Tentacles of Divine Providence

The Sticky Grace of God

The Prophet Joseph Smith “never taught a more comforting doctrine” than this, recalled Elder Orson F. Whitney:

. . . that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. 

Whitney’s statement is straightforward: the faithfulness of sealed parents carries salvific power for their children. The idea is similar to what Calvinists call “irresistible grace”—the doctrine that God’s will to save His elect can overcome any human resistance or recalcitrance. In Whitney’s revision of the Calvinist idea, however, election is secured for children through the temple sealing of their faithful parents. For Whitney, the fate of these children is not in doubt: “Either in this life or the life to come, they will return.” For them, God’s grace cannot be thwarted.

The metaphor Whitney employs—“tentacles of Divine Providence”—underscores the awesome power of God’s grace. Evoking an image of God as cephalopod—as octopus or squid or Kraken—the metaphor emphasizes God’s strength and power, his alien other-ness, and, most of all, his prehensility or grabbiness. The many-limbed creature serves as an apt metaphor for God’s omnipotence and omnipresence. But tentacles are not limbs of any ordinary sort. Tentacles are not only strong and dexterous but sticky, clinging and gripping with a grasp that is almost impossible to escape. The sticky tentacles therefore emphasize the adhesive quality of God’s grace: it doesn’t just reach for us; it latches on and doesn't let go. Whitney’s metaphor evokes a God whose power is inescapable, whose “sticky” grace can seize even the most rebellious souls. 

Officially, Latter-day Saints do not believe in irresistible grace, instead choosing to elevate agency over the “Sovereignty” of God emphasized by Calvinists. And so it is somewhat surprising that Whitney’s statement has been cited more than a half dozen times in General Conference or official Church publications since 1990, including in talks or articles by Elder Eyring and Elder Bednar. Although the doctrine is mightily comforting, it could also be construed as dangerous and heretical. This is because there is an obvious tension between Whitney’s quasi-Calvinism and the paramount Latter-day Saint doctrines of individual agency and accountability.