newspaper feature writer, was granted an interview with President McKay. Toward the close of the interview he said that he hoped the President wouldn’t mind if he asked a question, and said that the President wouldn’t need to answer the question if he felt that he shouldn’t but for his own information, not for publication, he would like to know if President McKay had ever seen the Savior.

President McKay answered that he had not, but that he had heard his voice, many times, and that he had felt his presence and his influence. He then told about Peter (saying that he was his favorite among the apostles, even more so than Paul with all his education and learning – that Peter was a rough simple man, but sincere) and he told how Peter had spoken of being partakers of the divine spirit, of a divine nature, and explained what he felt that to mean.

Then he told how some evidences were stronger even than that of sight, and recalled the occasion when the Savior appeared to his disciples and told Thomas who had doubted, “Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless but believing.” And then President McKay said that he liked to believe Thomas did not actually look up, but knelt at the Savior’s feet and said unto him, “My Lord and my God.” And then President McKay repeated the words of the Master, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” President McKay then smiled and said, “That is quite a testimony I have given you. I do not know when I have given this before.”

Mr. Cook was visibly moved, and after leaving the office said it had been the greatest experience of his life, that President McKay was like no other man he had ever seen or heard. He was so greatly moved that tears were in his eyes as he left President McKay.¹

I was deeply humbled to have come across this experience.

Sources:

1. McKay, David O. Improvement Era. (September 1963): 785-786.↩

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