His Hand Is Stretched Out Still

The pre-eminent doctrine of the Book of Mormon is that only Christ can save you and that you must repent and seek his face for redemption from the fall.  It is the message of all the major prophet-writers.  It is the message of all true prophets.  It is the message of the Book of Mormon over and over again.  The Lord works with individuals to prepare them in all things to be presented at the veil and enter his presence.  In spite of that persistent message we, as a people, fail to see that book as an invitation to us personally.  We have no hope that this opportunity is available to us (Ether 12:32).    

This is an indictment of how sick our culture is, and how misleading our traditions are.  To bring up these ideas stirs up contention and discomfort among some of our best people.  Satan has great hold upon our hearts because we wrest the scriptures and do not understand these things (D&C 10:63).  Our misunderstanding, and non-acceptance of these ideas is the overarching reason we are condemned of God (D&C 84:54-57).  In these, if in no other principles set forth in the Book of Mormon, we are guilty of unbelief.  We must do according to that which is written (ibid.).

Our temple rites should inform our interpretation of the Book of Mormon message.  If you consider yourself the individual to whom the temple drama is aiming its instruction, it is clear that your commission is to persist on the path that leads back to the presence of the Lord.  That path will ultimately require you to consecrate your whole soul to God (Omni 1:26).  True messengers will come to instruct you how this is to be done.  When you fully comply, you will be prepared in all things and the Lord will make his abode with you (John 14:23).

Christ was commanded by the Father to prophesy concerning the rejection of the fulness of the gospel in the last days (3 Ne. 16:10).  To interpret this prophecy as somehow referring to those Gentiles who refuse to be baptized members of the Church is at best incomplete.  Rather, the way in which the Gentiles have rejected "the fulness of my gospel" is by a rejection of the doctrines that we must repent and seek the face of the Lord.  It is because of unbelief that the fulness is being rejected.  And yet strangely, the Gentiles "shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth" (ibid.).    

What is it about our heritage that has discouraged such a search for God?  Of all the people on the earth, we who have a knowledge of the restoration and the Book of Mormon should be seeking the face of God.  When in our history did our present mentality begin robbing us of truth?  Why have we somehow been conditioned to believe such a search is inappropriate or fanatical?  3 Ne. 16:10 contains some helpful ideas.  Satan surely looks with pleasure upon our traditions and laughs.

God be praised for extending to the Gentiles another opportunity to receive the fulness of the gospel (D&C 45:28-30).  If it will not be accepted, it will be because men remain blinded by the traditions of men (ibid.).  For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Awake and Arise

The scriptures and prophets are clear in their witness concerning our neglect and indifference to the gospel of salvation.  Something must be done to wake us up.  We are no different from other people who have had the gospel taught to them in ages past, but for some reason we think we are different.  Just as Nephi foresaw, we think that because "Zion prospereth, all is well" (2 Ne. 28:21).  Man remains unchanged, and therefore the message of the prophets has not, and cannot change. 

Lehi warned his posterity:

"awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.  Awake!  and arise from the dust" (2 Ne. 1:13-14).

Jacob invited his brethren:

"arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death" (Jacob 3:11).

Orson Pratt taught that the Latter-day Saints

"are the children of light, although many of us will actually be asleep. We shall have to wake up and trim up our lamps, or we shall not be prepared to enter in; for we shall all slumber and sleep in that day, and some will have gone to sleep from which they will not awake until they awake up in darkness without any oil in their lamps" (JD 7:189).

Most often we are unaware when we are sleeping.  When we dream we think we are experiencing reality only to find out the truth once we are awake.  As Hugh Nibley has said, nobody likes to be awakened from a deep sleep.  So we choose to sleep on.

Taking the Book of Mormon seriously, and analyzing its contents honestly, will provide the necessary "shaking" to awaken our souls to the awful situation in which we find ourselves.  Only in this way is it possible to remove the condemnation under which we presently labor (D&C 84:53-58).  

The Book of Mormon is stunningly clear in its identification of the latter-day Gentiles, and has a message for them that should get our attention.  The time in which the Lord has chosen to work with the Gentiles is drawing to a close, and our sin remains.  We ought to realize this, and begin helping others to realize it.

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so important a subject that you ought to be thinking deeply about it.  Joseph Smith said:  

"[T]he things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity-thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men." (DHC vol. 3, page 295.)  

"We should not be dealing with the Gospel at a superficial level.  We should be ashamed of how we have been treating it.  Again, Joseph said:
   
"How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God, according to the purposes of His will, from before the foundation of the world! We are called to hold the keys of the mysteries of those things that have been kept hid from the foundation of the world until now."  (Id.)

"A religion that allows you to foolishly waste the days of your probation will not save you.  That religion is NOT the faith that Abraham followed or that Jesus Christ taught.  If you are attending "vain and trifling" meetings that are "low, mean, vulgar and condescending" then you must do something about your own education in the faith to obtain exaltation.

"The path trod by the ancients is exactly the same path every saved soul must walk" (Snuffer).

The Message of the Book of Mormon

A thought from Hugh Nibley:

“I have always thought in reading the Book of Mormon, ‘Woe to the generation that understands this book!’” (The World and the Prophets, p. 195).

The Salt of the Earth

Nephi sets the stage for us early on in his writing (1 Ne. 10:11-14; and 13:3, 4, 10, 12-17, 19, 23, 25-26, 29-35, 38-40, 42).  He makes it clear who the Gentiles are.  We're then able to follow the prophecies about that people from that point on.  

When I read the biography of Bruce McConkie by his son Joseph a few years back, I noticed that the book began by introducing Elder McConkie's roots.  The author gives us details about Elder McConkie's parents, and his parents' parents.  It's nice to know a little more about the main character of the book by tracing the line a bit.  This is typical of most biographies that have been written about leaders of the Church.  You're always going to get a little background about the family.  

Nephi gives us the brief, but very clear genealogical background required for us to understand the identity and primary role of those who are called "Gentiles" throughout the entire book.  The verses mentioned above are the beginning pieces of the picture.  It is a picture that is developed fully only when considering the entirety of the Book of Mormon text.  

Whether or not we can now accept that the Book of Mormon is a prophecy about and warning to us, we can begin by considering the resurrected Lord's teachings to Lehi's descendants who were spared destruction at the time of Christ's death.  You can read the entire chapter for the context, but consider these words:

"But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.

"And I will not suffer my people, who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father.

"But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel" (3 Ne. 16:13-15).

Skimming over these verses makes it easy to maintain a belief that the term Gentiles isn't talking about us.  It is too easy for us to assume that when those heathen Gentiles repent they will then be numbered among the Church.  That's not what this is talking about, however.

When in modern revelation the Lord repeats phrases he has previously used we should listen up.  In our day the Lord has given us further light to understand the records we possess.  On 16 December 1833 he revealed to the Prophet:

"When men are called unto mine everlasting gospel, and covenant with an everlasting covenant, they are accounted as the salt of the earth and the savor of men;

"They are called to be the savor of men; therefore, if that salt of the earth lose its savor, behold, it is thenceforth good for nothing only to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men" (D&C 101:39-40).

How can the Gentiles about whom Christ is prophesying in 3 Nephi "be as salt that hath lost its savor," if those Gentiles have not been "called" and have not made "covenants" by the proper authority?  Those Gentiles who have never been "called," have thus never been "accounted" as the "salt of the earth and the savor of men."  If the Gentiles about whom Christ is prophesying are indeed those who have been "called unto mine everlasting gospel," and who "covenant with an everlasting covenant" to obey it, how is it that they will, according to the words of Christ given unto Him by the Father, need to "repent and return unto me?"  

When you consider the Book of Mormon in truth and with honesty, you begin to realize that you have many more questions than you thought you had answers.  You need these questions.  They lead you to Christ. 

I've focused almost wholly on us, and the role we have to play, and our identity, and how the Book of Mormon is a warning to us.  We should remember the book's preeminent purpose.  It will show the remnant "what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever" (Title Page).  It was also given that the Gentiles might be convinced that "Jesus is the Christ" (ibid.).  We can only fulfill our role when we properly understand it.

Who Are You?

The message of repentance in the scriptures was often to a religious crowd who considered themselves the Lord's people and who thought they were righteous (Luke 18:9-14).  

One of the reasons we may feel the Book of Mormon's message of repentance doesn't apply to us as "faithful" Latter-day Saints is because our lives, by and large, are in harmony with the principles taught from our pulpits and in our Sunday schools.  We keep the commandments and fulfill our callings.  Although we acknowledge in word that the message of repentance still applies to us as much as anyone, we are often perplexed about what it is we must repent of.

Besides serious transgressions, one of the things we must repent of are our misconceptions, and false traditions; or, what the Book of Mormon calls "unbelief." 

God's prophets mourn our state of unbelief because it causes us to not "search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be" (2 Ne. 32:7).  Because of that unbelief and stiffneckedness the Spirit stops the utterance of prophets when they might otherwise desire to share more about God's plan (ibid.).

King Benjamin taught that unbelief is a result of failing to read and understand God's word (Mosiah 1:5).  Because men fail to search the scriptures they "dwindle in unbelief" and fail to believe the truth when it is taught to them "because of the traditions of their fathers" (ibid.).  Dwindling in unbelief disables men so that they cannot understand the word of God.  This lack of understanding hardens men's hearts (Mosiah 26:3).  

In order for us to repent of and conquer unbelief we must come into contact with the "light of the glory of God" (Alma 19:6).  This encounter will cast away unbelief and dispel the clouds of darkness (ibid.).  For the majority of Latter-day Saints this encounter will begin to occur as we search the scriptures, but particularly the scriptures of the restoration.  We can choose to have this encounter with light and truth and begin to peel away the dark scales of unbelief, or we can choose not to receive the light.  Those who choose not to receive the light will be deceived, for they will not have the light required to discern between true and false messengers.  They will not be prepared for the "test" that Heber C. Kimball prophesied would overcome us in our day.         

In order for you to begin to remove the condemnation under which you labor you must take the Book of Mormon seriously.  

In order for you to begin to take the Book of Mormon seriously (or to not "treat it lightly") you must understand its message.  

In order for you to begin to understand the message of the Book of Mormon, it is vital for you to dismiss false notions about who "My people, O House of Israel" are, and who "the Gentiles" are.  

The truth of the matter is disconcerting for many people when presented with it, and so they choose not to search out the matter.  They think that those who would voice an opinion contrary to their traditions are "mad" (Mosiah 13:4).  Why is it that when a prophet declares the truth about the scriptures the religious are angry with him?  Must a man be a false prophet because his message angers you?  Must a prophet's message make you feel good about yourself?   

A proud man will usually choose to remain blind even when presented with light and truth because it salves his conscience to retain a false identity.  Doing so allows him to retain his pride, and believe in the message that "all is well" (2 Ne. 28:21).  But the Lord has made it clear that we have to shed false traditions and become humble and accept truth if we will be saved (Alma 32:15-16). 

The Latter-day Saints are the Gentiles of the Book of Mormon, and the Gentiles to whom it was written.  It was written for those Gentiles who are its readers, not those who are not its readers.  It was written in clarity that the Gentiles might understand the mission we've been called to perform.  The book defines our role.

Joseph Smith knew he was the "Gentile" who was chosen to begin the latter-day work (Title Page).  He referred to the rest of the Saints as "Gentiles" in the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer, which he received by revelation (D&C 109:60).  Throughout the Book of Mormon the writers are persistent and consistent in their use of the term.

Without explaining the entire issue, it's important to be presented with the idea so that it may be searched out.  Those who look into the matter will begin to see it clearly.  From beginning to end, European descendants are the "Gentiles" of the Book of Mormon, nobody else.  Unless you are a Latter-day Saint who also happens to be Native American, you are not the "remnant" or the "House of Israel" spoken of in the Book of Mormon.      

Don't let prejudices, misunderstandings, and false traditions deter your search.  Never mind what you think your Patriarchal blessing tells you about the meaning of "the House of Israel" in the Book of Mormon.  Those first or last sentences about lineage in your blessing no more help you understand the Book of Mormon than does the term "High Priest," as we use it today, help us to understand Alma 13.  They're almost wholly different.  Those things will all become clear as you discard false traditions and put off unbelief.  It doesn't matter if you descend from the House of Israel way back when, you are a "Gentile" to the Book of Mormon writers.     

Once you can understand your identity, the prophecies and messages of the Book of Mormon will begin to become very real to you.  The Book, as a whole, will begin to make much more sense.  You will be able to see more clearly, in order that a more thorough repentance may begin to take place.  It will be a precious gift, opening up to your view the fulness of the Gospel.  But not until we can put off "unbelief."  If we fail to understand our identity and the message of the Book of Mormon, we are dwindling in unbelief.

Many of our ideas about the scriptures are correct, but misapplied.  Many of our precepts are true and scriptural, but misunderstood.  It is true that the repentant Gentiles will ultimately be numbered among "the House of Israel" (2 Ne. 10:18).  We've gotten too far ahead of the game, however, in assuming that we've already made it.  We haven't.  The House of Israel will very soon receive the Book of Mormon and the fulness of the Gospel.  They haven't received it yet, but they will soon.  It will be brought unto them by the kings and queens of the Gentiles, who will act as nursing fathers and mothers to them (2 Ne. 10:9).

The Prophet Abinadi, Part 4, Conclusion

The Prophet Abinadi, Part 4, Conclusion

“Now the eyes of the people were blinded; therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him.  And king Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings” (Mosiah 11:29).

King Noah chose not to repent after hearing the Lord’s invitation.  Though he may have almost been persuaded, it is more difficult to do what is right when supported by “friends in iniquity” (Mosiah 17:11; 29:22-23).  To trample under-foot the commandments of God is a fearful thing to undertake in solitude, so the coward seeks to be upheld by a support group.

The king and his people had at least a couple of years to think about Abinadi’s initial message (Mosiah 12:1).  Because they “hardened their hearts against my words,” the Lord commanded Abinadi to return again and prophesy to the people (ibid). 

God calls king Noah and his people “this my people” two times (vv. 1, 4).  We tend not to think about them this way when we read and tell the story.  What does it mean that the Lord called them “this my people?”  Does it mean that they were chosen?  What about the people of the kingdom under Zeniff?  Were they a chosen people?  If chosen, and if the Lord’s people, what lessons can we learn from them?  The Lord has also called the latter-day saints “my people” throughout our revelations (D&C 105:6; 119:3; 124:92, and many more).  What does it mean to be the Lord’s people?       

The things covered in a short four-part series on Noah and then on Abinadi only begin to investigate the text in an honest way.  There is much more to the story we have left unexamined. 

Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 are far more doctrinally rich than the few verses we’ve looked at in chapter 11.  In chapter 12, Abinadi begins teaching them of Isaiah’s writings, and warns them about setting their hearts on riches.  In 13 we see God’s messenger speak with “power and authority from God,” and how the hand of the Lord protects those who have a divine commission, or “keys,” to bring a message of repentance until they’ve done all that is asked of them.  He teaches them of the Ten Commandments, because they need reminding on what it really means to live them.  Chapters 14 and 15 are rich in Christological content. 

On the whole, this story is a Godsend for us who inherit the book in the latter days.  God desires “this my people” to understand how to come unto Christ and be saved.  Christ warned us to “beware of false prophets,” and has given to us in the Book of Mormon tools by which we may discern true prophets (3 Ne. 14:15).  They preach repentance, just as Christ invited all to repent and come unto him.  Abinadi is a prototype prophet because he is a type of Christ.  What is it that you can learn from him?              

The people of king Noah’s kingdom had not applied their hearts to understanding, and therefore lacked wisdom (Mosiah 12:27).  Shall we not apply our hearts to understanding the great message of the Book of Mormon?