Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome to another great week of Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam! This week was 1 Nephi 16-22, finishing out the first book of Nephi. We can divide this week into 2 main parts - first the journey to the promised land, second, Nephi's teachings on Isaiah. The Journey to the Promised Land Valley of Lemuel a Base Camp for Greater Things Up until this point, the family has operated out of the base camp of the valley of Lemuel. That means that all the visions, journeys, and arguments have happened here. In many ways this was a place of preparation for the family, but it was up to the individual participants how enriched they were by the lessons there. For Nephi, he was able to gain a testimony, try himself in following the commandments, and learn to receive revelation like his father had. For Sam, Sariah, Zoram, and Ishmael's family, it was a time to learn trust in Lehi, and that God was guiding him. For Laman and Lemuel, it was a chance to see that God would take care of th...

Welcome! Things happen to Nephi really quickly this week. What is interesting is that he sees a piece of the vision, then he sees a piece of the history of the world, then he goes back to the vision, then back to the world over and over again. It is like a hyper-converged vision with the symbols and the realities manifesting themselves almost synchronously with each other. And he leaves a lot out. Here are some of the highlights from my studies. The Condescension of God The angel focuses on something called the condescension of God. We'll talk about this more when we get to Abinadai. For now it may be good to hone in on why Nephi was taught about specifically that. There is (a little) more discussion of this on my sound recordings. Nephi's vision of present day America Nephi has a whole chapter on what happens after the gentiles come to America. He probably wasn't writing this for his people. He was probably writing about it specifically for us. he talks about God inspiring...

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, somewh...

 Welcome! An introduction to The Family, The Follower, and The Prophet Comprising most of 1 Nephi, we have a situation somewhat unparalleled in other scripture. We can observe, through Nephi's words, how a Prophet is called, how he teaches, how a family can follow a prophet, how some people reject a prophet, how you can know a prophet is called of God... There are a lot of lessons. The point is that we can examine this in a more close-up manner than in any other set of scripture. This portion is also unique in the surprising way in which it teaches the first and second missionary discussions, albeit in a non traditional manner. Check this out 1st missionary lesson example scripture God is our Loving Heavenly Father 1:1, 1:14-15, 1:20 The Gospel Blesses Individuals and Families throughout Heavenly Father Reveals his Gospel in Every Dispensation 1, 6 The Savior's earthly ministry and atonement 1:9-12 The Great apostasy (apostasy in general) 1:19, 2:11-13, 3:31, 5:1-3, 7 Restorati...

Welcome!  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 f...