1 Nephi 6-10 - Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome!

Chapter 6

 Nephi takes a break in chapter 6 to make some commentary of the record. Particularly, he says that he wishes to persuade everyone to come unto Christ, who is the same God as the God of the old Testament (his fathers) This is the first time he expressly states the purpose of the plates.

The Tree of Life Vision and the 2nd Missionary Lesson

I mentioned in my previous post that it almost seems as though 1 Nephi 1-7 is handcrafted to help us understand the first missionary lesson. We can draw many comparisons between 1 Nephi 8-15 and the second missionary lesson, but with a key difference. The second missionary lesson teaching points are:

1.  Premortal Life: God's Purpose and Plan for Us
2.  The Creation
3.  Agency and the Fall of Adam and Eve
4.  Our Life on Earth
5.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ
6.  The Spirit World
7.  The Resurrection, Salvation, and Exaltation
8.  Judgement and Kingdoms of Glory

This gives a wide, somewhat chronological view that is cohesive end-to-end. It is made to give new members and friends an overall understanding of the path. It isn't made to deep dive into any single part.

Lehi's Tree of Life, on the other hand, is the deep dive we need. It focuses specifically on the two parts of the plan that we are most connected to currently: Life on Earth and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Both of these renditions of the plan of Salvation compliment each other. A new friend or member can learn the wider picture from studying the missionary lesson, and then gain a deeper understanding of their role and purpose by studying the tree of life vision in these chapters.

This is another witness to me of the inspired nature of the book. in chapter 9 of this week, Nephi says he makes "these plates for a wise purpose, which purpose I know not". This was written by a young believer over 2000 years ago, and translated 200 years ago by someone humble enough to simply trust in God, and yet it reads like a glove for anyone who is seeking to grasp the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is something that I think neither writer, nor translator foresaw, nor could have created themselves, but was directly designed by God for us.

What happened to Lehi before the Vision!?

There are some key verses before the vision really opens up that we usually skip over rather quickly. I believe they are actually the key to why Lehi recieved the vision in the first place. Check it out:

5 And it came to pass that I saw a ^aman, and he was dressed in a white ^brobe; and he came and stood before me.
6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.
7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have ^amercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious ^afield.

Just like Nephi in chapter 3, Lehi is trying to do the right thing and it gets harder because of it. But he perseveres, and becuase of his perseverance, he receives things greater than he could have at first imagined.
It says that after he had traveled for the space of many hours(?!) in darkness, he began to "pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies". This is something like gratitude, remembrance, and humble supplication. Compare this to Moroni's plea before the famous verses to ask if the Book of Mormon is true.

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how ^amerciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ^bponder it in your ^chearts.

Is not Lehi doing the same thing as Moroni is asking us to do? is he not remembering how merciful the lord has been according to the multitude of his tender mercies?

We can find similar events at key points of revelation in the scriptures. Feel free to comment below if you know of others.

What all the symbols mean in the tree of life.

There are a number of great places to get walk-throughs on all the symbols. LDS Living has one that is pretty good here:
http://www.ldsliving.com/Book-of-Mormon-Lesson-3-The-Vision-of-the-Tree-of-Life/s/67223

Differences between The Mists of Darkness, the River of Filthy Waters, and the Great and Spacious Building

There are three pretty awful elements in this vision, each teach us a different way to avoid getting caught away from the path.

1. The Mists of Darkness - these represent the tempations of the Devil which Blind the eyes and and harden the hearts of everyone. The good, the bad, the ugly... The only place I don't think the mists of darkness are, is under the Tree of Life itself. But for the rest of us, even those on the path holding onto the scriptures and the gospel, we are in the mists of darkness too. :(
We just need to hold on and not let go and keep seeking the Tree of Life.

2. The River of Filthy Waters - these represent the depths of Hell. This is sin and separation from God. Lehi says that on the other side is the great and spacious building. This is what no one tells you about that damned edifice - to get into the great and spacious building, you have to go through the filthy waters. No matter what you do you are going to be soaked and filthy if you make it. You will probably drown before you do. What no one says is that if the great and spacious building weren't built on a foundation of air, it would rest on the corpses of the damned who died while lusting for it. Those in the building are much fewer than those who wish to be and never made it. Talk about a pyramid scheme.
On that happy note...

3. The Great and Spacious Building - the pride and the vain things of the world. It is so easy to get twisted up in this, especially because when you are on the path it is so simple, and the building is always there, looking amazing, mocking your efforts.
Terry Pratchett's first published work was a short story about building a theme park in Hell for the devil. the theme park is so awful that the devil himself repents because he can't stand it anymore.
Well, I think Terry Pratchett hit onto something, even though he was only 13 or so at the time. I think that even though the great and spacious building looks fantastic 9 days out of 10, those in the building are in a place that is so awful, it is worse than Hell. Maybe those swept away by the filthy waters are the lucky ones.

3 interesting Lehi Vision theories that are worth considering but which I think fall short of the mark.

We are going through a 'Yin' phase in the church and the world right now. This is a desintegration and (eventually) a reintegration phase. It's a phase where all the comforting narratives breakdown and we need to rebuild the maps of meaning to interpret our past, present, and future.

This is exciting in many ways. It means we finally get to learn new things that were obscured from us before. It should catapult us into a phase where we can understand the greater things of the gospel.

It is also very dangerous. When a narrative fractures, it leaves us unanchored, or as James would say, 'driven with the wind and tossed'. Like those in the mists of darkness, we can wander on strange paths, trying to find our orientation again. 

The Book of Mormon is no exception to the war of meaning and culture we are in. There are 3 theories I have recently heard that may be true, but that I believe are overall misguided. I will share below these theories and how I find them off the mark.

And if you are wondering 'Sam, why are you even bringing these crazy theories up?' Well, wait 5 years. Or at least 6 months.

1. White-robed figure really a dark angel.

The Theory: A man dressed in a white robe appears to Lehi and leads him. Lehi finds himself in a dark and dreary waste. Lehi travels for the space of many hours and it seems like this person has abandoned Lehi. This may mean that this person had dark intent and Lehi was only rescued when he prayed to God again.

Why I think it is off the mark: This is possible but I don't find it likely. Given the information, there is simply not enough evidence to make anything conclusive so this is more of a speculation, and the evidence available points against this and toward the man in white being one of God's messengers.

1. Lehi is already in a dark and dreary wilderness. He is not led, there he is already there.

2. the man is in a white robe. While this doesn't preclude this being a dark angel, it points to this being an angel of God more

3. While it is strange that this guide disappears, I believe this was more of a direction and a desire issue. Remember, Lehi didn't know he was going to see this vision, so he didn't have a clear purpose (as opposed to Nephi who specifically prayed to see the vision and specifically asked his guide), so it is very much in line that Lehi would need more desire to see the vision and would be more lost beforehand.

Why it matters: Today, this isn't that big of a deal. Whether it is or is not this way by itself probably doesn't matter much. There are 3 reasons that I brought this up

1. This is a warm-up exercise on something not very controversial with guidance on how to think through these things. You will need the practice if you want to prepare for what is happening in the church today.

2. There is some play here on dark is light, light is dark. Whenever someone starts saying good is evil and evil is good, I start paying attention because that means something is going on there. Usually not good stuff. So I'm bookmarking this to see how it fits into the good/evil pattern.

3. One day we may receive greater revelation on this subject and when we do, we want to be in the most ready and open attitude. We don't want to harden our hearts, but having pondered this in our mind, be in the best place to receive greater revelation.

2. GASB and the Jewish Temple.

The Theory: There is a trend among some very accomplished scholars to believe that there was a certain schism at the time of Lehi in Jerusalem. There are many details about this schism and its history can cover hundreds of years of events. The nature of that Schism is not directly what we are talking about, but a result of that is that some scholars believe that the Great and Spacious Building in the tree of live vision was in fact the Temple at Jerusalem. One strong lingual pointer is that The word the jews used for temple was 'great, spacious building'. Secondarily, the Jewish religion had been corrupted and was ripe for destruction. Lehi and family had to preach against this, then was persecuted by these elements (including the person who was to guard the sacred scripture), then had to flee from this. 14 years later, Babylon destroyed this wicked tradition as part of God's judgement. In contrast, Lehi was blessed. Wouldn't it make sense that the great and spacious building, as the highest symbol of the group that Lehi was preaching against, with strong lingual emphasis, and as the contrary to the tree of life, be the temple, according to this. There are some geographic patterns between the temple, the garden of gethsemane, and the kidron valley, that also match well.

Why I think it is off the mark: I can see some appeal to this, and it is not frivolous; there are some good reasons to think about this. However, there are 2 main reasons, I find this non-credible.

1. This seems to be thinking too small, too particular to the time, and place, and not representative of a vision that should extend much farther beyond the situational position of Jerusalem in 600 AD. Both Lehi and Nephi witnessed of the coming of Christ, and Nephi expounds much farther all the way to the end of the world, at least until he hands off the reigns to John. John also talks about Babylon the great and the whore of all the earth. It seems to me that these visions should tie into each other, and it seems extremely unlikely that John would also see the Temple of Solomon. It seems unlikely that the temple of solomon would be the symbolism that was supposed to prepare us today. The main argument the scholars would say is that like in the time of Lehi, we may have replaced the true religion of Jehovah with empty beliefs and practices, corrupting the life-giving power of the gospel of Christ, and thus it is very relevant. I find this possible, but I find it much more likely that the worship of the jews at the time of Babylonian exile is much more one manifestation of Babylon, and not at all the overarching core of all the manifestations of Babylon. I believe this will obscure the vision of the other dangers and mockeries today. Babylon is greater, darker, and more terrible, in my opinion, than only those things that happened in Jerusalem at that time, and We should expect the great and spacious building to represent all these facets.

2. The Temple can be a great symbol of something righteous that can be corrupted, but The temple would more likely be a beacon of light and if it was fallen, it would be portrayed as something that falls short of the mark it could be, not a contrary and opposite to what the mark is. The temple was the focus of Judaic worship since the exodus. We know that God honored the temple in the desert, honored the ark of the covenant throughout its known existence, and later, when the Temple of Herod was established, Christ still honored and protected the temple EVEN THOUGH the temple in this case also represented the sect that eventually would kill their Christ. The apostles continued to preach and worship at the temple after Christ's death. There are two counter-arguments to these; the first is that there is a difference between the Herodian temple and ordinances and the Solomon temple and ordinances. They may also argue that as the prime gathering place, the original 12 apostles would of course go to the temple whether they honored it or not. To the first, I would ask if the temple was a symbol or was not a symbol, and then remind them of my previous point; this great and spacious building should cover times and places, not just one. To the second, I would say semantics and there is much more evidence that the apostles did NOT have an aversion to the Herodian temple (even as their worship varied wider), and instead honored it as Christ honored it well after His crucifixion and resurrection. Because of this, it seems very unlikely that the temple would be completely inverted and used as an evil symbol of itself.

Why it matters: There are some appealing reasons to believe this, and some interesting patterns and evidences that points to this possibility, but once again, we need to think very carefully about these things before jumping in. In this case, this theory is, as mentioned, part of a much larger theory of a schism during this time. There are parts of this larger theory that seem to match well, and parts that seem very poorly informed or missing significant insight. So it requires careful thinking through and separation of pieces and arguments. When it comes to the temple, we need to be especially careful, as this kind of interpretation could have very large consequences, so we will want to think through this carefully so we are not deceived. We could throw out the baby and keep the bathwater.

3. Tree of Life == Heavenly Mother

The Theory: This ties into the large theory of schism mentioned above and is also fed from other sources. The basic idea is that the tree of life is equivalent to God our Heavenly Mother.

Why I think it is off the mark: here I think we are confusing divine symbolism with divine deity. Trees have had sacred feminine symbolism through many times and cultures (see the ished tree for example in the egyptian ceremonies). The love of God, or the fruit is also tied to much symbolism of the divine feminine. However, these are symbols to teach us, not the actual thing. God is not a tree. God is a god. In addition, Christ (and the Spirit) both take on attributes of the divine feminine and are important to not be ignored, as the atonement, the 'fruits of the spirit', the love of God through any member of the Godhead are all important to understand from the tree. More importantly, you need to grow the tree of life in you, your family and your community. This doesn't mean you grow a known specific God in there, but rather you grow these things so that they become like that God.

Why it matters: Merely equating 1:1 the tree to a divine member of our Godhead both reduces that member of the Godhead and blinds us to richness of the full picture of what the tree of life represents.

Why Does Come Follow Me end on 1 Nephi 10 this week!?

At first I thought cutting it here was just a simple way of focusing on the tree of life vision for 2 weeks. Now I'm not so sure it was convenient happenstance. It ends walking through how Nephi explains how he was able to receive the vision. And it is really powerful. read verses 17-22.

If you look closely at chapter 9, you can see that Lehi saw many things that we don't have. in ch 11-15, Nephi shows there were things that were there that Lehi did not notice. I know of a member who also prayed with real intent to see the tree of life. He said there were other things that neither mentioned that were there. Don't go off the deep end, with this, I'm just saying you should do what Nephi is telling you to do in these last verses.

Maybe the biggest lesson Nephi, or God, wished to teach in the vision is not the vision itself, but that anyone who has great desire to know the mysteries of God, and seeks Him, and makes room for the Spirit, can relieve all that he or she needs to know to avoid the awful hell on earth and come back into His Presence, whether in times past, times present, or times to come.

originally published January 2020

updated 1/14/2024