Forbidden to write -- Part 1

We see it several times in the Book of Mormon. The prophet who is writing is about to write something, but is then forbidden. I thought I should identify all those passages and make an overview of what they were about to write when they were stopped. I'm only going to include those that say they were forbidden. There are many others where they use expressions like "cannot write" without giving the reason. For instance

And now it came to pass that Samuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written. (Helaman 14:1)

We are left to wonder why it could not be written. Was Mormon forbidden, was there was too much to include in an abridged record, or another unknown reason? So we will stick to the examples of Book of Mormon prophets being explicitly forbidden to write. I hope I found all of them, but if not, please feel free to give me a hint in the comment field.

1 Nephi 14:25-28

25 But the things which thou shalt see hereafter thou shalt not write; for the Lord God hath ordained the apostle of the Lamb of God that he should write them.

26 And also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel.

27 And I, Nephi, heard and bear record, that the name of the apostle of the Lamb was John, according to the word of the angel.

28 And behold, I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard

Nephi sees a vision that connects both to his father's dream but also to the Book of Revelation. However, at this point he is not allowed to continue, because the apostle John has been assigned to do so. What would be written if Nephi were allowed to continue? My guess is that we would see a plainer version of what we have in the Book of Revelation. Less symolism and more direct speech. In 2 Nephi 25, when Nephi has just finished quoting Isaiah, he rejoices in plainness and starts writing about the things he read from Isaiah but in much clearer terms. It would definitely be interesting to see Nephi continue to write here but he was forbidden for a reason I guess.

2 Nephi 32:6-7

6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.

7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be.

Considering the quote shared in this post, it makes a lot of sense for Nephi to stop here. He has explained the way back to God and, considering the temple symbolism, brought the reader to the veil by the Holy of Holies. Just before "the Spirit stoppeth [his] utterance", he mentioned a manifestation of the Lord himself. Who knows what Nephi would have written if he was not stopped there? I bet it would be interesting indeed. Unfortunately, we are not ready for that yet as a collective unit. Nephi is left to mourn because of unbelief and wickedness instead, he says. But he leaves it open to the individual reader to "ask" and "knock" and be "brought into the light" (2 Nephi 32:4).

3 Nephi 26:10-11

10 And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation.

11 Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.

The backdrop is found a few verses earlier

3 And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away;

4 And even unto the great and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil...

6 And now there cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people;

7 But behold the plates of Nephi do contain the more part of the things which he taught the people.

Mormon was about to write "the more part" of what Jesus taught the people and copy directly from the plates of Nephi rather than making an abridgment. But the Lord forbade it because he wanted to try our faith. I have wondered before why God commanded Mormon to make an abridgment at all. Why not just leave the plates of Nephi to Moroni to bury them? The abridgment is just a lot of extra work and contain less information. At least one of the answers seem to be found here. The plates of Nephi contained too much for us to handle. God gives us this abridgment first to try our faith and see if we are ready for "the more part" at some later point. This also seems to be a common reason why we have all these examples of being forbidden to write.

Being only half way through I think I need to break this down. The rest of the examples will be found in part 2 in tomorrow's post.

Forbidden to write -- Part 2

In part 1, we started looking at examples in the Book of Mormon where the author is forbidden to write certain things. We saw two examples from Nephi and one from Mormon. In this part we will look at one more example from Mormon and two from Moroni. That gives two examples each for the three main Book of Mormon authors.

3 Nephi 28:13-14, 25

13 And behold, the heavens were opened, and they were caught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things.

14 And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard...

25 Behold, I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the world.

I can understand the one in verse 14. We are not going to get a full description of what they saw in heaven. It wasn't possible for them to express in words anyway. But it makes me think. How many times do we speculate about the afterlife, try to describe or imagine conditions there, the nature of the Godhead, etc. When we learn that power from God is required to enable us to utter those things, we should be humble and realize that a detailed knowledge of the heavens is beyond our comprehension at the moment.

Regarding verse 25, Mormon was forbidden to write the names of the "3 Nephites". They were to be "hid from the world". I don't know why knowing their names would make much of a difference. We already know the names of the 12 disciples from 3 Nephi 19:4, so it would have to be 3 of them I would suppose? But the Lord forbade it for a reason. Perhaps it is just to avoid needless speculations like this? I really don't know.

Ether 4:4-7

4 Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.

5 Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.

6 For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord.

7 And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are.

The brother of Jared is one of a few people in the scriptures that are described as seeing everything. In the case of the brother of Jared

25 And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth.

26 For he had said unto him in times before, that if he would believe in him that he could show unto him all things—it should be shown unto him; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things. (Ether 3)

The brother of Jared was commanded to write it down and Moroni was commanded to seal the translation of it. We learn that we will not get it until we repent and show the same kind of faith that the brother of Jared had. My guess is that we will have to wait for the millennium. We learn from Ether 4:2 that the people had access to it after Christ had visited them and they lived in a righteous Zion-like society for many years. When wickedness started prevailing again, we read

yea, there were many churches which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness. (4 Nephi 1:27)

I wonder if at least part of "that which was sacred" could be the record of Jared's brother?

Ether 13:13

And I was about to write more, but I am forbidden; but great and marvelous were the prophecies of Ether

Another case of Moroni being forbidden to write while abridging the Book of Ether. Right before Moroni gets this message, he writes about Ether's prophecies concerning the gathering of Israel, the New Jerusalem and related end-time events. Why is he not allowed to write more? Here is my theory: Remember the first example in part 1, where Nephi is not allowed to continue because that is John the revelator's domain? The last thing Nephi wrote before that was the wrath of God poured out upon the "mother of harlots" (1 Nephi 14:17). This is something we read about in Revelation 17-18 too. In the remaining chapters of Revelation, we read about the gathering of the Lord's elect, his second coming, the millenium and the New Jerusalem, just what Ether was talking about. But because that is John's territory, Moroni gets the same commandment as Nephi to not write it down.

What does it mean to be "carried away in the Spirit"? -- Part 2

As I commented in part 1, Nephi's vision started by him being caught away in the Spirit. This is also how he closes the account of his visionary experience.

And now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was carried away in the Spirit (1 Nephi 14:30)

Interestingly, while Nephi is carried away in the Spirit he sees others carried away in the Spirit. In verse 15, Nephi sees the virgin Mary. She is carried away in the Spirit in verse 19 and when he sees her again she carries a child in her arms. In verse 29, he sees the 12 Apostles following Jesus. They are also carried away in the Spirit until they reappear some time after Christ's death.

As we can see, this is a dominant theme in Nephi's vision. We find it other places in the scriptures too. In the Bible, this expression is mentioned only a few times. We saw one example of Paul being caught up to Heaven in part 1. Philip is caught away by the Spirit in Acts 8. Ezekiel 40:2 is the closest we get in the Old Testament, I think. It reads

In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain

But this theme is the most prevalent in the Book of Revelation. He starts off his vision with

On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit (Revelation 1:10)

Also, twice more in Revelations, John describes himself being carried away in the Spirit; in 21:10 and 17:3. Not surprisingly perhaps, because there are several connections between Nephi's and John's visions. There is some common language, like "nations, kindreds, tongues and people" and the whore sitting on many waters (see Revelation 17:1 and 1 Nephi 14:11) and of course the fact that John is explicitly mentioned in the end of Nephi's account (1 Nephi 14:27).

In the Book of Moses, we find it too. In part 1, I mentioned Adam. Also, in Moses 1:1

The words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high mountain

I see a recurring theme in many of these accounts. Perhaps it goes without saying that they are typical precedents for Heavenly manifestations. But they seem to be very special, personal and sacred events involving the presence of the glorified divine that requires a transformation of the body to endure as discussed in Part 1. In fact, they are so sacred that they are often forbidden to talk or write about it.

Nephi is forbidden to record everything he saw (1 Nephi 14:28). Mary, who he sees carried away in the Spirit, has become the mother of the Savior when he sees her again. Definitely a sacred experience we know little about. One thing we know is that Joseph was not the father! The other "carried away" he sees is the 12 Apostles. This one is more difficult for me to understand. But one thing that comes to mind is that the Mount of Transfiguration fits the pattern. They experience sacred things, saw Christ's glory and probably much more than what is recorded. And again, they are forbidden to speak about it. The 3 disciples in 3 Nephi, who were "caught up into heaven" also follow the same pattern:

And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard (3 Nephi 28:14)

A final example is Joseph Smith. Although we don't see the language "caught up/carried away" used, we learn about his first vision and read that "many other things did he [Christ] say unto me, which I cannot write at this time." Don Bradley's research shows that "caught up" would be a very fitting term here.

Conclusions

• Even though I still don't understand the metaphysics, "caught/carried up/away in/by (the Spirit)" are expressions that seem to signify going through a transformation to be able to endure the presence of the divine and being physically lifted or at least guided to a "higher" place, like a mountain or even heaven.
• The expression is typically used in connection with very profound, sacred and personal experiences. These are often forbidden to write down or talk about.
• This theme is particularly prevalent in Nephi's vision and John's revelation, making up just one of several connections between the two.

Internal consistency in Ether 4-5

In my post yesterday, I noted that Moroni is quoting Christ in Ether 4:6-19. Afterwards he states

And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory (Ether 5:1)

The bold part indicates that Moroni has been writing what the Lord commanded him some time before he wrote it, since he was depending on remembering correctly.

4 Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.

5 Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.

6 For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord.

In verse 6, Moroni starts writing "the words which were commanded" him that he refers to. It seems that Moroni received certain instructions concerning the record of the vision of the brother of Jared. It also seems that he received the words he quoted in chapter 4 along with those instructions. Since he has already recorded the vision of Jared and sealed it up at this point, these commandments were given in the past and Moroni had to recall them and write "according to [his] memory".

Another subtle example of internal consistency. In Ether 4:3

1 And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people.

2 And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest.

3 And now, after that, they have all dwindled in unbelief; and there is none save it be the Lamanites, and they have rejected the gospel of Christ; therefore I am commanded that I should hide them up again in the earth.

"them" in the bold part is referring to the record of the vision of the brother of Jared. It can either mean the 24 plates that were found by the people of Limhi and later brought to Mosiah or it can refer to Mosiah's translation of them. Even though verse 1 says that Mosiah kept them, there is no reason to believe that he buried them in the earth. But the "again" indicates that they have been hidden in the earth at some point before. The answer is found in Mormon 6:6

knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.

The "few plates" that he gave to Moroni were the plates of Mormon. The Jaredite plates and Mosiah's translation were most likely among the plates that Mormon hid in the hill Cumorah. So they have indeed been hidden in the earth. Trying to trace the events here, we have the following timeline:

• Not long before the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites at around 385 AD, Mormon hides all the records in the hill Cumorah except for the plates of Mormon that he gives to Moroni
• At 400 AD, some years after his father's death, Moroni finishes his father's record on the plates of Mormon (Mormon 8-9)
• Some time later, Moroni digs up the plates and obtains at least the Jaredite history. He first engraves the vision of the brother of Jared on the plates of Mormon and seals them up (as we have noted, this has already been done when he abridges the Jaredite history in Ether 4)
• Then he abridges the Jaredite history on plates of Mormon in the unsealed part before presumably hiding them in the earth again.
• Some time later, at more than 420 AD, he realizes he has time to write some more even though he didn't intend to (Moroni 1:4), before also finally hiding the plates of Mormon

The history of the various records is not straight forward and is not always told in detail in clear terms, but we get small hints and they typically turn out to be in agreement.

Fallen -- Part 2 (The Brother of Jared)

In part 1 I described the plan of salvation in terms of down and up movements. The fall and exaltation are key parts of the plan. But even though the fall was part of the plan and it is also normal to slip during the ascension on the covenant path, we must be careful not to become fallen again by abandoning the covenant completely as exemplified in certain Book of Mormon passages.

I may have given the impression in that last post that the downward movement is always negative and the upward movement is always positive. It's a bit more complicated than that. For instance, we can be lifted up in pride. This is a type of false ascension and is not sustainable. We also read that King Benjamin's people had fallen to the earth and begged for mercy through the atoning blood of Christ in Mosiah 4:1-2. Obviously a good thing.

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke 14:11)

The point is not any ascension but the right kind of ascension. The right kind comes by first humbling yourself (which can somewhat ironically be considered a downward movement) and then covenant with a being that exist on a higher level than yourself with the power to lift you up. Sometimes that even entails beings on a higher level descending to get you and pick you up. This is the ministry of angels. They need to descend to reach us with their ministry (see Mosiah 27:11 and 3 Nephi 17:24, for instance). When the high priest in the ancient temple had been in the Holy of Holies symbolizing the celestial realm, he went out again to serve the people and symbolically atone for their sins again the next year. Similarly, Nephi, the Brother of Jared, Moses and others went down from those mountains to fulfill their mission on a telestion earth and teach others. Christ has been seen descending out of heaven too on several occasions, see 1 Nephi 1:9, 1 Nephi 11:7 and 3 Nephi 11:8. He even descended below all things (D&C 88:6).

With this as backdrop, we will take a closer look at the Brother of Jared, because there is a lot of play on this theme in his story.

First of all, and this is something I have posted about before, the name, "Jared", in Hebrew means "descend" or "go down". As we often see in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, there are puns on his name in the text. In the Book of Ether, the story of the Brother of Jared figuratively starts with him symbolically coming down from the Tower of Babel (Ether 1:33). Then he goes down into the valley (1:42, 2:1, 2:4), falls down before the Lord (3:6), goes down out of the mount (4:1, 6:2), bows down in the promised land (6:12) and goes down to the grave (6:19, 6:21). The interesting part is that the Brother of Jared obviously has his own name, it's through the use of his brother's name that the word-play is working.

Keeping in mind that Christ descended below all things and other similarities, it makes sense to view the Brother of Jared as a type of Christ. But in addition to the puns on his name (or rather his brother's name), there is an intricate play on this theme in the story of the Brother of Jared on the mount.

We know the story. He is on the mountain with the stones and offers a humble prayer.

...we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee... (Ether 3:2)

Again, in verse 6

And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear.

This is one of those puns. If you translate "Jared", you read that "go down fell down". The Brother of Jared humbles himself as advised in that verse in Luke. After this, the Lord tells him to arise (verse 7) and brings him back into his presence (verse 13). "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted". But as mentioned, he doesn't stay on that mountain but goes down again. He has a mission to fulfill, just like Christ went down to fulfill his mission. This is specified in Ether 4:1

And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross

So there is another pun when the Lord commands the brother of "Go down" to go down. But the theme continues. He is commanded to write what he saw. But it is "forbidden to come unto the children of men" until after Christ is "lifted up" on the cross. We are not told why, but the Brother of Jared undoubtedly saw wonderful things pertaining to exaltation on that mountain, which is only made possible through Christ being "lifted up".

 

Mysteries

As Lord Wilmore is posting about ancient cosmology and temple themes in Alma 12, among other things, my mind goes back to a scripture we have discussed before

9 And now Alma began to expound these things unto him, saying: It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.

10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.

11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell. (Alma 12)

I want to focus on the word, mysteries, this time. It is found once in each of these three verses. Considering the temple themes in Alma 12-13, this quote from Hugh Nibley is interesting:

In a recent and rather sensational work, Morton Smith demonstrates at length that the word mystery, as used by the first Christians, usually refers to ordinances. He duly notes that Judaism itself was an ancient “mystery religion” in which the rites of circumcision and passover were “mysteries,” and that such early and orthodox Christian writers as Clement of Alexandria “think of Jesus as a ‘hierophant,’ a teacher of mysteries.” As Smith sums it up, “This was the mystery of the kingdom—the mystery rite by which the kingdom was entered,” i.e., the ordinances of initiation. (Hugh Nibley, “The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri”, 515)

It should be added that Morton Smith's work is disputed and scholars disagree about the possible meaning of "mysteries" in relation to ordinances. But I don't think the point is that "mystery" always refers to an ordinance, but that there is a clear relation and one possible meaning depending on context. At least it makes sense to me that the sacred ordinances anciently were viewed as mysteries of God that were only available for and understood by the faithful. In Greek, mystery (musterion) comes from mueo, which is related to initiatory rites. Of course the Nephites did not speak Greek but this relation might go back to the ancient Israelites as the quote indicates. In this context it makes sense that Alma goes on to talk about ordinances later in his sermon.

8 Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end...

16 Now these ordinances were given after this manner, that thereby the people might look forward on the Son of God, it being a type of his order, or it being his order, and this that they might look forward to him for a remission of their sins, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord. (Alma 13)

A natural question to ask is then: If those who know the mysteries of God (like Alma) are strictly commanded to impart only a limited portion according to the heed and diligence of the recipient, why would Alma start lecturing the wicked Ammonihahites about these deeper temple themes? I think the answer is given in Matthew 13:

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Isaiah quote in verse 15 forms a chiastic pattern with heart, ears and eyes in that order before it is reversed. Even though Alma 12-13 can hardly be called a parable, it is a layered sermon. The plain language is for all to hear and the deeper covenant symbols, presumably only recognized by those among the listeners who were familiar with the temple theology, are reserved to those who had not hardened their hearts but instead opened their eyes and ears. King Benjamin talks about this

And these are the words which he spake and caused to be written, saying: My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view. (Mosiah 2:9)

These words are spoken right after the description of the people gathering around the temple and as we know, the sermon ends with the people entering into a covenant and receiving a new name.

Nephi also talks about the mysteries of God. As he starts writing on the small plates, he is a middle-aged man reflecting back on his life. This is the very first verse of his account

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days. (1 Nephi 1:1)

He even tells his readers how he first came to know the mysteries of God.

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers. (1 Nephi 2:16)

In line with Alma's statement, Nephi had a soft heart and was therefore ready to learn about the mysteries of God ("he that will not harden his heart"). His great desires and crying unto the Lord triggered the process. Nephi later advises his readers to follow the same pattern.

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. (1 Nephi 10)

We must seek diligently to have the mysteries of God unfolded unto us. Nephi is talking from experience. Again, this is in line with Alma's statement that the portion of God's mysteries we receive is in accordance with our diligence.

To me, this is related to the "forbidden to write" series. Because of the underlying principles for obtaining knowledge about the mysteries of God, sometimes the prophet can only say this much and then needs to stop. Other times, he will talk with layers of meaning, where only the diligent and initiated with open eyes, ears and hearts can pick up the deeper layers.