Latest / Scripture Central / Helaman 13-16 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

Transcript

Helaman 13-16 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

0:00
One of the most remarkable sections of the entire Book of
0:04
Mormon, in my opinion, on a lot of levels and for a variety of
0:08
reasons. Helm in 13 through 16 #1 look at
0:15
look at how it starts Last week. You'll remember we were in the
0:18
pride cycle and watching how many times the Nephites were
0:22
just going around this almost like a Ferris wheel, this pride
0:26
cycle. Now look at chapter 13, verse
0:28
one. It came to pass in the 80 and
0:30
6th year, the Nephites did still remain in wickedness, Yeah, in
0:34
great wickedness, while the Lamanites did observe strictly
0:38
to keep the commandments of God according to the law of Moses.
0:41
So you get this total reversal of the Lamanites and the
0:45
Nephites that sets the stage here.
0:48
And it came to pass that in this year there was, notice how
0:51
Mormon words this, there was one Samuel, a Lamanite.
0:58
Now the question is, is, is there only one Samuel in all the
1:02
land and he happens to be a Lamanite?
1:04
I don't think that's what he means.
1:06
I think it's just a common guy that there's one Samuel among
1:10
many Samuels and he happens to be a Lamanite.
1:13
We know nothing, absolutely nothing about this guy's
1:17
background. We don't know his parentage.
1:20
We don't know if he's part of the group of the anti Nephi
1:23
Lehites or if he had been in the same group with the Stripling
1:28
Warriors. We don't know where his hometown
1:32
is. We don't know who taught him the
1:33
gospel, how he got converted for sure, if it was Nephi and Lehi
1:37
and in his mission, if he was part of that group.
1:39
We know nothing about him. We don't know if he's married.
1:41
We don't know if he has children.
1:43
We don't know where he lives currently.
1:46
So he just shows up, He came into the land of Zahrahemlah,
1:50
and he begins to preach to the people.
1:52
Now, just as a side note, there are very, very few people in the
1:57
Scriptures that Jesus mentions specifically by name in the
2:02
context of make sure their record is is included or paid
2:07
attention to. In 3rd Nephi chapter 23, Jesus
2:12
teaches the people about the importance of searching
2:16
diligently the words of Isaiah. But then in the latter part of
2:19
that chapter, he talks to Nephi, the main record keeper, and he
2:23
says, bring the records forth and he brings them forth.
2:25
And he says, didn't I command my servant Samuel to prophecy unto
2:30
this people that at my resurrection the graves would be
2:35
open and many people would see these, these risen Saints who
2:41
have been resurrected? And Nephi says, yeah.
2:43
And Jesus's question was, did that not happen?
2:46
Yes, it did. Well, then, why isn't it
2:48
recorded in here? So what we don't know is if
2:52
Nephi had included all of Samuel's prophecies and
2:55
teachings, but somehow had left out that little detail about the
2:58
resurrection, or if he had left out all of Samuel's words and
3:04
Jesus is saying, no, we need Samuel's words in here in this
3:07
Book Mormon record. And so Nephi goes and puts them
3:09
on. We don't know which it is.
3:11
All we know is Jesus is paying close attention to what he had
3:17
commanded Samuel to prophecy and it needed to be included in the
3:21
record. Why is this unique?
3:23
We've got some bad speeches in the bookworm, but he is the only
3:29
Lamanite prophet to have his words, his speech included in
3:34
the Book of Mormon, unique on many, many levels.
3:37
And perhaps one of my favorite things that makes these chapters
3:41
unique is the kind of prophet Samuel is.
3:45
I like to refer to him as Samuel the specific because what you'll
3:49
get in the Old Testament, and you'll even get it to a degree
3:53
in the New Testament and, and other Book of Mormon prophets,
3:57
you'll get prophecies. They'll give you a general idea
4:01
of what's going to happen and often it's conditional
4:04
prophecies. If you don't repent, then you're
4:06
going to be brought into bondage.
4:07
Or if you don't do this, then this is going to happen.
4:11
Samuel's different. He doesn't give very many
4:14
general prophecies at all. It's very specific.
4:17
He tells you it's going to be a day and a night and a day.
4:20
It's going to be 400 years from now.
4:22
It's going to be in the third generation who's going to pass
4:24
away and in the 4th generation, let me give you the script of
4:27
what people are going to say, the sinner's lament.
4:29
And he'll give them specific phrases and words that are going
4:33
to be used that then get repeated exactly in 3rd Nephi
4:36
when it actually happens. His clarity of focus in his
4:41
prophecies is uncanny. I I can't find personally, and
4:44
I'm probably going out on a limb here, but I can't find another
4:48
prophet in Scripture that has a higher number of just absolutely
4:56
spot on specific prophecies about what's going to happen
5:00
down the road. So as you go through these
5:03
chapters 13 through 16, pay attention to this style of his
5:08
prophesying. The other thing to pay attention
5:10
to is when Samuel shifts from speaking about the Lord in third
5:16
person to when he starts speaking for the Lord in first
5:21
person. He does this a lot.
5:25
And oh, how it must have galled those Nephites to have this
5:29
Lamanite up on their wall speaking to them in first person
5:33
as if he were the Lord. I, the Lord say this and I am
5:38
angry with you for this. And I it's, they're, they're not
5:43
going to appreciate that. What's fascinating is actually
5:46
the meaning of his name ties into all this.
5:49
His name could mean two things. You want to be looking for this
5:53
because he often says thus saith the Lord.
5:56
So Samuel's name could come from 2 possibilities Shem L which
6:01
would be name of God. So he's speaking in the name of
6:05
God or as if he is God himself as God has come down.
6:10
Or it could be Sam L would actually mean heard of God,
6:16
which is interesting because what does he say?
6:19
I'm going to speak whatever I hear or whatever God puts into
6:23
my heart to say. So Samuel's actually hearing the
6:26
voice of God and speaking for God right there.
6:30
It's very, very powerful that his name happens to represent
6:35
exactly what's going on in his conversation or his preaching to
6:39
the Nephites. I love Samuel Laman.
6:43
I I hope that sometime in the next life.
6:46
He's one of those on my short list of people that I want to go
6:49
and meet personally and just thank for being such an
6:53
inspiring person in my life. I love his story.
7:00
I love his teaching. I love his faith, his diligence
7:03
and his obedience. And let's dive in.
7:07
Notice in verse 2 that he came into the land of Zeraheml, and
7:10
he began to preach unto the people.
7:11
And it came to pass that he did preach many days repentance unto
7:16
the people. And they did cast him out, and
7:19
he was about to return to his own land.
7:21
So this wasn't just an afternoon, this was many day
7:24
experience. And they cast him out.
7:27
And you can picture him about to return to his own land when
7:31
verse 3 occurs. But behold, the voice of the
7:34
Lord came unto him, that he should return again, and
7:38
prophecy unto the people, whatsoever things should come
7:41
into his heart. So he's properly named.
7:44
He hears God, Beautiful. Now brothers and sisters, we did
7:49
this with Alma coming out of Amaniah, the same experience.
7:53
Can you imagine the natural man response, the mortal, carnal,
7:58
central devilish nature that we all have to wrestle with to 1°
8:02
or another in our life? Can you picture that part of
8:05
Samuel interacting with the spiritual side of Samuel when
8:10
the voice of the Lord comes to him and says go back into the
8:13
city and preach whatsoever things I put into your heart, I
8:17
can just picture these the the devil on the shoulder analogy
8:21
whispering in his ear. Oh, come on, you were in there
8:24
many days. You saw how how they appreciated
8:27
you. You saw how how much they loathe
8:30
you. You saw the the bias that they
8:33
have against you. You think they're going to
8:36
listen to you the second time. And by the way, why didn't God
8:38
put those things into your heart the first time you were in
8:41
there? You'll notice how easy it is to
8:43
play devil's advocate. You'll notice how easy it is to
8:46
play the skeptical card in this in this type of scenario.
8:54
I love the fact that Samuel pays no heed to any of the negative
8:59
voices that would have dissuaded him from going back into the
9:03
city. But he simply turns around, goes
9:05
back verse 4, and it came to pass that they would not suffer,
9:08
that he should enter into the city.
9:10
I can picture this scenario. Samuel comes back to that
9:14
entrance to the city because it is a walled fortified city.
9:17
So there's an entrance point and I can picture those men standing
9:22
there going you again. Seriously, I thought, we've
9:26
already dealt with you, get out of here, go home.
9:28
And they probably called him some names.
9:31
I love the fact that Samuel doesn't turn around and walk
9:34
away dejected and say, well Lord, you gave me a commandment.
9:39
You told me what I was supposed to do, but you didn't tell me
9:42
how to do it. So I tried, but I gave up.
9:48
I've got 2 strikes against me now.
9:49
I spent many days in their teaching and now I tried to go
9:51
in again and they rejected me. So if you want them taught,
9:54
you're going to have to come up with some other way to do it.
9:56
Samuel doesn't do that. He takes the command of the Lord
10:02
and he keeps trying until he finds a way to fulfill it.
10:08
I can picture him stepping back away from the city and and
10:13
looking, thinking, how can I deliver this message?
10:18
Interesting. Where there's a wall there's a
10:20
way. So he goes and he gets onto the
10:25
wall. He stretched forth his hand, and
10:28
he cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people
10:31
whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart.
10:35
You'll notice he didn't pull out of his his satchel a scroll with
10:41
his prepared talk. He stretches out his hand and he
10:45
begins to speak for the Lord. It's beautiful.
10:50
Some of you remember a few weeks ago when we had Jack Welch here
10:55
talking about chiasmus. If you want to have some fun
10:58
with chiasmus, Samuel the Lamanite's speech to the
11:03
Nephites begins with a beautiful chiasmus.
11:07
It's in verse 5 through 9, and I'll just give you the first
11:13
half of the chiasmus and you can go through and look for the
11:18
elements in the second-half. So quick review, chiasmus is
11:22
where you give a list of things and then you give that same list
11:28
in reverse order. That can either be the exact
11:32
same thing or the opposite of that thing, depending on the the
11:37
nature of the the chaotic structure in this one.
11:40
Notice how he starts and notice the specific nature of some of
11:44
these prophecies starting in verse five.
11:48
The first element is he tells them that the sword of justice
11:54
hangs over their head. And he tells them 400 years from
12:02
now your Nephite nation is going to be destroyed.
12:06
A lot of people have wondered why.
12:09
Why in the world would Samuel go there?
12:13
Why would people who are wicked Nephites living in the capital
12:17
city of Zarahemla, Why would they care that 400 years from
12:20
now all the Nephites who live that far down the road, our
12:24
nation, our geopolitical identity is going to exist no
12:28
more? Why would they care?
12:30
This would be a bit like the pilgrims arriving in 1620 and
12:34
one of their leaders saying in 400 years this civilization on
12:37
this new land is going to fall apart for the pilgrims who are
12:39
trying to eke out an existent in a pretty hostile wilderness of
12:42
like, how's that relevant to us? So it's a great question that
12:45
you've raised. The reason we raised that
12:48
question is because we are saturated in a Greek mindset, a
12:53
Greek perspective which which is dominated by the individual
12:59
identity that your, your, your sense of self comes as an
13:04
individual predominantly. Whereas the Hebrew mindset that
13:09
these people come out of out of an Old Testament context.
13:13
You identify as a group, as a collective, as a body, as a
13:19
tribe, House of Israel, Nephites, Lamanites, that that
13:25
collective group and your posterity and your ancestor,
13:31
that is a far bigger deal in a Hebrew culture than it is in a
13:36
Greek mindset. So to say to them, 400 years
13:40
from now, all of your legacy, all of your identity that you're
13:43
building as a people, it's going to be gone.
13:46
That's cut into the heart for them.
13:49
Then he says heavy destruction awaiteth you.
13:54
Then he says nothing can save you that you're going to try to
14:00
do except for. So nothing's going to save you
14:05
except for your willingness to repent and have faith in faith
14:12
in Christ. That's the only hope you have,
14:16
because He is going to come down and die for the people in order
14:22
to save the people. And an Angel came and declared
14:28
this to me. The Angel delivered this to me.
14:32
And what did he deliver? These glad tidings?
14:37
And then what did God do? He sent me to you.
14:43
He sent me. That's what an apostle is,
14:47
somebody who is sent. By God, I'm.
14:50
Not saying Samuel's an apostle, I'm just saying the same.
14:53
The same essence is here. He's a witness of some things
14:57
sent by God to declare these glad tidings to the people.
15:01
There's your first half of the chiastic structure that a
15:06
prophet was sent by God to declare these glad tidings to
15:10
the people. Now you can take from verse 7
15:13
through verse 9 and look for the comparisons coming out of the
15:18
chiasmus as we now launch into the rest of his speech.
15:25
I would just say let's not leave this back in, in five BC, but
15:31
let's bring this forward to our day and make sure that we don't
15:35
do what the Lamanite or what sorry the Nephites are doing
15:39
with this message. Because we have prophets and
15:43
apostles who have seen things, who know things, and they're
15:46
declaring glad tidings. They're giving warnings and we
15:50
can think we're smarter than the prophets, we can think we know
15:53
better, or we can trust the world's experts more than them
15:57
that we have our agency to do that.
16:00
But if we do, then we follow this exact same pattern that is
16:05
outlined here in Five BC. It's almost as if this book
16:09
really were written for our day, not just a history book of of
16:14
what's going on in their time. In the rest of this opening
16:19
chapter 13, he's going to describe all of the various ways
16:24
that they are choosing iniquity and some of the consequences and
16:29
the curse that's going to come upon the land.
16:32
They're becoming more ripe for destruction because of the
16:35
wickedness and the abominations in their society.
16:38
In verse 22, he transitions from talking about their present
16:43
struggles and their future destructions, and he then starts
16:48
to talk about how they've arrived at this point.
16:51
What caused all of this? Look at verse 22.
16:54
And by the way, this is relevant today as much as it ever was
16:57
back then. You do not remember the Lord
17:01
your God in the things with which He hath blessed you, but
17:05
you do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord
17:09
your God for them. Yeah, your hearts are not drawn
17:11
out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride unto
17:14
boasting, and unto great swellings, envying strife,
17:18
malice, persecutions and murders, and all manner of
17:22
iniquities. Look at verse 24.
17:24
Woe unto this people because of this time which has arrived,
17:27
that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and
17:30
cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of
17:33
iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time.
17:37
And he's talking about walking after the pride of their hearts,
17:40
and accepting the false prophets.
17:43
Verse 29. O ye wicked and ye perverse
17:47
generation, ye harden, and ye stiff necked people, how long
17:50
will you suppose the Lord will suffer you?
17:53
Yeah. How long will ye suffer
17:54
yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides?
17:58
Yeah. How long will ye choose darkness
18:00
rather than the light? There's a little concept here
18:03
that we need to talk about. In this whole discussion, you're
18:07
seeing all of these things that the Nephites are turning their
18:11
heart toward. Everything that they've set
18:14
their hearts upon are treasures and riches and things of the
18:20
world. You'll notice the pattern.
18:23
Satan doesn't offer you anything.
18:27
He doesn't give you anything. All Satan does, he encourages
18:32
and tempts you and entices you to take the things that God has
18:35
given us, and then Satan tries to get us to misuse those.
18:39
Look at verse 31. Behold, the time cometh that He
18:43
curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that you cannot
18:47
hold them. And then the days of your
18:49
poverty you cannot retain them. And then he says something very
18:54
shocking in 32 And in the days of your poverty you shall cry
18:57
unto the Lord, and in vain you shall cry, for your desolation
19:00
has already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure.
19:04
Let's talk about the solution to the problem, because chapter 13
19:07
is all about the problem. Now let's talk about the
19:09
solution, chapter 14. He gives these prophecies of
19:14
Christ's birth, and he's not just going to say, yeah,
19:17
sometime really soon the Lord is going to come.
19:20
No, this is Samuel the specific right?
19:23
Verse 3. Behold, this will I give unto
19:25
you for a sign at the time of his coming.
19:28
For behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, and so much
19:30
that in the night before he cometh, there shall be no
19:33
darkness in so much that it shall appear unto man as if it
19:37
was day. Therefore there shall be one
19:40
day, and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there
19:44
were no night. So he gives them that specific
19:46
prophecy. Verse 5 Behold, there shall a
19:48
new star arise. Verse 6 Behold, this is not all.
19:52
There shall be many signs and wonders in heaven.
19:54
Isn't it interesting that the way he describes how they're
20:00
going to know that God, that the Son of God, has been born into
20:05
the world, is through heavenly manifestations of light?
20:09
Taylor's talked about this before in a previous episode,
20:12
how when Jesus comes into the world, all of the prophecies and
20:18
all of the signs are associated with an increase of light coming
20:21
to the world. And when Jesus is going to die
20:25
and be buried in the tomb, what is the sign?
20:29
Darkness. So dark that they can't kindle a
20:32
fire. It's pitch dark for these
20:35
people. I am the light of the world,
20:39
Jesus said. And I think it's portrayed
20:42
beautifully with these symptoms, these shifts to talk about the
20:47
death and the signs that will follow his death.
20:50
But that comes towards the end in the middle.
20:54
Samuel gets into great depth and great detail about the plan of
21:00
salvation. That is remarkable.
21:03
Look up verse 11 Halo in 1411, and ye shall hear my words.
21:07
For for this intent have I come up upon the walls of this city,
21:11
that ye might hear and know of the judgments of God which to
21:14
await you because of your iniquities, and also that ye
21:17
might know the conditions of repentance.
21:22
This is one of the themes that that Samuel takes up here and
21:26
really fleshes out in a way that I think is as is as good as any
21:31
prophet anywhere in Scripture. What are the conditions of
21:34
repentance and what does it mean and why should we really care?
21:38
Look at verse 12 and also that you might know of the coming of
21:42
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of
21:44
earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning.
21:47
By the way, this won't get you into heaven, but it is
21:52
interesting to note that Samuel just used 20 words word for word
21:59
from Mosiah chapter 3, verse 8. King Benjamin's speech starting
22:03
with Jesus Christ on line 2 all the way down through from the
22:08
beginning. Those 20 words word for word,
22:11
come straight out of that third chapter of Mosiah.
22:15
That's interesting because that's the same chapter that
22:18
King Benjamin told us. He's delivering the words of an
22:23
Angel. And Samuel told us the
22:25
beginning. An Angel hath declared these
22:28
words unto me. You're getting this
22:31
intertextuality in the book. They're saying the same things.
22:35
And the focus here is on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
22:38
Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the
22:40
beginning, and that you might know of the signs of his coming
22:44
to the intent that you might believe on his name.
22:47
He's trying to increase the faith and the trust in Christ.
22:51
Believe on his name. That's why I'm telling you all
22:53
of this. He says verse 13.
22:55
And if you believe on his name, ye will repent of your sins,
22:58
that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his
23:02
merits, not because you've done this.
23:06
Brothers and sisters, this is such an important concept.
23:09
Sometimes we get this notion that that I'm doing all of this
23:14
work to have faith in Christ and repent of my sins, and that's
23:17
what forgives me. It's kind of like in a physical
23:21
sense. If you think about medicine for
23:23
a minute, if somebody's sick, they've got a fever, so you give
23:26
them some Tylenol or ibuprofen and you think this is going to
23:30
fix them. The Tylenol doesn't fix the
23:33
fever. The ibuprofen doesn't fix the
23:35
fever. It becomes a catalyst for the
23:37
body to fix the fever. Notice that if you give Tylenol
23:41
or ibuprofen to an A body that isn't alive, the ibuprofen does
23:46
nothing for that body because the body isn't working.
23:51
Just like if I try to repent in isolation of Christ or or cut
23:57
off from Christ, that repentance will do no more good than to try
24:02
to give medicine to a a dead body.
24:07
It won't. It won't serve me.
24:10
It's only his merits. It's his life.
24:14
It's his perfection. It's his righteousness that
24:17
makes my little meager efforts actually become a catalyst to
24:23
take effect and to help change my life.
24:26
Now look at verse 14. Behold again, Another sign I
24:30
give unto you. Yeah.
24:31
A sign of his death for behold. Now notice the wording here.
24:36
He surely must die, that salvation may come.
24:41
It wasn't optional. He had to die in order for us to
24:44
have salvation. Yeah, it behooveth him and
24:48
becometh expedient that he dieth to bring to pass the
24:51
resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into
24:54
the presence of the Lord. We need to pause here and talk
24:59
about the overall plan of salvation in a big 30,000 foot
25:05
view. When we use the phrase plan of
25:08
salvation, many people instantly go in their minds to this
25:13
version of the plan where you have circles and lines.
25:18
You have the pre mortal life, you have birth, you have the
25:20
earth life, here's the veil, you have death, spirit, paradise,
25:24
spirit prison. Then you have the resurrection
25:26
and the judgment, and then you have the celestial, terrestrial
25:28
and celestial kingdoms. Oh, and then there's this thing
25:31
called outer darkness as well. That's traditionally where we go
25:35
when it comes to plan of salvation teaching and plan of
25:38
salvation overview. This is a model that is, you'll
25:42
notice, dominated by location, location, location, with a few
25:48
events in between. We could call this the real
25:51
estate version of the plan. And we do need to make this
25:54
clear. This is not the plan of
25:56
salvation. You don't take the infinite plan
26:00
of our Heavenly Father for our salvation and put it into a
26:04
total of, you know, a dozen drawings on a board and say
26:07
that's the plan. This is simply one of many
26:12
lenses through which we can see certain aspects of Heavenly
26:16
Father's plan of salvation. Is that clear?
26:19
Not the plan, but a representation of elements in
26:23
the plan. Years and years ago when I was
26:25
teaching seminary at Box Elder High School in Brigham City, a
26:29
good friend and colleague, Donnie Anderson, shared with me
26:33
a different lens that I have used ever since then, and I love
26:38
it. You'll notice with the circles
26:40
and lines, it's actually possible to teach that entire
26:44
overview of the plan of salvation without ever once
26:47
mentioning the name of Jesus Christ.
26:49
We're talking about His infinite atonement.
26:52
So in this representation, let's take a different look.
26:57
We'll call this one the real state version, not real estate
27:01
version, because this is about the states of being that we pass
27:04
through. We'll start with a dotted line.
27:07
You're on the dotted line. If you're with God, or if you're
27:12
like God, then you're on the dotted line.
27:16
You'll notice that in the pre mortal realm, in the pre mortal
27:22
state, we were with God. We were on the dotted line.
27:27
We weren't like him completely spirit children of our heavenly
27:30
parents, but we were at least with them.
27:34
Then there comes this time when we say we want to be like you,
27:39
brothers and sisters. Is the purpose of the plan of
27:41
salvation to get somewhere, or is the purpose to become
27:46
something? That's obviously a trick
27:49
question because the right answer is see all of the above.
27:54
But you'll notice often when we speak about salvation and
27:58
eternity and heaven, we talk about it in terms of just the
28:03
location being kind of the main focus point.
28:05
I want to return to live with God.
28:09
I want to go to heaven. The point that I'm trying to
28:13
make here is we already lived with our perfect Heavenly
28:19
Parents in the perfect home, heaven, but apparently it wasn't
28:26
ultimate happiness. Just being in heaven apparently
28:31
wasn't the end goal for us. We wanted to live with God, but
28:37
also to be more like our Heavenly Parents.
28:40
So for that, he says we need three things in place.
28:46
We call these the three Pillars of Eternity.
28:49
The first pillar is the creation.
28:53
There had to be a place where we could live, not in their
28:58
presence, where we could be tried and tested and learn and
29:00
grow and develop and establish relationships and gain
29:04
experience. There had to be a fall.
29:09
Keep in mind the three Pillars of Eternity, creation, fall, and
29:12
atonement. These were put in place before
29:16
the foundation of the world. The creation wasn't an accident.
29:20
The fall wasn't an accident. The atonement wasn't Plan B.
29:24
This was the plan laid out. Once the world is created, Adam
29:29
and Eve are walking and talking with God in his presence.
29:34
But when they partake of the forbidden fruit, it introduces
29:39
two things that cause them spiritually and physically to
29:44
leave this line. 2 deaths. Death in the gospel implies a
29:49
separation of two things. So you have a physical death and
29:56
you have a spiritual death. So a physical separation is the
30:02
body and the spirit being separated.
30:04
Your spiritual death is you being separated from the
30:08
presence of God. Adam and Eve fall from the
30:13
presence of God the Father. They're no longer with him and
30:17
they're not like him. And thus begins So they were.
30:22
At this point, they're in a state of innocence.
30:27
Oh, and by the way, every one of us were born into a physical
30:32
world and for about 8 years we're for all intents and
30:36
purposes, we're still on the line because we're in a state of
30:40
innocence where we can't sin, we don't partake of a forbidden
30:44
fruit, but we give in to the enticings of the flesh and of
30:49
temptation and we experience our own carnal nature, our own falls
30:56
to a degree, but we've automatically inherited both of
31:00
these deaths from Adam and Eve, our first ancestors.
31:04
If it weren't for Jesus Christ and his I'll make it big and His
31:10
infinite atonement. This is why I like this
31:12
particular lens to look at aspects of the plan of salvation
31:17
is because it puts Jesus front and center at the core.
31:21
Everything comes to him and everything revolves around him
31:25
fulfilling this infinite atonement, this third pillar of
31:28
eternity. If it weren't for that, these
31:31
dots would become arrows and we would just keep getting further
31:34
and further and further away. If there's no hope.
31:36
But because of Christ and his infinite atonement, he's going
31:40
to fix these problems. Now watch, if I were to ask most
31:45
members of the church, what do you have to do to overcome Adam
31:50
and Eve's physical death that you inherited in our in our
31:55
fallen bodies? What do you have to do?
31:58
I think most people in the church would very quickly
32:01
respond, nothing. You're going to get resurrected
32:06
free of charge. In fact, good, bad, or ugly,
32:11
everything, everyone, whoever lived is going to be resurrected
32:17
free of charge. And it doesn't matter what you
32:18
do or don't do that's going to happen.
32:21
Then we would say, well, what do you have to do to overcome the
32:25
spiritual separation from from the presence of God that we all
32:29
inherited from Adam and Eve just like we inherited that one.
32:32
And I think most would say, well, you have to have faith in
32:35
Christ and repent and get baptized and endure to the end
32:37
after you get the gift of the Holy Ghost and then you can be
32:40
brought back into the presence of God.
32:42
Watch what Samuel Lamanite says second-half of verse 15.
32:46
Jesus dieth to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that
32:51
thereby the thereby referring to the resurrection of the dead men
32:57
may be brought into the presence of the Lord.
33:01
Wait a minute, to be brought into the presence of the Lord.
33:03
That sounds like you're no longer separated from God's
33:07
presence. That sounds like this spiritual
33:11
death is now overcome. Look at verse 16.
33:16
Yeah, behold this death, bring it to pass the resurrection and
33:21
redeemeth all mankind from the first death.
33:26
What percentage of mankind get redeemed from the first death?
33:29
All that's 100%. Everyone doesn't matter what you
33:33
do or don't do, you're going to be redeemed from the first
33:38
death. And then notice he clarifies
33:41
that spiritual death for all mankind.
33:47
That's 100%. By the fall of Adam, being cut
33:50
off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead,
33:54
both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.
33:57
We are cut off from the presence of God and we will die
34:00
physically. And now because of Christ's
34:03
resurrection, all will be resurrected and brought back
34:06
into the presence of God. Look at verse 17.
34:10
Behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind.
34:15
Yeah, even all mankind. And bringeth them back into the
34:22
presence of the. Lord.
34:23
That pre identic state we were all in the presence of God in
34:27
the premortal realm. Adam and Eve walked and talked.
34:30
With God they. Fall from his presence and he's
34:33
saying everyone all are going to be redeemed and brought back
34:37
into his presence. Now some of you are thinking,
34:40
hold on a minute. I've spent my whole life talking
34:43
about how you have to have faith and repentance and baptism give
34:45
to the Holy Ghost in order to to be saved.
34:48
He's not talking about salvation.
34:51
He's talking about a state of redemption where we're redeemed
34:56
from the grave and from our fallen separation state from the
35:01
presence of God. We will all be resurrected and
35:05
brought back into the presence of God, but it's not a guarantee
35:10
to last. Remember, he said, I'm going to
35:13
show you the conditions of repentance.
35:15
Look at verse 18. Yeah, and bring it to pass the
35:19
condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth the same is
35:25
not hewn down and cast into the fire.
35:28
But whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the
35:33
fire, and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death.
35:38
Yeah, a second death for they are cut off again as the things
35:43
pertaining to righteousness. From his perspective, he's
35:46
saying, look, if you haven't met the conditions of repentance,
35:50
you're going to die again. You're going to fall from God's
35:53
presence again. So this will be very temporary.
35:56
You'll notice Nephi is the one who says no unclean thing can
36:01
dwell in the presence of God. He didn't say no unclean thing
36:05
can come into the presence of God.
36:06
He said dwell. To dwell means to live, to stay,
36:09
to abide, to make your home there.
36:12
If you haven't met the conditions of repentance, you're
36:15
not going to be comfortable in the presence of God.
36:18
It's the last place in the world you're you're going to want to
36:20
be. So basically what you see here
36:23
diagrammed is Adam and Eve's fall and what we inherited.
36:29
It's overcome for everybody. But there is a second part here
36:34
that Samuel is alluding to. I've also inherited this carnal
36:39
nature and if I don't use the conditions of repentance.
36:47
So these conditions of repentance that are laid out in
36:50
the Book of Mormon and in the scriptures are basically the
36:54
gospel of Jesus Christ, which is trust Jesus, have faith in
36:58
Christ, repent of your sins, get on that covenant path, endure to
37:02
the end with the gift of the Holy Ghost.
37:05
That's a simple way to define what the condition of repentance
37:09
is. Now we don't have to worry about
37:12
physical death. We don't have to worry about the
37:15
particular spiritual death that we inherited from the fall.
37:18
Those are taken care of by the Savior's infinite atonement in
37:21
his resurrection. In addition to those two deaths
37:25
from the fall, we inherited a carnal nature, a fallen nature.
37:31
Ironically, we can't overcome that in isolation of Jesus
37:36
Christ either. We have to rely on Him, His
37:40
merits, His mercy, and His grace to be able to meet those
37:44
conditions of repentance that will permit us to not persist in
37:49
our own carnal nature. Let's clarify.
37:52
The resurrection brings everybody out of the grave,
37:55
brings everybody back into the presence of God to be judged and
38:01
those who have met the conditions of repentance are it
38:05
is given to them to abide in his presence.
38:09
In our Doctrine and Covenant section 76 context, we would say
38:14
celestial glory. We have now come back into the
38:19
presence of God. We live with him and we have
38:22
become like him through the infinite atonement of Jesus
38:26
Christ, through his merits and his mercy and his grace alone.
38:29
But those who chose not to meet the conditions of repentance,
38:32
according to Samuel, they fall from the presence of God a
38:37
second time. And now combining with a section
38:41
76 context, you would say, well there are degrees of glory in
38:47
that the people in the terrestrial Kingdom get to be in
38:51
the presence of Jesus Christ and the people in the telestral
38:54
Kingdom get to have the the presence of the Holy Spirit with
38:58
them. And those who cannot abide any
39:04
law, heavenly law, end up in an outer darkness.
39:09
That is what 76 would call the spiritual death.
39:13
The second death in its fullness is this outer darkness realm.
39:19
Let me see if I can translate this into simpler terms for a
39:23
moment. Why would Samuel be teaching
39:26
big, huge doctrines about the fall and the redemption and the
39:31
judgement and then the the ultimate rewards or punishments
39:35
in some cases to these people of the, the wicked city of
39:38
Zarahemlah, these Nephites. He's setting up the conditions
39:43
of repentance. He's trying to help people
39:46
understand, look, there has been a price paid for you that is
39:53
infinite in its scope and scale and in its capacity to heal.
39:59
Jesus has paid a price that you couldn't pay.
40:03
What do I mean by that? Nobody on their deathbed can lay
40:08
there and look at their loved ones and say, oh, don't mourn
40:10
for me. It's OK.
40:11
You can bury me if you'd like, but I'm just going to go ahead
40:13
and resurrect myself someday. Nobody can say that.
40:17
None of us have any power over physical death.
40:19
It is. It's final for us.
40:21
And if it isn't for Jesus and his infinite atonement, Jacob
40:25
tells us in 2nd Ephite 9 that our bodies would rot and crumble
40:29
to its mother earth to rise no more.
40:34
Same thing here. There's not a single person on
40:38
this planet who can say, Oh yeah, I, I committed a sin, I
40:43
did something wrong. Oh, don't worry about it.
40:45
I can fix that. I can reverse that.
40:48
Nobody can go into the past, change a bad behavior and make
40:54
it right and be perfect and then move on forward.
40:57
Nobody can do that. Nobody can fix this death.
41:00
Nobody can fix that death. So Jesus comes and he says, I
41:04
will redeem all of you without any effort on your part from the
41:09
from the physical grave, and I will redeem you from your
41:13
separation from God's presence. I'll bring you back into the
41:16
presence of God. Now, whether or not you're
41:19
comfortable in the presence of God totally depends on the
41:23
second-half. But it's as as if this is
41:25
happening. Jesus says I will pay a price to
41:29
justice that you can't afford and you can't pay.
41:31
You have no way to pay it. I'll pay it for you.
41:34
And then in return, I'll turn to you and I will give you some new
41:39
conditions that you can meet. He says, Will you just trust me?
41:44
Will you have faith in me? Will you repent of your sins?
41:48
I'll forgive you if you will. I'm not going to hold you
41:50
hostage to your past like we often do to ourselves.
41:54
And then would you form a covenant connection with me?
41:59
Would you please trust me enough to take my hand and walk this
42:04
path with me? And I will promise you the gift
42:09
of the Holy Ghost to be your constant companion as well and
42:12
then endure to the end on that covenant path.
42:15
That is the conditions of repentance in in simple terms.
42:20
And he's saying you can do that. You couldn't do this, but I
42:24
already did that for you. But you can do this.
42:27
Oh, and by the way, you can't do this alone.
42:32
You can't even hope to have faith without my help.
42:36
You can't even hope to repent without my help.
42:39
You can't get baptized unless I provide that for you, You can't
42:43
get the gift of the Holy Ghost unless I send Him, and you can't
42:46
endure to the end unless I'm helping you every step.
42:51
Of the way. Brothers and sisters, Jesus
42:55
Christ is at the heart and core and center of everything that is
43:03
in this view of the plan. You'll notice a pattern with
43:07
Book Mormon prophets. They'll teach big concepts like
43:11
this. They'll teach eternal doctrines,
43:14
eternal truths, but then they don't just leave it hanging.
43:18
They always come to a call to action.
43:21
They always give an invitation. Verse 19 because of all this
43:25
that I've taught you, Samuel saying, what's the effect?
43:29
Therefore repent ye repent ye, lest by knowing these things and
43:35
not doing them, ye shall suffer yourselves to come under
43:38
condemnation, and ye are brought down unto this second death.
43:44
So his invitation is Nephites. There is such a huge price that
43:49
has been paid for you. Therefore just repent.
43:53
It's not rocket science. It's not hard, it's it's going
43:58
to be a temporary suffering. Repentance causes some pain to
44:02
change and turn. It's painful, but it's temporary
44:06
pain with eternal enduring joy as the reward versus what Satan
44:14
offers you, which is temporary pleasure and fleeting feelings
44:21
of enjoyment and temporary happiness in exchange for an
44:27
eternity of regret, an eternity of what was I thinking?
44:31
So now, Can you imagine that day when we come into the presence
44:38
of God and we see Him? One of my favorite quotes of all
44:43
time regarding God comes from President Ezra Taft Benson when
44:47
he said something like this. Nothing is going to startle us
44:52
more than when we come into the presence of God to realize how
44:58
well we knew Him. This idea of how familiar His
45:03
face is to us, how familiar His voice is to us.
45:06
How at home we feel in His presence and brothers and
45:11
sisters after having left His presence to then come on our
45:16
mortal sojourn, our our time of testing all with the opportunity
45:23
not just to return to live with Him, but to become more like
45:27
him. It will be shocking, I think to
45:30
most of us to think, how could the veil have possibly been
45:33
thick enough to make me forget my God?
45:36
Because we know. We know what that feels like so
45:40
well, so familiar to us. And now we'll come full circle.
45:45
At that point, you can picture these prophets like Samuel
45:49
saying just repent so that this can be a glorious reunion that
45:56
goes on forever and ever and ever, rather than a temporary
46:00
moment of. Oh, I, I, I.
46:04
Missed it. Notice he now says you need to
46:09
know that this infinite atonement is going to occur, and
46:11
I'm going to give you some signs about his death.
46:14
And these are very specific. Look at verse 20.
46:16
The sun's going to be darkened, the moon, the stars, there's
46:20
going to be darkness for three days.
46:23
He gives them the timing, verse 21, Thunderings, lightning, the
46:27
earth's going to shake and tremble for the space of many
46:29
hours. Rocks are going to be rent both
46:31
above and beneath the earth. They're broken up, found in
46:34
seams. They're going to be tempests.
46:35
The mountains are going to be made low.
46:37
The valleys are going to become mountains, highways broken up.
46:40
He's giving them basically a description of 30 Nephi chapter
46:43
8-9 and 10, and then verse 25. You may want to mark verse 25,
46:47
put some lights around it or something because that's the
46:50
verse that prompted Jesus to tell Nephi you didn't have this
46:57
in the record. So we again, we don't know
47:00
whether he meant that Nephi had just left out this part or if
47:03
he'd left out all of Samuel's teachings.
47:05
Text isn't clear, but verse 25 is the part that Jesus
47:09
mentioned. Many graves shall be opened and
47:11
shall yield up many of their dead, and many Saints shall
47:15
appear unto many. It's almost as if Jesus is
47:18
saying it's important that everybody knows about my
47:20
resurrection. But the thing that he emphasized
47:24
was the universal nature of the resurrection.
47:28
Then he finishes his speech there, that doctrinal part of
47:33
his speech. And look how he opens up Chapter
47:35
15, which to him there it wasn't a different chapter.
47:38
It's all part of the same speech right now.
47:40
My beloved brethren, did you catch that?
47:44
Here's a Lamanite standing on a wall that had been built as a
47:48
fortification wall to keep Lamanites out of their city.
47:53
Now a Lamanite is standing on that very wall looking in, and
47:57
he's calling these people his beloved brethren.
48:02
I love that he says, my beloved brethren, he's looking at these
48:07
people in an eternal context. We're all children of God.
48:14
We're all part of the same family and it has nothing to do
48:19
with race or language. It's my beloved brethren, those
48:23
two words are so needed today in our culture and in our world.
48:30
He says, Behold, I declare unto you that except you shall
48:32
repent, your houses shall be left unto you desolate.
48:36
Now for the conclusion of the story.
48:39
Chapter 16 opens by telling us that there were many who heard
48:44
the words of Samuel Lemonite which he spake upon the walls of
48:46
the city, and as many as believed on his words went forth
48:50
and sought for Nephi, and they confess their.
48:53
Sins and they were baptized verse 2, but as many as.
48:56
There were who did not believe in the words of Samuel, were
48:59
angry with him, and they cast stones at him upon the wall, and
49:02
also shot many shot arrows at him as he stood upon the wall.
49:06
But the spirit of the Lord was with him in so much that they
49:09
could not hit him with their stones, neither with their
49:12
arrows to finish today. I love a statement that CS Lewis
49:18
made once when he said in the end there are really only two
49:23
kinds of people, those who say to God thy will be done, and
49:30
those to whom God must say thy will be done, brothers and
49:36
sisters of all. The things that we could.
49:39
Say at the end of a lesson like this on the plan of salvation,
49:45
I'm going to choose to use Samuel's own words.
49:48
Therefore repent ye, Repent ye. That's the message to me and
49:54
that's the message. To you Christ has freely paved
49:59
the way to. Redeem.
50:00
All of us, and if we'll meet the conditions that he has been laid
50:04
out, those conditions of repentance, live his gospel,
50:07
stay on the covenant path, he will welcome.
50:10
Us into salvation, into eternal life, not just living with God
50:17
in heaven, but being a joint heir with Christ.
50:22
I know he lives, and though people might say it's
50:25
unreasonable that such a being as Christ should exist, I know
50:29
he lives. He is our Savior and our
50:32
Redeemer, and I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ,
50:35
demon.