"Striving" in the Book of Mormon, part 1

"Striving" is an interesting, somewhat antiquated word. A family member brought it to my attention in the scriptures, wondering what it meant, and now, a few weeks later, I'm prepared to offer a review of how it is used in the scriptures and what I believe the word means.

This post will be the first of several posts about the word "striving" in the scriptures, particularly in the Book of Mormon.

To start, I'll share two examples from Mormon in context:

27 Behold, my son, I will write unto you again if I go not out soon against the Lamanites. Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent.

28 Pray for them, my son, that repentance may come unto them. But behold, I fear lest the Spirit hath ceased striving with them; and in this part of the land they are also seeking to put down all power and authority which cometh from God; and they are denying the Holy Ghost.

29 And after rejecting so great a knowledge, my son, they must perish soon, unto the fulfilling of the prophecies which were spoken by the prophets, as well as the words of our Savior himself. (Moroni 8)

3 And now behold, my son, I fear lest the Lamanites shall destroy this people; for they do not repent, and Satan stirreth them up continually to anger one with another.

4 Behold, I am laboring with them continually; and when I speak the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them.

5 For so exceedingly do they anger that it seemeth me that they have no fear of death; and they have lost their love, one towards another; and they thirst after blood and revenge continually.

6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God. (Moroni 9)

Both passages are bleak.  Mormon has lost hope in the Nephites entirely and believes it is only a matter of time before they are completely destroyed.

From these two passages, we see the following additional attributes ascribed to the Nephites:

• pride
• seeking to put down all power and authority which cometh from God
• denying the Holy Ghost
• rejecting so great a knowledge
• they do not repent
• Satan stirreth them up continually to anger one with another
• when I speak the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me
• when I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it
• so exceedingly do they anger 
• they have no fear of death
• they have lost their love, one towards another
• they thirst after blood and revenge continually

This is a pretty awful scene, and it is only the tip of the iceberg.  In the rest of chapter 9, an absolutely horrid scene of depravity is described.

Other examples of "Striving" in the Book of Mormon

We find four additional examples in the Book of Mormon which use this specific context -- the Spirit ceasing to strive with a group of people as they become "fully ripe for destruction:

• 1 Nephi 7:14 (speaking of the people at Jerusalem)
• 2 Nephi 26:11 (speaking of the Nephites)
• Mormon 5:16 (speaking of the Lamanites)
• Ether 2:15 (speaking of the Jaredites)
• Ether 15:19 (speaking of the Jaredites).

That's seven references in the Book of Mormon which connect the Spirit ceasing to strive with a group of people and that group's final destruction.

Aside from that, we have a few other contexts where we find the word "strive/striving":

• Missionary/faithfulness context:
• Mosiah 27:35 - "zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church"
• Helaman 15:6: - "they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth"
• 1 Nephi 17:15 - "I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence"
• Military context (with covenant subtext):
• Alma 60:25 - "strive to strengthen and fortify our armies"
• Repentant context (five verses after 1 Nephi 7:14 in the list above)
• 1 Nephi 7:19 - "they did soften their hearts; and they did cease striving to take away my life"

What does "striving" mean?

Since language changes over time, I typically like to check the Webster's 1828 dictionary to get a sense of what a word meant around the time the Book of Mormon was written. I found these two definition's at the top of the list:

1. To make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard; applicable to exertions of body or mind. A workman strives to perform his task before another; a student strives to excel his fellows in improvement.

2. To contend; to contest; to struggle in opposition to another; to be in contention or dispute; followed by against or with before the person or thing opposed; as, strive against temptation; strive for the truth.

Interestingly, it seems every instance of "strive/striving" in the Book of Mormon falls under the first definition. Not so with the Bible, but we'll get to that in a later post.

What does it mean when the Spirit ceases striving with a people?

It seems that in the Book of Mormon, the most common use of the word "striving" is a reference to a passage from the brass plates, which we have in our Old Testament in Genesis 6:3. I'll discuss this and the possible connection to Enoch and Noah in the next post.  Suffice it to say, it seems that when the Spirit ceases to strive with a rebellious covenant people, very bad things come.

Scattering as a necessary prerequisite for gathering -- Part 1 of 2

Something in one of Stisa's latest posts caught my attention. In speaking about Zenos' allegory, he said:

He is now planning on how to be able to obtain good fruit again, by grafting the natural branches back into the "mother tree" among other things (the gathering of Israel in these latter days). (link to post)

As I read this, an idea struck me. The scattering is a necessary prerequisite before the gathering can take place. The foreknowledge of God allows for a grand plan to come into reality.  Knowing that his covenant people would fall away repeatedly, God prepared a way for this rebellion to help accomplish His purposes. Just as Isaiah said that the conquering foreign kings would be nothing more than tools in the hand of God (see 2 Nephi 20:15), the long foretold rebellion of the Lamanites and Nephites set the stage for the grand final gathering in the latter days.

In this two-part post, we'll first look at references in the Book of Mormon to the scattering of Israel.

The Scattering

What follows below is a sampling of the many references to the scattering of Israel in the Book of Mormon.  This is not a tangential side-story -- it is a major theme.

Lehi taught about the scattering:

12 Yea, even my father spake much concerning the Gentiles, and also concerning the house of Israel, that they should be compared like unto an olive tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth. (1 Nephi 10) 

11 Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. (2 Nephi 1)

As did Nephi:

14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten. (1 Nephi 13)

17 And this is what our father meaneth; and he meaneth that it will not come to pass until after they are scattered by the Gentiles; and he meaneth that it shall come by way of the Gentiles, that the Lord may show his power unto the Gentiles, for the very cause that he shall be rejected of the Jews, or of the house of Israel. (1 Nephi 15)

3 Wherefore, the things of which I have read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; for it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations. (1 Nephi 22)

15 Wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered among all nations; yea, and also Babylon shall be destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations.  (2 Nephi 25)

Nephi quotes Isaiah on the subject:

1 And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (1 Nephi 21)

Jacob teaches the same doctrine:

10 And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted.
11 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated... (2 Nephi 6)

Samuel the Lamanite preached it:

11 Yea, even if they should dwindle in unbelief the Lord shall prolong their days, until the time shall come which hath been spoken of by our fathers, and also by the prophet Zenos, and many other prophets, concerning the restoration of our brethren, the Lamanites, again to the knowledge of the truth—
12 Yea, I say unto you, that in the latter times the promises of the Lord have been extended to our brethren, the Lamanites; and notwithstanding the many afflictions which they shall have, and notwithstanding they shall be driven to and fro upon the face of the earth, and be hunted, and shall be smitten and scattered abroad, having no place for refuge, the Lord shall be merciful unto them. (Helaman 15)

When Christ ministered to the Nephites, he taught the same doctrine several times:

13 And then shall the remnants, which shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, be gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the south and from the north; and they shall be brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them. (3 Nephi 20)

 29 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them. (3 Nephi 28)

Finally, Mormon also taught this doctrine:

15 And also that the seed of this people may more fully believe his gospel, which shall go forth unto them from the Gentiles; for this people shall be scattered... (Mormon 5)

In part 2 of this series, we'll look at the many prophecies of the gathering of Israel.

Study notes (updated): God's covenant with Israel and latter-day events

I created a post about this earlier, but have now extended it to include some chapters in 1st Nephi as well. It's a bit long so I'm just linking the document instead of writing the text in the blog post: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MmkaLdY0VhPKhlBvQhKEpuQ1amrJTijM

Study notes: God's covenant with Israel and the latter days

This is a summary of certain passages in the Book of Mormon, talking about the covenant God has made with Israel, how this will be restored in the latter days and the role of the Gentiles. Primarily, this is presented by the Savior himself when he visits the Nephites.

I have always found these chapters a bit difficult to follow, but it was a great help for me to summarize them like I did below. Here we see that there are certain key events that are presented and repeated. In chapter 16, Christ is talking about this subject right after having talked about “his sheep” in chapter 15. After a lot of other events, he returns to this topic in chapter 20. In verse 11 he basically says: “Remember what I told you about Isaiah’s words being fulfilled?” with a clear reference to chapter 16, verse 17. Then he goes on to repeat some of the events described in that chapter.

Then, in chapter 21, he talks about how the coming forth of the Book of Mormon will be a sign that the restoration of Israel is about to happen and repeats all the events discussed in chapter 16. They are color coded for easier identification. They are not necessarily in order (neither here nor in the Book of Mormon) since they are not necessarily discrete events and may overlap or occur on multiple occasions.

When we read these chapters, we note how Old Testament scriptures, in particular Isaiah, is dispersed into the text in these chapters, especially at the end, to demonstrate that this is what Isaiah was really talking about.

Note also how Mormon, who abridged the words of the Savior among the Nephites, thinks this part of his words were important to include and how he repeats several of these key issues in Mormon 5.

3^rd Nephi 16

Gentiles will populate the Americas and scatter the remnant of the House of Israel there (v.8)

The fulness of the gospel shall come to the Gentiles (v.6-7)

Still, many Gentiles will sin and reject the gospel (v.10)

God will fulfill his covenant with the House of Israel (v.11)

The gospel will be brought to the House of Israel (from the Gentiles) (v.11)

Israel will be gathered (v.5)

The Gentiles who repent will be numbered among the House of Israel (v.13)

Gentiles who do not repent will be “trodden under foot” by the House of Israel (v.15)

“This people” will have the Americas for an inheritance (v.16)

Isaiah 52:8-10 will be fulfilled (v.17-20)

3^rd Nephi 20

Jesus reminds the people what he said in Chapter 16, that Isaiah 52:8-10 will be fulfilled (v.11)

God will fulfill his covenant with the House of Israel (v.12)

The gospel will be brought to the House of Israel (from the Gentiles) (v.13)

Israel will be gathered (v.13)

Gentiles who do not repent will be “trodden down” by the House of Israel (v.16)

“This people” will have the Americas for an inheritance (v.14)

Isaiah 52:8-10 will be fulfilled (v.32-25 paraphrasing Isaiah 52:8-10 again before moving on to quote other Isaiah passages)

3^rd Nephi 21

Gentiles will populate the Americas and scatter the remnant of the House of Israel there (v.2, 4)

The fulness of the gospel shall come to the Gentiles (v.6)

Still, many Gentiles will sin and reject the gospel (v.14-21)

God will fulfill his covenant with the House of Israel (v.4, 7)

The gospel will be brought to the House of Israel (from the Gentiles) (v.5, 7)

Israel will be gathered (v.1, 24, 28)

The Gentiles who repent will be numbered among the House of Israel (v.6, 22)

Gentiles who do not repent will be “trodden down” by the House of Israel (v.12)

A remnant of Jacob will have the Americas for an inheritance (v.22,28)

Quoting Isaiah 52:12 (v.29) and Isaiah 54 (Chapter 22)

Mormon 5

Gentiles will populate the Americas and scatter the remnant of the House of Israel there (v.19-20)

God will fulfill his covenant with the House of Israel (v.20)

Gentiles who do not repent will be “trodden under foot” by the House of Israel (v.24)