One of the YouTube channels I follow is Connor Boyack. For those who don’t know him, Connor is a fairly well-known commentator and activist in Utah, probably of a more Libertarian bent, and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Sometimes I agree with him, and sometimes I disagree but I usually find his ‘Sunday musings’ well thought-out and researched.
Yesterday, he entitled his musing ‘What would a modern Samuel the Lamanite sound like?’ You can watch his musing here.
In my last post, I talked about one way to interpret the writings of Nephi in the Book of Mormon is to assume that the characters of Laman and Lemuel represent you and me. Remember, they were always obedient to the Law of Moses – Nephi never once calls them out on that. They were also just like the majority of the Jews at Jerusalem – those who were about to be destroyed because of their wickedness (see 1 Nephi 2:13).
Although this approach makes us feel uncomfortable – after all, none of us likes to believe that we are included amongst the wicked – it causes some deep introspection and self-examination. We start to look more closely at how Nephi describes his older brothers. If he never criticises them for their approach to the Law of Moses, when does he call them to repentance?
Have you ever read a passage of scripture – maybe even for the ‘umpteenth’ time – and had it hit you so profoundly that it’s caused you to re-evaluate something? Or maybe even re-evaluate everything? It’s caused a total shift in your paradigm of some principle, or even your foundation?
In my last post, I talked about the things we believe, but which are false, that prevent us from coming to know the truth (often called unbelief or traditions of the fathers in the scriptures). The truth must be our goal, because it’s the truth that sets us free. When we can truly let go of one or more of the false beliefs that we hold, the scriptures can open up to us in new ways, allowing us to have these profound experiences of life-altering understanding enlighten us. It is breathtakingly beautiful.
Now with that background, when I talk about the ‘Holy Church of God’, what do you think I’m referring to? Is it an organisation or institution? If so, which one?
If you’re a believer in the Book of Mormon, then you’ve probably read the opening chapters of 1 Nephi seeing the young man Nephi as the example we are to follow. As we read the scriptures – any scriptures – we tend to put ourselves in the shoes of the ‘hero’. After all, we’re to pattern ourselves after the lives of righteous men and women of the past, right? Abraham and Sarah, Enoch, Noah, Deborah, Esther; in the Book of Mormon: Nephi, Alma and Helaman. Of course, Christ is our great exemplar, but many of these ancient prophets show us patterns to follow in our quest to become like Him.
While that is true, I believe there are also other characters and people we are supposed to consider ourselves as – not in terms off what we should be doing, but perhaps given by prophets as something of a ‘reality check’ of where we actually are in our lives. A few years ago as I began another read of the Book of Mormon, the realisation came to me that Laman and Lemuel serve exactly that purpose; and at the very beginning of 1 Nephi, the Jews at Jerusalem do, too.
Latter-day Saints like to talk about how wicked Laman and Lemuel were. We would never be like them, right? Except … maybe we are.
I’ve just finished reading 3 Nephi on my latest read-through of the Book of Mormon. I’m always amazed at how much more I gain from this magnificent book of scripture each time I read it, and marvel at how much more there must be to learn, if I could only have eyes to see.
Christ begins speaking to the people in the land from chapter 9 of 3 Nephi, then appears to them in chapter 11. The last words we have from Christ to the Nephites are in chapter 28, so it makes about 20 chapters in total containing the direct teachings of Jesus.
In the last General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder David A Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a prophetic warning. He reminded us that the Book of Mormon was given specifically for the days in which we live, and that its prophets had seen our day. They therefore knew what would be of most value to us.
It was in this context in which Elder Bednar quoted from the book of Helaman, discussing the tremendous wickedness that came upon the Nephites, ‘… in the space of not many years.’ (Helaman 6:32) Interestingly, this phrase is repeated in the book of Helaman another two times (see Helaman 7:6, 11:26).
This pattern is repeated in 3 Nephi, when the Nephites had ‘continual peace’ across their nation in their 28th year (3 Nephi 6:9), only for their entire government to collapse within only two years. (See 3 Nephi 7:1-2). This happened shortly before the apocalyptic destructions that occurred among them prior to the resurrected Christ visiting them.
There are so many things I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these is how so many principles overlap, complement and enhance each other; and how things that we might have heard many times before can suddenly take on new meanings, or sometimes just become so much more important than they once were.
I was struck a few months ago by something someone said. I don’t remember where I came across it – it might have been a blog post, or a Youtube video, or a General Conference talk or something else entirely – so I apologise of the lack of attribution. I don’t even remember the actual quote, but I remember the reference and the impact.
All Things Witness 