3 Nephi 6:10-30
6:10-13 - We are now a few years out from the great war and “there began to be some disputings among the people; and some were lifted up unto pride and boastings because of their exceedingly great riches, yea, even unto great persecutions.” With the reconstruction and the repentance of the people, there was prospering and rebuilding, and lots of money to go around, but it occurs to me that HN mentioned many times about the law of consecration being the standard at that time, so it would make sense that making “ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning” would cause the church to be broken up. It was kind of hard for me to understand at first because the only way I’m familiar with is the way that we have now, some people at church dress nicely, drive fancy cars, wear lots of make up or jewelry, some judge or talk down to others, this is standard for where we are today, so I couldn’t understand how that would cause the church to be broken up, since ours is ok. But if taken in the context of the united order, it would make sense that by not participating when they had previously committed to could cause enormous amounts of social dissonance. Interestingly, as Mormon expands on the education aspect of this shift he says that “some were ignorant because of their poverty,” this has proven true in our day as well, “and others did receive great learning because of their riches,” this also might make sense but HN taught about the way education is these days vs. what it used to be. He says that people used to go to school to gain knowledge and wisdom and they would pay any price because learning was so valuable, so it used to be that only the rich could afford to become educated, rich then educated. But these days he says that people pursue education so that they can get better jobs and make more money, the motivation is money, not wisdom and knowledge, so these days being educated precedes rich. We have a new and varied social structure here among the people and of course it became hostile, and there were persecutions all around and “some did return railing for railing, while others would receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions, and would not turn and revile again, but were humble and penitent before God.” Notice here that it says they were humble and penitent before God, not the people who were persecuting them. When we were reading this as a family, we talked about what this means and I had to tell my kids “you know how sometimes I get mad at people and freak out?” “Yeah mom, you do that a lot,” “I try really hard not to do that, but I struggle with it a lot. This verse is basically saying that when someone is mean to you, some people went crazy fighting back and others just took it and trusted Jesus to take care of it.” So we ended up later getting into it with someone and I think it was my kids who were like “Mom remember the scriptures!” And even today I had gotten into it with like two different people at work and then when I realized that I was going to deal with this verse today and I had to think “what should I have done in this situation instead of what I did.” I came up with a few ideas, things I probably should have done and I will have to do that next time. I guess it comes down to pride, right? I’m definitely guilty of that. The IM teaches “During the years immediately prior to the Savior’s personal ministry among the Nephites, the people enjoy a period of brief prosperity. Unfortunately, this temporal success led to ‘pride and boating because of their exceedingly great riches. President Henry B. Eyring warned about such challenges in our day: ‘I little prosperity and peace, or even a turn slightly for the better, can bring us feelings of self-sufficiency. We can feel quickly that we are in control of our lives, that the change for the better is our own doing, not that of a God who communicates to us through the still, small voice of the Spirit. Pride creates a noise within us which makes the quiet voice of the Spirit hard to hear. And soon, in our vanity, we no longer even listen for it. We can come quickly to think we don’t need it.’ Several times in Book of Mormon history the people passed through a cycle of righteousness, prosperity, riches, pride, wickedness, destruction, humility, and righteousness again.” Just because this is the most common occurrence of our human condition doesn’t mean that it has to be like that, I think it’s possible to be prosperous and humble at the same time, because really, they aren’t even related, they are mutually exclusive, our blessings and the way we treat others or how we act towards God don’t go together, the latter should be a constant while the former is the variable, not the other way around. The IM continues by quoting Elder Marvin J. Ashton as teaching “Certainly one of our God-given privileges is the right to choose what our attitude will be in any given set of circumstances. We can let the events that surround us determine our actions- or we can personally take charge and rule our lives, using as guidelines the principles of pure religion. Pure religion is learning the gospel of Jesus Christ and then putting it into action. Nothing will ever be of real benefit to us until it is incorporated into our own lives.” Here we have two important points that were discussed earlier, first that our attitude, actions, and responses will depend on the level which we have incorporated “pure religion” into our lives, we decide what and how we feel, nothing or no one else. Second is that the way in which we lives our lives and treat others is not in any way related to our blessings, in that the more or less we have should not dictate our devotion to the gospel and all other aspects of our lives regarding that.
6:14-19 - We are given an example of this before mentioned concepts by “a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.” It doesn’t mention the social or temporal status or belonging, surely they were doing just as well as everyone else, and even if they weren’t there is no jealousy or anger or fighting back going on with them. HN also suggests that this means that these faithful Lamanites continued to practice the law of consecration, just a thought there. At the coming of the 30th year, just 4 years after the great big war “they were in a state of awful wickedness.” Mormon reminds us that the people did not sin ignorantly, they had been fully converted only 4 years previously. The IM quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching “Surely it should give us more pause than it does to think of how casually we sometimes give to (Satan) who could not control us own ego in the premortal world such awful control over our egos here. We often let the adversary do indirectly not what we refused to let him do directly then.” That’s interesting, in the preexistence Satan wanted to take away our agency, and we wouldn’t let him, but now he traps us little by little, we hand over our ability to make choices every time we sin. The IM also quotes Elder M. Russell Ballard as teaching “In the premortal world before we left the presence of Heavenly Father, He warned and cautioned us about new experiences we would have in mortality. We knew that we each would have a physical body of flesh and bone. Never having been mortal before, we had no experience dealing with the temptations of mortality. But Heavenly Father knew and understood. He charged us to control our mortal bodies and to make them subject to our spirits. Our spirits would have to master the physical temptations that our bodies would encounter in a temporal world. Spiritual power over the influence of Satan comes to us by keeping the commandments of our Lord, Jesus Christ… Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strengths. But his promises of pleasure are short-lived deceptions. His evil design is to tempt us into sinning, knowing that when we sin we separate ourselves from our Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ. We begin to move away from Heavenly Father’s promised blessings toward the misery and anguish in which Satan and his followers languish. By sinning we put ourselves in Satan’s power. Now, my dear young friends, I understand the struggles you face every day in keeping the commandments of the Lord. The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning. However, you have within your physical body the powerful spirit son or daughter of God. Because He loves you and wants you to come home to Him, our Father in Heaven has given you a conscience that tells your spirit when you are keeping the Lord’s commandments and when you are not. If you will pay more attention to your spiritual self, when it eternal, than to your mortal self, which is temporary, you can always resist the temptations of Satan and conquer his efforts to take you into his power.” That’s an interesting concept, paying more attention to my spiritual self then my physical self. If we remember who we are, why were really here, and who the real enemy is, then we will be stronger and more able to resist temptation.
6:20-30 - With the deplorable state of the people and their rapid downfall, “there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, standing among the people in all the land, preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people.” HN commented on this something to the effect of “there are two groups of people, those who lead and those who follow. The people in charge call those who lead trouble makers.” We have heaven sending out these people inspired by God to preach to the people and it’s not received well “and those who were angry were chiefly the chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers.” It’s always those who are in power positions during the wicked times that hate the prophets, but the question is what to do? Do they recognize the truth in the message sent from God, repent and change their ways? Well, that’s one option. Do they simply carry on what they are doing and ignore the prophets, hoping that the people won’t listen to them either? Nope, doesn’t look like they did that either. It turns out that, because they prophets weren’t guilty of any crime, the only solution, these wicked people aw was to take them and have them “put to death secretly by the judges, that the knowledge of their death came not unto the governor of the land until after their death.” Now that is pretty extreme, in 4 years going from conversion to murdering the prophets? Yeah, that’s bad, because if we remember killing the prophets was one of the last corner stones in a people being ripe for destruction if I remember correctly. Killing innocent people not only was awful for those who were killed, but it also made for a dangerous society in which there really were no rules so the regular townsfolk made “a complaint… against these judges who had condemned the prophets of the Lord unto death, not according to the law.” Well good for the people, they were standing up and saying “this isn’t right,” if not because they believed the prophets, at least because they wanted to maintain that order that had been established. It would only make sense that after these judges were brought to answer for their crimes that they be punished and order established again in the land right? But wait, this is a land where wickedness prevails, even amongst many of the common folk, and “those judges had many friends and kindreds; and the remainder, yea, even almost all the lawyers and the high priests, did gather themselves together, and unite with the kindreds of those judges who were to be tried according to the law.” So the judges had friends in high places and they basically got out of jail free “and they did enter into a covenant one with another, yea, even into that covenant which was given by them of old, which covenant was given and administered by the devil, to combine against all righteousness. Therefore they did combine against the people of the Lord, and enter into a covenant to destroy them, and to deliver those who were guilty of murder from the grasp of justice, which was about to be administered according to the law. And they did set at defiance the law and the rights of their country; and they did covenant one with another to destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land, that the land should no more be at liberty but should be subject unto kings. ” Only 4 years after they eradicated the GRs from among them, they are now back into secret combinations, they are back to seeking to destroy the government. It didn’t take long at all. HN says that this chapter is the all-encompassing chapter, that if there were nothing else in the Book of Mormon, this chapter would have it all, and I’m beginning to see what he means by that. While this chapter isn’t overly long, it is very content heavy.
6:14-19 - We are given an example of this before mentioned concepts by “a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.” It doesn’t mention the social or temporal status or belonging, surely they were doing just as well as everyone else, and even if they weren’t there is no jealousy or anger or fighting back going on with them. HN also suggests that this means that these faithful Lamanites continued to practice the law of consecration, just a thought there. At the coming of the 30th year, just 4 years after the great big war “they were in a state of awful wickedness.” Mormon reminds us that the people did not sin ignorantly, they had been fully converted only 4 years previously. The IM quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching “Surely it should give us more pause than it does to think of how casually we sometimes give to (Satan) who could not control us own ego in the premortal world such awful control over our egos here. We often let the adversary do indirectly not what we refused to let him do directly then.” That’s interesting, in the preexistence Satan wanted to take away our agency, and we wouldn’t let him, but now he traps us little by little, we hand over our ability to make choices every time we sin. The IM also quotes Elder M. Russell Ballard as teaching “In the premortal world before we left the presence of Heavenly Father, He warned and cautioned us about new experiences we would have in mortality. We knew that we each would have a physical body of flesh and bone. Never having been mortal before, we had no experience dealing with the temptations of mortality. But Heavenly Father knew and understood. He charged us to control our mortal bodies and to make them subject to our spirits. Our spirits would have to master the physical temptations that our bodies would encounter in a temporal world. Spiritual power over the influence of Satan comes to us by keeping the commandments of our Lord, Jesus Christ… Satan will seek to tempt us at times and in ways that exploit our greatest weaknesses or destroy our strengths. But his promises of pleasure are short-lived deceptions. His evil design is to tempt us into sinning, knowing that when we sin we separate ourselves from our Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ. We begin to move away from Heavenly Father’s promised blessings toward the misery and anguish in which Satan and his followers languish. By sinning we put ourselves in Satan’s power. Now, my dear young friends, I understand the struggles you face every day in keeping the commandments of the Lord. The battle for your souls is increasingly fierce. The adversary is strong and cunning. However, you have within your physical body the powerful spirit son or daughter of God. Because He loves you and wants you to come home to Him, our Father in Heaven has given you a conscience that tells your spirit when you are keeping the Lord’s commandments and when you are not. If you will pay more attention to your spiritual self, when it eternal, than to your mortal self, which is temporary, you can always resist the temptations of Satan and conquer his efforts to take you into his power.” That’s an interesting concept, paying more attention to my spiritual self then my physical self. If we remember who we are, why were really here, and who the real enemy is, then we will be stronger and more able to resist temptation.
6:20-30 - With the deplorable state of the people and their rapid downfall, “there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, standing among the people in all the land, preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people.” HN commented on this something to the effect of “there are two groups of people, those who lead and those who follow. The people in charge call those who lead trouble makers.” We have heaven sending out these people inspired by God to preach to the people and it’s not received well “and those who were angry were chiefly the chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers.” It’s always those who are in power positions during the wicked times that hate the prophets, but the question is what to do? Do they recognize the truth in the message sent from God, repent and change their ways? Well, that’s one option. Do they simply carry on what they are doing and ignore the prophets, hoping that the people won’t listen to them either? Nope, doesn’t look like they did that either. It turns out that, because they prophets weren’t guilty of any crime, the only solution, these wicked people aw was to take them and have them “put to death secretly by the judges, that the knowledge of their death came not unto the governor of the land until after their death.” Now that is pretty extreme, in 4 years going from conversion to murdering the prophets? Yeah, that’s bad, because if we remember killing the prophets was one of the last corner stones in a people being ripe for destruction if I remember correctly. Killing innocent people not only was awful for those who were killed, but it also made for a dangerous society in which there really were no rules so the regular townsfolk made “a complaint… against these judges who had condemned the prophets of the Lord unto death, not according to the law.” Well good for the people, they were standing up and saying “this isn’t right,” if not because they believed the prophets, at least because they wanted to maintain that order that had been established. It would only make sense that after these judges were brought to answer for their crimes that they be punished and order established again in the land right? But wait, this is a land where wickedness prevails, even amongst many of the common folk, and “those judges had many friends and kindreds; and the remainder, yea, even almost all the lawyers and the high priests, did gather themselves together, and unite with the kindreds of those judges who were to be tried according to the law.” So the judges had friends in high places and they basically got out of jail free “and they did enter into a covenant one with another, yea, even into that covenant which was given by them of old, which covenant was given and administered by the devil, to combine against all righteousness. Therefore they did combine against the people of the Lord, and enter into a covenant to destroy them, and to deliver those who were guilty of murder from the grasp of justice, which was about to be administered according to the law. And they did set at defiance the law and the rights of their country; and they did covenant one with another to destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land, that the land should no more be at liberty but should be subject unto kings. ” Only 4 years after they eradicated the GRs from among them, they are now back into secret combinations, they are back to seeking to destroy the government. It didn’t take long at all. HN says that this chapter is the all-encompassing chapter, that if there were nothing else in the Book of Mormon, this chapter would have it all, and I’m beginning to see what he means by that. While this chapter isn’t overly long, it is very content heavy.
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