# Thoughts Friday, September 5, 2025

### Doctrine and Covenants Section 93, Part 5

“Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall⁠, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God. And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience⁠, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.”

The idea that attaining a state of innocence is the result of being filled with light and truth is intriguing. If I am interpreting these verses correctly, we begin in innocence and then lose it when light and truth are taken from us. All of us have experienced this whether we know it or not. I doubt that we can recall the time when we lost our innocence, per se. On the other hand, we can all recall times when portions of innocence were lost through experience.

The wicked one mentioned in the verse may be ourselves. I can think of several instances where I voluntarily acted against things I knew were true and lost some form of innocence. Whether or not the Adversary tempted us to stray from light or we wander away from it, the result is the same. When people experience profound adversity, they often say something like, “I am in a dark place”. I cannot think of a better description than that for what they are experiencing.

When I taught Sunday School at the Utah State prison, I saw what happens to people when light and truth are taken from them. In these extreme cases, I saw light in their eyes as innocence began to be restored to them through repentance. I also saw times when they could not lift their eyes because of their lost innocence. Tragically, their lost innocence came at the hands of others. Ironically, the pattern continued through acts of their own. It was a downward spiral.

The redemption Christ offers restores light and truth. What I had not imagined as a result of being filled with light is that we can regain our innocence. The argument is that if we are in a state of innocence, like an infant, and the accompanying condition is that we are full of light and truth, if we regain light and truth, we must also return to a state of innocence. Is this what Jesus meant when he said that unless we become as little children, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven? I think so.

In this case, I do not think innocence or becoming as a little child has anything to do with naivety or gullibility. We obviously have experience that infants do not have, so innocence does not mean inexperience. Perhaps it means that we do all things in purity. In Paul’s teachings on charity, he names it as the proper motivation for all good things.

To be in a state of light and truth or innocence means that we can see things as they really are and act with pure motivation. That sounds a lot like God to me.

Thanks for going on this little journey through Section 93 with me. I hope it has caused you to think more deeply about it. I may be way off base with some of my ideas about it, but I am not locked into them because I know that revelation is a gradual thing. I am willing to be wrong.