3rd Nephi 27-4 Nephi: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam - the after math

 At this point, the Book of Mormon is starting to wrap up. You'll notice that Mormon is rather brief on the 400 years that pass. Most of the message has been conveyed. The civilization went through its calamity. The Savior came and taught. We are now entering the most wonderful and prosperous phase of the civilization. The impact that the Savior had on the people lasted for hundreds of years, and I believe the majority of evidences that we have so far discovered from the Nephite civilization come from this time.

How be it my church save it be called in my name?

President Nelson has done more to reemphasize the name of the church than anyone since it's re-establishment. Jesus explains this doctrine in chapter 27 for the majority of the chapter. The church is meant to lead all people to Him, so that they can repent and be baptized in His name, and share in the gospel. The church should point to this work of salvation, and if it leads people toward Christ, it should not be called anything other than the church of Christ.

Apparently our church was originally just called the Church of Jesus Christ to begin with, then, when it caused questions, we began referring to it as the church of the latter day saints. Because the Book of Mormon is a singular feature of the re-establishment, many referred to us as 'Mormons', and we took on the moniker to facilitate conversation. Joseph Smith reaffirmed the name of the church as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his lifetime, and, for those who didn't know, that has always been the name of the church. the term 'Mormon' has been used more or less since inception as a way of helping people connect the dots, but it is true that it distracts from the message of what the church is about. We don't worship Mormon, we don't center around Mormon, and most of our doctrine doesn't even come from Mormon. We worship Jesus Christ, and we honor Mormon as a prophet, and are especially thankful that he made such great sacrifice to preserve the greatest witness of Jesus Christ revealed today.

President Nelson was an important reminder to both us with in the church and without as to where our attention should be. I personally think we had to go through at least the mormon.org phase to help understand what 'mormon' meant in modern vernacular, but that we could have done better by immediately following that up with talking about Jesus Christ Himself, and that President Nelson knew this was the time to re-affirm our emphasis without excuse on the sacred name of Christ and His Church.

The Three

In my last post, I mentioned how important Christ emphasized that it was to record that men and women were literally resurrected at the time of Christ's coming to America. I think that Mormon had the same directive to discuss the three Nephites who were translated such that they would live to the end of the world. As far as I know, those three and John the Beloved are still working out there in the world somewhere. It specifically mentions that they can show themselves to whomever it is good to show themselves to, so I imagine that there are people today who have met the Three + John.  I am extremely curious to know what they are doing, and I am sure I will find out some day.

Mormon gets serious

The last two chapters are a witness and a warning straight from Mormon. He is telling us that shiz is going down and we better figure it out. Remember that he just finished recording the destruction of the Nephites before the coming, and he is recording this during the destruction of the Nephites after his coming.

1 Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath ^acommanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write, saying:

2 Turn, all ye ^aGentiles, from your wicked ways; and ^brepent of your evil doings, of your ^clyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your ^dmurders, and your ^epriestcrafts, and your ^fenvyings, and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be ^gnumbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.

Age of Prosperity

Fourth Nephi is the record of the age of prosperity. If you remember way back in the early months when we were studying Nephi, that Prosper doesn't mean direct material wealth, it is closer to the idea of the blessing of God on the people. This is what I mean by prosperity: the blessing of God was upon this people. Here are some highlights

No contentions/disputations: I'm sure people found disagreement with each other, but this refers to the idea that they were all of one heart and one mind. They regarded their neighbor as themselves and would work for the happiness of all. 

all made free, and partakers of the Heavenly Gift: This verse intrigues me. the only other pure reference I can find is in Ether 12:8. There are two common ideas with this in Ecclesiastes 3:13 and 5:19, and John 3:16, and 4:10. The first deals with physical temporally receiving the fruits of their labor. the second has to do with the spiritual gifts of receiving the Atonoment, repentance, and mercy. I believe that partakers of the Heavenly Gift means that they were able to have a piece of heaven, metaphorically speaking, on earth. There are many temporal, physical, and spiritual implications of such a state. The most important thing for the rank and file reader to understand is that this can be made possible. Just as it was for Enoch and the Nephites, so can it be today. Thus, as it says in Ether, we too can hope for a very real and possible state, that is not yet seen.

miracles: Mormon and Moroni are obsessed with emphasizing the importance of miracles among followers of Christ. It is extremely important that we understand this. These things happened regularly in this community.

industry: The people were industrious during this time. It is interesting that the gospel animates the spirit such that it wishes to create, to produce and to grow.

The slow decline

Mormon says that about 200 years into this, there began to show signs of disintegration again. 200 years is a pretty good run - that is basically the total existence of the United States of America, so it is nothing to scorn at. This said, the tragedy still happened, and I wish we knew more about how it happened. Here is what Mormon wrote

pride: Mormon specifically mentions costly apparel, fine pearls, and fine things of the world. The continued attention to the material plane of existence always seems to precede a falling apart. Perhaps Mormon's emphasis on miracles is a way to combat that, as it draws us more to the spiritual. Why clothes all the time too? It is always manifested in what we wear. Psychologists may have something to say with this. Nakedness symbolizes vulnerability, weakness, imperfections we may have. A covering symbolizes protections. Joseph in Egypt's coat, priests habits, and other clothing like bride's dresses and coverings symbolize covering and protection by God, His Virtue, and Priesthood. Kings Robes, Judge Robes, and other objects represent protection by the law. Worldly clothes, in my opinion, represents you protecting yourself by the world. 

Notice that before Christ came, Mormon remarked that the members of the Church of Jesus Christ were neat and comely.

division: there was division of both classes and churches, each focusing inward and on gain.

denying the more part of the gospel: Mormon specifically points out that they 'did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness'. Both during Christ's teachings and at the end of the Book of Mormon by the hand of Moroni, the sanctity of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is emphasized.

there was another church that denied the Christ: apparently there was at least one church which was just vengefully viciously bitter to the core that was organized with the explicit or implicit intent to bring down the church of Christ. That is worth thinking about.

seek to kill according to his word: words have a strange power such that the church of the anti-christ seeks to kill those who utter them, whether a prophet or Christ Himself.

those who rejected were called Lamanites, and did willfully rebel, and did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from the beginning, did dwindle: This single verse has some crazy stuff in it. I think it should scare you to the core of your being. The most important thing to understand is that the so-called 'Lamanites' here took on the name as a sign of willful rebellion, not heritage. They divided into believers and non-believers, at least to begin with, and used names to represent what they believed, not who they were descended from (think about it anyway - 200 years of co-mingling is going to mix the population up pretty well to begin with).

Secret oaths and combinations: whoops, whoopsies

both peoples become like one to another: what started out as a believing/non-believing divide soon devolved into just a divide. Same pride, same wickedness.

traffic in all manner of traffic: isn't it interesting to contrast worldly industry with heavenly industry, both in the same chapter?

And that is where we end this week. Is there any way to express the fullness of joy that the Nephites experienced, or the tragedy of the depths they fell to?