Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! Some absolutely amazing moments happen in these chapters, some that are unspeakable. In case you hadn't noticed, I don't talk too much about the miraculous events that take place and focus on the teachings for this blog. I think that what I have to say on the miracles would detract too much from these personal events, both in terms with the person who was healed and of you as the reader personally seeking understanding to the meaning of it it. I encourage you to read about the miracles throughout Christ's ministry to the Nephites and ask the Spirit to help you understand what they mean. This is where greater meaning really begins to flow. It is like the last teachings were a foundation and now the house is being built. I have selected a number of themes and commented on them below. Time to think (nerd alert) We are not just machines. We are children of God. That means that we don't just process information a computer. Teachings are me...

 Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! We are going full swing into the teachings of Jesus on the continent. The exquisite simplicity of Christ's words makes us sometimes discount them as platitudes or simple moral teachings. And while in a way they are the simplest and easiest to understand, they are also the richest and deepest message to the world that any of us could possibly hope for. Remember that Christ knew he had come down to earth to redeem all mankind; there is no being who has walked with earth with a greater burden or a higher knowledge of Godliness. My comments here are mostly my own but I hope they lend insight to your own study of someone can can truly and gratefully say is The Master. A little more on our relationship to Christ's teachings. post-script to the introduction here. In zen Buddhism, there is the concept that you cannot gain enlightenment from any other person. Mumon ends his zen Buddhist text with the words 'The words and the actions left by Buddh...

Congratulations! We made it! These are the chapters of the Savior's Coming! Thomas Jefferson said he found the Savior's teachings 't he  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 La...

Welcome! Things are really heating up for the Nephites at this point. It is time for the very last moves, good and evil, before the savior comes. It is a really exciting time and things happen quite rapidly. This is a time of great upheaval in the Nephite government. I am going to make my best analysis based on the situation. If you disagree with me, I would encourage you to not fall back on ideological truisms, but to think about the how and why and what of the Book of Mormon before passing judgement. We're in the the end game now As I mentioned before, things begin happening rapidly in the next few chapters before Christ's coming. The first thing is that people can no longer deny the signs of the times coming together. The day and night and day HAPPENS and no one deny's it. This puts the next events in a different frame than anything that happened before. There is a similar situation when the Nephites meet the Mulekites and receive a witness that what Lehi spoke about Jer...

  Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! We made it to Samuel, one of my favorite prophets! Bet you can't guess why. Samuel is a fascinating character because he is the only Lamanite prophet whose words we have. I wonder if he was influenced or related to the Ammonites. He had a tremendous influence on the Nephites. They watched for the next 5 years for the birth of the Savior thanks to Samuel. The Savior, when he came, asked specifically to make sure the records   and prophecies of Samuel were well kept. He also is a microcosm for all the teachings of the Book of Mormon and in some ways, a preparatory prophet like John the Baptist, preparing the people for the coming and ministry of the Savior.   A microcosm of all the teaching down to the present   Samuel   in many ways summarizes all the admonitions of the Nephite prophets down to the present. This includes Stop chasing riches (Jacob) Build up Zion (Jacob) The Lamanites have better prepare...

      Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! Things were looking so good last time before they all went up in smoke again. In the next few chapters, we get Nephi's (yes, the Knight Radiant) view on things. Yes, he also becomes a Bond Smith. Before it was cool. Give up your war I see chapter 7-12 as a terrifying follow-up to chapters 1-6. In the last blog post I mentioned some interesting factors that will help understand these chapters 1. Nephi and Lehi accomplished what 500 years of prophets and generals could only dream of. They ended the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites. 2. This does not solve their problems though because the war was never about Nephite vs Lamanite in the first place. It was about fighting the darkness in their own hearts. Now that the face of the enemy was gone, the Nephites and Lamanites are left to deal with themselves (and it turns out the Lamanites overall do it better, although they are more split than the homogenous Nephite nation.) 3. T...

Welcome! As a quick check in from my first pos t, we are still in the struggle after rebirth stage. over 40 years ago, the reign of judges was established, the church in its current form was established by Alma, and they are working hard to guard the liberty of the land and the faith of the people. here we can see that the tremors, both good and bad, are getting bigger and badder. I want to say that they are mostly bad, but at the same time, peace is established between the Nephites and the Lamanites during this time!!! Who could have predicted that ?!? TL;dr is that there are tectonic movements happening for good and bad at the same time, which have massive consequences now and later. The curse of kings The Nephite civilization seemed to really struggle with kings. Mosiah was smart enough to get rid of the of position, but the Nephites really struggled with both avoiding kings, and for the judges, avoiding treating them like kings.  Thus we come to the tragic story of Pahoran's so...