Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

16:1-8 - Samuel’s message was heard by many people and their reactions were varied. Some believed his words and those who did “went forth and sought for Nephi; and when they had come forth and found him they confessed unto him their sins and denied not, desiring that they might be baptized unto the Lord.” I had never considered this fact, but Hugh Nibley reminds us that they sought out Nephi because “he was the one who had authority to do it. So they didn’t go to Samuel; they went to Nephi after they heard the preaching o Samuel.” It’s interesting because I had never considered this as being a significant point, but when I heard this it made me think about those who are saying that the contribution of women in the church isn’t significant because they don’t hold the priesthood, and I was thinking, Samuel taught them amazing things, and Nephi had the authority to baptize them, it was a team effort they were both needed to accomplish the works of the Lord, so in the end, who’s better? S...

15:1-4 - We start off in a kind of different place, Samuel is now telling the Nephites what will happen if they don’t repent and it’s some pretty scary stuff, “your houses shall be left unto you desolate.” It’s interesting to me that he goes right to the home first, and I mean really it is where the people live whom his audience loves most, usually, their family. This phrase can mentally send all those who can hear his voice to their homes where conquerors have come in a destroyed everything and murdered everyone, this is hard hitting, if anyone is soft hearted even a little bit this should knock the wind out of them. The next verse really hits home as far as family goes, “yea, except ye repent, your women shall have great cause to mourn in the day that they shall give suck; for ye shall attempt to flee and there shall be no place for refuge; yea, and wo unto them which are with child, for they shall be heavy and cannot flee; therefore, they shall be trodden down and...

14:14-18 -Samuel has given us the signs of Christ’s birth but he also continues with the signs of His death, and an explanation of why He must die for “he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord.” How does the Savior dying give us the resurrection and bring us back into the presence of God? The answer is the Atonement, and deals with all three deaths that we experience in our existence. First, the resurrection, the physical death that befalls all men because of the fall of Adam. Adam was immortal in the garden of eden and would have remained so without sin, but because Adam and Even partook of the forbidden fruit, which ironically both allowed them to have children but only mortal children, children who were subject to death, as I believe that their immortal bodies were not capable of having children, so we all were bo...

14:1-13 - Samuel is continuing his teaches here and "did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written." He then begins to preach, as the IM describes "One of the most specific prophecies in scripture is the one by Samuel concerning the birth and death of Jesus Christ." The IM has also made these charts that I found pretty interesting. He tells of "a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld." But we also hear of the "one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born." We know from the scriptures that in the Eastern Hemisphere they saw the new star, but that was their sign, we know that the wise men in the east saw and fol...

13:24-29 - Samuel now confronts the people with their complete and utter rejection of the prophets who have come to call them to repentance. He accuses the people of saying “If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.” Hindsight is always 20/20, it’s so easy to look back and say “oh yeah that guy was a prophet because his prophesies came true. Interestingly, I heard a quote today that really fits in here that says something like “as a society we celebrate living conformists and deceased trouble makers.” This is applicable to this case because we “admire” or at least accept those who went against the grain, such as prophets condemning wickedness, but we don’t want to hear it right now, don’t come into our time and tell us to change. Hugh Nibley teaches “Now we come to a very important thing. It looks just like routine platitudes about self-righteousness and the like, but this is a very, v...

13:1-3 - Today we are introduced to Samuel the Lamanite, the intro to this chapter in the IM teaches "The gospel of Jesus Christ offers all people the opportunity to change. Throughout much of the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites' 'deeds (had) been evil;' however, 'the preaching of the Nephites' led 'the more part of them' to receive the gospel and experience a mighty change of heart. Here in the book of Helaman is an obvious reversal of roles- a people who had once been taught became the teachers. many Nephites, on the other hand, had become prideful and ignored their own prophets, so the Lord sent a Lamanite prophet to warm them to repent and prepare for the coming of the Lord. Look for the Nephites' collective and individual response to the Lord's Lamanites messenger. Samuel's words were important enough to the Savior that He endorsed then during His personal ministry in the Americans and testified they had all been fulfilled." The Ne...

12:1-6 - This chapter is a reflection of Mormon as he evaluates where we left off, which is the people bring very wicked, ripening for destruction. Hugh Nibley calls this “wisdom literature.” The IM quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as asking the reason for “the Unsteadiness of Men,” “Is it simply unintended forgetfulness? Or is it a failure of intellectual integrity by our refusing to review and to acknowledge past blessings? Or is it a lack of meekness which requires the repetition of such stern lessons, because we neglect the milder and gentler signs beckoning us to ‘remember Him’?... We need the Spirit daily to help us remember daily. Otherwise memory lapses will occur when we are most vulnerable. It is not natural to the natural man to remember yesterday’s blessings gratefully, especially when today’s needs of the flesh press steadily upon him.” I’m really moved by the “we don’t listen to the mild nudges so we need more aggressive reminders to repent.” Like I said, I don’t like to be...