Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

After experiencing great success preaching the gospel in Samaria, “the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” Doing as the angel commanded, Philip left Samaria and while traveling met “a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship.” Let’s revisit the topic of eunuchs really quick, just for an overview. I remember when I was in college, I took a class where the teacher was talking why parents would want their children to be eunuchs in past cultures. The professor basically said that having their testicles removed would mean that boys weren’t motivated by sex and the testosterone deficiency would make them less likely to steal and make them more honest. The professor said, “who do you want protecting your wife and dau...

7:1-4 - In the time following Stephen’s martyr, “there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.” Remembering that there was an encampment relatively close to Jerusalem where the followers of Christ lived the law of consecration, the persecutors, of which Saul was the main player, “made havoc of the church.” Saul went “into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” It makes it sound like Saul went door to door in Jerusalem, but any of the believers would have left Jerusalem to live with the other believers, so I think that all this is happening in the settlement of Christ’s followers. In addition to imprisonment, disciples of Christ suffered as “they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria… therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” The IM comments, “because of this persecution, many of the followers ...

With his face shining from transfiguration, Stephen continues testifying to this Jewish council that Jesus is the Christ. His words are a little bit difficult to follow, especially considering that he’s using Jewish culture and tradition to make his point, and I don’t know very much at all about that. The IM told us yesterday that the complaints against Stephen by the foreign Jews were that “his teachings that the coming of Jesus Christ had redefined basic Jewish concepts, the law of Moses, and the temple of Jerusalem.”  After reading both chapter 7 and the IM’s explanations, Stephen’s message seems to be “our Jewish religion has all been leading us up to accept Christ.” To illustrate this point, Stephen takes us back to Abraham and his back and forth journey through different lands, the covenants that God made to Abraham, such as the promised land and circumcision. He talks about Joseph being sold into Egypt and the mercies that God ...

Because of the courage and perspective of Gamaliel, the apostles were set free from the murderous intentions of the Jewish high council. With their freedom, the apostles continued “daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach of Jesus Christ.” Let’s also remember that those who had been converted to the gospel had gathered together in a spirit of common living. And let’s also remember that we are currently counting about 10,000 converts, even though surely not all of them moved into the new settlement. With only 12 men in charge of not only preaching the gospel to the whole world, but also taking care of the physical needs of those in the settlement, it was an overwhelming task. It came to a head with “a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.” The Grecians were “Greek-speaking Jewish-Christians,” and the Hebrews were “Palestinian ...

Peter stands before the Jewish leadership and boldly testifies that Jesus is the Christ, and as the council decides to kill the apostles, it appears that there is only one clear head in the entire room. A man “a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people,” stood up and said, “Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.” I take that to mean, “You are supposed to represent the true and living God, what do you think you are doing?” I’ve asked before when situations spiral out of control, “are we at the point of ridiculousness yet?” Like when Laman and Lemuel tie up Nephi and leave him to die in the desert because they are mad at him, you have to stop and think, “wait, can everyone just chill out for 2 minutes and not kill anybody?” I think that Gamaliel has gotten to that point right now, “can everybody just chill out for a sec?...

The apostles are stirring up a lot of energy outside of the temple, and the chief priests, mostly Sadducees, “were filled with indignation,” and arrested Peter and all who were with him, again. As they were in prison, “the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” In the tv show that I was watching about the apostles in the early church, the angel coming and letting the apostles out of jail was a very powerful scene. The interesting part is that the angel opened the door and let them out, but there was no show of strength or power, because the guards who went to inspect reported, “the prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.” In other circumstances, like with Alma and Amulek or with Nephi and Lehi, the prison walls shake with God...

In the work of running Christ’s church in his absence, Peter and the other apostles spent a lot of time in the temple, teaching the gospel of Jesus. Peter and John specifically had already been arrested once by the chief priests, but released with the command to not teach about Jesus anymore. The apostles chose not to follow that command and continued to teach the gospel and to heal and perform miracles for any who would believe. The people loved the apostles and were experiencing a massive amount of conversion, “and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” The word “added” is cross-referenced with Acts 2:47 which says describes the apostles as “praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” There are a couple of interesting points here, the first being that “Jesus” was the one adding people to the church, not the disciples. ...

The way in which Acts is written is interesting and I can definitely see how the speech pattern used here has influenced many of the other Christian writers and speakers throughout the centuries. Phrases are used like “thy holy child Jesus” several times, which is interesting because Jesus wasn’t a child when the disciples knew him. But the concept of “baby Jesus” or “holy child” are still widely known and used throughout the Christian world. These phrases are used in a prayer that Jesus’ disciples offer when Peter and John are released from prison and return home. These disciples pray “that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thing hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.” I would probably have prayed for the hearts of my enemies to be softened towards me, that’s my go-to for most things now. But they didn’t pray for the easy way, they pray...

As Peter and John are preaching to the people in the temple, the reaction of those who were listening was intense, on both sides. So powerful was their testimony of Jesus Christ that “many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.” 5,000 men converted today and 3,000 converted a few days ago on the day of Pentecost, not to mention their wives and children and friends and family. The ranks of believers have swelled from 120 to probably close to 10,000 in a few weeks, that’s an incredible feat. Just an interesting commentary on the power of the Holy Ghost to convert and teach. The negative reaction was equally forceful, because word spread about Peter and John’s message and “the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them” and arrested them and put them in prison overnight. The next morning, all the usual suspects are there, Annas, Caiaphas, the high priests, etc, and they a...

Verse 20 needs verse 19 for context, Peter urges them to repent and be converted “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.” I was confused at first because I was reading it to mean that if they repented, then God would send them Jesus, but that’s not the case. We have to keep in mind here that these people had extenuating circumstances so they weren’t eligible for baptism for the remission on sins because they had personally sought to murder the Savior. We aren’t promised to have Jesus with us when we repent, but when we repent and are baptized for the remission of sins and confirmed, then we have the Holy Ghost with us, which is the most important thing that we can have in the world. Verse 20 does give us some insight into just what the early Apostles knew and expected. They knew that...

There is this group of standing around Peter, John, and the guy that was just healed and Peter’s response to them is more nonchalant then I would have expected. He asks the people basically, “why are you guys surprised by this? Do you think that we did this through our own power?” Again, seeing the “Son of God” do miracles is one thing, but when a regular Joe-Shmoe is doing the same thing, then it sends a different message. Peter reminds them that it was through the power of “Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” He’s speaking to people in the temple which would surely consist of some of those who were complicit in Jesus’ death. Peter recognizes that “through ignorance ye have do...

As the “Praising God” that the disciples and Apostles did after receiving the Holy Ghost, we learned that much time was spent in the temple both because it was a sacred place and because they knew there would be people there who were searching for God. On once such occasion, Peter and John “went together into the temple… and a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.” This reminds me of what we just read about with the converts living together and having all things common among them. It occurs to me that if the Jewish leadership at the time were really living the Law of Moses, then this man shouldn’t have even been in the streets begging for money, he should have been cared for because of his need. Just like when the City of Enoch was translated, I remember it being described as having no poor, and I thought ...

2:37-38 - Peter is really letting the Jews at Jerusalem have it, testifying by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that they had a part in his murder. Like we talked about yesterday, the chief priests had assumed that once Jesus was dead that his following would be dead as well, but it would seem from the outside that after His death, Jesus’ message was even more powerful. We might attribute this to the fact that Jesus’ disciples now have the Holy Ghost and the power and authority that comes with it. We can also consider that the bonds of death were broken for the first time ever in human history. The chief priests had never had anyone they’ve killed come back from the dead before, and to all people, death was the ultimate silencer. Death ended people’s noble works and left them in the dust, and now that Jesus had conquered death and completed the atonement, he was given all power and authority from Heavenly Father. Jesus could now di...