The (gift of the) Holy Ghost in the Book of Mormon

I wrote two posts (here and here) listing and discussing scriptures that give conditions for and promises of eternal life. Based on these scriptures, I identified a pattern looking something like this

Covenant preparation / find the way and enter through the gate	Faith Repentance Baptism
Covenant keeping / "walk therein"	Keep the commandments Endure to the end

I received a comment on this blog post suggesting that the Holy Ghost was missing from this list. I had initially thought that it belongs as part of baptism because the baptism is two-fold (water and fire/Holy Ghost). It is also a bit unclear if the gift of the Holy Ghost as we practice it today was practiced among the Nephites before Christ. Nephi certainly teaches about receiving the Holy Ghost it in 2 Nephi 31, but it is unclear how and the Jews living before Christ didn't seem to practice this. 

Anyway, this made me think about something I have noticed before. The Holy Ghost is always portrayed as a blessing in the Book of Mormon, not a commandment. We have a tendency to think of the gift of the Holy Ghost only as a necessary step on the way. It certainly is one of the saving ordinances, so I will not argue against that. But it is interesting to note that the Book of Mormon never says: "Have faith, repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and then you will be blessed..." or something along those lines. Here is what the Book of Mormon does say on the matter:

For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. (2 Nephi 31:17)

Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. (3 Nephi 27:20)

And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 9:20)

come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 30:2)

We clearly see from these verses that receiving/being cleansed by/filled with the Holy Ghost is the blessing. It comes after we have repented and been baptized. This is a thing I noticed a long time ago but I just realized how it fits into the pattern I illustrated above. With these scriptures in mind, here is an updated version:

Step	Category	Conditions	Blessing
Step 1	Covenant preparation / find the way and enter through the gate	Faith Repentance Baptism	The gift of the Holy Ghost
Step 2	Covenant keeping / "walk therein"	Keep the commandments Endure to the end	Eternal life

Again, there are different ways to put it for sure. It would not be wrong to put the gift of the Holy Ghost in the "conditions" category in Step 1 and this is often how we frame it, perhaps because of the 4th article of faith. But I think the above illustration is more in line with how the Book of Mormon frames it and it has helped me look at our "covenant path" in a different way.

This is how I see it: Eternal life is always the end goal. This is exaltation, living in unity with the Godhead in the celestial kingdom. To get there, we have the atonement of Christ (already taken care of) and our part, that is summarized in these two steps in the table. At the end of step 1 there is a gate. When we enter through it we are offered the Holy Ghost. He is a member of the Godhead we ultimately want to be united with after step 2, but he comes to help us in this step, which is walking on the path after we entered the first gate. I expressed the conditions as "keep the commanments" and "endure to the end" but there is a lot that could be said about step 2. We know that further covenants and continuous application of the atonement in our lives are part of this as well. The point is that we get the Holy Ghost as a blessing after we complete step 1 and enter into the first symbolic gate. His role is to help and guide us along in step 2 to get to the second symbolic gate, the gate to the kingdom of heaven.

The unity that we can have with the Holy Ghost after entering through the first gate, and with Jesus Christ when becoming one with him through the sacrament, are preparations for the glorious unity we can have with them and the Father after entering through the second gate. The Father created a plan that can be accomplished through Christ and covenants. The Son completed his part and the Holy Ghost helps us do our part (keeping covenants). It is a beautiful illustration of the individual roles of the members of the Godhead, united in one purpose: To unite with us.