I Nephi 11-14 I Nephi 11:1 President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke of Heavenly Father’s desire to give us the righteous.

I Nephi 11-14

I Nephi 11:1

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke of Heavenly Father’s desire to give us the righteous desires of our hearts: “No message appears in scripture more times, in more ways than ‘Ask, and ye shall receive’” (C.R., Oct. 1991, 26).

Quiet study and meditation are how one comes to know the mysteries of God!

Righteous Time-outs!

(Doctrine and Covenants 76 & 138 are good examples of this process)

“The Hosanna Shout” (D&C 109:79)

We’ll wash, and be wash’d, and with oil anointedWithal not omitting the washing of feetFor he that receiveth his penny appointed

Must surely be clean at the harvest of wheatWe’ll sing and we’ll shout etc.

Old Israel that fled from the world for his freedomMust come with the cloud and the pillar, amainA ‘Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua lead him,And feed him on manna from heaven again.We’ll sing and we’ll shout etc.

(Verses 4 and 5 of the original hymn, The Spirit of God ).

In Hebrew “Hosanna” means “Save us we beseech Thee!”

Save us please!

Nephi’s vision of the tree of life is a vision about the Son of God.

13 times in the vision Nephi is told to look; each time he will learn something new about the Lord:

Look #1

I Nephi 11:8-10

The white fruit of the tree was “precious above all.”

This is the only place in the scriptures where this happens.

“Spirit of the Lord” is mentioned 40 times in the Book of Mormon and all have reference to the Holy Ghost.

Is the Holy Ghost a spirit “man?”

“The Holy Ghost … is not tabernacled in a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit; yet we know that the Spirit has manifested Himself in the form of a man” (James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, 38).

Look #2

I Nephi 11:12-18

In Nazareth was the most beautiful virgin of all. She was the mother of “the Son of God.”

“Behold the Condescension of God!”

Elder Bruce R. McConkie commented on the two different senses of the condescension of God in this way:

“The condescension of God (meaning the Father) consists in the fact that though He is an exalted, perfected, glorified Personage. He became the personal and literal Father of a mortal offspring born of mortal women. And the condescension of God (meaning the Son) consists in the fact that though He himself is the Lord Omnipotent, the very Being who created the earth and all things that in it are, yet being born of mortal woman, He submitted to all the trials of mortality, suffering, ‘temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death’ (Mosiah 3:5-8), finally being put to death in a most ignominious manner” (Mormon Doctrine, 155).

3 Nephi 1:13

Oh, the magnitude of that sacrifice, that condescension! That night, God the Son traded his heavenly home with all its celestial adornments for a mortal abode with all its primitive trappings. He was left alone to inherit a manger. He exchanged the dominion of a god for the dependence of a babe. He gave up wealth, power, dominion, and the fullness of his glory --- for what? --- for taunting, mocking, humiliation, and subjection. It was a trade of unparalleled dimension, a condescension of incredible proportions, a descent of incalculable depth. And so, the great Jehovah, creator of worlds without number, infinite in virtue and power, made his entry into this world in swaddling clothes and a manger (Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, 64).

Remember, “condescension means a voluntary descent from rank or dignity.”

In Birth:

“The Savior… descended below all things…There never was a child born on this earth with any less capacity than dwelt in the child that was born in a manger of his mother Mary… There never was a child that descended lower in capacity, or that knew less”(Brigham Young, JD, 7:286).

In Baptism:

The place of Jesus’ baptism was a Bethabara, near the place where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. When a person stands in these waters he is standing at the lowest point on the earth, about 1,300 feet below sea level. Therefore, at his baptism, when Jesus was lowered in the waters of Jordan, he physically descended below all living things on earth.

In Life:

“As a God, He descended below all things, and made Himself subject to man in man’s fallen condition; as a man, He grappled with all the circumstances incident to His sufferings in the world”(John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, 151).

In the Atonement:

“The Almighty must descend below all things…” …To suffer both body and spirit, bleeding from every pore, as He takes upon himself the sins of all men” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 16).

In Death:

“(Jesus) submitted to all the trials of mortality, suffering ‘temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death’ (Mosiah 3:5-8), finally being put to death in a most ignominious manner’ (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 155).

Isaiah 53:12

Look #3

I Nephi 11:19-23

The woman was still called a “virgin” after the birth of the child. The child was the “Lamb of God,” the “Son of the Eternal Father.”

Look #4

I Nephi 11:24-25

The Son of God lived among men. Many believed and worshiped him.

Look #5

I Nephi 11:26-29

The Son of God is the Redeemer of the world. John the Baptist was a prophet who prepared the way for Jesus and baptized him. The people rejected Jesus, he called 12 to assist him.

Look #6

I Nephi 11:30

The ministering of angels assisted in the ministry of the Savior.

Look #7

I Nephi 11:31

The Savior healed the sick and cast out devils.

Look #8

I Nephi 11:32-36

Jesus was judged by the world. He was crucified and “slain for the sins of the world.”

Look #9

I Nephi 12:1, 6-8

Jesus visited the Nephites after his resurrection and organized his Church among them.

Look #10

I Nephi 12:11

The righteous were forgiven of their sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Look #11

I Nephi 13:1, 34-36

The Nephites writings of the visit of Jesus would help facilitate the restoration of the Lamb’s true Church.

Look #12

I Nephi 14:9, 12

The true Church of the Lamb would start small and grow to cover “all the face of the earth” in spite of great wickedness. The Lord would fulfill “His covenants” with Israel.

Look #13

I Nephi 14:18-19, 21-22

At the end of the world Jesus Christ will come again.

1. The ministry and atoning sacrifice of the Lord.2. Future history of Nephi’s descendants.3. A great gentile nation in the land of promise.4. The great and abominable church that makes war with the church of the lamb.5. Future events seen by Nephi which were to be written by the Apostle John.

I Nephi 13

Apostasy in Greek means rebellion or revolution, mutiny.

That man, of course, was Christopher Columbus, who testified that he was inspired in what he did. “Our Lord, said Columbus, ‘unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire, for the deed. Those who heard of my enterprise called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed. But who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me?’ (Jacob Wasserman, Columbus, Don Quixote of the Seas,19-20,)” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (1988), 577).

President Gordon B. Hinckley revered Columbus as being inspired of the Lord: “A host of critics have spoken out against Christopher Columbus. I do not dispute that there were others who came to this Western Hemisphere before him. But it was he who in faith lighted a lamp to look for a new way to China and who in the process discovered America. His was an awesome undertaking --- to sail west across the unknown seas farther than any before him of his generation. He it was who, in spite of the terror of the unknown and the complaints and near mutiny of his crew, sailed on with frequent prayers to the Almighty for guidance. In his reports to the sovereigns of Spain, Columbus repeatedly asserted that his voyage was for the glory of God and the spread of the Christian faith. Properly do we honor him for his unyielding strength in the face of uncertainty and danger” (C.R., Oct. 1992, 73-74).

God inspired the founders of America to establish a new nation with religious freedom for all in preparation for the restoration of the gospel.

Under God’s hand they secured religious freedom for every citizen with an inspired Bill of Rights.

Fourteen years later, on December 23, 1805, the Prophet Joseph Smith was born.

“Out of Captivity,” how would Nephi have known this?

They indeed fled from captivity.

Under such kings as James 1 of England, there was hardly a semblance of freedom. He was the supreme dictator in government, in economics, in education (what there was of it), and in the state religion. He controlled the detailed lives of his people.

“France, Spain, England, and Portugal were the principal powers involved in the discovery and exploration of America, and this is significant, as we shall point out later. All were ruled by despots, and when immigrants finally were allowed to leave the ‘mother countries,’ they indeed fled from captivity. The history of the Pilgrims and Puritans give ample evidence of this fact” (Peterson, Great Prologue, 32-33).

1 Nephi 13:15-19

“The Establishment of America”

“This great American nation the Almighty raised up by the power of His omnipotent hand, that it might be possible in the latter days for the kingdom of God to be established in the earth. If the Lord had not prepared the way by laying the foundations of this glorious nation, it would have been impossible (under the stringent laws and bigotry of the monarchical governments of the world) to have laid the foundations for this coming of His great kingdom. The Lord has done this. His hand has been given over this nation, and it is his purpose and design to enlarge it, make it glorious above all others, and to give it dominion, and power over the earth, to the end that those who are kept in bondage and serfdom may be brought to the enjoyment of the fullest freedom and liberty of conscience possible for intelligent men to exercise in the earth” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 409).

1 Nephi 13:19

“Delivered by the Power of God”

Elder Spencer W. Kimball spoke of the Lord’s hand in the preservation of the early colonists of America and their deliverance from an army that was seemingly far superior to them:

“I have a firm conviction that the Lord led the Pilgrims and the Puritans across the ocean, perhaps permitted the persecutions that would bring them here, so that when they came to the American shores with their righteous blood and their high ideals and standards, they would form the basis of a nation which would make possible the restoration of the gospel. I am sure that since there was not religious liberty, not political liberty here, the Lord permitted these few poorly-armed and ill-clad en at valley Forge and elsewhere to defeat a great army with its trained soldiery and its many mercenaries, a few against the many, but the few had on their side the Lord God of heaven. That gave them victory.

And there came political liberty and religious liberty with it, all in preparation for the day when a young boy would come forth and would seek and make contact with the Lord and open the doors of heaven again. Following the great manifestations to Joseph Smith came the opening of Cumorah Hill and the speaking of the dead from the dust” (C.R., Oct. 1950, 64).

I Nephi 13:17-19

“Their mother Gentiles were gathered….to battle against them.”

“Washington, during the….Revolutionary War…expressed himself repeatedly…That the American armies by themselves were altogether too weak to bring about the Independence…but that independence came as a gift of God to these American colonies” (Mark E. Peterson, BYU Speeches of the Year, February 20, 1968).

The translation process had done this. We know of lost books of the Bible and some manuscript changes in the New Testament. Joseph Smith said, “I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed errors” (Teachings, 327).

“Apparently the original manuscripts of the Bible disappeared very early. This seems particularly true of the New Testament. Sir Frederic Kenyon, one of the greatest textual scholars of the early twentieth century, commented thus: “The originals of the several books have long ago disappeared. They must have perished in the very infancy of the Church; for no allusion is ever made to them by any Christian writer.’ Kenyon’s statement is particularly important to us because it means that for centuries there has not been an original Bible manuscript to guide the reader. Even in the early decades of the original Christian church, the original texts seem to have been absent…

“As we read the words of the angel, we discover that the world never has had a complete Bible, for it was massively --- even cataclysmically --- corrupted before it was distributed.

There have been two processes at work:

1. A major, sudden, and deliberate editorial corruption of the text.

2. A gradual promulgation of variants that has occurred as a natural consequence of copying and translation.

(Robert J. Matthews, A Bible! A Bible! 1990, 74-75)

The Standard Works have been the principal means of restoring lost truths!

I Nephi 14:1

The restoration provides clarification. As prophesied, the rising sun of the Restoration melts away the icy stumbling blocks of false doctrines frozen in place over the centuries (Neal A. Maxwell, Not My Will, But Thine, 39).

Don’t forget!

We must know the Abrahamic Covenant!

Elder Bruce R. McConkie defined the church of the devil in the following way:

“The church of the devil is the world; it is all the carnality and evil to which fallen men is heir; it is every unholy and wicked practice; it is every false religion, every supposed system of salvation which does not actually save and exalt men in the highest heaven of the celestial world. It is every church except the true church, whether parading under a Christian or pagan banner. As Moroni will say in a later era of Nephite history, and we shall ascertain in our evaluation of Revelation 18:1-24, it is ‘secret combinations,’ oath-bound societies, and the great world force of Godless communism (DNTC 3:551).

I Nephi 14:13 A “Final Battle”

President Hugh B. Brown spoke of the “final battle” between Satan and his followers and the followers of God:

“I hope that every young man under the sound of my voice will resolve tonight, ‘I am going to keep myself clean. I am going to serve the Lord. I am going to prepare every way I can for future service, because I want to be prepared when the final battle shall come.’

“And some of you young men are going to engage in that battle. Some of you are going to engage in the final testing time, which is coming and which is close to us than we know” (C.R., Oct. 1967, 115).

I Nephi 14:14

“Armed with Righteousness”

To be armed with righteousness is to be armed with the power of God and to be worthy of the Lord’s protecting care. The Lord has made it clear that those who have “received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide” (D&C 45:57).

President Harold B. Lee taught:

“By faith in God you can be attuned to the Infinite and by power and wisdom obtained from your Heavenly Father harness the powers of the universe to serve you in your hour of need in the solution of problems too great for your human strength or intelligence” (Church News, 15 Aug. 1970, 2).

With the power of the priesthood, faith, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Saints of the last days will be armed sufficiently to withstand all opposition.

I Nephi 14:21-27

What is the book that John wrote about the last days?

“His mission as the writer of the Gospel and of the Book of Revelation was assigned to him hundreds of years before he was born. This knowledge was revealed to Nephi nearly six hundred years before the birth of Christ” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Man, His Origin and Destiny, 527).