waters that separate them (where they re at) from the promised land? What s the great waters? What would that be symbolic of, do you think? Any ideas?

Transcription

1 Book of Mormon, Episode 34 - Book of Mormon Symbolism 1 Nephi 1 & 2 Mike Stroud [NOTE: Most of the comments made during this episode, unfortunately, were nearly impossible to hear. Most of Brother Stroud s replies help to give light on what the commentator was most likely saying, however.] Do you have any questions about the Book of Mormon before we start? I decided that we d start out each lesson by just asking if you have any questions that you ve always wondered about and we d take a few minutes and talk about that. If not, we ll move on, but if you have some already prepared, I ll ask you that question. Last week I gave an assignment - a homework assignment. So, let s go to the first book of Nephi and in that homework assignment, we were to take the book heading (not the chapter heading but the book heading), and break down some parts of this; see what symbolisms are involved here. I m going to put up here: Jerusalem, down here, wilderness for 8 years, and I m going to put Land of Bountiful, then underneath that I m going to put, the great waters. Now, let s put a ship first and then let s put The Great Waters, and last, let s put, The Promised Land. I was reading this a few years back, and as I was reading that, I saw something on there that I thought was pretty unique. At the time that the Lord commands the prophet to write things down, the prophet not only writes down the obvious, but when he writes under God s direction, he s writing at different levels, different layers. So, when the prophet speaks, he speaks what s the obvious, right here, you see (write this down), but in doing that, there are different levels. So, we have the Book of Mormon prophets who are writing this down, and we can find out some things here. Let s take a look at this, here, for just a minute. Let s skip on down to the third line in the book heading (they depart): The Lord warns Lehi to depart out of the land of Jerusalem, because he prophesieth unto the people concerning their iniquity and they seek to destroy his life. He taketh three days journey into the wilderness with his family. Let s skip down a little further: The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and depart into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. They come to the large waters. Nephi...buildeth a ship. They call the name of the place Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the promised land If we look at some symbolisms here, we can see some interesting things. Jerusalem is symbolic of...what? Premortal life. The wilderness is symbolic of...what? Mortality. Even though it doesn t mention the eight years in here, it does mention that later on - the eight years - this becomes a symbol of...what? Accountability. The land of Bountiful represents a safe place. It s a place where it had all kinds of fruits, and fresh water - everything they needed, and they really enjoyed their period of time there. So, the land of Bountiful could represent the organization of the Church. The ship? The large waters? The promised land? What is the ship? What s the great

2 waters that separate them (where they re at) from the promised land? What s the great waters? What would that be symbolic of, do you think? Any ideas? What is it that separates us from heaven? The great water, would be what? Down here, the trial, tribulation, adversity. What it is that separates us from our Heavenly Father? Sin. Well, what s the ship then that carries you over the great waters? It s the atonement of Christ. Then, the promised land would be...what? The celestial kingdom. Kind of an interesting thing that helps us to start to learn to think in symbols. Symbols are one of the primary ways that our Heavenly Father...symbols are rich in meaning and they re layered and they can be taken down from one layer to the next layer. Your patriarchal blessing becomes a type of that thing. You, know, when you first read it, you read one thing and then you read it 5, 10 years later, all of a sudden you see things in there you didn t see as your life changes so does the meaning of that document. If I read my patriarchal blessing at age 68, I see and understand a lot more than I did when I got it at age 21, see, or age 18, actually. So, the Book of Mormon, what it does is helps us think in terms of symbols. Any questions on that? You can get some other [things] out of that: Three days is interesting, three wives is interesting. Is it important that we have a wife for a husband if we want to make it to the celestial world? It was important enough to send them back to Jerusalem under very dangerous circumstances, Lehi and his sons were all wanted men at this time, who had a death warrant out for their arrest, you know, because [of] Laban s death, and they go back and get those sisters. That s not a small thing to do. It shows the importance of this colony having wives and husbands, and they start the family unit. Any questions on that? Let s look at something else - go up to the top. I just ended it last week with this statement right at the very top of the book it said, The first book of Nephi, his reign and what? His reign and ministry. Here s something else that unless you stop to look at it, you don t give it any real thought besides reign and ministry. All through the Book of Mormon we re going to be dealing with kings, particularly during the rule of kings anyway, and these kings are not the kind of kings that we think about in the world. These are priesthood kings. So, these kinds of things right here, when we talk about kings and the Book of Mormon - of course, we have some wicked ones, we have Noah - but you get a king like Nephi and does it tell you he was a king? Because Nephi, right here it says, his reign and ministry, which one? We would have kings and priests if we re talking priesthood here. Think about the temple (right?), and when you go to the temple, and for sisters for you, it s queens and priestesses. And so, Nephi, he s one of these priesthood kings, the reigning part would be his king, the king part of that, and the ministry part would be the priest part. Now, you and I have been promised through our temple blessings, that if we re true and faithful, the day will come when you will reign over the House of Israel in eternity as a king and a priest. And those blessings are given in the temple and there are ordinances that can realize those blessings in the temple, too. Comes in the form of - interesting that all ancient kings in ancient times before you received your kingdom, you were always anointed with...what? With oil. And who was the person who always anointed the king? A priest. So, when David is anointed to be a king, who anointed him? Nathan the prophet, see? So, we start thinking in terms of these kinds

3 of things, because this group of people here, are Melchizedek priesthood bearers. You ve got Nephi, and Laman and Lemuel, and Sam, and Lehi - they re all Melchizedek priesthood bearers. And they all belong to an order of the priesthood called, The Patriarchal Order. There s an order above that, but they re all involved in the Patriarchal Order. Nowhere in the Book of Mormon, nowhere, do you find Aaronic priesthood. It s not there. (COMMENT: [In 3 Nephi, the Lord ] He gave them a priesthood? (COMMENT: [undecipherable?]...already allowed them to baptize.) Yeah, they already had that before. We re going to talk about that. That s a good question. It wasn t something new, because those twelve men that He chose as disciples were already priesthood bearers before He ever came there. One of them is Nephi, and when you go and look back in Helaman, you read of lot of things [where] they re exercising priesthood. So, Allen s coming up with a question, he says, If they already have the priesthood, why is the Lord instructing them, giving them the authority to baptize there in the 11th chapter of 3 Nephi? That s a great question. Anybody want to try and answer that? Because with the coming of Christ, he introduces a new dispensation, it s a new dispensation. For example, prior to His coming, they offered animal sacrifice. Did you know that animal sacrifice there, was a part of the Patriarchal Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood? It s not like it is over in the Middle East. It s not where the sons of Aaron, where we have an Aaronic priesthood, and a Melchizedek priesthood. Over in America, these folks have access to a higher law, but they still keep the Mosaic Law, because that was commanded by Moses, and when they leave Jerusalem, they re leaving after Moses, so Lehi and Nephi all are practicing the Mosaic Law, but they hold the Melchizedek priesthood. That s the difference. Any questions? (COMMENT: They pass it on down...) That s correct. Let me just show you something real quick here. Let s go to 2 Nephi as we jump forward on this, as we re talking, let s take something real quick, go to 2 Nephi and let s look at something here. Look at 2 Nephi 25 and let s start at verse 23, and we get some good information. Here we go. Now keep in mind that these people are practicing the Law of Moses. Why? They also hold the Melchizedek priesthood but they re practicing the Law of Moses. So ask yourself...why? We labored 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. Now, watch, here we go: And notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses Now, look at that statement there. He says, Notwithstanding ( notwithstanding means in spite of the fact ) that we believe That s what that means. He s saying, We believe in Christ, but we still keep the law of Moses. Why? Now, he s going to teach us why. It s a good question. (COMMENT: [undecipherable]) Okay. Look at your date here, we re 559 years before the birth of Christ. He hasn t even come yet. And why? Why are they practicing the law of Moses? Let s go down a little bit further: Notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ until the law shall be fulfilled. Now, they understand; they ve had revealed unto them this: They know that when Christ comes, He s going to do away with the law of Moses.

4 What is the purpose of the law of Moses? What was the purpose that that was given? You have two laws, you have a preparatory law, and you have a greater law up here. What s the purpose of this preparatory law up here? See? To get up to here. This one down here is to prepare the people to enter into the presence of Christ, in this life. That s the purpose of this priesthood. In the days of Moses (now keep in mind, that s before Nephi), the days of Moses are a hundred of years before Nephi leaves Jerusalem. Moses is long gone. But, those people anciently refused the higher law, they refused the law of the Melchizedek priesthood. Remember that? We gave a lesson on that a while ago. Moses wanted to bring them all into the presence of the Lord. The Melchizedek [priesthood] would have done that. It s the same law that Nephi holds right here. Now, look at this. He s a Melchizedek priesthood king and a priest. And yet, in all of their daily or week worships, they kill animals. There s no sacrament going on here. So when they meet together to worship, they don t take bread and water. They kill a little animal. And yet, and yet, they ve already achieved major levels of spirituality in the Melchizedek priesthood law, but they still continue to keep the lesser law, even though they live the higher one. Now, let s find out why. Watch! Verse 25: For, for this end was the law given What end? Look at the bottom of verse 24: We look with steadfastness unto Christ. What s the purpose of the Aaronic law? What s the purpose of the law of Moses? To bring them to Christ. Now it s already happened for the Nephites. They ve already done it. Nephi has been in the presence of Christ. Lehi, as you re going to see in the first chapter, stands in the presence of the Father and the Son. And yet, they re still killing animals. Because for them it s fulfilled its purpose. For them, the purpose of the Aaronic law, the law of sacrifice, the law of Moses, has fulfilled its purpose with these people. It s brought them up. But they can t stop that because that law won t be abolished until Christ comes. So, what we ve got here is on the eastern continent, over in Jerusalem, at the same time we re talking about these Book of Mormon people, you have two groups of people that are worshipping Christ. One group has the Melchizedek priesthood and are receiving all of the higher blessings of the temple and the priesthood, because the law of Moses didn t [undecipherable them. They obeyed it and it did exactly what it was supposed to do - it took them step-by-step up. So, for them, the law of Moses has been fulfilled, but not done away with yet. Over on the eastern continent, it has not been. They re still working with the Aaronic priesthood and there s very few Melchizedek priesthood bearers over on the eastern continent. Brother Allen? (COMMENT: [16:10 Undecipherable]) Oh, yeah. In fact, we re going to see here, in the first chapter, you re going to see that what Lehi does can only happen when you ve come up and, what we call, receive the fulness of the priesthood. So Lehi already had it. Visions and the angels, and not just visions and angels and dreams, but they ve come right into the presence of the Father and the Son. They ve see them. So, that s the purpose of the Melchizedek priesthood, but you have to have another lower priesthood to prepare you for that. That s like all our young boys - we ordain them to the Aaronic priesthood - because it prepares

5 them for the Melchizedek priesthood. We ordain them to the Melchizedek priesthood to prepare them to go to the temple. We go to the temple to prepare us to go through the veil to and enter into the presence of Christ. Do you see this? Preparation! Step up! Step up! Step up! Well, in the eastern continent, they re not able to make the steps. They go, We can t quite make it. Over in America, they go, Boom! One step, two step. Boom! Into the presence of the Lord. And that s why you have these men, Nephi, who rule and reign as priests and kings. See that? Let s go back and look at one other thing - verse 25: For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made (Look at this, I love this!)... [A]live in Christ. [W]e are made alive in Christ, yet we keep the law (What law? The law of Moses) because of the commandments. We talk of Christ. (This is what the Melchizedek priesthood will do. Here s a group of people where the law of Moses really did what it was supposed to do, it elevates them up in the priesthood, and look!) [W]e talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. Over on the eastern continent, that s not happening. They re still over there killing animals and doing washings and anointings and they really don t know what they re doing. It s just a ritual. A dumb ritual that they re going through week after week, year after year, century after century, and it s really not having an effect on them. Now look at this last verse: Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know (Look at this!) the deadness of the law of Moses. (Dead for us - the law is dead!) [T]hat they may look forward unto life, which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. (What s the purpose? You see that?)... And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away. So, as we set the stage here, brothers and sisters, for the Book of Mormon, with the Nephite people, we re dealing with a whole different set of rules and experiences than we are on the eastern continent. Because these people have the fulness of the Melchizedek priesthood. Their prophets and many, many, many of their people come up and receive all of the blessings of the priesthood. Let s look and see what happens among the Nephites. Go to Alma 13. This is just setting the stage a little bit. Let me show you what the Nephites were able to do that their brothers and sisters over in Jerusalem and Israel were not able to do. Let s go to Alma 13, verse 11 - one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon. We ll have Sister Diason read that for us. We re going to read 11 and 12. Go ahead, Sister: Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. Now stop right here, these people, who were called after this holy order, which is the Patriarchal priesthood. It s a Melchizedek priesthood order. Let me tell you when you enter into the Patriarchal priesthood in Do you know when you enter into it? Does anybody know if you ve entered into the Patriarchal Order of the Melchizedek priesthood? Have you? When you go to the temple and you kneel across that alter, and that man seals you as a husband and wife in the New and Everlasting Covenant for time and all eternity, at that moment, you enter into the Patriarchal

6 Order of the Melchizedek priesthood. Prior to that, you have the priesthood. You have to be an Elder to go there. Right? So, you have the Melchizedek, but remember in the Melchizedek, and even in the Aaronic priesthood, there are different orders, there are different levels. All priesthood is Melchizedek, but there are different orders of that priesthood, and with each order of that priesthood, there are certain ordinances. Order. Ordinances. (COMMENT: [21:40 Undecipherable] Yeah, an office in the priesthood would be like an Elder or a High Priest. An office in the Aaronic priesthood would be like a Deacon or a Priest. These orders have more to do than offices. In order for you to enter into these orders of the priesthood, all that s required is to be an Elder in the Melchizedek priesthood. It s not required for you to be a High Priest, it s not required for you to be an Apostle or Patriarch. It s not required. You are required - you can enter into every order of the Melchizedek priesthood as an Elder. Does that answer that? This is one reason why we take an Apostle, which is the highest office in the Melchizedek priesthood, right? And all Apostles, when we refer to them, we refer to them as Elder Bednar. Elder. We don t call them Apostle Monson or Apostle Bednar. Elder. Because that Elder in the Melchizedek priesthood will make available for you all of the blessings of the temple and the orders of the priesthood. Does that make sense? Now let s go back and look at verse 13. Now keep in mind in verse 11, she read they were sanctified after they entered this order and their garments were washed white. (NOTE: Some of what he s mentioning is found in verse 12, which was never read. And verse 13 never ends up getting read either, even though Brother Stroud keeps mentioning that it s going to be read.) But what I want you to know is, these people, here, right here, are killing animals. These people that we re talking about here are killing animals every week as part of their worship service. But they re not doing it to remind them of Christ. They re doing it because the law has not been fulfilled in Christ, yet. And until it is, no matter what level they reach, prior to Christ s resurrection, they kill animals. Let s take 13. See that? Now that, my brothers and sisters, is NOT happening over on the eastern continent. See what it said? There were many, exceeding[ly] many, who were made pure entered into the rest of the Lord. That s not happening over in the Middle East at this time. But it is happening [here]. I have a feeling as to why it s happening among these people. Why are they so highly favored? Why are the Nephites in the whole history of the Book of Mormon have such tremendous spirituality? What is that all about? I have a feeling that one of the main reasons is that they are the descendants of Joseph. And out of all of the tribes of Israel, Joseph received the birthright blessing belonging to the House of Israel that goes back to the fathers. The oldest one, Ruben, didn t get it. Joseph got it. And what are the blessings? The birthright blessings? Let s find out what those are. Number one: They re the blessings of the gospel. They re the blessings of the priesthood and they re the blessings of the temple. And one of the reasons that we see this happening here, among this people and we don t see it happening over there, is because this is the birthright tribe. Joseph. The whole Book of Mormon is the story of Joseph. Ephraim, through Ishmael, and Manasseh, through Lehi. So, we take the daughters of Ishmael, Ephraim, and the sons of Lehi, Manasseh, and you marry them together, you have both tribes: The birthright, showing up. I think that s one reason right here. I also think that that s one reason why this group of people is

7 exterminated. You can t find a living Nephite. I don t know where any Nephites are. What happens is, you can find some Lamanites. How come this whole nation was wiped out? I think one reason is, where much is given...what? Much is required and you d be hard-pressed to find anywhere on the face of the earth another group of people who received more of the blessings of the gospel, the temple, and the priesthood than the Nephite people. And they turned against it, and as a result of turning against it, the wrath of God was poured out, and where much is given, much is required. But there were millions of people, well, not millions, but there were exceeding[ly] many that came up and entered into the rest of the Lord, like they were assigned to do. Questions or comments on that? So, when we talk about Nephi being a king or a priest, his reign and his ministry, that s what we re talking about here. Let s go to 1 Nephi 1. Let s go to that first verse, the one that s so famous: I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father... Let s re-set for a minute, and let s take a look at it. Again, think in terms of multiple layers, brothers and sisters. What does Lehi do for a job? What is his career? What does he do for work? Lehi - do we know? Is he just a merchant? Or is he a wealthy merchant? And probably a caravaneer, which means that his job is to set up caravans. In our day, it would be like trucking - a truck owner - you know, in interstate trucking. He moved goods from place to place. And Jerusalem at this time is the center of the thoroughfare of everything up north and Babylon, and up into Assyria and Damascus, and Lebanon, and it comes down through this little thin area, here, with Jerusalem right in the middle, and then goes down into Egypt and Libya, and all of that. So, this little thin line is a land-bridge, and you ve got huge empires up north, and you ve got huge empires down south, and when they trade, they trade right down through Jerusalem. And I think Lehi made his fortune and he did have a fortune, as we ll see. He had lots of land and gold and silver and precious things, and he was probably this. And he said, I was taught in the learning of my father. So, we could look at that on one level - remember different levels? - on one level we could say, he was taught to be...what? A merchant. Now what [were] the languages that they spoke in those days? What was the business language in Lehi s day? The business language of the world in 2012, what is the language of business in 2012? It s English. And if you want to be successful in business, you d better know English. That s why the Church feels it s very important that our missionaries learn that language. What s the business language in Lehi s day? Egyptian is the business language in 600 B.C. What is the religious language of the day? When they worshipped? When they read their scriptures? What is the religious language? Hebrew. And it s not the Hebrew that s spoken today, it s what they call ancient Hebrew. Now, it s interesting that when the Nephites developed their own language, it s a mixture of Hebrew and Egyptian. And so, the Nephite language, as told by Mormon, ends up being something called, Reformed Egyptian. And you can see where that comes from, because this is the mixture of the languages they used everyday. And I m sure that these guys that are in the business of merchandising, with all of these nations to the north and the south, I m sure that they were multi-lingual. They probably

8 spoke several languages. I m sure they probably spoke what they called, Acadian, and Acadian is the language of Babylon. And Babylon is the ruling country. Babylon is the big boy in the neighborhood right now, and the next big boy is Egypt right down here. And the little boys are in between. And this little boy in between that we call Jerusalem, and the Jews is like the bone in the mouth of two big dogs. They are always wanting to take control of this place. And so, this little area, right here in Jerusalem, ends up being one of the blood-soaked pieces of land in the whole world. Because there have been more wars, more destruction, more death, in that little area there, probably, than any place in the world. So, let s go down to a different level. He says, I was taught in learning the language. (I m sure he was taught this...what else would be a learning of Lehi that he would teach his son?) I was taught in what? I was taught in all the learning of my father. This right here, this would be what we call, secular. This is business. This is school. This is what you learn in the schools. This is what you have to have, and I would take down here, and I would say, we ve got some learning that s more important than that. I d say: Religious. Well, when he says, I was taught in all the learning of my father His father is a prophet. So, do you think this prophet, father is teaching his sons some special things about priesthood. Do you think? I think so. Let s go on down here. He says, [H]aving seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore, I make a record of my proceedings in my days. That tells you right there that these mysteries that Nephi s talking about - he s not talking about secular education. This is something deeply religious. What is the greatest mystery? Can you think of what the greatest mystery is? Think of all the mysteries of God, what would you think would be the greatest of all mysteries? Let me give you an example...what color are the Savior s eyes? Right now, in 2012, what color are Christ s eyes? That s a mystery, isn t it? Is that a mystery? Is it a mystery to you? Well, I can tell you when it stops being a mystery. When does it stop being a mystery? When you stand in front of Him, you fall down, kiss his feet, He raises you up and you look straight into His face, and He calls you by name and you look in His eyes...at that point, that s no longer a mystery is it? What s the greatest of all mysteries, Sister Stroud, what do you think? What s the greatest of all mysteries? If you were to pick one out. (COMMENT: How to become like God; how to come back into His presence.) I think that s the greatest mystery of all, is how to become a God. Or goddess. I think that s the number one mystery. Let s define mystery. Most people, when they see the word mystery, do you know what they think? Most people define mystery as something that can t be known. That s the world s definition of the word, mystery. Something that can t be known. Do you know what the Lord s definition of the word, mystery is? It is a sacred...what? Secret - that can only be known by [34:15 a few words are undecipherable] and revelation.

9 (COMMENT: Well, I m looking it up in the dictionary and it says, Any truth that is unknowable, except by divine revelation. ) I like that. That s good. So, what is Nephi telling us in the very first verse? What s Nephi saying? He knows...what? He knows the mysteries. And how did he get them? Look at what he said...the key, there, brothers and sisters, is right there: I was highly favored When you get to a point where you become highly favored of God, heaven s favorites; when you become a favorite of heaven, and highly favored of God, you know the mysteries. They re going to be revealed to you and they cannot be withheld. Let s go to Alma, chapter 12 for just a minute. Let me show you about these mysteries, because this is one of the main teachings of the Book of Mormon. Talking about people who harden their hearts against God. Let s go to Alma 12:9. Look at the very first part of this: And now Alma began to expound these things unto him, saying: It is given unto many to know What? The mysteries of God. Now watch! Do you have to be a Nephi or a Sarah, an apostle or a prophet in order to know the mysteries? No! You don t! What you need to do is you need to be obedient and the more obedient you are - this is the message of the Book of Mormon - the greater your obedience, the more the Lord opens up the mysteries. Let s go back to Alma 12 again...watch!...[n]evertheless when you know these mysteries [you] are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart, only (watch this!) according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. So, when He reveals something to you, it came because of your faith and heed in diligence in keeping His commandments or otherwise you didn t know that mystery. And when you know that mystery, you re told to not speak about it. It becomes sacred. And usually these mysteries are very personal. Brother Steve is not going to receive a mystery for Brother Allen. Brother Steve is going receive a mystery, a revelation, to have a sacred, secret reveal for him. And then he s going to have to be very careful who he talks to about that. Generally, if you re married, your husband or wife, the person you re going to talk to only is your spouse. And then you re going to have to watch out, because if your spouse isn t on the same spiritual level as you are, you re not going to go talking to her about some of these things. You re going to help her come up to that level so you can share. But if you re equally yoked with your spouse and the Lord starts revealing these things through dreams and visions and angels, men you re going to want to share that with your spouse. Why would you want to share that with your spouse? Because you can t get here without her. You can t get here alone. You can t get to becoming a God as separate and single. Look at the next verse. Look at verse 10: And therefore he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart (Look at this - this is us. We re not going to harden our heart.)...[t]o him is given the greater portion of the word until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he knows them in full. Now this is the message of the Book of Mormon, brothers and sisters. Isn t this great? So, what are we seeing here? Go back to 1 Nephi 1. Let s take a look, and as we begin this study, let s grab a hold of one concept. Here s the concept: Whatever you can read about that

10 has been written in the scriptures, any sacred experience, any dream, any vision, any visitation from an angel, any person standing in the presence of God, any miracle, any parting the Red Sea, any moving of mountains, any healing the sick and raising the dead; if it s written down and it has been done, know this, that you can do it. That s what we want to learn. There s nothing in here that is reserved for anybody else. It s open to all. And that s the message we want to learn on the Book of Mormon. Any questions or comments? (COMMENT: [39:10 undecipherable]) Yep. And he invites all to come and freely partake, but you have to do it His way. You can t do it your way, and the reason most people don t enjoy these kinds of relationships is they want these blessings on their terms. They want it according to my will and you re never going to see it. That s what he s talking about, hardening your heart. Now let s go over to 1 Nephi 1:4. Who is the Jewish king in 600 B.C.? You see that in verse 4? It s Zedekiah. He s king of the Jews and this man is the reason (one of the reasons) why the Babylonians come down and destroy Jerusalem in 586 B.C. So, Babylon comes down in 586 B.C. and destroys Jerusalem and all of the kingdoms of the Jews. Wipes them out. Why do they do it? The Jews were already under the control of Babylon and had been for a number of years, but down here, you ve got Egypt, and up here, you ve got Babylon, and in between you ve got Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah wants to break free of Babylon; wants to break free. So, Zedekiah comes down here and tries an alliance with Egypt: You help us, we ll help you. We ll join with you, we can combine forces and we can kick these guys out of here. What happens is, the king of Babylon hears about that, comes down, and attacks them and these guys, here, hit the road. They don t support them, so they come and destroy this. Nebuchadnezzar took this king right here, Zedekiah, and murdered all of his family in front of his eyes; butchered his whole family. Then they took hot pokers and stuck the hot irons into his eyes and blinded him. And then carried him off captive to Babylon. They killed his whole family in front of him, except an interesting little thing, here. Somewhere around this period of time, the Book of Mormon in 586 B.C.do you want to know where we are at this stage? We re in 2 Nephi 5. So when Babylon attacks Jerusalem, we re already over in America. We re in 2 Nephi 5. Chapter 5 is where the Lord says to Nephi, I want you to separate yourself from Laman and Lemuel and the Lamanites. And interestingly at this time, at the time that Babylon is attacking Jerusalem, at this same time in America, we have the Nephites and the Lamanites are splitting into two distinct groups. Up to that point, in 2 Nephi 5, they re living together, aren t they? There s been some wars, there s been some friction. They didn t get along well, and the Lord come to Nephi and says, Take your people, everyone who will follow you, and depart into the wilderness. I m going to separate you from your brethren. At the same time that happens is when Babylon comes down. Now watch! They thought they killed his whole family. They thought they d gotten everybody, but there was a little baby boy. Zedekiah s youngest son was taken by somebody - we don t know who - before the Babylonians came in, and they hid this boy and took off down into the

11 wilderness. So Zedekiah s youngest son survived the murder of his whole family and the fall of Jerusalem under the Babylonian army. This younger son s name was Mulek. That s the little boy, the youngest son of king Zedekiah. And the Lord somewhere in this area here, sometime after 586 B.C., somewhere after that over a period of time, the Lord brings another colony of people to...where? To ancient America. So, now we have, at this time, when the Nephites/Lamanites separate and become two distinct nations, we have another colony that s being brought here by the Lord and being sent somewhere in there, and did you know that this colony, here, that we call, Mulekites, and over here, these right here, the Mulekites, the Nephites and the Lamanites are living in the same land for almost 200 years and don t know about it. They re in the same general country - we don t know where - but this group of people here, becomes a huge group of people. When these people are finally found, there are more of these than there are of Nephites. More of these than there are of Nephites. Now, what tribe is Mulek from? Judah. And what tribe are these from, right here? Ephraim and Manasseh. When these groups come together, the Nephites and the Mulekites - they join together, the Mulekite people. They re called, later on, the people of Zarahemla. And the Nephites and the Mulekites join and become one, and they intermarry. So, now what you ve got is the blood of Judah, also mixed up with Ephraim and Manasseh in this American colony - a combined colony. Now, the descendants, the only surviving descendants we have alive, is what we call Lamanites. American Indians are part of those, some of the people down south in Mexico; South America would be part of those. And isn t it interesting that some of the Indians today have Jewish blood in their veins. Isn t that fascinating? (COMMENT: 46:50 [undecipherable]) Where are they? What is the promised land of the Latterday? They re finding some interesting things that they think...and early brethren of the Church said that the Book of Mormon people primarily were found in North America. That what you re reading about right here, you don t find [it] in Mexico. You ll find a little bit in Canada. And they re saying that the Book of Mormon peoples now, are primarily in North America, and really, they re doing some DNA studies, and doing some things with DNA - BYU is doing some big things on this - they re finding out that it s even the Mississippi River, east to the Atlantic Ocean, all the way down the the southern states, and all the way up to the Great Lakes. Well, where was the Hill Cumorah located? Upstate New York. So, it s interesting. - let me show you one thing -when Moses blesses - if you go over to Genesis chapter 49 - Moses blesses the twelve tribes before he s taken away and translated, he gives blessings to the twelve tribes. Do you know who received the greatest blessing out of all the twelve tribes? Who received the longest and the best blessings out of all twelve? Do you know who Moses blessed the most? He blessed Judah, and he blessed Joseph, and what did he bless Judah with? Judah is blessed with...what? Kings. And Joseph is blessed with...what? Spiritual things. In our day, these spiritual things? are...what? The gospel, the priesthood, and the temple. Do the Jews have the gospel, the priesthood and the temple, now in 2012? No. Will they? Let s find out.

12 Go to section 133. Let s find out if the Jews are going to be blessed with these things. I think that it s really interesting that in America, we have a combination of kings and priests. In Judah, we have the kings, and in Ephraim we have the blessing of priests. The Lord just...everything goes like this...everything just fits. Let s go to section 133 and let s look at verse 35: And they also of the tribe of Judah, after their pain What s that pain? What s been the history of the Jews? Persecution, blood shed, dispersion, displacement....after their pain they ll be What? Sanctified. How does that happen? Can you be sanctified without the blessings of the temple? No. Not completely. There [are] different levels of sanctification, but to be made holy and without spot requires the temple. Now look what it says: after their pain, shall be sanctified before the Lord to dwell in his presence day and night forever. Now see, Judah s is coming. Who s going to give these blessings? How is Judah going to receive the gospel, the priesthood and the temple blessings? Look at the next verse, look at verse 34: Behold this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel and the richer blessing upon the head of who? Ephraim. So, when Judah is sanctified and receives all of their temple blessings, who s going to administer all of the blessings to the Jews? Ephraim. Who holds the keys to the priesthood, gospel, and temple today? The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What is his tribe? He s an Ephraimite. What about the First Presidency? What are they? What about the Quorum of the Twelve, what are they? They re Ephraimites; they re all [from the tribe of] Ephraim. And they administer the gospel to all the other tribes. Isn t that exciting? Well, that s kind of what we re dealing with here. So, let s go back over - let s go back to Zedekiah, let s go over here a little bit. As we end up, here, let s go to a vision that Lehi has. I want to show you something interesting. Start in verse 5 [1 Nephi 1 ]: Wherefore, it came to pass that my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart on behalf of his people. And it came to pass that he prayed unto the Lord, and there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw heard he did tremble exceedingly. What did he see? What did he see that caused him to quake and tremble? He saw the destruction of Jerusalem. Why would that cause him to quake and tremble? He s got family there. He s got family there; he knows this is coming. What do you think, if Lehi had one request; if the Lord came to him and said, Lehi, what is wanted? And you have one request, what would be Lehi s request to the Lord after seeing this? Save my family. And what did the Lord do? Take them and go. See that. Now, this is a pattern. You see patterns here. What about the Jaredites? When the Jaredites stood before - when Mahonri Moriacumer stands before the Lord, the Lord says, What do you want? Save my family, and don t confuse our tongues. They don t want to lose their language. So, what? The Lord blessed them so they did not lose it. Everyone else was confused and they continued to speak the Adamic language. They were also given a land of promise. What is the Book of Mormon land of promise that it prophesies [of] in 2012? Can we see the Book of Mormon land of promise...because a lot of these prophecies are going to be coming down into our day. What is the Book of Mormon land of promise? What do we call it today? It s called the United States of America. The United States of America is the Latter-day land of

13 promise. Why do I think that? What is it about the United State in a future day that s going to be very special. What do you we find now? And what are we going to find in the future that makes this a unique land? Choice above all other lands? And what does it have right now in Salt Lake City? It s the headquarters of the Church. You don t find the headquarters of the Church in Berlin. You don t find the headquarters of the Church in Benghazi. It s in Salt Lake City. And that s a temporary headquarter; the headquarters of the Church in your future is going to move from Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. And the center stake of the church is going to be in Missouri in a place called the New Jerusalem. So, now let s look at see what else happens here. Let s go on down, and let s go to verse 8: And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. (Who s the God that Lehi sees sitting on the throne here in verse 8? Who is that? It s the Father. How do we know it s the Father? Next verse): And it came to pass that he saw One (He saw...what? Look at that One, that should tell you something. It s capitalized. It means what? We re not talking about a number, we re talking about a person. Go ahead.)...[d]escending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day. So, who s verse 9, who we re talking about; who s the One? That s Christ. Now, let s go on down here and look at verse 10. He saw twelve others following Him. Who s that? That s the original Quorum of the Twelve in Jerusalem. And so, go down to verse 11: [And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth]; and the first came and stood before my father, and gave him a book and bade him that he should read. [And it came to pass] that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Now what did we just see here? Let s take a look and see what we saw. Here s a pattern that repeats itself over and over. All of the holy prophets may not have the records - the accurate records today - but this is a pattern. Let s take Lehi and let s take Joseph; Joseph Smith. Go back up to verse 6. He prays. Joseph Smith prays. And what does he see next? Fire. What does Joseph Smith see? He uses the same word: I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, which descended gradually above the brightness of the sun at noonday. See what we ve got going on here? Let s go on down to verse 8. What now? He sees God sitting on His throne, speaks to Him; and here he sees the Father, who calls him by name and says, Joseph, this is my [beloved son]. So, over here we see: One - [the Father]. Here we see Christ, Hear Him. Let s go down a little bit further; go down to verse 11. He receives...what? What did Joseph receive? A book. What book did he receive? The Book of Mormon. Look at that pattern right on down. So, what you can see is the way the Lord does things here - it s a pattern. Also, go down to verse 8 again: I saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising God. So, what have we got here? We ve got the Father sitting on His throne and He s...what? Surrounded. By what? Angels who are praising Him. This circle - we re in symbols now - the circle is the symbol of eternity and it is

14 also the symbol of true prayer. So, you start to see some things in this and all the way through the Book of Mormon you re going to see the temple ceremonies. All the way through it. Let s skip on over here a little bit and let s go on down to verse 20. Lehi does his job. He goes and tells the people that if they don t repent they re going to die. And let s take a look at verse 20 and see what happens: And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. That s a great term right there: Tender mercies. Let s go to 1 Nephi 16. Do you want to see why they want to kill him? Why are they so upset? He s their best friend. He s warning them that if they don t repent, they re going to be destroyed. So, over here in chapter 16, look at your chapter heading. What s the first sentence in the chapter heading say? The wicked take the truth to be hard. Why? Well, let s look at it: Verse 1. Now this is Nephi speaking to whom? To his brother. Over in in 1 Nephi, it s Lehi speaking to his people, now it s Nephi speaking to his brothers and we ll see the same thing. Verse 1: Now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear. I can see Lehi speaking to the Jews and seeing the same thing: You ve spoken hard things unto us. Next verse: And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center. So, what did Lehi do when he spoke to the Jews? It s something that we have a lot that happens here in the Philippines. He offended them. And he offended them so badly that they re going to do what? They re going to kill him. What did Nephi just do here? He offended them. And anytime you speak the truth against the wicked, they re going to be offended. And that s what happened. So, it s the same kind of a thing. Let s talk just a minute as we close up tonight s lesson - let s go back to chapter 1, verse 20: Tender mercies of the Lord....I [Nephi] will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith... What do these tender mercies do? Make you mighty, even unto the power of deliverance. What is that? Sister Stroud? Tender mercies? What comes to your mind when you hear that? Elder Bednar gave an excellent - his first talk as a new apostle called, The Tender Mercies of the Lord. (COMMENT: 52:45 [This comment was mostly undecipherable] When the Lord shows His mercy to us...in a kind, tender way, even before we can ask Him...he s always there to help us ) Any more comments on tender mercies? Sister [?] What do you think about that? (COMMENT: [63:00 undecipherable]). Are the tender mercies of the Lord big experiences? Or are they generally little things? They re generally little things; if you re not thinking about them, they ll slip right by you and you won t

15 recognize it. How often do they happen to us? All the time. And if you tune into that; if you re looking for what the Lord does for you on a minute-by-minute basis, you ll start to recognize and see these little mercies in your life. And they show up all the time. Brother Allen, comment? (COMMENT: [64:05 undecipherable]) And His grace certainly ties into that. Sister [?] (COMMENT: [64:20 undecipherable]) Well, brothers and sister, we ve spent a lot of time here tonight, but some of it s setting the stage for a lot that s coming in the Book of Mormon as we move forward; it s always talking about something called, The Holy Order of the Priesthood. Now we know what that is, don t we? And we understand that s an order in the Melchizedek priesthood. There s one order above that - the order above the Patriarchal order is something called The Fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and that s a step above the Patriarchal order. And everything comes in its own time. You can t jump from one level up to another. You have to take it step-by-step-by-step. But the Lord in his tender mercy is willing to guide you every step along the way. You don t have to have a written piece of paper with items listed out, step-by-step that you can check off and say, If I do this one, then it s the next one, and it s a checklist on: What do I need to do in order to enjoy all these blessings. What we ll find out is that every person s path toward sanctification, toward perfection, toward purity is specially customized. Yes, all of us are going to need to be sanctified. That s this big thing that you need to be, but the path that leads to it is as different and as varied as there are people. The experiences I have on my path, as I seek to be sanctified, will be different than the experiences that any of you have and you re different from everybody else, as we travel toward that same precious objective of being made holy - of being made holy without spot. You don t need a checklist. One of the things that s been hard for me to learn is that my mind always wants to put down a list of things: If I do this then check, cut that one out, what s next? Check! Got those two done, what s next? And the Lord doesn t work that way. He doesn t work that way at all, and it s taken a great, long time in my life - and I m still learning it - to learn that there s no checklist. All you need to do - and you want to really access the tender mercies of the Lord - is learn to listen to His voice. Learn to listen to the voice of Christ, which is speaking to us all of the time. ALL of the time, and if we can put ourselves in-tune. If we can get in frequency with that, and there s certain things you need to do to come in-tune. You ll find out that His voice is speaking all the time and He will take you, not checklists, step-by-step. He will guide you personally in what you, personally, need to do in order to come to that point to where you will be made holy in the gospel, which is where we want to be. When you get to that point in this life, you re standing in the presence of Christ, and the great Book of Mormon message is, that is the goal to seek for. Don t wait until you re dead; don t wait until you re resurrected; don t wait until you re in the celestial world...now! You can see Him. You can stand in His presence and that s one of the great messages of the Book of Mormon. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.