3 Nephi 8-11: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam

Congratulations! We made it! These are the chapters of the Savior's Coming! Thomas Jefferson said he found the Savior's teachings 'the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man'. I like his emphasis on sublime, I think that is a perfect word to describe it. Jesus' teachings are like His voice in these chapters; they are soft and unassuming, yet powerful enough to fill the entire land. Because of this, sometimes commentary simply detracts from the message. I will do my best to avoid this.

Here's a quick outline of the 4 chapters. I would like to focus on the fourth, chapter 11 the most.

• Chapter 8: the destruction of many cities, people, and the reshaping of the land
• Chapter 9: Voice of God comes and mourns the destruction of the cities and people
• Chapter 10: Voice of God pleads with the survivors to come to Him
• Chapter 11: Christ Himself comes down in resurrected form to begin His earthly ministry among the Nephites and Lamanites.

The problem of pain

The destruction in chapter 8 is awful.

How can we reconcile this terrible destruction?

Well, I'm not going to be able to answer the problem of pain in one blog post so all I will say on the matter is:

Remember that just hours before destruction came, Christ suffered all of the sufferings of each person, including the terrible sins they committed before the great destruction came. There is no one that sacrificed more for the Plan of Salvation to unfold than the Godhead.

Hurt and healing

Jacobugath's wickedness was above all the the wickedness of the whole earth because of their secret murders and combinations to destroy the peace of the people and the government. That is about all we get here on why secret combinations are evil. There are some hints at willful rebellion in the preceding chapters. I suspect that they knew that what they were doing was bad, same as Ammoron during the war chapters, and for some reason instead of seeking reconciliation with the good, they decided to destroy the good. I think they killed the prophets, not out of effort to stop their teachings, but to remove them as an object of condemnation for what they (the Gadiantons) were doing. I think they killed the governor not because they felt like they could pull off a successful coup, but to say that if they couldn't rule, they would rather everyone suffers worse than if they could rule. I also think they wished to remove the law symbolically as an object of their condemnation as well.

Christ pleads in 8:13, 'will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?... Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.'

In a way the Gadiantons were right (stay with me) because we are all condemned under the law (meaning the eternal law). We have the choice to hate ourselves and hate others, and hate the law because of it, or we can turn to Christ and come as a little child and use the atonement to reconcile ourselves with the law and finally be healed.

If you choose the one way, there is no end to the depth of sorrow you will swallow for yourself or wish on the world. I think I know why Satan was the author of the Gadiantons.

There is another way we can go if we can only have the faith and the hope to pursue it, and there is no limit on how we can be healed of the hurt that we inevitably face. I know why Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of my faith.

He came

The Nephite scribes were very careful to record down the events of this time with exactness. The record stands today as the most perfect witness that we could ask for the Christ literally came. He came as all the holy prophets had said. The prints in his hands and feet were not there just to prove that He was really Christ; they already knew that. It was to prove to them that he was 'the God of Israel, and the God of the Whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world. It was to help them connect that their holy prophets had prophesied exactly what happened, and that all the promises made then and now were sure. Remember that the promises to the house of Israel is one of the major themes in the Book of Mormon.

Nephi

In my last blog I pointed out the lineage of Nephi in this chapter. He came from a family of missionaries and prophets that went all the way back to Alma in the court of King Noah, and who had labored all the way down the line in Christ's vineyard.

I think a lot for how it would be like for Nephi, last of the line, to finally be here in the flesh with the Master in front of him. I think it was like being in front of a friend with whom he had had a long acquaintance, and like a soldier who after a long siege sees his commander riding over the hill to relieve the beleaguered defenders. I think it was the moment to crown all the work from Alma down to him as accepted.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

The first thing Christ teaches is baptism of repentance and receiving the Holy Ghost. The foundation of the gospel is turning to God (repentance), making promises with Him (baptism), and receiving power from heaven(Gift of the Holy Ghost). The Holy ghost is the connection to heaven and to heavenly things. If heaven is where God dwells, and the Holy Ghost is part of the Godhead, then we can have God dwell among us on earth. I don't mean to say that this earth is actually heaven, or confuse you with Godhead personages and missions, but I mean to iterate that through the promises of Baptism, and power from God through the Holy Ghost, we too can fulfill the promise that was promised in front of Alma and fulfilled in this chapter before Nephi - that God walked with man and that man can walk with God.

Contention

Christ makes special note about contention and says it is not of Him. Unfortunately, as a church culture, we have confused contention with argument and disagreement, and as such we are really bad at arguments in some cases (all cases? I hope not). There is a beautiful art to solving differences with people without falling to contention. Once again, I can't write an opus here but here are a couple principles.

1. Treat every person as Worth IT. If you think everyone is good, you will be burned. If you think everyone is bad, you will become embittered. Instead, treat every person as worth something. Every human being has a spark of the divine within them. What they do with that spark is up to them, whether to nourish or extinguish, but Christ died for each person because he believed that person was worth suffering and dying for. He knew who was wicked and who was righteous and he knew that it was worth it to make it possible for them. We aren't asked to make the same sacrifice, but we can remember that every human being, including ourselves, are worth it.

2. Love thy neighbor as thyself. The native americans would say 'behold my relations!' Carl Schurz said if we don't defend our neighbors rights as ourselves, we strike a dangerous blow to our own rights. If we see the person across from us as our self, we can treat them with the dignity and honor.

3. Humans are not the problem, they are the solution. Remember that whatever you need to solve is not the other person. We already know you are both broken, and we already know that you both need to change. the question is how we do that and that is going to be fixing our environment and abilities to make that change possible. Humans are the change agents. They are the thing that navigates between chaos and order. They are the ones with power, and if you have the Holy Ghost, power from on high. I am not asking you to be naive about those who would take advantage of you (see point 1). I am asking you to focus on solving the problem, not the other person.

4. For things to change, I must change. Yes, I know, it sounds like a complete contradiction to point 3. Change your environment but also change yourself... All I can say is that you gotta figure out how both can work together. Read Buddhist texts. it helps.

5. We all have wiggles. There is a lot of baggage we all carry. There is a lot of space we have to grow. There are a lot of things we don't know. We have to make room for that in a healthy way. Don't dump on others. Run, take breaks, write, yell at trees, identify what is bothering you, realize when something is eating you, eat regularly, and don't sugar up before arguments. Energy needs to flow. Find a way to let it flow in a healthy way instead of tearing up the issue that needs to be discussed.

6. Blessed are the peacemakers (who come unto Christ. for they shall inherit the earth. Just think on that one. Meek is knowing how to use the sword, wearing it at your side, and not drawing it, even when you could know you can win, except in defense of truth and virtue. It takes work.

Good luck. Post other comments on how to do this below!

Post Script

Confession time. I got into a facebook back-and-forth this morning. Still working on that. I am going to make sure that I show the person I'm talking to that I respect him and am grateful for him and although I still think he is wrong, that is okay, and I know I am wrong too sometimes, and he makes me think, and we both want good things to happen. Hopefully that eliminates any contention from our argument :)