CFM BOM with sam Week 1 - Introductory Pages of the Book of Mormon

Okay, check this quote out

I have always thought in reading the Book of Mormon, "Woe to the generation that understands this book!" To our fathers, once the great persecutions ceased, the story of the Nephites and the Lamanites was something rather strange, unreal, and faraway—even to the point of being romantic. The last generation did not make much of the Book of Mormon. But now with every passing year this great and portentous story becomes more and more familiar and more frighteningly like our own.

That is Hugh Nibley. The Book of Mormon is an incredible treasure, but it talks about things so great that it can be hard to understand if we don't use the spirit. Constantly.

An Approach to the Book of Mormon

One trick is that the Book of Mormon is Really Complicated. I was talking to a manager of a large financial organization once, and he asked about the Book of Mormon. I tried my best to give the context of the book within about a minute's time frame. It turns out that this is almost impossible. Here's why:

- The Book of Mormon takes place in Ancient Times but is a covenant book for today.
-  The main figures come from a 6th century Hebrew background but quickly develop their own unique cultures
 - The book reads in some ways like a history with commentary, but is primarily a scriptural, and spiritual work
 - The book was written, translated, and delivered by revelation from God in a world that is not familiar with His ways.

A very simple historical layout of the book is thus:
1. Some years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 587 B.C. during the time of Jeremiah the prophet in the bible, God called a prophet, Lehi, to take his family and a few others to flee Jerusalem, and guides them across the ocean to the Americas
2. They begin a civilization, and during a period of 1000 years, prophets write their dealings with God, comparable to how prophets in the Old and New Testament did.
3. The civilization constantly looks for Christ's coming. They go through phases of relative wickedness and righteousness. After His ministry, Atonment and ressurrection in the old world, Jesus Christ himself comes to the Civilization and teaches them in like manner as he did to His followers in Judea.
3. The civilization finally collapses because they rejected Christ's teachings. The final prophet, Mormon, and his son, Moroni, compile the records of all the prophets, write the final tragedy of their people, and add a few words of revelation. They are inspired by God to hide this record in preparation for Jesus' gospel at a later time.
4. In 1823, by revelation and the ministering of angels, God shows Joseph Smith the location of the record. By revelation he translates the record as part of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ and as a testimony of Jesus Christ.
5. This translated record is what is known as the Book of Mormon.

We can frame the book into a spiritual layout and an accompanying cultural layout to help us better understand what happens in the book. In other words, instead of looking at the Book of Mormon through a primarily historical lens, we can walk through the book through a primarily spiritual lens, to understand the message, and a cultural lens, to lend closely tied context. 

Spiritual Layout 

1. the Family, the Follower, and the Prophet (1 Nephi)
     We see how a prophet speaks, how a family follows God, and how a seeker of knowledge gains a testimony and keeps the faith. This is the clearest pattern in scripture of these things.
2. the Teachings (2 Nephi)
    Nephi (and jacob) teaching their people the plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ through the teachings of Isaiah. This is the clearest layout of the gospel of Jesus Christ in scripture.
3. the Lull (Jacob-Words of Mormon)
    For some reason, there is a slowly developed lull in spiritual writings. The Nephites go through many trials and receive many revelations but we don't have much commentary on them.
4. the Rebirth (Mosaiah)
    In a complicated but incredibly spiritual journey, a formal Church of Jesus Christ is born, has its first crisis, and the entire manner of government is changed, which has long term cultural and spiritual consequences
5. Struggle after rebirth (Alma, Helaman, 3rd Nephi)
    In more detail than any other period of history, Mormon outlines how the people struggled to maintain the laws and the gospel until the coming of the Savior
6. the Savior (3rd Nephi)
    a fifth testimony and pure teaching from the Savior Himself in His ministery to the people
7. the End (4th Nephi and Mormon)
    the tragic collapse of the Nephite civilization after slowly rejecting the gospel
8. the Additions (Ether and Moroni)
    Moroni the prophet adds some of the most precious teachings he can think to write before sealing the book in the ground
    

Cultural Layout

Note: a common mistake when learning about the Book of Mormon is to think of it as a history of two static civilizations. Even I did that earlier in this article to simplify the series. In reality there is both known and unknown complexity as primarily two civilizations dynamically interact and change over hundreds of years.
Also, this is me mostly speculating. You can completely ignore this and still be just fine.
1. Lehi leaves Jerusalem - primarily familial, ancient Hebrew
2. Nephi and Laman split to form 2 civilizations. Nephi avoids teaching certain Hebrew traditions he thinks will corrupt his children, while Laman doesn't teach them because he doesn't understand them. This causes immediate cultural shifts but in different ways.
3. Nephites flee under Mosiah I (book of Omni) and discover the Mulekites. the melding of the two cultures causes great changes among the Nephites.
4. Some nephites go back to where the lamanites were. They teach the Lamanites many ways of the nephites, which causes many cultural effects there. The events that happen among this small group also leads to massive changes in the Nephite cultural, primarily the formal organization of the Church of Jesus Christ.
5. A major war happens between the Nephites and the Lamanites. This is a catalyst for many good and bad things.
6. The Nephites and Lamanites unite cultures. After multiple wars, and missionary work by two Nephites in particular, the two civilizations have a period of peace between them. Unfortunately, they are threatened by dissidents, the Gadianton robbers, who have their own culture.
7. the Savior comes amid great natural disasters and events. this disrupts the old civilization(s) physically and spiritually. for hundreds of years, the civilization(s) have their most prosperous time.
8. Division and the end. The civilization divides itself into two again, and further dissension causes the one to wipe out the other.
8. Additionally, Moroni describes the Jaredite civilization, which is much more ancient and foreign to us than either of the two. Sufficient to say that it is distinct from the Nephite/Lamanite civilization, and probably any other we are familiar with.

The Power of the Introductory Pages of the Book of Mormon

The introductory pages also help us digest the book. They are a short preparation both in mechanics and spirit.

Title Page of the Book of Mormon: Moroni, the son of Mormon, wrote this himself. It is his ancient introduction to the book and is written by revelation. We can understand the purpose of the book, but Moroni wrote it by revelation, and it should be pondered and understood by the spirit.

Introduction: a summary of the purpose written by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is much easier for a normal person to understand, whether a member or non-member, but doesn't hold the same power.

The testimony of the Three Witnesses: This is a testimony of three people in the 1800's who saw the book. It is a testimony of its veracity, particularly its divine origin.

The testimony of the Eight Witnesses: also written about the same time as the three, this is aimed more at the physical verity of the record.

The testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith: this is his story of how he was taught and learned the record. Most valuable!

A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon: this explains the history AND all the records (plates) mentioned in the book. This is good to help the reader not get too confused among the different records that are mentioned.

Congrats, on Getting through all that. Once you feel good about it, we are finally ready to dive in to the book itself.