Mormon 6 - 400th Post!!!
I can't believe that this is my 400th post! That's incredible. I heard an Ensign article yesterday entitled "His Power in My Life," that said, "Personal scripture study has the power to change and enrich our lives." I heard that and I thought, "you know what, that's really true because my deep study of the scriptures has changed my life." Who I am now is nothing like who I was when I started this blog. I know things and understand principles that have eluded me for years, it's been a miracle and I'm so grateful. This article was also for me personally, in that it spoke to my spirit about issues that I've been dealing with. Anyway, I'm grateful for this opportunity, it's been incredible and I highly recommend it.
6:1-8 - There are two missing discussion chapters in the HN collection and it's Mormon 6-7, so that's a bummer. The IM only has a little bit about this chapter so let's see how it goes. It's really quite a tragic opening, "And now I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites." Pretty final there. Mormon wanted to gather all his people to the hill Cumorah, and so he asked the Lamanite king, in a letter, if he could do that and the Lamanite king said yes. Mormon recognizes that he's pretty old at this point, I wonder how old he is exactly, so just doing some quick math here, he seems to be at least 60 years old, so yeah, that's pretty aged for a warrior. He had sent so long working on these plates, the abridgment, and he had "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," so he buries most of the records in the hill "save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni." Now here comes the most tragic part here, "And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them. And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers." I know that we've talked about the difference between facing the enemy knowing that God is on your side, as was with the Stripling Warriors, and facing the enemy knowing that you're on your own, like these Nephites have here. If we contrast the two groups, the SWs were not afraid to face their enemy, they knew it was very possible, even very likely, that they were going to die, and yet they were not afraid, they knew that if they believed and had faith, that they would be delivered by the power of God from the hands of their enemies. And they also knew that if they weren't delivered, and that if they did die, then they would go to their God. I don't think that it was even an thought that they might lose the war, that their parents and families would have been killed by their wicked enemies. They knew that they would be preserved and that the Lord would protect their families, even if they themselves died in the process. Very interesting. But here we have those who are terrified that they are going to be massacred, and honestly, they are about to, so it's a valid concern. Who has the power in these different situations? Who is the one who can look at even the most abhorrent death and say, "yeah ok, bring it," and who is terrified for their own lives and too selfish to not even be concerned with the destruction of their children. If I knew that I was fighting on the side of God, yeah I would be upset because of the possibility of the destruction of my family, but I would still trust God that the outcome would be according to his will. But if I was wicked and I knew, like apparently these Nephites did, that repentance would possibly spare the lives of my children, I would do anything. It's interesting because I had a thought recently while listening to something, it was talking about the differing degrees of glory, and that in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, marriage and family would be denied to those who lived there. This has always been a very difficult concept for me because, honestly, it's awful to think that those who will be there won't be allowed to be in relationships, but that doesn't reconcile with the Heavenly Father that I know and love, he wouldn't have two kingdoms full of people who desperately want to be together and he tells them no, that doesn't sound right at all. Then I thought about the principles that he operates on, and what our agency really is. I thought that he never tells anyone not to partake of his salvation, the family is ordained of God and if someone desperately wanted to be a part of a family, then my God wouldn't deny anyone of that. God has said that the family setting is the place where we learn and grow the best, it's where we become the best people that we can be. But it is not all rainbows and sunshine, it's work, it's really hard work, it's all about being selfless, putting the welfare of another before your own, service, sacrifice, and love, and there are a lot of people who just choose not to be a part of that setting. I think about some of the people that I know who have walked away from their families, or who have disengaged from them, who abuse family members, and here is an excellent example of that, the Nephites who know that repentance will bring safety to their children, but who still refuse. How can someone do that, honestly, stare into their terrified child's face as imminent death comes, and not turn to God for any kind of help, I don't understand that, I just can't. It occurred to me then, that those in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms will be deprived of families, not because they desperately want families and God is cruel, but because they don't want the headache and hassle of family and God is merciful. It's because they are too selfish to live functionally in families, the Lord gives us what we want, he says that many times, and if we don't want to be contributing members of families, then he doesn't force us to do that. Very interesting, this is of course all doctrine according to Amy. I've really thought a lot about this, are there really people out there like that? Is anyone really so selfish that they would rather live alone then in a family? And this chapter demonstrates that there are, clearly, people that selfish and wicked.
6:9-22 - Now there is just mass slaughter, thousands upon thousands of the Nephites are just massacred "with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war." I think they calculated that there were 250,000 Nephites that went to battle and only 24 of the came out of it, that's incredible! And what's even more incredible is that of those 24, one was Mormon and one "was my son Moroni." How statistically probably is that? For only 0.000096% of the population to survive, and two of those remaining 24 are the only two righteous people left on the entire continent? How likely is that? I always read that and thought, "how weird is it that Mormon and Moroni both survived the last battle, even though hundreds of thousands died along side of them?" I knew, even as a child, that that was statistically almost impossible. But as a student of the scriptures, it only makes sense that the Lord would preserve his only two righteous people left, so using that sliding scale there, it was almost guaranteed that they would survive up until this point, and for one of the two righteous to be the sole survivor of a large populous of destroyed people, makes total sense as well and only goes to demonstrate God's mighty power. The word problem goes like this, "If 250,000 Nephites go to battle and only 2 of them are righteous, when they are slaughtered until only 24 Nephites remain, statistically how many of them will be the righteous?" The answer, "statistically, none." The real answer, "both of them." It's incredible, the power of God to the protection of his righteous, this is actually quite empowering. Mormon and Moroni, "did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah... their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth." How horrific, just the shear amount of blood and carnage and death would be enough to send most people over the edge, but to actually know some of those people, which surely they did, and to have women and children, non combatants in the mix there, and to know that Mormon loved these people pretty much unconditionally, as we've heard many times, is almost too much to imagine. Mormon, understandably, was filled "with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return." The IM teaches, "Mormon mourned the death of his unrepentant people and sorrowed that they did not change their ways before their lives ended. If they had set aside their pride and repented of their sins, Mormon taught that their reunion with the Savior would have been joyful. We too must prepare ourselves to stand before the Lord at the judgment. President James E. Faust explained: 'We long for the ultimate blessing of the Atonement- to become one with Him, to be in His divine presence, to be called individually by name as He warmly welcomes us home with a radiant smile, beckoning us with open arms to be enfolded in His boundless love. How gloriously sublime this experience will be if we can feel worthy enough to be in His presence! The free gift of His great atoning sacrifice for each of us is the only way we can be exalted enough to stand before Him and see Him face-to-face. The overwhelming message of the Atonement is the perfect love of the Savior has for each and all of us. It is a love which is full of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering, and, above all, forgiving. The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope. In contrast, Jesus reaches down to us to lift us up. Through our repentance and the gift of the Atonement, we can prepare to be worthy to stand in His presence.'" The titled of that section is "Don't reject the Open Arms of Christ." I was thinking about this today as I was driving to work, I've been having a pretty difficult last few days, and as I've thought about the lessons and the constant companionship and the comfort that the Holy Ghost has given me, I know that this is a defining moment for me, I'm growing exponentially closer to the Savior right now. I thought back to all the times that I've struggled, well many times anyway, and I saw the Savior was always there, even when I openly rejected anything he had to say, but he was always there, trying to teach me, trying to comfort me. I remember a young women's lesson when I was in the presidency, and the teacher asked, "who can you always count on?" I said my friend and my sister, and it was someone else that said, "the Lord." I was ashamed of myself that I hadn't thought about that, but I was much younger, not as experienced in turning to the Lord, but now, now I know that I can always depend on the Lord. I can always depend on him to work in my best interest, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time, it's interesting because as a family today we read 2 Nephi 26, and many of the concepts covered in that go right along with what I'm learning about here, it's like I'm doing complimentary study, completely unplanned on my part. But in 2 Nephi 26:24 Nephi tells me that God "doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." I can trust God to always have my eternal welfare at the heart of his will. I can always trust the Lord to be there for me when I need him, even though I can't call him on the phone or email him, He consistently talks to me through scripture, through the Holy Ghost, through the messages of others, through the teachings of the prophets. He does this for me all the time, like several times a day. I'm not perfect, not even close, I'm probably not even very good, but I try, I'm trying as hard as I can and the Lord accepts my offering, and I'm grateful.
6:1-8 - There are two missing discussion chapters in the HN collection and it's Mormon 6-7, so that's a bummer. The IM only has a little bit about this chapter so let's see how it goes. It's really quite a tragic opening, "And now I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites." Pretty final there. Mormon wanted to gather all his people to the hill Cumorah, and so he asked the Lamanite king, in a letter, if he could do that and the Lamanite king said yes. Mormon recognizes that he's pretty old at this point, I wonder how old he is exactly, so just doing some quick math here, he seems to be at least 60 years old, so yeah, that's pretty aged for a warrior. He had sent so long working on these plates, the abridgment, and he had "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," so he buries most of the records in the hill "save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni." Now here comes the most tragic part here, "And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them. And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers." I know that we've talked about the difference between facing the enemy knowing that God is on your side, as was with the Stripling Warriors, and facing the enemy knowing that you're on your own, like these Nephites have here. If we contrast the two groups, the SWs were not afraid to face their enemy, they knew it was very possible, even very likely, that they were going to die, and yet they were not afraid, they knew that if they believed and had faith, that they would be delivered by the power of God from the hands of their enemies. And they also knew that if they weren't delivered, and that if they did die, then they would go to their God. I don't think that it was even an thought that they might lose the war, that their parents and families would have been killed by their wicked enemies. They knew that they would be preserved and that the Lord would protect their families, even if they themselves died in the process. Very interesting. But here we have those who are terrified that they are going to be massacred, and honestly, they are about to, so it's a valid concern. Who has the power in these different situations? Who is the one who can look at even the most abhorrent death and say, "yeah ok, bring it," and who is terrified for their own lives and too selfish to not even be concerned with the destruction of their children. If I knew that I was fighting on the side of God, yeah I would be upset because of the possibility of the destruction of my family, but I would still trust God that the outcome would be according to his will. But if I was wicked and I knew, like apparently these Nephites did, that repentance would possibly spare the lives of my children, I would do anything. It's interesting because I had a thought recently while listening to something, it was talking about the differing degrees of glory, and that in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, marriage and family would be denied to those who lived there. This has always been a very difficult concept for me because, honestly, it's awful to think that those who will be there won't be allowed to be in relationships, but that doesn't reconcile with the Heavenly Father that I know and love, he wouldn't have two kingdoms full of people who desperately want to be together and he tells them no, that doesn't sound right at all. Then I thought about the principles that he operates on, and what our agency really is. I thought that he never tells anyone not to partake of his salvation, the family is ordained of God and if someone desperately wanted to be a part of a family, then my God wouldn't deny anyone of that. God has said that the family setting is the place where we learn and grow the best, it's where we become the best people that we can be. But it is not all rainbows and sunshine, it's work, it's really hard work, it's all about being selfless, putting the welfare of another before your own, service, sacrifice, and love, and there are a lot of people who just choose not to be a part of that setting. I think about some of the people that I know who have walked away from their families, or who have disengaged from them, who abuse family members, and here is an excellent example of that, the Nephites who know that repentance will bring safety to their children, but who still refuse. How can someone do that, honestly, stare into their terrified child's face as imminent death comes, and not turn to God for any kind of help, I don't understand that, I just can't. It occurred to me then, that those in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms will be deprived of families, not because they desperately want families and God is cruel, but because they don't want the headache and hassle of family and God is merciful. It's because they are too selfish to live functionally in families, the Lord gives us what we want, he says that many times, and if we don't want to be contributing members of families, then he doesn't force us to do that. Very interesting, this is of course all doctrine according to Amy. I've really thought a lot about this, are there really people out there like that? Is anyone really so selfish that they would rather live alone then in a family? And this chapter demonstrates that there are, clearly, people that selfish and wicked.
6:9-22 - Now there is just mass slaughter, thousands upon thousands of the Nephites are just massacred "with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war." I think they calculated that there were 250,000 Nephites that went to battle and only 24 of the came out of it, that's incredible! And what's even more incredible is that of those 24, one was Mormon and one "was my son Moroni." How statistically probably is that? For only 0.000096% of the population to survive, and two of those remaining 24 are the only two righteous people left on the entire continent? How likely is that? I always read that and thought, "how weird is it that Mormon and Moroni both survived the last battle, even though hundreds of thousands died along side of them?" I knew, even as a child, that that was statistically almost impossible. But as a student of the scriptures, it only makes sense that the Lord would preserve his only two righteous people left, so using that sliding scale there, it was almost guaranteed that they would survive up until this point, and for one of the two righteous to be the sole survivor of a large populous of destroyed people, makes total sense as well and only goes to demonstrate God's mighty power. The word problem goes like this, "If 250,000 Nephites go to battle and only 2 of them are righteous, when they are slaughtered until only 24 Nephites remain, statistically how many of them will be the righteous?" The answer, "statistically, none." The real answer, "both of them." It's incredible, the power of God to the protection of his righteous, this is actually quite empowering. Mormon and Moroni, "did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah... their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth." How horrific, just the shear amount of blood and carnage and death would be enough to send most people over the edge, but to actually know some of those people, which surely they did, and to have women and children, non combatants in the mix there, and to know that Mormon loved these people pretty much unconditionally, as we've heard many times, is almost too much to imagine. Mormon, understandably, was filled "with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return." The IM teaches, "Mormon mourned the death of his unrepentant people and sorrowed that they did not change their ways before their lives ended. If they had set aside their pride and repented of their sins, Mormon taught that their reunion with the Savior would have been joyful. We too must prepare ourselves to stand before the Lord at the judgment. President James E. Faust explained: 'We long for the ultimate blessing of the Atonement- to become one with Him, to be in His divine presence, to be called individually by name as He warmly welcomes us home with a radiant smile, beckoning us with open arms to be enfolded in His boundless love. How gloriously sublime this experience will be if we can feel worthy enough to be in His presence! The free gift of His great atoning sacrifice for each of us is the only way we can be exalted enough to stand before Him and see Him face-to-face. The overwhelming message of the Atonement is the perfect love of the Savior has for each and all of us. It is a love which is full of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering, and, above all, forgiving. The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope. In contrast, Jesus reaches down to us to lift us up. Through our repentance and the gift of the Atonement, we can prepare to be worthy to stand in His presence.'" The titled of that section is "Don't reject the Open Arms of Christ." I was thinking about this today as I was driving to work, I've been having a pretty difficult last few days, and as I've thought about the lessons and the constant companionship and the comfort that the Holy Ghost has given me, I know that this is a defining moment for me, I'm growing exponentially closer to the Savior right now. I thought back to all the times that I've struggled, well many times anyway, and I saw the Savior was always there, even when I openly rejected anything he had to say, but he was always there, trying to teach me, trying to comfort me. I remember a young women's lesson when I was in the presidency, and the teacher asked, "who can you always count on?" I said my friend and my sister, and it was someone else that said, "the Lord." I was ashamed of myself that I hadn't thought about that, but I was much younger, not as experienced in turning to the Lord, but now, now I know that I can always depend on the Lord. I can always depend on him to work in my best interest, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time, it's interesting because as a family today we read 2 Nephi 26, and many of the concepts covered in that go right along with what I'm learning about here, it's like I'm doing complimentary study, completely unplanned on my part. But in 2 Nephi 26:24 Nephi tells me that God "doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." I can trust God to always have my eternal welfare at the heart of his will. I can always trust the Lord to be there for me when I need him, even though I can't call him on the phone or email him, He consistently talks to me through scripture, through the Holy Ghost, through the messages of others, through the teachings of the prophets. He does this for me all the time, like several times a day. I'm not perfect, not even close, I'm probably not even very good, but I try, I'm trying as hard as I can and the Lord accepts my offering, and I'm grateful.
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