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. ...