Mormon Life - Sunday School tag

Book of Mormon Lesson 21: "Alma ... Did Judge Righteous Judgments"

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: The need for good government is perhaps greater today than any other time in history. We find wonderful examples of good leaders in Mosiah and Alma, who fearlessly stood for the right.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of that book. It is a record of a fallen people, compiled by inspired men for our blessing today. These people never had the Book. It was meant for us. Mormon, the ancient prophet after whom the book is named, abridged centuries of records. God, who knows the end from the beginning, told him what to include in his abridgement that we would need for our day. Mormon turned the records over to his son Moroni, the last recorder; and Moroni, writing over 1500 years ago but speaking to us today, states: “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not, but behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing." (Mormon 8:35) (President Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, January 1988)

INTRODUCTION:

Perhaps the need for good government is greater today than at any time in the history of the world. With the pervasiveness of evil and permissiveness in the world and with the strident voices of sinners demanding absolute freedom and with the disappearing standards of honor and integrity, we have a great need for men and women who will stand fearlessly for what is right. Both Mosiah and Alma were these kinds of rulers.

Joseph Smith wrote,

We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. (D&C 121:39)

Note that the revelation tells us it is a description of “almost all men." In these chapters we will meet two men who did not fit this pattern. They were men who did not exercise unrighteous dominion, but who sought the will of God and the welfare of their people in everything they did.

1. MOSIAH TEACHES CORRECT PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT (Mosiah 29)

With the departure of the four sons of Mosiah on a mission, Mosiah was left without an heir to the throne, and he therefore determined to change the Nephite government from kings to judges. In his explanation to his people, we can find a wonderful discussion of good government. Consider the following verses and ponder what they teach about the kind of government that “will make for the peace of the people" (Mosiah 29:10).

-[Mosiah 29:11] Appointed “wise men" to positions of leadership. (See D&C 98:10)

-[Mosiah 29:11-14] Established laws that rested on a foundation of the commandments of God and promoted peace, security, and happiness.

-[Mosiah 29:16-24] Since wicked leaders “pervert the ways of all righteousness," their power was limited.

-[Mosiah 29:25-27] Decisions were to be made according to “the voice of the people."

-[Mosiah 29:28,29,31] Officials were to be made accountable for their decisions and actions. (See D&C 134:1)

-[Mosiah 29:32] Laws were to provide that “every man may enjoy his rights and privileges." (See D&C 98:5)

-[Mosiah 29:30,34,38] “Every man [was expected to] bear his part" and “answer for his own sins."

Who do the people choose as their first chief judge? (Mosiah 29:42) Why do you think they chose Alma?

2. AS CHIEF JUDGE, ALMA FACES PROBLEMS OF PRIESTCRAFT, REBELLION, AND PRIDE. (Alma 1-4.)

A. In the first year of his reign as chief judge, what problem did Alma face? (Alma 1:1-6) What was Nehor teaching that was so attractive? (Alma 1:3-5,16)

We have traditionally taught that Satan's plan was to force all men to be righteous. The scriptures do not say this, however. They simply tell us that Satan “sought to destroy the agency of man." (Moses 4:3) I suspect that there are two ways to do this. One is to remove all choices. The other is to remove all consequences from choices. It there is no accountability there is no agency. Might it be possible that Lucifer's plan was like the doctrine expounded by Nehor in Alma 1:4?

And he also testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all men, and had also redeemed all men; and, in the end, all men should have eternal life (Alma 1:4).

What if Lucifer said to us in our pre-mortal councils, “I will save you no matter what you do." That certainly sounds like a more attractive plan than the one than this one: “I will make you do what is right no matter how you feel about it."

Anyway, Nehor's declaration of universal salvation without effort was so attractive that “many did believe on his words, even so many that they began to support him and give him money." (Alma 4:5)

What makes this doctrine so dangerous? (Alma 1:12; see also 2 Nephi 26:29-31)

What crime did Nehor commit as he about preaching? (Alma 1:7-9)

What judgement does Alma pronounce? (Alma 1:12-15)

We also face apostate doctrine from time to time. What does Gideon teach us to do in order to withstand such doctrine? (Alma 1:7) Gideon “admonished [him] with the words of God." What spirit should we avoid as we confront such doctrine? (Alma 1:21-22; see also D&C 38:41)

B. In the fifth year of the Alma's reign, what problem did he face? (Alma 2:1-10) What did the Amlicites do in order to be distinguished from the Nephites? (Alma 3:4,13,18) What other significance did this mark have? (Alma 3:14-19)

What are some things today, like the marks of the Amlicites, that might show an association with the world rather than an association with the Lord and his people? Why is it important for Latter-day Saints not to have these distinguishing characteristics? Is it possible that certain kinds of jewelry and clothing and haircuts mark us in much the same way that the Amlicites marked themselves?

What are the things that distinguish Latter-day Saints from the world? The Lord has given us a number of blessings that keep us from being too much like the world. How does the Word of Wisdom make us different from the world? What about our garments? What other things come to mind?

C. What had been the condition of the church in the second year of the reign of the judges? (Alma 1:23-31) How long did it take for the people of the Lord to turn to pride and worldliness? (Alma 4:6) Why is it so difficult for a prosperous people to avoid pride and materialism?

"The worst fear I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and His people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty and all manner of persecution and be true. But my greatest fear is that they cannot stand wealth" (Brigham Young, cited in Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.48).

What can a righteous person or people do to avoid this natural tendency? (See Alma 1:27)

What problems does Alma face in the 8th year of the reign of the judges? (See Alma 4:6-14) What would Alma have seen among his people to cause him to have written these observations? What do people do who are waxing proud? (4:6) What does costly apparel have to do with pride and riches?

Why do these financial transgressions lead to the conditions in Alma 4:9?

And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, there were envyings, and strife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God.

We are told in 4:10 that the “wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block" to the non-members. Have you ever encountered a situation in which the actions of a member prevented a non-member from taking the Church seriously?

3. ALMA RESIGNS THE JUDGMENT SEAT IN ORDER TO PREACH THE GOSPEL (Alma 4:15-20)

Alma's reaction to the problems in the church was to become very sorrowful (Alma 4:15). How did Alma choose to deal with the problem? (Alma 4:16-19) What does the phrase “bearing down in pure testimony" suggest to you? What is a pure testimony? Have you heard many of them in your fast and testimony meetings? What is suggested by the phrase, bearing down in this context?

Why is it that the most powerful political figure in the nation of the Nephites could see “no way that he might reclaim them" except for bearing down in pure testimony?

What does Alma decide to do? (Alma 4:16,17)

Why does Alma select this solution? (Alma 4:19) Why is the preaching of the word the best solution to these kinds of problems?

What problems facing the world today are also best dealt with by the preaching of the gospel?

Why are some problems better solved by the preaching of the gospel than by the decrees of government?

CONCLUSION:

We live in a world replete with social programs and governmental agencies. Members of the legislature are frantic to communicate their willingness to help with state and national problems by throwing money at them. But the truth is that we will probably never change people lives by changing their environment. The Savior had all the tools to do that, much as Alma did.

Christ could feed thousands with food that had been intended to feed a small boy. He could heal the sick. He could raise the dead. He had the power to eradicate every social problem. Just after he fed the 5000 (see John 6) some of the Jews wanted to “take him by force, to make him a king" (John 6:15). But Jesus “departed again into a mountain himself alone" (John 6:15).

Jesus knew what Alma knew—that the only way to really change people is to start on the inside. The sequence looks like this:

CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE

HEART ATTITUDE LIFE ENVIRONMENT

Book of Mormon Lesson 20: "My Soul Is Pained No More"

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Sometimes it's hard to forget our own mistakes - so it can be heard to believe God can fully forgive us if we repent. But Alma the Younger is a supreme example that God means it when He says "I will forgive."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“Like the Bible, [the Book of Mormon] is a volume of holy writ that speaks forth the mind and will of the Almighty. Like the Bible, it invites men to forsake the world and live as becometh saints. Like the Bible, it has such an impact upon the hearts of men that they are prepared to die in defense of their beliefs. Already the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh have left Babylon and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy because of it. And before the end of the world, which is the premillennial destruction of the wicked, and before the end of the earth, which shall not occur until after the Millennium, the Book of Mormon shall so affect men that the whole earth and all its peoples will have been influenced and governed by it.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, p.170)

INTRODUCTION:

If you were a bookie making bets in Zarahemla between 100 and 92 BC, with the fore-knowledge provided by the Book of Mormon, you could have made a million dollars a day by giving long odds on this proposition: “I'm willing to wager 10,000 senines that Alma the Younger will one day be President of the Church!"

Anyone with money would have been delighted to get some of that action. The chance that Alma would one day be President of the Church was about the same as the chance that a curelom would learn to play the clarinet. But in about 91 BC, Alma became the leader of the Church, and the Chief Judge as well. All of which teaches us a major message of these chapters: WHEN THE LORD SAYS, "I WILL FORGIVE," WHAT HE REALLY MEANS IS, "I WILL FORGIVE!"

1. LIMHI AND ALMA'S PEOPLE JOIN MOSIAH'S PEOPLE IN THE LAND OF ZARAHEMLA (Mosiah 25)

At the end of Mosiah, the Nephite nation consists of the Mulekites, the Nephites of Zarahemla, the people of Limhi, the people of Alma, and the children of the Amulonites (see Mosiah 25:12). These five groups became one group under the leadership of king Mosiah II, son of Benjamin. But “there were not so many of the people of Nephi and of the people of Zarahemla as there were of the Lamanites; yea, they were not half so numerous" (Mosiah 25:3).

The decision of Limhi and Alma and the Amulonites and the Mulekites to join the people of Mosiah is instructive. They had a desire, I suspect, to associate with people led by a prophet of God. They wanted the fellowship of disciples of Christ. The request of the people of Limhi for baptism shows their commitment to this concept.

Lucifer would like to divide us. If he could find a way to drive a wedge between us and the people of the Lord, between us and the prophet, between us and the Spirit, between us and members of our family, his efforts to make us miserable would be much more effective.

2. MANY CHURCH MEMBERS ARE LED INTO SIN BY UNBELIEVERS (Mosiah 26; 27:1-7)

The challenge of conveying the testimonies of the fathers to the hearts of the children confronts every generation. But some generations seem to have handled it better than others. Many Nephites must have agonized when they saw their children make some of the same mistakes and suffer some of the same consequences as their parents. The dilemma facing the Nephites in Mosiah 26:1-4 is a classic example.

Benjamin's sermon was instrumental in helping convert a nation (see Mosiah 2-5). Everyone who heard that sermon, believed, repented, and received a mighty change of heart. Is it possible that these converts assumed that their children would acquire the same conversion experience by osmosis? By association? By the trickle-down effect? We do not know, but is it possible that they were so converted that they failed to pay the price to convert their kids, never dreaming that their children would need more than the opportunity to live among believers? Whatever the cause,

it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers. They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened. And they would not be baptized; neither would they join the church. And they were a separate people as to their faith, and remained so ever after, even in their carnal and sinful state; for they would not call upon the Lord their God (Mosiah 26:1-4).

These members of the 'rising generation' had three problems, and the sequence in which those problems are mentioned is critical. First (because they had been too small to understand the words of Benjamin), they did not believe the traditions of their fathers. The did not believe in the resurrection nor in the coming of Christ. Their first problem was THAT THEY DID NOT BELIEVE in Christ and his mission.

And “because of their unbelief", the word of God was incomprehensible to them. Their second problem, which came directly as a result of the first, was that THEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND. This increased the problem, for their hearts were hardened.

The result of this lack of understanding was that “they would not be baptized; neither would they join the church . . . they would not call upon the Lord their God (Mosiah 26:1-4). Simply stated, THEY WOULD NOT OBEY the commandments.

I believe that this is the way it always happens. When people will not obey the word of the Lord, it is not necessarily because they do not want to obey. It is often because they do not understand. And they do not understand because they do not believe. President Packer spoke of this matter in a Christmas devotional at BYU.

. . . we have every encouragement to adopt the attitude, "seeing is believing." The remarkable thing is that if you hold that spirit, you do not have the hope or the chance of ever finding Christmas as it ought to be, because, you see, it is just the other way around, "believing is seeing." (Boyd K. Packer, BYU Speeches, December 19, 1962, p.5, emphasis added)

People who believe will see—will understand—the meaning behind the commandments; and seeing, they will have an increased inclination to obey.

I have attended some wonderful firesides about the importance of missionary work and temple marriage. Stakes have reviewed their statistics, felt concern, and gathered the youth and some great speakers to proclaim the importance of this gospel duty that needed attention. We had a missionary fireside a few years ago in my current stake. A returned mission president spoke. A returned missionary spoke. A missionary who had just received his call also spoke. My son was electrified by the meeting. He had never been more excited to go on a mission. But he had always planned on going. My guess is that such a meeting will never inspire one who does not believe in Christ enough to give two years of his life to serve. The solution for those who do not want to serve is to help them believe in Christ. Everything else will come in its place, for when they believe they will understand. And when they understand, they will be more likely to obey.

Of course, one of the best ways to get people to believe in Christ is to get them into the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Perhaps part of the condemnation of which President Benson spoke so frequently, a condemnation related to our use of the Book of Mormon, devolved from our failure to use this book to impart belief and testimony to our children. When I first began to understand this principle from the first four verses of Mosiah 26, I discussed it with my wife. We decided that for one year we would focus on Christ in every Family Home Evening in order to assist our children in learning to believe in Christ and his mission.

The problem among the people of Mosiah increased.

For it came to pass that [the unbelievers] did deceive many with their flattering words, who were in the church, and did cause them to commit many sins; therefore it became expedient that those who committed sin, that were in the church, should be admonished by the church (Mosiah 26:6).

This was new ground of course, for “there had not any such thing happened before in the church" (Mosiah 26:10). Alma took the matter to the King who deferred to Alma, who then went to the Lord, “for he feared that he should do wrong in the sight of God" (Mosiah 26:13).

Note that the Lord answered Alma about this matter “after he had poured out his whole soul to God" (Mosiah 26:14). Consider that phrase. What does it mean to pour out your whole soul in prayer? This is a phrase that appears 12 times in the Book of Mormon. (Here is a list: Enos 1:9; Mosiah 14:2; 24:12; 24:21; 26:14; Alma 19:14; 34:26; 46:17; 58:10; Hel. 7:11; 7:14; Morm. 3:12) Even for one as righteous as Alma (in 26:20, the Lord covenants with Alma that he will have eternal life), the effort to obtain light and knowledge is a strenuous one.

As the Lord conveys his will to Alma, he makes a remarkable statement about forgivenessCa statement that is worth a prominent place on every refrigerator in Zion. “And whomsoever you receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive." (Mosiah 26:22, emphasis added) Words such as eagerly, graciously, readily, and willingly are synonyms for freely. Mark this verse and memorize it. If we come to Christ and believe in his name, he will eagerly, graciously, readily, and willingly forgive us. He will freely forgive! Note also that the first step for receiving this forgiveness is that we believe in his name. And he also promises “as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me" (Mosiah 26:30)

A related verse in Isaiah teaches this same truth:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7, emphasis added).

The Lord's revealed pattern for dealing with those who sin is still followed by the Church (see Mosiah 26:29-32).

In a fast and testimony meeting last Sunday, a member of my ward pointed out a phrase in a chapter I have read often that speaks of this desire of the Lord to bless us. The phrase is in Luke 15:2: “This man receiveth sinners.”

3. ALMA THE Younger AND THE SONS OF MOSIAH ARE VISITED BY AN ANGEL (Mosiah 27:8-31; Alma 36:6-23)

Among the youthful unbelievers tormenting the Nephites were the son of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Alma gets special attention in the verses of Mosiah 27, although we may assume that he acted in almost every affair with the support of the King's sons and a few others. Notice the descriptions of the wickedness of this man:

-(27:8) “very wicked"

-(27:8) “an idolatrous man"

-(27:8) “he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities"

-(27:9) “he became a great hinderment to the prosperity of the church"

-(27:9) he was guilty of “stealing away the hearts of the people"

-(27:9) he caused “much dissension among the people"

-(27:9) he provided “a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over [the people]"

-(27:10) “he was going about to destroy the church of God"

-(27:10) he was “seeking to lead astray the people of the Lord"

-(27:11) he was “going about rebelling against God"

-(28:4) he and his companions were “the very vilest of sinners"

-(Alma 36:14) he had “murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction"

This review of Alma's iniquities is sobering. I have referred to him from time to time as John the Baptist for Satan. He helped prepare the way for Lucifer to steal souls. How it must have pained his father's heart to see him in such a condition. We can imagine that a multitude of words had been spoken as the father tried to reason with his son. But the son would not listen and father Alma turned to the only possible source of assistance. Alma the elder might have said what Lincoln said:

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go" (cited by Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1963, p.109).

Finally an angel appeared to the rebels, telling them the Church was the Lord's (see Mosiah 27:13) and commanding them to leave it alone. The angel reported to Alma the Younger that the provocation for his visit was the prayers of Alma's father and others of the Nephite people:

Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith (Mosiah 27:14).

Every parent who has a wayward child ought to remember this verse. Prayers have great power! I am convinced that every prayer of faith by an anxious parent for a struggling child is heard and answered. Angels do not often appear, but someone appearsBa bishop, a home teacher, a friend, a seminary teacher with a powerful witness of the Church and the work of God and of the danger of opposing it. Unfortunately, not everyone is as willing to listen as young Alma was. Also, we would be making a mistake if we insisted that every conversion occur in the way that this one began to occur. President Benson taught:

We must be careful as we seek to become more and more godlike, that we do not become discouraged and lose hope. Becoming Christlike is a lifetime pursuit and very often involves growth and change that is slow, almost imperceptible. The scriptures record remarkable accounts of men whose lives changed dramatically, in an instant, as it were; Alma the Younger, Paul on the road to Damascus, Enos praying far into the night, King Lamoni. Such astonishing examples of the power to change even those steeped in sin give confidence that the Atonement can reach even those in despair.

But we must be careful as we discuss these remarkable examples. Though they are real and powerful, they are the exception more than the rule. For every Paul, for every Enos, and for every King Lamoni, there are hundreds and thousands of people who find the process of repentance much more subtle, much more imperceptible. Day by day they move closer to the Lord, little realizing they are building a godlike life. They live quiet lives of goodness, service, and commitment. They are like the Lamanites, who the Lord said, “were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not (3 Nephi 9:20). (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1989, p. 5).

Alma was paralyzed by the announcement of the angel. The sons of Mosiah picked up their friend and carried him home. The reaction of the father to the appearance of his comatose son was interesting: “and his father rejoiced . . ." Alma the elder had seen his son come home in a lot of ways, but never in a better way than this.

It came to pass after they had fasted and prayed for the space of two days and two nights, the limbs of Alma received their strength, and he stood up and began to speak unto them, bidding them to be of good comfort: For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit (Mosiah 27:23,24).

Unless we are careful, the apparent simplicity of this spiritual rebirth may confuse us. Alma, wicked as he was, did not have an interview with an angel, sleep for three days, and then announce his conversion. He said this of the experience his soul had while his body lay unmoving, “after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God" (Mosiah 27:28, emphasis added). Does that sound easy?

Alma uses a word—a verb—in Mosiah 27: 28,29, that is most interesting. The verb is snatch. Alma praises the Lord who “in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning . . . I was in the darkest abyss . . . My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more." The word was used again in the Book of Mormon in Alma 26:17 by Ammon to describe what the Lord had done for him and his brothers.

Think of that snatching from the other side of the veil. Consider the willingness, indeed the longing of the Redeemer to apply his atoning blood to the spiritual wounds of these young men. Alma's witness that he was snatched “out of an everlasting burning" reminds me of a story told by Elder M. Russell Ballard.

I remember reading about a fire fighter in the eastern United States who ran into a burning house to rescue several children from an arson-induced fire. While his colleagues battled the blaze to keep it from spreading to other structures in the neigh- boyhood, this man dashed into the building again and again, each time emerging with a child in his arms. After rescuing a fifth child, he started into the inferno once more. Neighbors shouted that there were no more children in the family. But he insisted that he had seen a baby in a cradle, and he dove into the intensifying heat.

Moments after he disappeared into the fire and smoke, a horrifying explosion shook the building and the entire structure collapsed. It was several hours before fire fighters were able to locate their colleague's body. They found him in the nursery near the crib, huddled protectively over a life-sized . . . and practically unscratched . . . doll.

I'm overwhelmed by that story. I'm touched by the fire fighter's courageous and selfless devotion to duty, and I'm thankful that there are men and women in the world who are willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of others.

As I think about such heroism, however, I'm reminded that the most heroic act of all time ever was performed in behalf of all mankind by the Son of God. In a very real sense, all humanity . . . past, present, and future . . . was trapped behind a wall of flame that was fueled and fanned by our own faithlessness. Sin separated mortals from God (see Romans 6:23), and would do so forever unless a way was found to put out the fires of sin and rescue us from ourselves (Our Search for Happiness, p. 11).

Alma and his friends were not the only ones who have been snatched!

As Alma recounted his conversion to his son Helaman, he added significant insights to our understanding of the atonement and the willingness of the Lord to forgive. Perhaps those insights can be best summarized by this statement from President Boyd K. Packer:

You need not know everything before the power of the Atonement will work for you. Have faith in Christ. It begins to work the day you ask (Ensign, May 1997, p. 10).

As you know, there are many marvelous comparisons in the accounts of Alma's conversion in Mosiah 27 and Alma 36. One of those, for me, has always been especially moving. As Alma the Younger confronted the horror of his rebellion and sinfulness, and contemplated an appearance before the bar of God in such a woeful condition, he said,

the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror (Alma 36:14).

But after the change, what he called in Mosiah 27 being “born of the Spirit" (Mosiah 27:24), he said this:

Methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there (Alma 36:22, emphasis added).

Many times in the scriptures we are told that Christ has made possible through his suffering our reconciliation with the Father, for “all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18) Alma's transformation from inexpressible horror at the thought of God's presence, to a divine longing to be there, is among the most powerful witnesses in the scriptures of the reality of the power of that reconciliation.

4. ALMA AND THE SONS OF MOSIAH DEDICATE THEMSELVES TO TEACHING THE GOSPEL (Mosiah 27:32-28:20; Alma 36:24)

Latter-day Saints believe that individuals who are truly born of God gladly give a life of service to their fellow beings—they share the gospel message, sacrifice their own time, energy, and resources for the benefit of others, and in general hold high the Light of Christ, being faithful to all the commandments (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.1, BORN OF GOD).

The only proper response, when we are permitted to view ourselves and our lives in the startling light of gospel clarity, is to try to kindle other lights. Having received the witness, we are obligated to share the witness. As the Lord said, “It becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor" (D&C 88:81).

And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them, traveling round about through all the land, publishing to all the people the things which they had heard and seen, and preaching the word of God in much tribulation . . . (Mosiah 27:32).

But there was more to this mission than reflecting the light of Christ.

And they traveled throughout all the lands of Zarahemla, and among all the people who were under the reign of king Mosiah, zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church, confessing all their sins, and publishing all the things which they had seen, and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them (Mosiah 27:35).

CONCLUSION:

I was standing by the side of a busy street in Phoenix years ago, my 4-year old son Michael by my side, waiting for a break in traffic. The road had no parking spaces at the sides. The outside lanes ended at the curb where we stood, automobiles racing by just a few feet away from us. Suddenly my son jerked his hand from mine and started across the street. A vehicle swerved and raced by, missing him by the tiniest of margins. As my mind and eyes registered the impending disaster and the narrow escape, my legs gave way. I grabbed (snatched!) my son and sat down on the grass by the thoroughfare. My heart rate had leapt to triple digits in seconds. My legs could not support me. I was trembling in every extremity from the most devastating fear I had ever known.

That experience has come back to me from time to time as I have read about the conversion of the Sons of Mosiah and their associates, and about their longing to serve a mission among the Lamanites. They were motivated by their own rescue, and their own forgiveness. But most of all they were motivated by fear—

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble (Mosiah 28:3).

What I had experienced at the thought of a physical catastrophe, they experienced at the thought of a spiritual catastrophe. And that is a lesson worth learning. Which is worse? To break an arm or a commandment? To poison a stomach or a spirit? To lose a limb or to lose a testimony. The record in Mosiah makes it quite clear how Alma and his companions would answer that question.

Book of Mormon Lesson 19: "None Could Deliver Them But the Lord"

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: The middle chapters of Mosiah are full of examples that God is perfectly reliable. We must know this for ourselves and trust in the promises of the Lord.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Few men on earth, either in or out of the Church, have caught the vision of what the Book of Mormon is all about. Few are they among men who know the part it has played and will yet play in preparing the way for the coming of Him of whom it is a new witness. Few are they who believe its truths and abide by its precepts to such a degree that they would qualify to read the sealed portion of the plates and learn the full account of what the Lord has in store for the people of the world (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, p.159).

INTRODUCTION:

One of the overarching messages of these accounts from the end of the book of Mosiah is that God keeps his promises. Over and over again as these dramas unfold, we see evidence—powerful evidence—of the truthfulness of the Lord's declaration in D&C 1:38:

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

As you study and ponder and teach these chapters, watch for the fulfillment of the Lord's promises made to the people of Nephi in the Land of Nephi, and to all men.

1. ALMA TEACHES THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT AND BAPTIZES MANY PEOPLE (Mosiah 18)

Alma, converted by the words of Abinadi and the Spirit of the Lord, “repented of his sins and iniquities, and went about privately among the people and began to teach the words of Abinadi . . ." (Mosiah 18:1, emphasis added). He went privately rather than openly like Abinadi. I am fully confident that he did not give many first discussions to Noah or his priests during this time. He had narrowly escaped martyrdom himself and he seems to have had a different purpose than Abinadi. Alma's mission was to convert. Abinadi's was to warn. Alma's message was also the message of the atonement—“the power, and sufferings, and death of Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into heaven" (Mosiah 18:2). Alma was another person who had “beautiful feet." And he taught anyone who would listen. “And as many as would hear his word he did teach" (Mosiah 18:3).

This brings to mind Paul's counsel to Timothy: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:2). All of us serve under the same obligation as Timothy and Alma. When an opportunity to preach presents itself, we must preach. The “season"---the practicality, the preparation, our personal fears---cannot be considerations.

Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say (D&C 100:5,6).

We will say a bit more about this later in the lesson.

Note that Alma taught them privately. The threat of discovery and destruction by Noah was a dark shadow over every meeting, every sermon, every action associated with this tiny group of believers. Still they met and preached and acted, for their love of the work and the word surpassed their fear of the king. So, in spite of the danger—the searches (Mosiah 18:5)—they met and worshiped. Their gathering place was in a grove of trees near a body of pure water in a place called Mormon.

Finally, “After many days," when a significant crowd had gathered, Alma preached about repentance and redemption and faith and then offered this people the opportunity to enter into the covenant of baptism.

A careful analysis of these verses of covenant and promise teach wonderful lessons about the obligations we assume by entering into the water, and the obligations God assumes if we abide by our promises (Mosiah 18:8-10).

OUR PART

1. A desire to come into the fold of God

2. A desire to be called his people

3. A willingness to bear one another's burdens

4. A willingness to mourn with those that mourn

5. A willingness to comfort those that stand in need of comfort

6. A commitment to stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places

7. A determination to serve him

8. A determination to keep his commandments

GOD'S PART

1. He will redeem us

2. We will be numbered with those of the first resurrection

3. We will have eternal life

4. He will pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon us

I read a story the other day on the Internet. I love the net, but I get crazy when I find wonderful stories and striking insights and important information without any sources cited. However, I'd like to share this story here because it teaches a great lesson about our part of the baptismal covenant, whether the story is true or not. We'll call it a parable—“The Parable of the Brick and the Jaguar."

A young executive was driving his brand new Jaguar in an area where there were usually several children playing in the street. He thought he saw something darting our from between parked cars and slowed down. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed some kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting . . . “Just what the heck are you doing? . . . That's a new car and the damage that brick you threw is going to cost me a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

“Please mister, please. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop . . ." Tears were dripping down the boy's cheeks as he pointed around the parked car. “It's my brother," he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back in his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver . . . lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK.

“Thank you and God bless you," the grateful child said to him. The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the street toward their home. It was a long walk back to his Jaguar: a long, slow walk. He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone had to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart. Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, he has to throw a “brick” at you (Author unknown).

The sacramental prayers remind us of our baptismal obligations to take the name of the Lord and to keep his commandments and to always remember him. I have wished on occasion that we had a regular reminder of the other part of the baptismal covenant. We have promised to bear one another's burdens, and to mourn and to comfort. But so often it takes a brick to get our attention.

We exert our forces and offer our resources when hurricanes devastate the poor in Central America, or when floods leave thousands homeless in Africa, or when tsunami’s devastate Indonesia or Japan. I believe that the baptismal covenant requires us to be just as willing to act in behalf of those who suffer silently in our own neighborhood—the widow, the orphan, the blind, the halt, the lonely, the poor.

Elie Weisel writes:

If there is one word that described all the woes and threats that exist today, it's indifference. You see tragedy on televison for three minutes and them comes something else and something else. Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference (From the Citation for an Honorary Doctoral Degree, awarded to Elie Weisel at the 114th Summer Commencement Exercises at BYU, August 17, 1989).

We are prohibited by the covenant we made at baptism from being indifferent to the suffering around us. In Matthew 25, the Lord made our duties crystal clear in his parable of the sheep and the goats. There we are taught this:

If we ignore misery when we encounter it and could reduce it, we are not disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. If, when we have the opportunity and capacity we fail to minister to those who hunger or thirst, to those who are sick or lonely or incarcerated, then it is as though we had abandoned the Savior himself in his hour of need, and without repentance, we may Ago away into everlasting punishment." [Matthew 25:46 (34-36)] Our prayers and professions are hypocritical. In practice, our indifference is a denial of our faith (Misery and Joy, by Ted Gibbons, p. 95).

The people of Alma “clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: this is the desire of our hearts" (Mosiah 18:11). Then Alma baptized them, and organized a church. (Mosiah 18:17) This is the first mention of a church in America in the Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 18 gives a sweet view of the articles and covenants of Alma's church: the provisions made for the teaching and meeting of the people, that which the priests were to receive for their labor (18:26), the doctrine that was to be preached, etc.

He also organized the people to assist in the application of their baptismal covenants.

And again Alma commanded that the people of the church should impart of their substance, every one according to that which he had; if he have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but little should be required; and to him that had not should be given. And thus they should impart of their substance of their own free will and good desires towards God, and to those priests that stood in need, yea, and to every needy, naked soul. And this he said unto them, having been commanded of God; and they did walk uprightly before God, imparting to one another both temporally and spiritually according to their needs and their wants (Mosiah 18:27-29).

Our part of the baptismal covenant contains one other provision worth a brief mention here. We are under covenant to stand as witnesses of God always and everywhere. There are a multitude of wonderful examples of disciples who have done this very thing under the most difficult and dangerous of circumstances. Abinadi and Alma come to mind at once. But in my study of the Old Testament this year, I found an example that I have often overlooked.

In 2 Kings 5, we read the story of Naaman, the captain of the host of Syria, a great an honorable man, and a mighty man of valor, who happened to be a leper (2K5:1).

Serving in the home of this man was an Israelite slave, a little maid “brought away captive out of the land Israel" (2K5:2). Consider her circumstances. She is an innocent victim of a war waged by men she probably does not know over issues she may not understand. She has been torn from her family and her religious community. But when she learns that her master has leprosy, she stands as a witness. The God in whom she has trusted has allowed her life to go in directions she could never have imagined. Every hope she had seemed to have been destroyed. All of her faith and obedience had not kept her safe, home, happy. And yet, when the opportunity presents itself, she stands as a witness.

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy (2K5:3).

She is a wonderful example for those of us who are under covenant to stand as witnesses at all times and in all things and in all places.

Noah learned of a movement among his people, sent spies to watch Alma and his people, and then an army to destroy them (Mosiah 18:32,33). Alma received a warning of the coming of the king's army, and he and his people departed into the wilderness.

2. KING NOAH BETRAYS HIS PEOPLE AND SUFFERS DEATH BY FIRE (Mosiah 19)

A certain amount of political intrigue followed the escape of Alma and his people. Part of the people began to oppose the king and contentions followed. Finally the people of Noah seem to have begun to see their king for what he really was. Gideon would have sent the king to his eternal reward except for the timely attack of the Lamanites (Mosiah 19:6-8).

As the people fled, Noah commanded his followers to abandon their families and follow him, for “he himself did flee before them . . ." (Mosiah 19:9).

Many would not do this thing, but “the rest left their wives and children and fled" (Mosiah 19:12). We know from the records that the wicked priests were among those who abandoned their families in favor of their own lives. And we know the name of at least one child who was left behind by a fleeing father: Limhi. He may have had a family of his own by then. The record refers to him as a “just man" (Mosiah 19:17), and it may be that he refused to leave his own family. Either way, Ahe was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father.”

The Lamanites captured those who remained behind, and they conferred the kingdom on Limhi, who made an oath to give to the Lamanites one half of all they possessed (see Mosiah 19:26).

Those who fled soon had a change of heart, however. We learn that

they had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and if their wives and their children were slain, and also those that had tarried with them, that they would seek revenge, and also perish with them. And the king commanded them that they should not return; and they were angry with the king, and caused that he should suffer, even unto death by fire (Mosiah 19:19,20).

You may remember that I suggested that one of the messages of these chapters is that the Lord keeps his promises. All of them. Without excuse. The death of Noah by fire fulfilled one such promise, a promise mentioned in Mosiah 12:3; 13:10; and 17:18. Abinadi had predicted that those who followed Noah with such devotion during his spiral into iniquity would one day value his life “as a garment in a hot furnace." We see here that they did.

But there was another promise—another prophecy—made by Abinadi to the people of Noah. That promise, found in Mosiah 12:1-8, was that these rebellious Nephites would be brought into bondage (12:2) and would be smitten and slain (12:2) because of their refusal to repent. That bondage began, as we have seen, in Mosiah 19. The fulfillment of the rest of the prophecy, with regard to the people of Limhi, we will see in Mosiah 21 and 22.

3. LIMHI'S PEOPLE ARE CHASTENED AND EVENTUALLY DELIVERED BY THE LORD (Mosiah 20-22)

The wicked priests ought to be in the Guinness Book of World Records under misery. Their drunkenness and immorality, their support of king Noah, their abandonment of their wives and children, their flight into the wilderness . . . and if that were not enough, they were able to initiate through their iniquity and lack of self control to initiate a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites, following two years of relative peace (see Mosiah 20:29), by kidnaping 24 Lamanite daughters. And there is more.

One of Limhi's great desires was that these men should be captured. They were thieves.

And he caused that his people should watch the land round about, that by some means they might take those priests that fled into the wilderness, who had stolen the daughters of the Lamanites, and that had caused such a great destruction to come upon them. For they were desirous to take them that they might punish them; for they had come into the land of Nephi by night, and carried off their grain and many of their precious things; therefore they laid wait for them (Mosiah 21:20,21).

The misery the Nephites experienced at the hands of the Lamanites was in fulfillment of the prophecies of Abinadi.

And it came to pass that after many days the Lamanites began again to be stirred up in anger against the Nephites, and they began to come into the borders of the land round about. Now they durst not slay them, because of the oath which their king had made unto Limhi; but they would smite them on their cheeks, and exercise authority over them; and began to put heavy burdens upon their backs, and drive them as they would a dumb ass Yea, all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled (Mosiah 21:2-4).

The people were in agony and “did afflict the king sorely" (21:6) with their desires to go to battle. They went, three times, and were defeated each time. Then, finally, it happened.

And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies. And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions (Mosiah 21:13,14).

Their humility and their cries did not go unnoticed, but . . .

the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage. And it came to pass that they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger (Mosiah 21:15,16).

In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord said this:

They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble. In the day of their peace they esteemed lightly my counsel; but, in the day of their trouble, of necessity they feel after me (D&C 101:7,8).

We have seen too many TV shows. We are not accustomed to problems than cannot be solved quickly. But the Lord is working on the composition of the human soul, where eternal changes are almost always prolonged.

We should remember that people don't get in serious trouble in one step. I don't think anyone steps off a precipice into the depths of immorality and apostasy. They slide down the slippery sides of the chasm. When they hit bottom, it's interesting that usually they want to take one step out. There's not one step out any more than there was one step in. It's a long, hard climb. Mostly they have to crawl to get outCon their knees. The best way out is to get into the organized activity pattern of the Church, to stay in it and resist the temptation to be drawn out of it. When people get out of this pattern, penalties come. They find themselves unhappy . . . and no one wants to be unhappy (Elder Boyd K. Packer, Improvement Era, May 1970, p. 7).

Chapter 21 explains the arrest of Ammon and some of his men from Zarahemla. Limhi thought perhaps they were some of the wicked priests of Noah (see 21:23.24). We also learn in this chapter the of the manner in which the plates of the Book of Ether were discovered (see 21:25-27).

In Mosiah 22, the Nephites escape from the Lamanites and return to the land of Zarahemla where they join the people of Nephi. This escape is fulfillment of another promise of the Lord to his children.

Verily I say unto you, notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them. I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy (D&C 101:9).

4. THE LORD DELIVERS ALMA'S PEOPLE FROM BONDAGE (Mosiah 23,24)

The righteousness of Alma's people did not prevent the prophecies of Abinadi from being fulfilled. But their experience with their enemies and with bondage was a much different one from the experience of the people of Noah and Limhi.

When his people asked Alma to be king, he deferred. He had seen (so had they for that matter!) how much damage a wicked king could do to a righteous people. Nephi (see 2 Nephi 5:18) and the brother of Jared (see Ether 6:22,23) had similar concerns. Alma defined the issue clearly when he warned:

And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments (Mosiah 23:14)

This is a lesson worth exploring. We cannot be too careful about those to whom we give our allegiance.

I had a friend in high school. He came from a broken home and lived with a father who beat him frequently and made life miserable for him, his younger brother, and his mother. But I liked him. He was bold and creative and resourceful. From time to time he would confide in me that one day he and his brother were going away . . . far away. When the time was right, and the opportunity appeared, they would find a way to leave their father behind forever. Usually following such a sharing of confidence, J.M. would ask me if I would come with them.

I was always flattered that he would ask, and I always said Yes. The truth is that I had no need or desire to go. My family was great! Mom and Dad were warm and loving and I was safe. But I wanted to be accepted, to appear adventurous. After a couple of years, the family moved to a nearby state. Months later we got a newspaper clipping in the mail from the mother of the two boys. J.M. had learned enough by reading and observation to convince himself and his brother that he could fly a plane. One night they went to the airport, stole and Piper Cub, and took off. At 5000 feet J.M. apparently lost control of the aircraft. It crashed and they were both killed.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table reading the article with my mother. What if they had attempted the flight while they lived in my ward? What if I had been invited to come along? I might have trusted J.M. enough to go. It could have cost me everything.

And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments (Mosiah 23:14)

We cannot be too careful about whom we decide to trust.

The Lamanite army that had followed Limhi and his people into the wilderness became lost. In their wanderings they had found the people of the wicked priests in a place they called Amulon (23:31). Then they stumbled upon the people of Alma in Helam.

In the book of Mosiah we see four different groups of people react to the coming of a Lamanite army. Their reactions are diverse and most enlightening.

ZENIFF (see Mosiah 10:9,10). “And it came to pass that I caused that the women and children of my people should be hid in the wilderness; and I also caused that all my old men that could bear arms, and also all my young men that were able to bear arms, should gather themselves together to go to battle against the Lamanites; and I did place them in their ranks, every man according to his age. And it came to pass that we did go up to battle against the Lamanites; and I, even I, in my old age, did go up to battle against the Lamanites. And it came to pass that we did go up in the strength of the Lord to battle."

NOAH (see Mosiah 19:9). “And the king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites, and he himself did go before them, and they did flee into the wilderness, with their women and their children."

LIMHI (see Mosiah 20:7-9). “Therefore they sent their armies forth; yea, even the king himself went before his people; and they went up to the land of Nephi to destroy the people of Limhi. And now Limhi had discovered them from the tower, even all their preparations for war did he discover; therefore he gathered his people together, and laid wait for them in the fields and in the forests. And it came to pass that when the Lamanites had come up, that the people of Limhi began to fall upon them from their waiting places, and began to slay them."

ALMA (see Mosiah 23:27-29). “Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord that he would soften the hearts of the Lamanites, that they would spare them, and their wives, and their children. And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the hearts of the Lamanites. And Alma and his brethren went forth and delivered themselves up into their hands; and the Lamanites took possession of the land of Helam."

There is a lesson here, and it is the lesson of Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

When the Lamanite king gave Amulon permission to rule Helam and the people of Alma, things became nearly unbearable. But from that experience came a wonderful lesson. I wrote the following several years ago.

The Nephites who had joined the church at the Waters of Mormon and who had settled at Helam were placed in bondage by the Lamanites. (See Mosiah 18, 23, and 24.) Amulon, Alma's former colleague and present enemy, was made king over the people of Alma, and he undertook to make their lives miserable. He "exercised authority over them, and put tasks upon them, and put taskmasters over them." (Mosiah 24:9.)
And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God.
And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he put guards over them to watch them, that whosoever should be found calling upon God should be put to death. (Mosiah 24:10, 11.)
In the bitterness of his apostasy, Amulon could not bear the shame generated by the worship of his subjects. To end his discomfort, he installed the death penalty for prayer:
And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts. (Mosiah 24: 25.)
The Lord responded, “Lift up your heads and be of good comfort . . . I will deliver [you] out of bondage. And I will ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders." (Mosiah 24:13, 14.)

An account of a similar incident comes from the Massacre at Haun's Mill in 1838. Almost twenty men or boys were killed in the attack on a small Mormon settlement by a mob of Missouri settlers. Fifteen others were wounded. The mob, before leaving, "pillaged the village and robbed the dead of their boots, clothing, and valuables." When they left the mill "they dragged with them horses, wagons, cows, and property of nearly every description belonging to the settlement." (Joseph Smith and the Restoration, Ivan J. Barrett, 1968, p. 330.)
A few days following the attack, a number of the mob returned. According to members of this group of rabble, they "lived fat, too," feasting on the remaining cattle and hogs that should have sustained the surviving widows and orphans, as well as the wounded. (Ibid.)
Like the people of Alma, these unfortunate victims found their only solace in prayer, and the widows vented their feelings in heartfelt appeals to their Heavenly Father. (Assorted Gems of Priceless Value, N.B. Lundwall, p. 97.) And, like Amulon, two thousand years earlier, the mobbers could not endure the guilt engendered by these prayers.
One of the mobbers delivered the warning, "The captain [Captain Comstock] says if you women don't stop your damn praying, he will send down a posse and kill every damn one of you!" Even the solutions were the same. Prayers and cries were hushed as women, fearful for their lives, spoke to their Creator in the silence of their hearts and minds.
But for at least one, this terrified silence was a shame and humiliation. Amanda Smith longed to hear her own voice raised in prayer. One morning, as the day began, she slipped into a nearby cornfield, crawled into a shock of corn, and raised her "voice high that it reached the heavens." (Enos 1:4.)
As she left her sanctuary a voice spoke to her, repeating the following words from the hymn "How Firm a Foundation":

That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I cannot, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!

From that moment on, she was at peace. (Ibid.) [From Rending the Veil of Heaven, Ted Gibbons, pp. 51,52)

Alma's people paint a powerful portrait of true disciples in a time of trouble. We learn from them what we ought to do (see Mosiah 24:15,16)

-They did submit cheerfully and with patience to the will of the Lord

-They had great faith

We also learn what God is able to do for us in such situations:

-The Lord softened the hearts of their enemies (23:29)

-The Lord eased the burdens upon their shoulders (24:14)

-The Lord did strengthen them (24:15)

-He promised to go with them and deliver them out of bondage (24:16,17)

-He caused a deep sleep to come upon their enemies (24:19)

-He promised to stop their pursuers in the valley of Alma (24:23)

-They reached Zarahemla in only twelve days (24:25) The people of Limhi were many days in the wilderness (see 22:13)

CONCLUSION:

Enos and the Brother of Jared knew that God cannot lie (Enos 1:6; Ether 3:12). We must know it too. We must put our trust in the promises of the Lord. We have seen in these chapters that he is perfectly reliable. It is that quality that enables us to have faith in him.

I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round. (Alma 7:20)

Book of Mormon Lesson #18: “God Himself Shall Redeem His People,” Mosiah 12-17

Thu, 03 May 2012 09:51:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

We are saddled with the task of sorting out the whole of Abinadi’s speech in a single lesson. That’s devastatingly difficult, particularly because Abinadi’s speech marks the—and I mean the—turning point in the history of the Nephites, and in about a dozen ways. We’ve got to look very carefully at those details. That’s all the more difficult, given that the historical setting still needs some serious work, even after last week’s lesson and associated notes, and given that we’ve also got to do some serious theological work on the text as we work through it. There’s too much to be done on Abinadi’s speech.

But we’ll get started and see what we can’t do here.

Book of Mormon Lesson #17: “A Seer Becometh a Great Benefit to His Fellow Beings,” Mosiah 7-11 (Sunday School)

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:12:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

Let’s say that this lesson serves as a kind of bridge between Benjamin and Abinadi. At least, that’s how I want to take it. There’s much to learn as we cross this bridge, but my principal aim will be to set up as well as possible Abinadi’s speech and circumstances. We’ll see why especially in the next lesson.

So what are we looking at here?

Book of Mormon Lesson 16: "Ye Shall Be Called the Children of Christ"

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Every organization requires certain standards of its members, and in the conclusion of King Benjamin's sermon, he teaches us the requirements for becoming part of the family of Christ.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Suppose that in this community there are ten beggars who beg from door to door for something to eat, and that nine of them are impostors who beg to escape work, and with an evil heart practice imposition upon the generous and sympathetic, and that only one of the ten who visit your doors is worthy of your bounty; which is best, to give food to the ten, to make sure of helping the truly needy one, or to repulse the ten because you do not know which is the worthy one? You will all say, Administer charitable gifts to the ten, rather than turn away the only truly worthy and truly needy person among them. If you do this, it will make no difference in your blessings, whether you administer to worthy or unworthy persons, inasmuch as you give alms with a single eye to assist the truly needy. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.8, p.12, March 5, 1860)

INTRODUCTION:

Consider the word qualifications. There seem to be qualifications or requirements for membership in every organization. In order to belong to the Kiwanis, I must meet certain standards. To be a student at any school, I must meet the admission requirements and abide by the established rules. To be a doctor or a lawyer or a real estate agent, I must demonstrate a proficiency and knowledge about the profession in order to obtain a license to practice.

Gaining membership to some organizations is much simpler than others, of course. Joining the student body at Harvard requires a level of expertise and preparation different from the admission requirements at Canyon View Junior High. Brain surgeons and rocket scientists must abide by more rigorous standards of preparation and performance than lumberjacks and street vendors. Even membership in a family requires admittance by birth or adoption. I cannot pick the loveliest home in Orem, walk in off the street with a suitcase, pick a bedroom as my own, and expect to be invited to dinner and to help dispose of the family fortune.

The conclusion of King Benjamin's sermon teaches us that there are qualifications for membership in the family of Christ. That sermon, and the events and explanations which follow it, teach us how to become “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters . . .” (Mosiah 5:7)

1. KING BENJAMIN'S PEOPLE SEEK AND RECEIVE A REMISSION OF THEIR SINS (Mosiah 4:1-12)

When Benjamin finished delivering the words he received from an angel, “he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth" (Mosiah 4:1). Think back over the most powerful moments of your church experience. You have heard sermons that have moved you deeply. You have felt the burning power of the Spirit bearing witness to you of the truthfulness of things you are hearing and feeling. But have you ever reacted to a sermon like these people reacted? Has the recognition of your “own carnal state" and the realization that you are “even less than the dust of the earth" caused you to lose the ability to stand or sit upright.

I remember a similar moment at the Missionary Home in Salt Lake City. In ancient times (1965), all missionaries spent a week in Salt Lake City at the Missionary Home, in a spot more recently occupied by Deseret Gym, and most recently by the new Conference Center. A parade of general authorities came to speak to us. Day after incredible day they taught us and bore witness to us. In between these moments we sang and prayed and studied and attended the temple. I experienced wonderful moments with the Holy Spirit, but I also remember still the agony I felt from time to time as I confronted my own weaknesses and my lack of preparation for missionary service. I was overwhelmed by the recognition of a mountain of tiny transgressions that had distanced me from the Spirit and added to the suffering of the Savior. Some moments I felt weak and unworthy and even, at times, hopeless. I frequently felt inclined to fall on my face before Him and beg for His forgiveness. The heaviness of my weaknesses seemed of such a magnitude that I could hardly remain upright under the burden. And generally speaking I had been good. I was not guilty of great or malignant sins. Rather, I was rendered almost powerless by a hoard of tiny, suffocating iniquities, and the scope of my procrastination.

I think the people of Zarahemla must have felt like that. They fell to the earth and cried,

O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men. (Mosiah 4:2)

The imagery here is taken from the story of the first Passover, when Israel, aware of the impending arrival of the angel of death, literally applied the blood of a lamb, that they might be saved from death. These wonderful, repentant people of Zarahemla, transformed by the Spirit and by the power of Benjamin's sermon, asked that the Blood of the Lamb might be applied to the door posts and lintels of their own lives. Perhaps you will excuse the repetition here of a quote I think I used earlier in this course of study.

The Passover is a type of deliverance . . . It is a deliverance from the doom we deserve for our sins; from the spiritual death that awaits the wicked; from the outer darkness of Egypt and Sodom and Sheol––because the blood of Christ has been applied to us by faith. By sprinkling our Lord's blood upon the doorposts of our hearts and upon the lintels of our souls, we set our dwellings apart from the world: we make open and visible confession of our allegiance to Him whose blood has eternal saving power; we set ourselves apart from the Egyptians, the Sodomites, and the seekers after Sheol; and we place ourselves with the believing portion of mankind. (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, Vol.1, p.165 p.166)

And it happened. The 'atoning blood" was applied and they were cleansed and lifted.

And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them. (Mosiah 4:3).

Most members are familiar with these verses. But there are some elements of this experience that we often miss. For example, Benjamin explains that what caused them to see themselves as they really were. “was the knowledge of the goodness of God [which has] at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state . . ." (Mosiah 4:5) Benjamin spent some time in Mosiah 2 (see lesson #15) explaining all that God has done for his children, and how little he requires of them in return. This message has penetrated the hearts of the those who have heard or read the words of their King. Benjamin continues:

I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his longsuffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal bodyI say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world. (Mosiah 4:6,7)

This is the beginning and end of the reality of salvation. For

this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you. (Mosiah 4:8)

Those conditions are precisely the qualifications that will make it possible to become a member of the family of Christ. They involve believing and doing.

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them. (Mosiah 4:9,10)

You will have noticed that these people received a remission of their sins (see 4:3). I used to spend my summers working on a pig farm in Arizona. I spent long, sweaty days in an environment saturated by the smell of tens of thousands of pigs. How I loved to go home and shower at the end of a work-day. It felt so good to be clean! These people, cleansed and filled with joy must have had an experience a hundred times more grand. But my experience with filth had not ended with a single shower. I had to go back to the pigs day after day. And Benjamin knew that his listeners would again confront temptation and sin in an infinite variety of costumes. Having been cleansed once was not sufficient to guarantee a permanent place in the family of Christ. Benjamin wanted them to understand that certain things would be required of them if they wanted to stay clean.

I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and longsuffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. (Mosiah 4:11,12, emphasis added)

2. KING BENJAMIN TEACHES HIS PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE CHRISTLIKE LIVES (Mosiah 4:13-30)

Benjamin continues to give the prescription for admission into the family of Christ. Here is a list of additional requirements:

-“Ye will not have a mind to injure one another" (4:13)

-You will “live peaceably" (4:13)

-You will “render to every man according to that which is his due" (4:13)

-“Ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked" (4:14)

-“Neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil" (4:14)

-“Ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness" (4:15)

-“Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another" (4:15)

-“Ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor" (4:16)

This matter of helping those in need of our succor occupies most of the remainder of the chapter. What is it that Benjamin is saying a member of Christ's family will do when confronted with someone who is naked or hungry? Benjamin seems to be saying that there is only one acceptable excuse for not imparting of our substance to another in need. That excuse is that we do not have any to give (see 4:24). Any other rationalization constitutes sin.

Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just. (Mosiah 4:17)

In this context, re-read the Quote of the Week at the beginning of this lesson. We have all had this experience, or we will have. Someone will stop us and ask us to give a little or a lot to assist in a temporary or continuous time of need and want.

When I was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, I lived in the small farming community of Pomerene. Much of the labor in the fields was performed by young and middle-aged men who had crossed the border from Mexico and come north looking for work. By the time they reached the farmlands of Pomerene, they had generally been walking in the desert for at least 30 miles. They arrived hungry and thirsty. Pomerene was located astride Interstate 10, about 40-50 miles east of Tucson. Actually, only two houses were located on the south of the freeway. The others were all on the north.

One day in a Sunday School class we discussed these chapters from Mosiah and Benjamin's counsel about dealing with the poor. After a few moments a lady raised her hand. She and her husband lived in one of the houses south of the highway. She spoke of the plight of these illegal aliens, of their poverty and of their hunger. “But," she concluded, “I don't feed any of them. If I do they will mark my house in some way, and then they will all stop. If I feed one, I will have to feed them all."

The discussion continued for a few moments, and then the wife of the bishop raised her hand. She and her family lived in the other house south of I-10. She seemed almost reluctant to speak, but finally she said something like this. “I do not mean to find fault, and I am not being critical, but I want you to know how my husband and I feel about this matter. No one leaves our house hungry. And if my husband and I are not home, the children know. Anyone who comes to our door hungry will be fed."

Like the bishop's wife, I do not intend to judge or be critical. It may be that the first lady who spoke refused these visitors because she did not have enough for them and for her own family. Benjamin spoke to people like that:

And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give. And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received. (Mosiah 4:24,25)

But I also know what I felt as I listened to the bishop's wife. I understood quite clearly what is expected of the members of the family of Christ. I have a wife who understands also. She could no more ignore someone in such desperate circumstances than she could ignore the need to breathe. It is a part of her being to serve and succor.

Benjamin explains how inconsistent it would be for someone in his audience at Zarahemla or reading the pages of the Book of Mormon to turn away a beggar.

For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy. (Mosiah 4:19,20)

This is wonderful doctrine.

And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another. (Mosiah 4:21)

If we, who are always unprofitable servants, receive such undeserved bounty from the Father, we ought to impart to our brothers and sisters in need with that same liberality.

And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done. (Mosiah 4:22)

Remember the purpose behind these teachings of Benjamin.

And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto youthat is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before GodI would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants. (Mosiah 4:26, emphasis added)

KING BENJAMIN'S PEOPLE EXPERIENCE A AMIGHTY CHANGE" OF HEART AND COVENANT TO DO GOD'S WILL IN ALL THINGS (Mosiah 5,6)

One day about three years ago I was teaching a lesson in Family Home Evening about the experience of the people of Zarahemla. I read the first two verses of Mosiah 5, emphasizing the fact that these people had no more disposition to do evil. They just wanted to do good. I expressed the conviction I felt that this was a description of spiritual rebirth––of being born again. My son, who will be home exactly one month from today from a wonderful mission experience in California, asked, “Is that what that means, Dad?"

“I think so," I told him.

“That's just how I feel," he replied. We shared a quiet moment of wonder and joy. We knew it was true. He was a member of our family, be he belonged to another family as well. In Moses 6:59, we are taught this:

. . . inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;

Birth and spiritual rebirth both involve at least four steps, three of which are outlined here. We are born into the world “by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul." One of the first signs of the arrival of a baby is the breaking of the water. Following the birth there is a cleansing of the blood––that protective substance that surrounds and insulates the baby in the womb. And sometime between conception and birth, a spirit enters that body, which thereby becomes a living soul. Our rebirth follows that same process.

. . . even so [we] must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten.

There is one other thing that happens following the birth process. The one born is given a name––a family name. In my case it was Gibbons, a name to give some indication of belonging. This baby is ours, the name proclaimed. He belongs to this family. The same thing happens to those who are born again. Benjamin explains it in this way:

And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters. (Mosiah 5:7)

Benjamin instructed his son Mosiah to call the conference at which he announced that Mosiah would take his place. Note that Benjamin lived three additional years after leaving government service (see Mosiah 6:5). During that time––during the final three years of his life––Benjamin, like his father before him, worked the land, Athat thereby he might not become burdensome to his people" (Mosiah 6:7)

At that conference, Benjamin had promised to give unto the people a name (see Mosiah 1:11). We have seen here that he did precisely that. Mosiah 5 gives us some interesting insights into the significance of taking the name of Christ. Read the chapter and answer these questions:

-How do you get the name? (5:7)

-Why is the name important? (5:9,10)

-Where is the name written? (5:12)

-How do we lose the name? (5:11)

-What must we know besides the name? (5:12)

-How do we come to know about the man whose name we have taken? (5:13)

-What is the name? (5:9,10)

Those who have taken the name of Christ are called by that name––they are called Christians. But as these questions and Benjamin's teachings show, it is much more than a title, more than a family name, more than a badge or stamp of approval. It is a way of life. Those who belong to this family must follow the head of the family. “Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold upthat which ye have seen me do" (3 Nephi 18:24).

CONCLUSION:

While I was suffocating under the weight of my sins at the Missionary Home, I prayed constantly for forgiveness. I wanted to be clean and to feel free. During a meeting late in the week, our Mission President spoke to us. An assigned speaker had encountered a conflict and our President had chosen to fill in at a moment's notice. He spoke by the Spirit. The words were not of his creation nor choosing. My heart burned and I wept and wept as I was taught from on high. Then a miracle happened. Somewhere in his talk he paused for a moment and made this comment: “I know that many of you have been pleading with the Lord for a remission of you sins, and I want you to know that the Lord has forgiven each and every one of you in the spirit of your repentance."

I do not know what happened to anyone else at that moment, but I know what happened to me. I was clean. Suddenly, undeniably, utterly clean. If I had been standing when that revelation came, the weakness of my physical frame would have forced into a seat or onto the floor. As Enos said, “My guilt was swept away." (Enos 1:6) I wish I could say that I have retained that remission. I wish I could feel always as I felt then. But the memory has remained with me. I have remembered how good it feels to belong to his family, and to be clean.

Book of Mormon Lesson 15: "Eternally Indebted to Your Heavenly Father"

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: What we know of King Benjamin suggests he is one of the most righteous civic leaders that has existed. This lesson begins our discussion of his great and last sermon.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel - the record of the ancient Nephites, translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith, by the gift and power of God in him - that we may come to a knowledge of the principles of the Gospel in simplicity and in purity. It makes clear many dark sayings of the Jewish Scriptures, as they have come down to us. It sheds a flood of light over the Bible; it contains the key of knowledge and understanding; and it is more precious than all the works of modern times, and is worth more. . . . there is more to be learned out of it, my young friends, that is calculated to prove of real worth and blessing to the soul, than can be acquired at all the universities, colleges and schools of science and of modern times. . . . Therefore, study the Scriptures; acquaint yourselves with the Book of Mormon. Read them in your Sunday Schools; read them at your firesides; let them always be found upon your tables, and never permit your families to be without them; and if you are poor sell your coat and buy them; for you are far better without a coat than without the word of God to teach your children. Let our Bishops, and Elders and Teachers attend to it; and enquire whether you are surrounded by those milk-and-water Saints who love fine dress more than the love of God, and who love to furnish their children with musical instruments and toys, and who neglect to furnish them the words of life; if you are, labor with them and teach them in all sincerity the duties of a Latter-day Saint, a Saint of the living God; and God will bless you in your labors, and you will have more joy in doing this than anything else you could do. (Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, Vol.23, p.300 p.301)

INTRODUCTION:

Among the great political leaders in the history of the world, King Benjamin shines like the sun. By virtually any standard, he is as good a man and great a king as ever lived. The cursory descriptions given by Amaleki and Mormon show us the intriguing outlines of a life centered in Christ and his service. Here are the things King Benjamin did and did not do as he blessed his people:

• (Words of Mormon 1: 13) he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban.

• (1:14) they did contend against the Lamanites until they had driven them out of all the lands of their inheritance.

• (1:15) after there had been false Christs, and their mouths had been shut . . .

• (1:16) And after there had been false prophets, and false preachers and teachers among the people, and all these having been punished according to their crimes . . .

• (1:16,18) and after there having been much contention and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites . . . King Benjamin . . . did once more establish peace in the land.

• (1:17) king Benjamin was a holy man, and he did reign over his people in righteousness . . .

• (1:18) king Benjamin, [labored] with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul.

• (Mosiah 2:11) I . . . was suffered by the hand of the Lord . . . to serve you with all the might, mind and strength which the Lord hath granted unto me.

• (2:12) I . . . have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner of riches of you

• (2:13) Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons

• (2:13) Neither have I suffered . . . that ye should make slaves one of another

• (2:13) Neither have I suffered . . . that ye should murder, or plunder, or steal, or commit adultery

• (2:13) nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness

• (2:13) I . . . have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded you

• (2:14) And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne

• (2:15) I tell you these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear conscience before God this day.

We are in the season of caucuses and primary elections I intend to cast my ballot for the man whom I think to be the best choice among several. But it seems clear that no one like Benjamin is on the ballot.

1. KING BENJAMIN TEACHES HIS SONS AND HAS MOSIAH CALL THE PEOPLE TOGETHER (Mosiah 1)

Mosiah's first description of Benjamin shows him not as a king but as a father. What does Mosiah 1:2,3 tell us that he did for his children?

And it came to pass that he had three sons; and he called their names Mosiah, and Helorum, and Helaman. And he caused that they should be taught in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord. And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.

Benjamin desired to provide the best of every benefit and opportunity for his children. And he did, by teaching them the scriptures. Erastus Snow (see Quote of the Week) would have approved. Benjamin teaches us a great lesson about the benefits of the scriptures and gives great counsel about how to take advantage of those benefits:

I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct. (Mosiah 1:5)

What a blessing to have the opportunity to have his commandments always before our eyes . . . Have you taken advantage? Or have you, by reason of neglect of the scriptures, dwindled in unbelief from time to time in your life? Have you sometimes suffered in ignorance, not knowing the mysteries of God? I have heard that Mark Twain once said, A man who wont read is no better off than a man who cant. This is certainly true of reading the scriptures. If we do not read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price and the Bible, what advantage do we have over those who cannot read them for whatever reason?

Have you seen the differences between Lamanites and Nephites, described in these verses by Benjamin, manifested in people in our own culture?

Benjamin gave instructions to his son to call the people together in a great convocation. Mosiah 1 tells us that there were two purposes for this meeting. They are in Mosiah 1: 10,11. What are they?

Therefore, he had Mosiah brought before him; and these are the words which he spake unto him, saying: My son, I would that ye should make a proclamation throughout all this land among all this people, or the people of Zarahemla, and the people of Mosiah who dwell in the land, that thereby they may be gathered together; for on the morrow I shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth that thou art a king and a ruler over this people, whom the Lord our God hath given us. And moreover, I shall give this people a name, that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I do because they have been a diligent people in keeping the commandments of the Lord. (Emphasis added)

What did Benjamin give Mosiah besides the crown?

And moreover, he also gave him charge concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared by the hand of the Lord that thereby they might be led, every one according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him. (Mosiah 1:16)

2. KING BENJAMIN TEACHES THE PEOPLE OF THEIR ETERNAL INDEBTEDNESS TO GOD (Mosiah 2)

Note where the people pitched their tents when they came to hear the words of their King (see Mosiah 2:6). I have come to believe that it is much easier to hear the words of our King if our tents are pitched towards the temple. Where did Lot pitch his tent in Genesis 13:12? What danger does such a decision pose for people in our own day? When angelic messengers came to destroy the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, where was Lot living (See Genesis 19)? What is the modern equivalent of pitching our tents toward Sodom? If a non-member neighbor visiting your home were asked to make a judgement about where you have pitched your tent on the basis of what is on your walls, on your video shelf, or on your TV, what conclusion would he or she reach?

Benjamin told his people

I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak . . . (Mosiah 2:9, emphasis added)

My dictionary says that the verb trifle means "to talk or act jokingly, mockingly, or lightly. To play or toy with something." The noun refers to "something of little value of importance. A trivial thing or idea." Benjamin does not want his people to trifle with his words. How do you trifle with

• The law of chastity?

• General Conference?

• The scriptures?

• The sacrament?

• The priesthood?

• Church callings?

• Family obligations?

The messages of Mosiah 2 are centered in attitude and service. Benjamin tells us many of the things the Lord has done for us: (see Mosiah 2:20-23)

• He has created us

• He has preserved us

• He has caused that we can rejoice

• He has granted that we can live in peace

• He is preserving us from day to day

• He lends us breath

• He allows us agency - that is, the power to live and move according to our wills

And Benjamin lists the things we can do for God: (see Mosiah 2:20-22) There are only three of them:

• We can be grateful.

• We can serve him (see Mosiah 2:17)

• We can keep his commandments.

Of course, when you do these things,

He doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? (Mosiah 2:24)

When we look at our meager efforts in this light, we begin to see why Benjamin could call us unprofitable servants” (see Mosiah 2:21). Of course, Gods investment in the welfare of his children and his involvement in their lives is not a business venture from which he hopes to turn a profit. Benjamin's explanation of the goodness of God makes it seem very much as though God pays reverse interest: the more we try to repay him for his goodness and blessings, the more his goodness and blessings upon us increase.

Benjamin uses another interesting word in this chapter--a word that may be worth a lesson of its own:

But, O my people, beware lest . . . ye list to obey the evil spirit . . . (Mosiah 2:32, emphasis added)

My dictionary defines the word list in this way: to incline; to bend toward; to tilt.

For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge. (Mosiah 2:33)

This listing is not the same as the open rebellion in Mosiah 2:37; it is rather a subtle drifting, a slight inclination, a nearly invisible attraction to the enticements of sin, one that might go almost unnoticed without the right tools. This reminds me of a passage in Amos.

Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them [ignore their transgressions] any more . . . (Amos 7:7,8)

The purpose of a plumbline on a wall is to see if the wall is bending or tilting or inclining - to see if it is listing. God told Amos that he meant to measure Israel with a plumbline, to see if they were guilty of the thing Benjamin warned his people about - of listing to obey the evil spirit.

How would you recognize such a dilemma in your own life or in the lives of your children? What signs would you look for that might indicate inclining or bending or tilting? We have been commanded not to list but to walk uprightly before God

And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us. (1 Nephi 16:3, emphasis added)

And we are enabled to do it, according to Nephi, as we hearken to the truth and give heed to it - the truth of the scriptures, the truth of the intimations of the Spirit, the truth of the words of the living prophets. These are the things that will prevent us from listing: from leaning and tilting and bending. And listing is a dangerous pastime, For every man receiveth wages of him whom he listeth to obey. (Alma 3:27)

Any man who listeth to obey the evil spirit” then “becometh an enemy to all righteousness . . . (Mosiah 2:37) Therefore,

if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever. (Mosiah 2:38)

Of this condition of unquenchable fire and ascending flame, Joseph Smith said,

A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man. (Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.6, p.8, April 6, 1844)

On the other hand, Benjamin invites this consideration:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it. (Mosiah 2:41)

3. KING BENJAMIN REPEATS AN ANGEL'S PROPHECIES ABOUT JESUS CHRIST AND HIS ATONEMENT (Mosiah 3)

Mosiah 3 is a beautiful prophecy about the ministry and atonement of the Savior, in preparation for which the angel announces that he will declare glad tidings of great joy. (Mosiah 3:3) This phrase, also used by an angelic messenger in Luke 2:10,11 is a wonderful way to describe the overall meaning of any message about the atonement of Jesus Christ: glad tidings of great joy!

For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy. (Mosiah 3:4)

Benjamin gives his people a powerful and descriptive account of the redemptive service of Christ (Mosiah 3:5-10), and even though the sufferings enumerated are anything but joyful, still the message is one of great joy, because the Savior's sacrifice will make eternal life possible for at least three groups of people:

For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. (Mosiah 3:11)

The blood of Christ atones for the sins of those who do not know the law. This is not a promise of exaltation. We cannot be saved in ignorance (see D&C 131:6).

And even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins. (Mosiah 3:16)

The blood of Christ atones for little children. President John Taylor taught:

Without Adam's transgression those children could not have existed. Through the atonement they are placed in a state of salvation without any act of their own. These would embrace, according to the opinion of statisticians, more than one-half of the human family who can attribute their salvation only to the mediation and atonement of the Savior, Thus, as stated elsewhere, in some mysterious, incomprehensible way, Jesus assumed the responsibility which naturally would have devolved upon Adam; but which could only be accomplished through the mediation of himself, and by taking upon himself their sorrows, assuming their responsibilities, and bearing their transgressions or sins. (John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, p.119, emphasis added)

The finest article on the salvation of children that I have read is in the Ensign, April 1977, pp. 3-7. It was written by Elder Bruce R. McConkie and is called The Salvation of Little Children.

For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy; but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. (Mosiah 3:18)

The blood of Christ atones for men who humble themselves and repent. Of course a time will come that "none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent." (Mosiah 3:21) In that day, none will be ignorant of the mission of Christ, because "the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." (Mosiah 3:20)

CONCLUSION:

The mission of Christ is to make possible our reconciliation to God. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation . . . (2 Cor. 5:18) But why was such a reconciliation necessary at all? If we are his children and his love for us in unblemished and eternal, what is the thing that has divided us from him? Sin has made us his enemies. But it has not made him our enemy! His love remains, and the proof of that love is in the mission of his Son.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10, emphasis added)

When the scriptures describe us as his enemies, they mean to teach us that we are subject to the consequences of the fall unless and until we are regenerated by the atonement.

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)

King Benjamin teaches us the process of being reconciled as well as it is taught anywhere in the scripture. And certainly the sermon in which he gives us these teachings is one of the finest sermons recorded in the standard works. We will conclude our study of his words in the lesson next week.

Final Note: Dear Friends, If you have recommendations or considerations or questions about these lessons, please email me at tedgibbons@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,

T.L.G.

Book of Mormon Lesson #16: “Ye Shall Be Called the Children of Christ,” Mosiah 4-6 (Sunday School)

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:13:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

In my last post, I worked through Mosiah 1-3, the first “half” of Benjamin’s speech. Now we have the remainder—Mosiah 4-6—to work through. I’ve already commented in my previous post on the fact that Benjamin has taken us, thus far, through a discussion of the creation, then of the fall, and finally of atonement. What follows in the remainder of the speech is very interesting in light of this progression.

But there’s no need to go back to review. Benjamin begins this next part of his speech with a most important review of what he’s already had to say. Let’s take a look at that.

Mosiah 4-6 can be divided up as follows:

Book of Mormon Lesson #15: “Eternally Indebted to Your Heavenly Father,” Mosiah 1-3 (Sunday School)

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:40:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

King Benjamin’s speech in two lessons? Well, it’s a bit slower than we’re usually forced to go, but there’s anything but the necessary space here to deal adequately with Benjamin’s pregnant words. In many ways, Benjamin’s sermon is the Sermon on the Mount of the Book of Mormon, the presentation of the hard, practical demands of the gospel of Christ. It’s here that one finds the equation of service to others with service to God, the most overt obliteration of every idea of salvation by works, the divine demand to be like a child, the requirement to see oneself as absolutely nothing and God as everything, the condemnation of those who reject beggars because they brought it on themselves, the unavoidable importance of the covenant, etc. It is here, first and foremost in the Book of Mormon, that the theological rubber meets the road of everyday living. We would do well to pay the closest attention to Benjamin’s words.

Here’s what I want to do is the following:

Book of Mormon Lesson 14: "For a Wise Purpose"

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: In the pages of the small books of the Book of Mormon, we watch multiple methods of revelation at work: Enos's prayers, Jarom's communion with the Holy Spirit, and Mosiah's warning from the Lord.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

A powerful testimony to the importance of the Book of Mormon is to note where the Lord placed its coming forth in the timetable of the unfolding Restoration. The only thing that preceded it was the First Vision. In that marvelous manifestation, the Prophet Joseph Smith learned the true nature of God and that God had a work for him to do. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon was the next thing. Think of that in terms of what it implies. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon preceded the restoration of the priesthood. It was published just a few days before the Church was organized. The Saints were given the Book of Mormon to read before they were given the revelations outlining such great doctrines as the three degrees of glory, celestial marriage, or work for the dead. It came before priesthood quorums and Church organization. Doesn't this tell us something about how the Lord views this sacred work? (Ezra Taft Benson, October 1986 C.R. October 1986, Ensign 16 [November 1986]: 4.)

INTRODUCTION:

An interesting pattern appears in the Bible that closely corresponds with the structure of the Book of Mormon. Most students of the scriptures know that the books of Kings and Chronicles roughly parallel the same time period, but that the accounts contained therein differ slightly in perspective and presentation. The reason for the dual record and the diversity of content is, at least in part, a result of the role of those responsible for the records. The Books of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings were a record of the events occurring during the reign of the kings of Israel and Judah. The books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles tell the story of the same time period, but the records therein were kept by the religious leaders of the two nations. Jewish tradition tells us Ezra was the author of Chronicles.

It was out of this time period that Lehi led his people to the ocean and thence to America, where record keepers followed the same pattern––one record for the kings (the large plates) and another for the religious leaders the small plates).

As we complete our study of the small plates of Nephi, it is worth noting that the preservation and compilation of two records has an apparent basis in the historical model of the Bible as well as in the revealed will of the Lord.

1. ENOS PRAYS FOR HIMSELF, THE NEPHITES, AND THE LAMANITES (Enos 1)

Among other things, Enos teaches us by example of four great principles associated with powerful prayer focused on a particular need. Interestingly enough, all of them can be written beginning with the letter A. This assists greatly with efforts to remember the lessons. The words are:

ALONE: Enos made his first great petition while he was hunting. In the course of his pursuit of beasts, he had a deep and rich experience and stopped hunting and started praying. His prayer, at least in terms of its locations, was much like the prayer of Joseph in the Sacred Grove. Joseph said, After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. (JSH 1:15) Amulek taught, But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. (Alma 34:26) President Kimball said We, too, ought to find, where possible, a room, a corner, a closet, a place where we can retire to pray vocally in secret. (Ensign, Oct. 1981, p. 4)

ALOUD: Enos knelt before his maker and cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication. . . . I did raise my voice high that it reached the heavens (Enos 1:4) Nephi said it this way: I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, My God . . . (2 Nephi 4:35.)

Nearly one hundred times in the Book of Mormon some form of the verb "to cry" is used to denote prayer. A "cry" is usually vocal. Amulek indicates this in his stirring sermon on prayer when he counsels: "And when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually." (Alma 34:27, emphasis added.) In other words, when we do not or cannot pray vocally, then we should pray in our hearts. (Ted Gibbons, Rending the Veil of Heaven, p. 50)

President Spencer W. Kimball said:

We recall the many times the Lord instructs us to pray vocally. "And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:28.) So central is this to our prayers and personal religious life that the Lord instructed the priesthood brethren to "visit the house of each member, exhorting them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties. (Ensign, October 1981, p. 2.)

A LOT: Not all answers come at the first petition. Our repeated requests are not an effort to change the Lord but to change ourselves. We are not trying to get the Lord ready to answer our prayer, but to get ourselves ready to receive the answer we need. all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. (Enos 1:4) Speaking of this experience of Enos, Pres. Harold B. Lee said,

I once read that scripture to a woman who laughed and said, "Imagine anybody praying all night and all day." I replied, "My dear sister, I hope you never have to come to a time where you have a problem so great that you have to so humble yourself. I have; I have prayed all day and all night and all day the next day and all night the next night, not always on my knees but praying constantly for a blessing that I needed most. (The Improvement Era, October 1966, p. 898.)

Boyd K. Packer said,

Sometimes you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer. What could be wrong?

It may be that you are not doing anything wrong. It may be that you have not done the right things long enough. Remember, you cannot force spiritual things.

Sometimes we are confused simply because we won't take no for an answer. (Ensign, November 1979, p. 21.)

ANSWER: After we have prepared ourselves and done the right thing long enough, the answers will come: And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away. (Enos 1:5,6) I think we must have a great faith in the willingness of the Lord to speak to us. Joseph Smith said, It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another . . . (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345)

There is at least one other aspect of prayer demonstrated by the experience of Enoch. We learn reading this tiny book that prayer is hard work. Review the following phrases and consider what they teach about the way Enos prayed and about the way we ought to pray.

• I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God . . . (Enos 1:2)

• I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication (Enos 1:4)

• All the day long did I cry unto him (Enos 1:4)

• I did pour out my whole soul unto God. . . (Enos 1:9)

• while I was thus struggling in the spirit . . . (Enos 1:10)

• I prayed unto him with many long strugglings . . . (Enos 1:11)

• After I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said . . . (Enos 1:12)

• I cried unto him continually . . . (Enos 1:15)

The message of these phrases is that prayer––effective prayer––is hard work. I am not speaking here of saying prayers which often seems to be a routine recital of familiar phrases in a praying position. I am talking about praying; about conversing with our Father in Heaven.

Enos prayed for himself and then for the Nephites. Finally he prayed for the Lamanites with many long strugglings. Notice Enos's description of these people he is praying for:

And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us. (Enos 1:20)

Both the efforts of the Nephites and the prayers of Enos for a people apparently as lost and fallen as the Lamanites are powerful evidence of the expectations of God for his disciples. We must not spend all our efforts and all our prayers on those who look most like Mormons. The lesson of the scriptures is that you cannot tell who will repent just by looking. Almost all the things that will make a man a true disciple are hidden from the natural eye. The Lord taught us that we are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect . . . And how do we recognize them? Mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts. (D&C 29:7)

We ought to mention here (since Enos does) that the Nephites had problems of their own:

And the [Nephite] people were a stiffnecked people, hard to understand. And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things––stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction. And after this manner do I write concerning them. (Enos 1:22,23)

2. THE NEPHITES PROSPER THROUGH CONTINUAL REPENTANCE (Jarom 1)

Jarom, the grandson of Jacob, perceived the same lack of spiritual discipline in the Nephites that his father Enos had observed. He said:

Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land. (Jarom 1:4)

But the attentions of these two great leaders and their assistants had a salutary effect.

And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith. And now, behold, two hundred years had passed away, and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the sabbath day holy unto the Lord. And they profaned not; neither did they blaspheme. And the laws of the land were exceedingly strict. (Jarom 1:4,5)

Inasmuch as the Nephites kept the commandments, they prospered (Jarom 1:9), but the prophets were obliged to warn and threaten them.

And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land. (Jarom 1:10)

Jacob in his own day had made a similar prophecy, one that was to be fulfilled before the end of the small plates.

And the time speedily cometh, that except ye repent they shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away the righteous out from among you. (Jacob 3:4)

But Jarom and his fellow-laborers sought diligently to prevent it from happening.

Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all longsuffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them. (Jarom 1:11)

3. OMNI, AMARON, CHEMISH, ABINADOM, AND AMALEKI KEEP THE RECORDS (Omni 1)

The Lord has often commanded the righteous to depart from among the wicked in order to find an environment less destructive to religious sentiment. Lehi received such a command. Nephi did also, and left the Lamanites behind after their arrival in America. Now Mosiah will fulfill the prophecy of Jacob (Jacob 3:4) quoted above, and lead the righteous away once again.

Behold, I will speak unto you somewhat concerning Mosiah, who was made king over the land of Zarahemla; for behold, he being warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness And it came to pass that he did according as the Lord had commanded him. And they departed out of the land into the wilderness, as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord; and they were led by many preachings and prophesyings. And they were admonished continually by the word of God; and they were led by the power of his arm, through the wilderness until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla. (Omni 1:12,13)

Thus the unrighteous Nephites were left behind to contend with or to join the Lamanites, and the political arrangement of the Nephites underwent a radical change by the absorption of a new group of Israelites.

The migrations of Lehi and Nephi and Mosiah ought to teach us. When the prophet tells us we need to be somewhere we are not, we ought to follow him. We have the spectacular opportunity to sit at the feet of a living prophet in our own living rooms. What a blessing it is to hear his words and the words of his fellow workers, and to hear them with no more effort for most of us than is required to watch a basketball game or a TV movie. When in the history of the world has it been so convenient to learn what the prophet has to say? I hope that there are none of us languishing in the Land of Nephi when we ought to be moving in among the Mulekites in Zarahemla.

4. MORMON ADDS THE SMALL PLATES OF NEPHI TO HIS ABRIDGMENT OF THE LARGE PLATES (Words of Mormon)

The cohesiveness of the Book of Mormon is a constant amazement to me. With so many opportunities to confuse the reader––with different books and groups and authors and historical activities––the book is a fortress of consistency. The Words of Mormon is one example of the remarkable structure in this book that bears a constant witness of its truthfulness. No man could have held the threads together by innate intelligence and unflinching bravado without the sections and the narrative coming apart somewhere. The message of the Words of Mormon, together with their location and structure, is one more witness to me of the inspiration moving the writers of the Book of Mormon.

Note (verse 1) when the Words of Mormon were written. The date at the bottom of page 143 is a huge jump from the date on the previous page.

It appears that Mormon, as he wrote about the life of Benjamin, searched among the records available to him, perhaps for additional insights and information about this wonderful king. He found the small plates of Nephi. He liked what he found enough that instead of extracting pertinent information from the small plates for his record, he included the entire set of plates with his abridgment.

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will. (Words of Mormon 1:7)

Mormon then proceeds to give us enough information about King Benjamin to tie the record of the small plates to the abridged version of Mosiah on the large plates. Well take a look at Benjamin in our next lesson.

CONCLUSION:

We have again watched in these pages a number of revelatory processes at work. Enos's prayers and answers; Jarom's witness of revelations and communion with the Holy Spirit; Amaron's testimony of the fulfillment of the Lord's prophecies; Mosiah's flight following a warning from the Lord; and finally, the testimony from Mormon, who tells us a great deal about how revelation usually comes.

For thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me . . . he worketh in me to do according to his will. (Words of Mormon 1:7)

This is the process by which most revelation comes––the Spirit working in us in that remarkable process we call the still, small voice by which we are told in our minds and our hearts (D&C 8:2,3) what to do or how to do it.

Book of Mormon Lesson #14: “For a Wise Purpose,” Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon (Gospel Doctrine)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:58:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

We’re on our way from the small plates to Mormon’s abridgement, and that way is paved by several short books. What I’ll do in this lesson, mostly, is attempt to set the stage for the Book of Mosiah. I’ll have relatively little to say about what’s usually talked about in Enos and Jarom, and I’ll get rather quickly to the details of the discovery of Zarahemla in Omni and the Words of Mormon. After all that, I’ll have a handful of things to say about the small plates as such, also drawn from Omni and the Words of Mormon. And then I’ll leave the small plates behind to turn to King Benjamin.

Book of Mormon Lesson 13: The Allegory of the Olive Trees

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:05:00 -0600

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Jacob's recital of the allegory of the olive tree is by far the longest and probably most complex chapter in the Book of Mormon. Explore the chapter and symbols with me in this lesson aid, as well as Jacob's experience with the first major anti-Christ among the Nephites.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

There is not that being that ever had the privilege of hearing the way of life and salvation set before him as it is written in the New Testament, and in the Book of Mormon, and in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, by a Latter-day Saint, that can say that Jesus lives, that his Gospel is true, and at the same time say that Joseph Smith was not a Prophet of God. That is strong testimony, but it is true. No man can say that this book (laying his hand on the Bible) is true, is the word of the Lord, is the way, is the guide-board in the path, and a charter by which we may learn the will of God; and at the same time say, that the Book of Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing it read, and learning its doctrines. There is not that person on the face of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ from these two books, that can say that one is true, and the other is false. No Latter-day Saint, no man or woman, can say the Book of Mormon is true, and at the same time say that the Bible is untrue. If one be true, both are; and if one be false, both are false. If Jesus lives, and is the Savior of the world, Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, and lives in the bosom of his father Abraham. Though they have killed his body, yet he lives and beholds the face of his Father in Heaven; and his garments are pure as the angels that surround the throne of God; and no man on the earth can say that Jesus lives, and deny, at the same time, my assertion about the Prophet Joseph. This is my testimony, and it is strong. (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.459)

INTRODUCTION:

Jacob's recital of the allegory of the olive tree is by far the longest, and probably the most complex chapter in the Book of Mormon. But it is a marvelous exposition of a point Jacob wants desperately to make.

Jacob told us at the end of Jacob 4 that the

Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble. (Jacob 4:14)

He also told us that they would reject the stone upon which they might build and have safe foundation. (4:15)

But even so, he assures us, that stone – the Savior Jesus Christ would become the great, and the last, and the only sure foundation, upon which the Jews can build. (4:15)

After having a careful look at this sequence of conclusions, one is bound to ask, How can a people be stiffnecked, kill the prophets, despise words of plainness, look beyond the mark, desire things they cannot understand, reject the Savior, and yet still build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ? Jacob asks the question for us:

And now, my beloved, how is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner? (4:17)

The allegory of the olive tree is Jacob's attempt to explain this paradox to us. In the final verse of chapter 4 he tells us,

Behold, my beloved brethren, I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you. (4:18)

1. JACOB QUOTES ZENOS'S ALLEGORY OF THE OLIVE TREES

(Jacob 5)

There are many ways to examine Zenos allegory. By the identification of a few consistent symbols most verses can be rendered in a form that makes interpretation a simple matter. For example:

Tame olive tree = House of Israel

Lord of the Vineyard = Savior

Servant = prophets, missionaries

Root = Covenant people or blood of Israel

Wild olive tree = Gentiles

Decay (bad fruit, bitter fruit) = breaking covenants

Good fruit = keeping covenants

Grafting = Gospel opportunities

Vineyard = World

Plucking (burning) = judgement (justice)

Pruning (digging) = mercy, patience, long-suffering

Dunging = Nourishing

Branches = groups of people

Practice interpreting the following verses using the explanations above:

And he said unto the servant: Look hither and behold the last. Behold, this have I planted in a good spot of ground; and I have nourished it this long time, and only a part of the tree hath brought forth tame fruit, and the other part of the tree hath brought forth wild fruit; behold, I have nourished this tree like unto the others. (5:25)

And now, behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof have become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit; and these I had hoped to preserve, to have laid up fruit thereof against the season, unto mine own self. But, behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree, and they are of no worth but to be hewn down and cast into the fire; and it grieveth me that I should lose them. (5:46)

Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came; and let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter, and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof. (5:52)

It may even be possible, though perhaps not necessary, to assign specific verses to particular historical events. The long time that passes away in verse 15 is probably the inter-testamental period from 400 BC to the birth of the Savior. Verse 46 may be an allusion to the great apostasy. Verse 25 seems to refer to the Nephites and Lamanites in the land of promise.

However, in my studying of this chapter, I have finally determined to study it in the frame of mind in which Jacob wrote it. That it, I have focused on the willingness of the master to help us when we make mistakes.

The Jews, in their stiff-neckedness and their hard-heartedness and their rejection of the Savior, made terrible mistakes. Jacob engraved this allegory on the plates (a herculean task!) in order to show us what the master of the vineyard did for them, and will do for us when we make mistakes. Try reading Jacob 5 with just this question in mind: What can I learn here about what the Savior will do for those he loves when they stray from the strait and narrow path?

The following list is my list – a collection of insights into the Love of the Savior – a list not quite like any other list from any other place in the scriptures.

• PRUNE – This word and the next two (dig, nourish) appear often together in this narrative. But the idea of pruning suggests a more drastic intervention that loosening the soil and applying fertilizer. Hebrews tells us that even the Savior learned . . . obedience by the things which he suffered. (Heb. 5:8) Job was pruned. Paul had his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7). My son has diabetes. These afflictions speak to me more of pruning than of digging or nourishing.

• DIG – Alma speaks of being harrowed up by his sins. That would be digging in its most dramatic form. But in a milder form, this word makes me think of the loosening of soil around a plant to increase its ability to receive nutrients. Thus, as God digs about us, he may be trying to loosen the hardness of the soil of our hearts and the stiffness of our necks, to make us more responsive to the whisperings of the Spirit and the words of the Prophets

• NOURISH – Some form of this word shows up 20 times in Jacob 5. Moroni 6:4 speaks of our need to be nourished by the good word of God . . . We may be nourished in our spiritual weakness by the scriptures or the prophets or the words of loving friends and leaders and family members.

• GRAFT – In its literal use in this allegory, the word graft refers to the transplanting of groups of people to increase the chance that they will respond to the opportunities and blessings of the gospel. But in a more general sense, the action of grafting refers to the efforts of the Lord to change the environment of groups, families, or individuals to increase the likelihood of their responding to the blessings and opportunities of the gospel. My wife picked up a woman on the street in front of our house during a blizzard. She and her family had moved to Orem from an eastern state for no better reason than that they felt it was the right thing to do. My wife shared a ride and, before long, the gospel with her and her family. I think she had been grafted.

• GRIEVE – The grief of the Savior over the prospect of losing the trees and fruit of his vineyard is a constant theme in this allegory of Zenos. In eight different places Zenos speaks of the grief of the master over the lack of good fruit in the vineyard. Reading these verses again has reminded me of the experience of Enoch in Moses 7:28And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? I think the Savior grieves, not because our sins have caused him to suffer, but because they will cause us to suffer.

• PRESERVE – Eleven times the Lord speaks of trying to preserve the trees and the fruit of the vineyard. In the face of decay and in the absence of acceptable fruit, and at a time when less devoted husbandmen might have turned the vineyard into firewood and started over, the Savior tries to preserve his people in righteousness. The pruning, digging, nourishing, and grafting, along with many of his actions in the following paragraphs are examples of his efforts to preserve his people until the time of the harvest.

• LABOR – Over and over again the Savior goes down to labor in the vineyard. He is not like the householder, which planted a vineyard . . . and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country (Matt. 21:33). He himself labors in the vineyard. In fact, we are told that at the time of his final visit, when laborers are sent in the vineyard for the last time, "that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them" (emphasis added)

• WENT DOWN; WENT FORTH; WATCHED; BEHELD – A number of phrases in Jacob 5 remind us that the Master of the Vineyard is watching us closely. He is keenly aware of all we say, think, and do: BEHOLD and hearken, O ye elders of my church . . . whose prayers I have heard, and whose hearts I know, and whose desires have come up before me. Behold and lo, mine eyes are upon you, and the heavens and the earth are in mine hands, and the riches of eternity are mine to give (D&C 67:1,2). His purpose, I suppose, is be ready to render assistance at the first sign of wandering.

• SELECT LOCATIONS – After the Lord had hid[den] the natural branches of the tame tree in various places in the vineyard (Jacob 5:14), his servant asked, How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit (5:21,22). The Lord selects the locations for his people that will maximize the potential for good fruit. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said of this matter, Our Eternal Father knows all of his spirit children, and in his infinite wisdom, he chooses the very time that each comes to earth to gain a mortal body and undergo a probationary experience. Everything the Lord does is for the benefit and blessing of his children. And each of those children is subjected to the very trials and experiences that Omniscient Wisdom knows he should have (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, p.660).

We must not miss this important truth. We can produce much fruit regardless of where they Lord puts us. If we are willing, he will nourish us and bless us and make us fruitful.

• DUNG – This word, as mentioned above, might be included with nourishing and digging, but using it separately gives me the chance to include (again) this favorite quote about dunging:

On my way to visit the Jameses the other evening, I saw a wheat field that appeared to be greener and taller than the others. Thinking about it for awhile, I concluded that occasionally some loving farmer drives over the field with his tractor and pumps manure all over it. I thought, My, its just like life. Here we are minding our own business, growing our little hearts out. Were really quite green somewhat productive and very sincere. When out of the blue, life deals us a dirty one, and were up to our eyebrows in manure. We, of course, conclude that life as we have known it has just ended and will never be the same again. But one day, when the smell and the shock are gone, we find ourselves greener and more productive than we have been. Unfortunately, no matter how often we go through these growing experiences, we are never able to appreciate the sound of the tractor of the smell of the manure. [Harold W. Wood]

• NOTWITHSTANDING ALL THE CARE WHICH WE HAVE TAKEN (5:46) WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE MORE? (5:41,47,49); HAVE I SLACKENED MY HAND? (5:47); I HAVE STRETCHED FORTH MINE HAND (5:47; 6:4) – These four phrases speak of the continuous concern for the Savior for the welfare of his children in the vineyard. His only concern is the welfare of his people, and that his suffering and his teaching and his example should be meaningful in helping them to have a fullness of joy: He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world . . . (2 Nephi 26:24).

• SPARE IT A LITTLE LONGER – At a time when all the trees of the vineyard were corrupted and brought forth no good fruit (5:46) both the servant and the master agreed to spare the vineyard a little longer (5:50,51). It was ripe for burning. It deserved burning. This willingness to wait for judgement in hopes of repentance is in other scriptural locations called patience or longsuffering. It was this willingness that Ammon spoke of when he said, Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state? (Alma 26:17)

• REJOICE EXCEEDINGLY – This is the response of the Savior when he anticipates success in preserving both roots and branches of the tame tree (5:60). We are promised that our joy will be great if we bring souls, but we are reminded that he has great joy too: And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! (D&C 18:13)

• LABOR DILIGENTLY WITH OUR MIGHTAt the beginning of the allegory, we saw the Master and his servants laboring, but as the end draws near, the nature of the labor seems to change (5:61,62,71). The language is similar to the instructions given in D&C 4: 2: Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. The salvation of a soul worth any righteous effort.

• RECOVER – In Jacob 6, Jacob gives a brief review of the significance of the allegory. In verse 2 he repeats a promise often given in the scriptures that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people. He will do the same for all of his children, if they are willing to be recovered. Thus he promises in Mosiah 26:30 to forgive as often and repentance occurs. In Luke 5:4-6, he gives instruction to Peter and others, in spite of a night without success, to let down the nets again.

• REMEMBERETH – He remembers the House of Israel (6:4). For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. (1 Nephi 21:15)

• HE CLEAVETH UNTO YOU – We are invited by Jacob to have as much affection for the Lord as he has for us (6:5). He will not abandon us for some minor infraction of the rules. Pres. J Reuben Clark said, I believe that his juridical concept of his dealings with his children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy he will give us the maximum reward for our acts, give us all that he can give, and in the reverse, I believe that he will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose. (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Conference Report, October 1953, p.84)

• HIS ARM OF MERCY IS EXTENDED – This is a wonderful conclusion to our analysis of this allegory. The words and phrases above offer powerful evidence of his mercy. In the same way that he invited the woman taken in adultery (see John 8:1-11) to repent and return, he has invited us to find security in the everlasting arms of his mercy.

2. JACOB EXHORTS HIS LISTENERS TO REPENT AND FOLLOW CHRIST (Jacob 6)

The purpose of the allegory, once again is to tell us how it is possible to make mistakeseven huge mistakes – and still receive the blessings of the atonement. In chapter 6, Jacob makes this point eloquently:

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die? For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire? Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? (Jacob 6:5-8)

And finally, this note:

O be wise; what can I say more? (Jacob 6:12)

It seems fairly clear from the ending verses of Jacob 6 that Jacob thought he was finished with his work on the plates.

Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen. (Jacob 6:13)

3. SHEREM'S FALSE TEACHINGS (Jacob 7)

Jacob's experiences with Sherem were so significant that he wrote on the plates again. He must have known that there was a message for our day in his experience with the first of the major anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon.

I think that a most important part of this chapter is a description of the ways in which we can become strong in the faith – so strong that we cannot be shaken.

Jacob said of himself and others

Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. (Jacob 4:6)

The result of these many witnesses is a great hope and an unshaken faith in the Savior. Jacob tells us of his encounter with Sherem that he had hope to shake [Jacob] from the faith (7:5)

. . . notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken. (Jacob 7:5, emphasis added)

The sequence seems to work something like this: We search the prophets and the scriptures, we have many revelations and spiritual experiences, and our faith becomes unshaken and unshakeable. How many times as you have searched the scriptures have you been tutored and enlightened by the Spirit. This is the thing that ought to happen as we search the word of God:

Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness? (D&C 19:39)

Sherem demands a sign (7:13). Jacob obliges. Sherem is discredited and Jacob is thereafter successful in reclaiming the people.

And it came to pass that peace and the love of God was restored again among the people . . .

The key to that restoration and to the protection of the people was that they searched the scriptures . . . (7:23)

CONCLUSION:

The experience of Sherem in demanding and receiving a sign reminds me of an experience of the Prophet Joseph Smith related by Elder George A. Smith of the Twelve on June 24, 1855)

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first founded, you could see persons rise up and ask, "What sign will you show us that we may be made to believe?" I recollect a Campbellite preacher who came to Joseph Smith, I think his name was Hayden. He came in and made himself known to Joseph, and said that he had come a considerable distance to be convinced of the truth. "Why," said he, "Mr. Smith, I want to know the truth, and when I am convinced, I will spend all my talents and time in defending and spreading the doctrines of your religion, and I will give you to understand that to convince me is equivalent to convincing all my society, amounting to several hundreds." Well, Joseph commenced laying before him the coming forth of the work, and the first principles of the Gospel, when Mr. Hayden exclaimed, "O this is not the evidence I want, the evidence that I wish to have is a notable miracle; I want to see some powerful manifestation of the power of God, I want to see a notable miracle performed; and if you perform such a one, then I will believe with all my heart and soul, and will exert all my power and all my extensive influence to convince others; and if you will not perform a miracle of this kind, then I am your worst and bitterest enemy." "Well," said Joseph, "what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done." "That is not the kind of miracle I want," said the preacher. "Then, sir," replied Joseph, "I can perform none, I am not going to bring any trouble upon any body else, sir, to convince you. ( George Albert Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.2, p.326 p.327)

Book of Mormon Lesson #13: “The Allegory of the Olive Trees,” Jacob 5-7 (Gospel Doctrine)

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:33:00 -0600

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

As I mentioned in last post, I’ll be tackling all of Jacob 4-7 in this post. I noted last time that chapters 1-3 form a unit, while chapters 4-6 form a distinct unit, and chapter 7 forms a unit all its own. So I’ll be addressing chapter 4 in connection with chapters 5-6. And I’ll add some notes about chapter 7 as well.

I’ll be frank at the start that I don’t much like writing or talking about the allegory of the olive tree. Largely that’s because I find that it’s one of few places in the Book of Mormon where Latter-day Saints have done seriously dedicated work to understand the text. (If only we collectively used the same sort of care in reading Isaiah!) I’m mostly happy to let people work on those already productive readings. It’s also, though, because I find the dominant interpretation a bit overpowering. I suspect there are other, quite important things going on in the allegory than a kind of basic map of covenantal history, but I have a hard time finding my way out of the dominant approach.

But my task remains my task. We’ll see what can’t be learned by coming to it again. I’ll take up chapters 4 and 6 first, setting up the introduction to and conclusions drawn from the quotation of Zenos’s allegory. I’ll then turn directly to chapter 5, the allegory itself. Finally, I’ll add a few words about chapter 7.

Book of Mormon Lesson 12: "Seek Ye for the Kingdom of God"

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:05:00 -0700

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: The life of Jacob cannot have been easy, but he never faltered. These first chapters of his book and his discussion of love and family give a powerful example of the courage of a prophet.

Quote of the Week:

The Book of Mormon claims to be a divinely inspired record, written by a succession of prophets who inhabited ancient America. . . .
This book must be either true or false. If true, it is one of the most important messages ever sent from God to man, affecting both the temporal and eternal interests of every people under heaven to the same extent and in the same degree that the message of Noah affected the inhabitants of the old world. If false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions who will sincerely receive it as the word of God. . . .
The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it. [Elder Orson Pratt, Orson Pratts Works on the Doctrines of the Gospel (Salt Lake City: Deseret New Press, 1945), 107; cited in The Book of Mormon: the Foundation of Our Faith, p. 2]

INTRODUCTION:

Perhaps it is strange to begin with a conclusion, but some of Jacob's most precious insights into his own life came at the end of his writings as he finished the work of engraving his messages to us on the small plates.

And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days. (Jacob 7:26)

Jacob does have one other thing to tell us - a promise reminiscent of the final declaration of Nephi (see 2 Nephi 33:11)

I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen. (Jacob 6:13, emphasis added)

I look forward to that encounter with Jacob. Few men in the history of the world seem to have been as devoted to truth and righteousness as Jacob, son of Lehi.

1. JACOB MAGNIFIES HIS CALLING FROM THE LORD (Jacob 1)
As we begin this discussion of the ministry of Jacob among the Nephites, we ought to insert a note about the priesthood authority under which the Nephites functioned. Elder B. H. Roberts explained it this way:

There was a priesthood that administered the ordinances of [the] gospel, and as the gospel was a higher law than the law of Moses, it is reasonable to conclude that the priesthood which administered in those ordinances was a higher order of priesthood than that conferred upon Aaron and the tribe of Levi, and undoubtedly the higher priesthood could, on occasion, administer in the ordinances of the inferior law. It was, doubtless, this higher order of Priesthood that such characters as Abraham, Melchizedek, and other prophets in Israel held, and by which they administered in sacred things. It was this order of priesthood that was held by Lehi and Nephi, and which the latter conferred upon his brothers, Jacob, and Joseph. The former referring to his priesthood says, that he had been "ordained after the manner of this (the Lord's) holy order," that being the way in which this higher priesthood, of which I am speaking, is designated throughout the Book of Mormon. Called also a priesthood "after the order of the Son of God." It was this priesthood, therefore, that was conferred upon the Nephites—not the Aaronic priesthood—and by which they officiated in sacred things; of things pertaining to the gospel as well as to the law given of Moses. The justification for administering in the things of the law by this priesthood consist in the fact that the superior authority includes all the rights and powers of the inferior authority, and certainly possesses the power to do what the inferior authority could do. (B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, Vol.3, p.469, emphasis added)

Since there were no Levites in the colony of Lehi, the priesthood by which they functioned was exclusively Melchizedek until after the coming of Christ among them in 634 A.D. The ordinations to the offices of priest and teacher spoken of in the Nephite record do not refer to the Aaronic Priesthood.

Among the Nephites, brethren holding the Melchizedek Priesthood were selected, consecrated teachers, and given teaching and administrative powers and responsibilities. (1 Ne. 2:22; 2 Ne. 5:19; Mosiah 23:17; 25:19; 26:7; Alma 4:7.) They had jurisdiction over the churches and, along with the priests, were "to preach and to teach the word of God." (Alma 23:4.) They had power to baptize (Alma 15:13), a privilege not enjoyed by teachers in the Aaronic Priesthood. (D. & C. 20:58.) (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.776)

Jacob tells us about his calling and his feeling about that calling.

For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi. And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day. (Jacob 1:18,19)

From Jacob we learn three great lessons about what it means to magnify an office unto the Lord. Notice what Jacob did:

    •    He obtained his errand from the Lord (Jacob 1:17). A danger in a church as well-organized as ours is that we will fulfill all of our callings in pretty much the same way that those who held them before us fulfilled them. We flirt with the All is well in Zion syndrome.

We have always handled the lessons in the High Priests this way. Whats wrong with it?

Weve never been able to get very many members of the Gospel Doctrine class to read their scriptures. There is no reason to expect things to change now.

All of our inhibitions and excuses may be perfectly reasonable, but Jacob would want to know what the Lord thought about it. And he would probably want us to know too. There is a suggestion of how to obtain some of this information in the D&C. The Lord, as he reveals the need for the church to build a temple at Kirtland, gives several purposes for temples. One of them is That they may be perfected in the understanding of their ministry, in theory, in principle, and in doctrine . . . (D&C 97:14) Perhaps part of our preparation for any new calling ought to be a visit or two to the temple to obtain our errand from the Lord.

    •    Jacob took the responsibility for his calling (see Jacob 1:19). He taught the word of God with all diligence . . . laboring with [his] might . . . He was willing to answer for the sins of the people if he did not fulfill is calling in the correct way. This attitude about duty is reminiscent of the statements of other prophets on the same matter. For example, Pres. John Taylor said, God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty. How many of you can say, My garments are clean from the blood of this generation? I speak in behalf of the nations and the people thereof, and the honest in heart who are ignorant of God and his laws. (J.D., Vol. 20, p. 23) D&C 4 teaches us to serve with all our ability and effort, that [we] may stand blameless before God at the last day. (D&C 4:2; see also Mosiah 2:15; 1 Thess. 2:9)

    •    He labored diligently. Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of my brother Nephi. (Jacob 1:7,8)

Another part of Jacob's duties given to him by Nephi was to become custodian of the small plates and to continue the work begun by Nephi in engraving on them.

Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven. And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi . . . And if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ's sake, and for the sake of our people (Jacob 1:1,2,4)

In D&C 24:3 the Lord said something to Joseph Smith about magnifying a calling:

Magnify thine office; and after thou hast sowed thy fields and secured them, go speedily unto the church which is in Colesville, Fayette, and Manchester, and they shall support thee; and I will bless them both spiritually and temporally (emphasis added).

Joseph Smith lived on 13 acres in Harmony, Pennsylvania. The date of this revelation is July(!) of 1830. And Joseph still had not planted his crops. He had given his effort, his time, his strength, to his calling. But the Lord did not want Joseph to excel in farming. He was promised that the Colesville saints would support him. He had a work to do for the Kingdom.

And in temporal labors thou shalt not have strength, for this is not thy calling. Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office, and to expound all scriptures, and continue in laying on of the hands and confirming the churches. (D&C 24:9)

2. JACOB WARNS AGAINST THE LOVE OF RICHES, PRIDE, AND UNCHASTITY (Jacob, 2,3)
Jacob identifies three problems among the Nephites with which he will have to deal. Two are given here:

And now it came to pass that the people of Nephi, under the reign of the second king, began to grow hard in their hearts, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked practices, such as like unto David of old desiring many wives and concubines, and also Solomon, his son. Yea, and they also began to search much gold and silver, and began to be lifted up somewhat in pride (Jacob 1:15,16).

1. Immorality
2. Materialism/pride

To these may be added one other

3. Racial prejudice.

Jacob discusses materialism and pride first. He has been commanded to (see Jacob 2:11).

And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you, that many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed, doth abound most plentifully. And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they (Jacob 2: 12,13).

This seems to be a meaningful message for our day. Many of us have begun to search for [riches] . . . in the which this land . . . doth abound most plentifully. I have heard people, at times, use verses from Jacob 2 to justify this pursuit. Perhaps we ought to give ourselves Jacobs test on riches:

1. [2:12] Are you seeking for wealth or riches? (Seek not for riches . . . D&C 6:7; 11:7).
2. [2:13] Can you resist the temptation to think you are better than others when you have more than they do?
3. 2:16] Can you resist the pride that may come with wealth and that may destroy your souls?
4. [2:17] Do you think of your brethren like unto yourself?
5. [2:17] Are you familiar with all and free with your substance?
6. [2:18] Is the kingdom of God more important to you than any business or financial success?
7. [2:19] Do you really have a hope in Christ
8. [2:19] Do you seek for riches with the intent to do good?
9. [2:20] Do you recognize that all you have is a gift from God?
10. [2:21] Do you truly believe that all humans are as precious as you are?
11. [2:21] Do you understand (and live as though you understand) that the true purpose of life is to keep the commandments and glorify God?

Jacob would have been pleased to conclude his rebuke of the Nephites at this point.

And now I make an end of speaking unto you concerning this pride. And were it not that I must speak unto you concerning a grosser crime, my heart would rejoice exceedingly because of you. (Jacob 2:22)

The grosser crime is immorality. It is a subject upon which much is said in our day, the vast majority of it being said immodestly and irreverently. It has become a major theme of media and conversation. Jacob feels differently about it:

And also it grieveth me that I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you, before your wives and your children, many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God, which thing is pleasing unto God . . .Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes, to enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds; and those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds. But, notwithstanding the greatness of the task, I must do according to the strict commands of God, and tell you concerning your wickedness and abominations, in the presence of the pure in heart, and the broken heart, and under the glance of the piercing eye of the Almighty God. (Jacob 2:7,9,10)

But the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes. . . . (Jacob 2:23)

Much discussion and some confusion have arisen because of the reference in these teachings to the practices of David and Solomon, both of whom had many wives and concubines . . . (Jacob 2:24). Some have used this passage to argue against the practice of plural marriage in any dispensation or at any time - and particularly as practiced by the Mormons in the 19th century. Take a careful look at the language of this and the following verses. Verse 24, after referring to the marital practices of David and Solomon, continues, ". . . which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord." The use of the verb was rather than the verb is suggests a specific application of this description. And for David and Solomon it was abominable, for it cost them both dearly. David lost his exaltation over the matter (D&C 132:39). Perhaps Solomon did also (See 1 Kings 11:1-5).

To the members of Lehi's colony, those whom he had led forth out of the land of Jerusalem (2:25), he gave this commandment: . . . my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none . . . (Jacob 2:27). Again, the words among you in verse 27 suggest a commandment given specifically to this group. Without these words, this becomes a very different injunction.

And of course the Lord leaves himself with all of his options in this matter: For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things (Jacob 2:30).

But let us return to the iniquity among the Nephites. Jacob calls immorality a grosser crime (2:22,23). Throughout chapter 2 he uses phrases that speak with great power about the tragedy of immorality. These are words like abominable, sorrow, mourning, wickedness, abominations, cries of the fair daughters, captive, sore curse, destruction, great condemnation, greater iniquities, broken the hearts of your tender wives, lost the confidence of your children, sobbing of their hearts, and finally, many hearts died, pierced with deep wounds. For another image of a heart pierced with deep wounds, turn to the 38th Psalm, verses 1-14, and mark the words that define David's agony following his transgressions.

Solomon, speaking of immorality, sends powerful images across the ages to us. He compares immorality to a woman and says of those that yield to her enticements,

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. . . . Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. (Proverbs 7:21-27)

Later he says it this way:

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell. (Proverbs 9:16-18)

Jacob knew that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

This matter of immorality extends beyond illicit physical contact between people. The New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants make a very clear case against immorality of the mind. D&C 42:23 instructs us this way:

And he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her shall deny the faith, and shall not have the Spirit; and if he repents not he shall be cast out.

D&C 63:16 expands the warning:

And verily I say unto you, as I have said before, he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, or if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they shall not have the Spirit, but shall deny the faith and shall fear.

JACOB WARNS AGAINST RACIAL PREJUDICE
Jacob deals next, in the context of his discussion of immorality, with this matter of racial prejudice. The Lamanites, he says, are not filthy like unto you (Jacob 3:3).

Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our fatherthat they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them. And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people. Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator? O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God (Jacob 3:5-8).

The commandment in this case is no less explicit that the previous ones:

Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers (Jacob 3:9).

This is a worthwhile lesson for all of us. We ought to worry less about the differences and the sins of others and spend more time dealing with our own filthiness.

4. JACOB TESTIFIES OF THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST (Jacob 4)
Jacob tells us in Jacob 4:1-3 a little about the difficulty of making the metal records. And he tells us why he has gone to the trouble: he wants to give our children and also our beloved brethren a small degree of knowledge concerning us . . . (4:2). Also he hopes that his brethren and his children might thereby learn with joy and not with sorrow . . . (Jacob 4:3).

For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us (Jacob 4:4).

The interaction of Jacob and the righteous Nephites with the Law of Moses seems to be a much different thing from the interaction of the Jews with this same law.

And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness . . . (Jacob 4:5).

The results of this obedience and devotion are conditions for which we all must long.

Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea (Jacob 4:6).

This extension of divine power must not lead to pride of course. We are not permitted to glory in our own goodness, our own righteousness, our own humility. It is all gracea gift of the Father to his children. He will remind us of this if we need reminding:

Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things (Jacob 4:7).

In the recognition of our utter dependence on the atonement and on the redemption and goodness of the Son and the love of the Father, we will certainly come to the conclusion that Jacob came to.

Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works (Jacob 4:10)

CONCLUSION:

The life of Jacob cannot have been easy. He was born in tribulation in the wilderness to a wandering family driven from its home by the threat of death and the decree of the Lord. His people were lonesome and solemn. (How many Nephites can there have been in those early years?) They were hated by their brethren and were required to spend their days in wars and contentions. Jacob tells us that he and his people mourned out their days. But Jacob never flinched nor faltered. He found out what the Lord wanted him to do and then he did it. Obediently, selflessly, tirelessly, he magnified his calling and labored for the welfare of his people. What a blessing it would be if someone should one day speak as highly of us as the Book of Mormon speaks of Jacob.

Book of Mormon Lesson #12: “Seek Ye for the Kingdom of God,” Jacob 1-4 (Gospel Doctrine)

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:24:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

This is the first of the two lessons dedicated to the relatively short Book of Jacob. The task here is to tackle chapters 1-4, while the next lesson tackles chapters 5-7. I’ll arrange my notes slightly differently. It’s quite clear that chapters 4-6 make up a single unit (chapters 4-5 were a single chapter in the original Book of Mormon, at any rate), so it seems strange to me to couple chapter 4 with chapters 1-3, which also form a single unit (with chapters 2-3 being a single chapter in the original Book of Mormon). So, in this post, I’ll tackle only the first three chapters of Jacob here.

As the original chapter breaks suggest, it’s probably best to take chapter 1 on its own, and then to take the pair of chapters 2 and 3 together. That’s what I’ll do.

Book of Mormon Lesson 11: "Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ"

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:06:00 -0700

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Joining the path of Jesus Christ is imperative to salvation, but it doesn't count for much if we don't stay on the path. We must stay devoted and diligent.

Quote of the week:

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, Elder Spencer W. Kimball said:

May I tell you of a great adventure? As I traveled to a weekend assignment. I took with me an unusual book which was my constant companion. I could lay it down only to sleep, eat, and change trains. It fascinated me, captivated me, and held me spellbound with its irresistible charm and engaging interest. I have read it many times.As I finished it, I closed the book and sat back, absorbed as I relived its contents. Its pages held me, bound me, and my eyes were riveted to them. I knew the book was factual, but as has been said, "Truth is stranger than fiction."I am constrained to speak to you of it today. It is a story of courage, faith, and fortitude, of perseverance, sacrifice, and super human accomplishments, of intrigue, of revenge, of disaster, of war murder, and rapine, of idolatry, and of cannibalism, of miracles, visions, and manifestations, of prophecies and their fulfillment.I found in it life at its best and at its worst, in ever changing patterns. I hardly recovered from one great crisis until another engulfed me.Across the stage of this drama of life through the ages, marched actors in exotic, colorful costumes from the blood painted nudity of the warrior to the lavish, ornamented pageantry of royal courts some actors loathsome and degraded, others so near perfection that they conversed with angels and with God. There are the sowers and reapers, the artisans, the engineers, the traders, and the toilers, the rake in his debauchery, the alcoholic with his liquor, the pervert rotting in his sex, the warrior in his armor, the missionary on his knees.This dramatic story is one of the greatest ever played by man (Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, April 1963, p.63).

INTRODUCTION

In an article in the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, on February 8, 2003, Richard N. Ostling reviewed the newest edition of the Encyclopedia of American Religion by J. Gordon Melton. There are 2,630 U.S. and Canadian churches or faith groups described in the new edition. In his article, Ostling observes:

There's a denomination for practically everyone. If the Episcopal Church won't do, worshippers can move leftward into the Metaphysical Episcopal Church or Free Episcopal Church, or rightward into dozens of breakaways like the Anglican Mission in America. Does Unitarianism seem too conventional? The denomination offers a subgroup of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. Moving further from the mainstream, there's always the Church of God Anonymous, the Nudist Christian Church of the Blessed Virgin Jesus or the Only Fair Religion (pp. C-1, C-2).

The list continues, with religious doctrines as varied as the inclinations of the flock of religious practitioners in North America. In contrast to this startling and occasionally amusing description of doctrinal diversity, Nephi in his closing chapters offers us an unadorned view of the doctrine of Christ.

And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen (2 Nephi 31:21).

1. NEPHI TEACHES THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST.

Nephi promises to present the doctrine of Christ in simplicity:

I shall speak unto you plainly, according to the plainness of my prophesying. For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding (2 Nephi 31:2-3).

This chapter teaches fundamental principles and ordinances of the gospel. The doctrine is more than an enlargement of the 4th Article of Faith; it teaches that doctrine, but also shows us much more.

HAVE FAITH

The word faith is only found once in 2 Nephi 31, in verse 19. Nephi tells us there that we can only pass worthily through the portal of the narrow gate, and enter the strait path (31:9), and that we can only make the covenant of baptism and receive the cleansing fire of the Holy Ghost if we have unshaken faith in [Christ] (2 Nephi 31:19). But this chapter contains another word, a related word, that feels to me like a useful description of faith. The word is follow, and it appears in verses 10,12,13 and 16. Part of our having faith in Christ must be a willingness to follow him, with unshaken faith, wherever he determines to take us. We are counseled to follow him by keeping the commandments (vs. 10), and by doing the things he has done (vs. 12).

We are instructed to follow him with full purpose of heart, without hypocrisy and deception, but with real intent (vs. 13). We are commanded to follow him into the waters of baptism (vs. 13), and to endure to the end in following his example (vs. 16). These are things that faithful people do.

REPENT OF SINNING

And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son (2 Nephi 31:11).We are told that we can only receive the Holy Ghost after we have repented of our sins and been baptized (31:13, 14). Speaking again of that narrow gate, Nephi says,

“For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 31:17).

As I have searched the scriptures and reflected on this matter of repentance, I have begun to think that I may have rendered a disservice to some of my students in the way I have taught this principle. I have spent a number of class periods explaining the steps of repentance and laboring like a bulldog over a beefsteak to convince listeners that they must go through every step and repent of all their sins to have a hope of salvation. One day a student asked a simple question that caused me to begin the study and reflection I mentioned above. She said, "What if you can't remember all your sins? I'm pretty sure I cant'. Surely in those dark days of adolescence I did a few thousand stupid, wrong things that I can no longer remember. The ones I can remember convince me there must have been others. They must have been sins, needing the cleansing power of the atonement after appropriate repentance. But can I repent of a sin I cannot describe or remember? How can I recognize such sins? How can I make restitution?"

I believe the scriptures allow for just such repentance. The great challenge is more than the requirement to repent of our sins. It is the requirement to repent of sinning. Or, if that seems impossible, perhaps it is the requirement to repent of wanting to sin.

Many years ago I had a seminary student, a young lady, come to me four times in one year with heart-rending confessions of immoral activity. In each case I tried to counsel her and then sent her on to her bishop. I have often reflected since then on the depth of her sorrow - it seemed like godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10)but this lovely, remorseful girl only confessed; she did nor forsake. It seemed then and seems now that for her and all of us a time must come when we stop repenting of sinful activities and instead stop sinning.

I love the phrase employed by Lamoni's father in his appeal for the cleansing power of the atonement in his life. He said in his prayer to the Father, I will give away all my sins to know thee . . . (Alma 22:18). The Nephites who listened to Benjamin's sermon cried out,

O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men. And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them. (Mosiah 4:2-3)

Alma's prayer for forgiveness was brief and powerful (he said he had repented nigh unto death [Mosiah 27:28]).

“O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more” (Alma 36:18-19).

There are other examples in the scriptures. Perhaps these will do. They also suggest a lesson about the steps of repentance. All of them are essential, but the timing is not set in stone. In all of the examples mentioned above, some of the steps of repentance must have followed forgiveness. The restructured lifestyle of Lamoni's father and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies; the covenant and conformity of the people of Benjamin; the efforts of Alma and his friends to repair the damage they had done (Mosiah 27:35) . . . all of these followed forgiveness and came because they had repented of their inclination to be sinners, not simply of their sins.

BE BAPTIZED

Nephi gives us in 2 Nephi 31 what I believe to be the greatest scriptural discourse on baptism. After reminding us of the baptism of Christ, Nephi declares,

“And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfill all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!” (2 Nephi 31:5).

In his explanation of our need for this immersion, he makes a powerful observation about the meaning of this ordinance. He says, “Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments” (2 Nephi 31:7).

By his baptism Jesus showed us that he was humble enough, in the flesh and before to the Father, to witness that he would be obedient and keep his commandments, including the commandment of baptism. Plug that principle into your own life. What does your baptism signify? Nephi seems to be teaching that baptism, in simplest terms, means that we will be obedient in the flesh - that we will do with our mortal bodies and our mortal lives whatever the Father asks us to do. Thus Jesus, at the commencement of his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed to the Father: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." "He began to be sore amazed and very heavy" (Mark 14:33), and told his disciples, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch" (Mark 14:34).

In the increasing agony of those moments, with the growing awareness of how awful a burden he was about to shoulder, he appealed to the Father to find another way. But then, in a divine demonstration of what flesh obedience really means, he continued, with these words: "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).

Father, I don't want to do this. Nevertheless, if you need me to, I will.

We who have been baptized need to use the word nevertheless more than we do. Father, I really do not want to be the WEBLOS advisor. Eleven-year-olds make me crazy. Nevertheless, if you want me to, I will. Or, Lord, I really dont want to give up two years of my life to teach the gospel in Mongolia. Nevertheless, if you ask me to, I will. Or, Lord, I think it will be so hard to keep myself morally clean so I can find a worthy companion and enter the temple. Nevertheless . . .

RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST

When we have complied with the requirements of faith, repentance, and baptism,

“then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 31:13-14).

Of this matter of receiving the Holy Ghost, Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. said,

“However, it is my judgment that there are many members of this Church who have been baptized for the remission of their sins, and who have had hands laid upon their heads for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but who have never received that giftthat is, the manifestations of it. Why? Because they have never put themselves in order to receive these manifestations. They have never humbled themselves. They have never taken the steps that would prepare them for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, they go through life without that knowledge; they are lacking in understanding. When those who are cunning and crafty in their deceit come to them criticizing the authorities of the Church and the doctrines of the Church, these weak members do not have understanding enough, information enough, and enough of the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord to resist false doctrines and teachings. They listen and think that perhaps they have made a mistake, and the first thing you know they find their way out of the Church, because they do not have understanding” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Seek Ye Earnestly the Best Gifts, Ensign, June 1972, 3).

2. NEPHI SAID THAT WE MUST PRESS FORWARD AND ENDURE TO THE END

Nephi adds one principle to these familiar ones, a principle to round out the religious life and pave the way for our return to our Father. When we have passed through the gate and entered the path, we must stay on the path. When we have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, we must follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Nephi describes this as enduring to the end. He also describes it as pressing forward.

”Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20)

Getting on the path is imperative, but it doesn't count for much if we do not stay on the path. Ezekiel said,

”But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die” (Ezekiel 18:24).

In other places in the Standard Works, the Lord speaks of this enduring with other language. In D&C 122:9, the Lord described some of the awful experiences that might come to Joseph, but then said, Therefore, hold on thy way. In D&C 6:13 and Mosiah 2:14, disciples are encouraged to hold out faithful to the end.

3. NEPHI SPEAKS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF FEASTING ON THE WORDS OF CHRIST.

Does Nephi seem a little frustrated in the first couple of verses of 2 Nephi 32? He has just given what must be the clearest discourse on the Doctrine of Christ in the scriptures, and then, (looking, we suppose, through the lens of prophecy and revelation at our day), he realizes that we still dont understand well enough.

“And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?” (2 Nephi 32:1).

Verse 7 seems to be a continuation of this same lament:

”And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be” (2 Nephi 32:7).

In this chapter, Nephi will suggest three things that will enable us to know what we should do in every circumstance. Here they are:

• Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do (2 Nephi 32:3).In our search for direction in our lives, we need to feast on the words of Christ. The reason is pretty clear: the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. If you had to select an eating verb to describe your relationship with the scriptures, what verb would you pick? Would it be feast? How about dinner? Snack? Nibble? Anorexia? Boyd K. Packer spoke of the power of the words of Christ to tell us the answer to all of our problems:

“If [you] are acquainted with the revelations, there is no question-- personal or social or political or occupational - that need go unanswered. Therein is contained the fullness of the everlasting gospel. Therein we find principles of truth that will resolve every confusion and every problem and every dilemma that will face the human family or any individual in it (Charge to Religious Educators, p.21).

• “For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:5).

The verb in verse 3 is tell. The verb in verse 5 is show. The promise is identical: all things. The words of Christ will tell us and the Holy Spirit will show us all things that we ought to do. Brigham Young thought we ought to do better at following the direction of the Spirit:

“There is no doubt, if a person lives according to the revelations given to Gods people, he may have the Spirit of the Lord to signify to him his will, and to guide and to direct him in the discharge of his duties, in his temporal as well as his spiritual exercises. I am satisfied, however, that in this respect, we live far beneath our privileges. (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. and arr. by John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 32; emphasis added.)

• “And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul” (2 Nephi 32:8-9).

The third and final principle is prayer. We can pray for revelation and direction and for the inspiration to understand the scriptures and the courage to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We can pray for direction in the challenges that confront us.

4. NEPHI DECLARES THAT THE PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE HIS WORDS IF THEY BELIEVE IN CHRIST.

Nephi seems to have a clear understanding of the response his writings will receive in the last days. 2 Nephi 29 was a warning to skeptical Gentiles. 2 Nephi 33 is a continuation of that theme. But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught (2 Nephi 33:2).

Is it possible that those who read this book and feel nothing are resisting the Holy Spirit? The Lord told Joseph Smith

“And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin. And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me. For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin. And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me” (D&C 84:49-52).

That message is pretty clear. Those who don't receive to his voice are not acquainted with his voice. The truth is that every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father (D&C 64:47).

And Nephi speaks of those who do no hear the voice of Christ in the words of the Book of Mormon.

“And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye - for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness” (2 Nephi 33:10-11).

If we believe in Christ and if we are familiar with the voice of Christ, we will know that these words are his words. If we do not know that - if any who read do not - it is not a fault in the language or the authors or the translator. It is a fault in the reader. And one day, standing before the bar of God, all those who have received this book will know it.

CONCLUSION

Have you ever wondered how you would have responded to the messages of this book if someone had handed it to you in upstate New York in 1831? Have you wondered how you would have responded to the mission of Christ if you had been living in Galilee in 30 AD? If the message of 2 Nephi 33 is true, and it is, then you would have responded just as you have responded in your own life.

“Who will believe our words, and who will hear our message? Who will honor the name of Joseph Smith and accept the gospel restored through his instrumentality? We answer: the same people who would have believed the words of the Lord Jesus and the ancient Apostles and prophets had they lived in their day. If you believe the words of Joseph Smith, you would have believed what Jesus and the ancients said. If you reject Joseph Smith and his message, you would have rejected Peter and Paul and their message. If you accept the prophets whom the Lord sends in your day, you also accept that Lord who sent them. If you reject the restored gospel and find fault with the plan of salvation taught by those whom God hath sent in these last days, you would have rejected those same teachings as they fell from the lips of the prophets and Apostles of old” (Bruce R. McConkie, Who Hath Believed Our Report? Ensign, Nov. 1981, 48).

Book of Mormon Lesson #11: “Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ,” 2 Nephi 31-33 (Gospel Doctrine)

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:59:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

As I’ve been explaining since the beginning of my posts on Nephi, 2 Nephi 31-33 forms a kind of conclusion to the fourfold structure of Nephi’s record. Here the task is, after a creation story, a fall story, and an atonement story, to introduce the reader of the record to the Lord at what Nephi presents as a kind of veil. These last chapters of Nephi’s record are deeply theological, and I’ll take them a piece at a time.

After a word or two of introduction, Nephi gets started. From that point, things might be broken down as follows (note that these three chapters were indeed three distinct chapters in the original dictation):

Book of Mormon Lesson #10: “He Inviteth All to Come unto Him,” 2 Nephi 26-30 (Gospel Doctrine)

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:02:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

As I explained in my last post, I’m going to treat 2 Nephi 25 here, along with 2 Nephi 26-30. I’ll note also that I’ll do a little bit of retroactive treatment of 2 Nephi 11, since it is closely tied to 2 Nephi 25. Principally, the aim here is to deal with Nephi’s prophetic contribution to what I’ve been calling, since the beginning, the “atonement” stretch of Nephi’s record. (See here and here for other details concerning all this.) What we have in 2 Nephi 25-30 is the final culmination of Nephi’s crucial record. After this we’ll have only his concluding appendix, if you will. Everything Nephi’s been working on comes to a real fruition right here.

Indeed, what we have in 2 Nephi 25-30 is the final weaving together of Nephi’s two obsessions: (1) his vision from 1 Nephi 11-14, in which he saw the whole panorama of covenantal history, and (2) the writings of Isaiah, which he’s been inserting according to clear patterns (which I cover in the posts linked to above). He now brings to its highest point his work of “likening,” making sense of Isaiah through his own visionary knowledge, and making sense of his own visionary knowledge through Isaiah. If we want to get our brains around what all this Isaiah stuff is doing in the Book of Mormon, it’s in these chapters first and foremost that we’re given to understand. Let’s look quite closely at it, shall we?

Book of Mormon Lesson 10: "He Inviteth All to Come Unto Him"

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:05:00 -0700

by Ted L. Gibbons
source: MormonLife.com

Mormon Life says: Nephi's commentary in these chapters is useful to the modern reader because he carefully repeats his points over and over again. And the message is crucial: come unto Christ.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The Book of Mormon . . . will have a profound effect on your life. It will expand your knowledge of the way God deals with man, and will give you a greater desire to live in harmony with his gospel teachings. It will also provide for you a powerful testimony of Jesus. (Elder Howard W. Hunter, C.R., April 1983, pp. 19)

INTRODUCTION:

Maximizing learning is a function of effective teaching. A teacher at A.S.U. several decades ago explained the process this way Tell them what you are going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them. Nephi does exactly this. 2 Nephi 11 is an introduction to the messages, with a brief statement of the overall message and the reason for using Isaiah to teach it. 2 Nephi 12-24 contains the message. 2 Nephi 25-29 is Nephis explanation of what he has told us. These final chapters are more or less divided as follows: 1) MESSAGE TO THE JEWS: 2 Nephi 25:10-20; 2) MESSAGE TO THE LAMANITES: 2 Nephi 25:21-26:11; 3) MESSAGE TO THE GENTILES: 2 Nephi 26:12-29:14.

The following commentary on Nephi's commentary is a brazen attempt to make magnificent and powerful literature more useful than Nephi made it. The temerity to undertake such an effort defies all rationality. But since this is my assignment, Ill give it a shot.

1. NEPHI PROPHESIES OF THE SAVIORS MINISTRY AMONG THE JEWS AND NEPHITES

The following is an edited version of 2 Nephi 25:10-20. Following each quotation, I will give the verse in parentheses. Consider just how much Nephi knew about the future and fate of those who lived where he was born.

The Jews were told about destruction which should come upon them, immediately after my father left Jerusalem . . . and they have been destroyed, save it be those which are carried away captive into Babylon. (10) They shall return again and possess the land of Jerusalem (11) they shall have wars, and rumors of wars . . . One day, the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh. But this will not be a glorious event, because they will reject him. (12) They will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead. (13) After the Messiah hath risen from the dead, and hath manifested himself unto his people . . . behold, Jerusalem shall be destroyed again. (14)

The Jews shall be scattered among all nations . . . (15) And after they have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations . . . they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all mankind . . .the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things. (16) And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of men. (17) Wherefore, he shall bring forth his words unto them . . . (18) The Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (19) I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. (20)

In have managed recently to get on a most interesting mailing list. The sponsoring organization is Jews for Jesus. This group of Jews believes whole-heartedly that Jesus is the Messiah, their Savior. 2 Nephi 30:7 speaks of a remarkable time when the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become a delightsome people (emphasis added). Those who belong to this group are passionate Christians, who have begun to believe in Christ. It is all exciting and most interesting.

Nephi knew that these words of his would reach others besides the Jews:

[The] Lord God [hath] promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed . . .

The following verses are a earnest and personal epistle from Nephi to his descendants who would be mingled among the Lamanites. He spoke of a time in the latter days when my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief . . . (2 Nephi 26:15).

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23, emphasis added)

2 Nephi 25:24-28 offers what I think is the best description of the relationship between the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ found anywhere in the standard works.

In 2 Nephi 26, Nephi makes a great promise to his descendants: And after Christ shall have risen from the dead he shall show himself unto you, my children, and my beloved brethren. . . (2 Nephi 26:1) Of course it will not be wonderful for everyone.

. . .great and terrible shall that day be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them. (2 Nephi 26:3)

It seems interesting that this First Coming to the Nephites is described as a burning (2 Nephi 26:4) The account in 3 Nephi of the destructions includes a record of some burning, but this passages seems to combine all the devastations under that heading. Subsequent verses itemize the actual events of the desolation:

. . .the earth shall swallow them up . . . mountains shall cover them, and whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder. And they shall be visited with thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and all manner of destructions...

In fact, we find here a clue to the nature of the burning referred to in 2 Nephi 26:4 and perhaps in many of the scriptures relating to the Second Coming

for the fire of the anger of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and they shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall consume them, saith the Lord of Hosts. (2 Nephi 26:5,6)

If in fact this account it meant to give us a pattern of preparation for the second coming (and I believe it is!), then a great lesson awaits us:

But behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecutionbehold, they are they which shall not perish. (2 Nephi 26:8)

I remember trying out for the tennis team and the football team in High School. I could not make the cut. I was not good enough. But this one I must be good enough to make. Those who survived the destructions then, and those who survive the cataclysms to come will have this experience:

. . .the Son of righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall have peace with him. (2 Nephi 26:9)

Among the Nephites and Lamanites, that peace would last for most of four generations (26:9), but

. . . when these things have passed away a speedy destruction cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell. (2 Nephi 26:10)

2. NEPHI TESTIFIES OF THE COMING FORTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON AND THE GOSPEL AMONG THE GENTILES (2 Nephi 26:12-27:35)

Nephi mentioned earlier that the Jews needed to be convincedto believethat Jesus was the Christ. The Book of Mormon is a major part of that convincing and converting.

And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God. (2 Nephi 26:12)

Nephi knew that most of the American gentiles would believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but he knew that they would need to be convinced that he was also the Eternal God. Elder McConkie wrote:

ChristMessiah is God!

Such is the plain and pure pronouncement of all the prophets of all the ages. In our desire to avoid the false and absurd conclusions contained in the creeds of Christendom, we are wont to shy away from this pure and unadorned verity; we go to great lengths to use language that shows there is both a Father and a Son, that they are separate Persons and are not somehow mystically intertwined as an essence or spirit that is everywhere present. Such an approach is perhaps essential in reasoning with the Gentiles of sectarianism; it helps to overthrow the fallacies formulated in their creeds.

But having so done, if we are to envision our Lord's true status and glory, we must come back to the pronouncement of pronouncements, the doctrine of doctrines, the message of messages, which is that Christ is God. And if it were not so, he could not save us. Let all men, both in heaven and on earth, hear the proclamation and rejoice in its eternal verity: "The Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior." (D&C 76:1.) (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p.98)

Nephi explains what he is going to do in this part of his record:

But behold, I prophesy unto you concerning the last days; concerning the days when the Lord God shall bring these things forth unto the children of men. (2 Nephi 26:14)

Nephi now rushes through a great stretch of history.

After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten. (2 Nephi 26:15)

Those words of the righteous will come forth to those who have dwindled out of the ground, as the voice of one that hath a familiar spirit. (26:16)

And after they are smitten by the Gentiles, the Gentiles will dwindle also:

And the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled, because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many churches; nevertheless, they put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain and grind upon the face of the poor. And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice. (2 Nephi 26:20,21)

Nephi here speaks of another problem among the Gentiles, often mentioned in the Book of Mormon: secret combinations. Satans success among the Gentiles is typified by the manner in which he controls them in the midst of their many iniquities:

. . . he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. (2 Nephi 26:22)

I tried to buy some flax thread one day here in Orem. The lady at the counter told me it was nearly hopeless. She said something like this: Flaxen thread is so fragile that it is almost useless, unless one is willing to work very carefully by hand. A sewing machine will not function with so fragile a thread.

And yet Satan leads the Gentiles about with a flaxen cord. He is ever so careful and so subtle. We may know when the first loops of flax encircle our necks, but we feel no fear. It is only flax, and we can break it any time we want to. And so the number of strands of flax increases, imperceptibly and slowly. We hardly notice that the movies and TV shows we see this year are more degraded than those we watched last year. We become less and less shocked by obscenity or vulgarity; common standards of modesty and decency seem less critical than they did to our ancestors. The Lord gave a warning:

Behold, the world is ripening in iniquity; and it must needs be that the children of men are stirred up unto repentance, both the Gentiles and also the house of Israel. (D&C 18:6, emphasis added)

The flaxen cords remind me of other phrases in the Book of Mormon: he leadeth them away carefully down to hell (2 Nephi 28:21); one of his servants did administer poison by degrees . . . (Alma 47:18)

But in the midst of this terrible, subtle danger, and these rampant iniquities among the Gentiles, the Lords invitations are constant:

• Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? (2 Nephi 26:25)

• Hath he commanded any that they should depart out of . . . houses of worship? (26:26)

• Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? (26:27)

•

• Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? (2 Nephi 26:28)

The truth is that all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden. (2 Nephi 26:28) That is to say, he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. (2 Nephi 26:33)

Another iniquity Nephi notes among the Gentiles is priestcraft

He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion. (2 Nephi 26:29)

To put it another way, priesthood benefits others; priestcraft benefits the preacher. And there is a bit of priestcraft about us. Do you remember the scandals from the late 1980's? The cover of the August 3, 1987 Time magazine had a picture of the cross intertwined with a dollar sign. On the left were these words: GOD $ MONEY, and on the right, Greed, Secrecy and Scandal: an inside look at Jim and Tammy Bakkers bankrupt empire. The title of the article from that issue, beginning on page 50, was, Enterprising Evangelism. On page 54, another article has this sub-title: How Jim Bakker, flush with donated cash, became a born-again disaster.

Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish. (2 Nephi 26:30)

There is not place in Zion for anything but Zion:

But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish. (2 Nephi 26:31)

The summary statement of the conditions at the time of the restoration is in 2 Nephi 27:1:

But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentilesyea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations

But in the midst of this iniquity, the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book . . . (2 Nephi 27:6)

Nephi tells us quite clearly that part of the book will be sealed. And he tells us what is in that sealed portion.

. . . in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof. (2 Nephi 27:7)

Verse 10 is even clearer:

But the words which are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold, they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof.

Again in verse 22, Nephi reports something the Lord will say to Joseph Smith:

Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of men.

The sealed portion contains a revelation of all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof. But where did it come from? The Book of Mormon tells us that as well. A careful reading of Ether 3:35-4:7 will show that the brother of Jared saw all that would be . . . even unto the ends of the earth. (Ether 3:25) Those same verses will show that Moroni wrote upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw. . . (Ether 4:4) After they were written, Moroni tells us that the Lord commanded me that I should seal them up.

How and when will we get these things?

• . . . the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. (2 Nephi 27:8)

• And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be read by the power of Christ . . . (2 Nephi 27:11)

• . . . then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of men. (2 Nephi 27:22)

• And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations . . . (Ether 4:7)

3. NEPHI TESTIFIES THAT SATAN WILL SPREAD FALSE DOCTRINES IN THE LAST DAYS (2 Nephi 28)

And the things which shall be written out of the book shall be of great worth unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a remnant of the house of Israel. (2 Nephi 28:2)

One of the reasons for the great worth of the contents of the Book of Mormon is the proliferation of churches among the Gentiles. The chapter heading of chapter 28 speaks of many false churches, and those churches are mentioned in 2 Nephi 26:20, 21; and 2 Nephi 28:3. The 1982 Christian Encyclopedia lists 20,800 Christian denominations.

In addition, the book will be of worth because it will come forth in a day when people deny the Holy Ghost (28:4), and deny the power of God (28:5) and deny the miracles of God, saying that he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work. (28:6)

2 Nephi 28:7-9 implies that people will also deny the judgements of God, and be unwilling to believe that he would actually punish people for their sins. Eat, drink, and be merry, they will cry.

Nephi wrote of the people of the last days: "Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear Godhe will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God."2 Nephi 28:78.

Do not think that this was said of the world, or even the "stranger within our gates." It is said of members of the Church. (Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., The Way to Perfection, p.203)

There is another great danger in this age: it is the danger of pride (2 Nephi 28:12-15)

They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men. (2 Nephi 28:14)

This is a solemn warning! Even the humble followers of Christ do err because they are taught by the precepts of men. Take a look at your life and your family. In what ways have you been taught by the precepts of men. Has worldly teaching influenced your choices of media? Your business practices? Your relationship with family members? Your sense of right and wrong? Your sense of outrage?

President George Q. Cannon suggested a way to evaluate our status:

"If the breach is daily widening between ourselves and the world . . . we may be assured that our progress is certain, however slow. On the opposite hand, if our feeling and affections, our appetites and desires, are in unison with the world around us and we freely fraternize with them . . . we should do well to examine ourselves." (Millennial Star 23 [5 October]: 64546. Cited by Ezra Taft Benson, C.R., Oct. 1969, p. 15)

Remember in 2 Nephi 1 when Lehi implored his less-righteous sons to awake? That same warning now comes to the Gentiles (and to us) from Nephi. Nephi notes that among some in the last days Satan will rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. (2 Nephi 28:20). But among others, the approach will be different.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is welland thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is noneand thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. (2 Nephi 28:21,22)

Do you see the relationship between pacify and lull and all is well and the concept of sleep? When my babies were fussy at night, we gave them a pacifier and sang a lullaby, thereby assuring them that they had no need to fear or fuss: all was well!

Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion! (2 Nephi 28:24)

In fact the phrase at ease is a logical extension of the words above it in the text: lull, pacify, security, all is well, cheateth, carefully, flattereth, whispereth in their ears. These are all conditions designed to keep us from discovering that all is not well, until we are grasped with death, and hell. (28:23)

In conclusion to this part of the message, Nephi declares, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men. (28:27)

4.NEPHI TEACHES ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON (2 Nephi 29,30)

The first two verses of 2 Nephi 29 suggest 5 great reasons for the marvelous work of the last days. Each begins with the word that.

BUT behold, there shall be manyat that day when I shall proceed to do a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel; And also, that I may remember the promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi, and also unto thy father, that I would remember your seed; and that the words of your seed should proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed . . .

A 6th reason is this:

my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel . . . (2 Nephi 29:3)

Later in chapter 29 we find four reasons for the Book of Mormon:

Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? (29:7)

Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also. (29:8)

And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever . . . (29:9)

For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written. (29:11)

CONCLUSION:

Did you notice that much more of Nephis commentary was for the Gentiles (and we are cultural Gentiles even though our lineage is of Israel) than for the Jews or the Lamanites? Nephi knew that we would be the recipients of his work, and he sent us a messagean appeal to repent and return to the Lord, to forsake evil and iniquity of every kind and to embrace the sweetness of the Gospel of peace.

He has extended to us the shelter of the covenant.

For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off; for the Lord covenanteth with none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel. (2 Nephi 30:2)

May we turn away from the world, may we reject the precepts of men, may we awake to our jeopardy, and rejoice in this marvelous work that the Lord has done among us.

Book of Mormon Lesson #9: “My Soul Delighteth in the Words of Isaiah,” 2 Nephi 11-25 (Sunday School)

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:58:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

We come now, as I’ve been saying from the beginning and have reiterated again and again, to the most privileged and central part of Nephi’s record. To miss Isaiah in the Book of Mormon is to miss the Book of Mormon. I take as my task in this post, then, to work carefully through what seems to me to be the focus of Nephi’s quotation of Isaiah in 2 Nephi 12-14. Also included in this lesson, as laid out in the manual, are chapters 11 and 25, the former being Nephi’s brief introduction to the Isaiah chapters and the latter being the first of Nephi’s follow-up comments after the fact. For my purposes, I want to consider 2 Nephi 25 along with 2 Nephi 26-30, so I won’t be dealing with it until next week. I know this seems strange since it’s in 2 Nephi 25 that Nephi supposedly provides the “keys to understanding Isaiah.” I’m less convinced that Nephi’s doing anything of the sort there. Isaiah’s plenty understandable on his own, and what Nephi has to say in 2 Nephi 25 is more for his own people and the beginning of what he goes on to say in the chapters following than for us as readers of Isaiah. (Indeed, I think 2 Nephi 26-27 is more help for those struggling with Isaiah than anything in 2 Nephi 25.) So I’ll leave all that for later.