Subtle evidence that the latter-day Gentiles are meant to be a covenant people

32 (And these are the words which I spake unto my servant Moses, and they are true even as I will; and I have spoken them unto you. See thou show them unto no man, until I command you, except to them that believe. Amen.) (Moses 4)

As I finished up my most recent three part post series about Adam and Even in the scriptures, an idea grabbed my attention. It has a lot to do with the verse above, which is the final verse in Moses 4 contained in parentheses.  

The other important context has to do with the target audience in each sermon in the Book of Mormon that contains references to Adam and Eve:

• 2 Nephi 2:15-26 (Lehi speaking to his son Jacob)
• 2 Nephi 9:9,21 (Jacob speaking to Nephites)
• Jacob 4:3-5 (Jacob speaking to Nephites)
• Mosiah 3:11-26; 4:7 (King Benjamin speaking to his people/s as they enter a covenant)
• Mosiah 16:3 (Abinadi speaking to apostate Nephite priests)
• Alma 12:21-26 (Alma-2 speaking to rebellious Nephites)
• Alma 42:2-7 (Alma-2 speaking to his son Corianton)
• Helaman 14:16-18 (Samuel the Lamanite speaking to wicked Nephites)
• Mormon 3:20 (Mormon writing to latter-day Gentiles)
• Mormon 9:11-14 (Moroni writing to latter-day Gentiles)
• Ether 8:25 (Moroni writing to latter-day Gentiles)
• Moroni 8:8 (Mormon writing to his son Moroni)
• Moroni 10:3 (Moroni writing to latter-day Gentiles)

Do you see a pattern? Aside from the Gentiles, the audience is always comprised of covenant-keepers or those who were once covenant-keepers.

I see a message embedded in the fact that the last of these prophets spoke to us in the same way and about the same topics their predecessors spoke to other covenant-keepers. We are part of the house of Israel. We belong in the fold of God. That we have these words is an indication that the latter-day work has commenced (see Ether 4:17). This fits with the purposes outlined in the Title Page:

Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel 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—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations

Furthermore, this detail gives us a plausible explanation for why/how these doctrines came to be suppressed/lost.  Suppose they were given to given from the beginning with the instruction that they only be shown to believers.  As apostasy set in, it wouldn't take long for these hidden doctrines to come to be viewed with suspicion and eventually left behind altogether.  

There is a pretty close parallel in the early Christian church that is well documented, where esoteric teachings and rites were widely practiced at first, but eventually considered heretical and excised from the practice of Christianity.

Even in the church today there are quite a few mainstream believing members who consider the temple problematic. This could be a pattern. Unlike previous dispensations, though, we know there won't be another global apostasy, so it becomes an individual question.  Will we embrace these doctrines and seek to understand them?  Or will we reject them and lose the understanding they offer?

"Striving," Part 3

Part 1: "Striving" in the Book of Mormon

Part 2: "Striving" in the other books of scripture

In part 2, we ended in Moses 8, where Noah is ordained to the order of the Lord and given a commandment to "go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given to Enoch. (Moses 8:19.)

This comes right after the Lord tells Noah (see verse 17) that "[His] Spirit shall not always strive with man."

I couldn't help but compare this passage to Moroni 9, where Mormon encourages his son Moroni:

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)

Even if this dire situation, where the Nephites have hardened to the point of "seeking to put down all power and authority which cometh from God" and "denying the Holy Ghost," (see Moroni 8:28) Mormon reminds his son of their duty to continue in faith to preach to them and minister unto them.

Why continue in hope even when things seem so far gone?

I realize that the answer is found in the office of their calling, which Mormon explains in great detail is Moroni 7:

31 And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him.

32 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.

33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

34 And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved.

35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.

 

Putting it all together

• The Spirit strives with the natural man in order to give each of us a choice between good and evil.
• The Spirit is capable of creating within us a "new creature" -- "born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters." (See Mosiah 27:25-26.)
• The work of conversion is helped along by those who have embraced the covenant and are called to the work. They become "chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him. And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men." (Moroni 7:31-32.)
• If we strive against this work and against the Spirit, it has no place in us and we become the carnal captives of the adversary.
• If we have once embraced the covenant but later reject it to the point that the Spirit no longer strives with us, we invite "speedy destruction" upon ourselves. (2 Nephi 26:11) 

"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.

The recipe for eternal life

I was thinking I should identify scriptures in the Book of Mormon that go something like this: "If ye [description of actions], ye shall have eternal life/be saved/lifted up". In Alma 41:8 we read that "the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be saved". Jesus Christ has done the work. Without him it would all be impossible. So it is up to us now. What do we need to do? How do we find and walk on this way that has been prepared? Let's look for some answers in the Book of Mormon.

I will write the relevant contents from the verses in the form of a list. Not everyone likes the checklist approach to the gospel but this is just to get a better overview of the conditions that are stated. It's not possible to find or list all of those scriptures here but we will include several here and perhaps more in later posts.

2 Nephi 31:20

Conditions:

• Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ
• Have a perfect brightness of hope
• Have a love of God and of all men
• Feast upon the word of Christ
• Endure to the end

Reward:

• Ye shall have eternal life

Alma 7:15-16

Conditions:

• Come and fear not, and lay aside every sin
• Show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins...
• ...and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments
• Witness it unto him by going into the waters of baptism
• Keep the commandments of God from thenceforth (after baptism)

Reward:

• Eternal life

Alma 37:36-37

Conditions:

• Cry unto God for all thy support
• Let all thy doings be unto the Lord
• Whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord
• Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord
• Let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever
• Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings
• When thou liest down at night, lie down unto the Lord
• When thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God

Reward:

• Ye shall be lifted up at the last day

Mosiah 15:22-23

Conditions:

• Believe in the words of the prophets
• Keep the commandments of God

Reward:

• Have eternal life through Christ

2 Nephi 9:18

Conditions:

• Be righteous
• Believe in the Holy One of Israel
• Endure the crosses of the world and despise the shame of it

Reward:

• Inherit the kingdom of God

Moroni 8:10

Conditions:

• Repent
• Be baptized
• Humble yourselves as little children

Reward:

• Shall be saved

Jacob 6:11

Conditions:

• Repent
• Enter in at the strait gate
• Continue in the way which is narrow

Reward:

• Obtain eternal life

Mosiah 2:41

Conditions:

• Keep the commandments of God
• Hold out faithful to the end

Reward:

• Dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness

Conclusions

There are obviously many ways to describe the conditions for eternal life. For instance, "humble yourselves" will enable you to "continue in the way which is narrow". Trying to see a pattern here, I would say it looks 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

This is the essence, but there are different ways to describe it and sometimes it depends on the audience. For instance, when Alma speaks to Helaman, who has already entered into a covenant, focus is on covenant keeping, and the advice he gives is what will help to do just that. Notice also that although the first example from 2 Nephi 31 is focusing on the covenant keeping part only, the preceding part (basically the rest of the chapter) is all about covenant preparation.

What is required of us to access grace?

This post continues my series on the connections between mercy and grace.  First, I'm studying each concept separately.  See my previous posts about mercy here and here. In this post, I'll present some thoughts on what the Book of Mormon teaches about grace.

As I studied the 27 times where "grace" appears in the Book of Mormon, one of the first questions I asked was this:

What is required of us to access grace?

Here's a summary of what I found. In the passages below, I've placed actions taken by the people who received grace in bold/italics:

• they were baptized in the waters of Mormon, and were filled with the grace of God. (Mosiah 18:16)
• And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support; but for their labor they were to receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God. (Mosiah 18:26)
• Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support, in all cases save it were in sickness, or in much want; and doing these things, they did abound in the grace of God. (Mosiah 27:5)
• I have come having great hopes and much desire that I should find that ye had humbled yourselves before God, and that ye had continued in the supplicating of his grace, (Alma 7:3)
• And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works. (Helaman 12:24)
• ...my grace is sufficient for the meek....my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; (Ether 12:26)
• ...seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. (Ether 12:41)
• I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end. (Moroni 8:3)
• Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32)
• Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember...it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. (2 Nephi 10:24)

Here is the same list, stripped of all the other parts of those verses:

• they were baptized
• the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support
• labor with their own hands for their support
• humbled yourselves before God
• continued in the supplicating of his grace
• that men might be brought unto repentance and good works
• the meek....humble themselves before me
• ...seek this Jesus
• through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.
• come unto Christ
• be perfected in him
• deny yourselves of all ungodliness
• love God with all your might, mind and strength
• reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh;
• remember...it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved

That is pretty powerful advice on how to seek grace!

Little children "are whole from the foundation of the world."

Here is another example of intertextual connections between the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses.

Compare these words of Mormon:

8 Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; ... 12 But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a respecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism! (Mormon 8)

...to this verse from the Book of Moses:

54 Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world. (Moses 6)

Compare also:

46 But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; (Doctrine and Covenants 29)

Hat tip: Noel Reynolds.