Great and Abominable Church . . . and other stuff

Reading: 1 Ne 12-14

These chapters are a continuation of the dream/vision that Nephi had, which is in response to the dream that his father, Lehi, had about the tree of life.  This portion of the dream has some similarities with the information that John the Revelator gave in the book of Revelations, and is, in fact, apocalyptic, or having to do with the history and future of the world.

Before I proceed further I must send you to a really, really, really great article written by Stephen Robinson, a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU.  His article changed the way I thought about how I view religious events in history and the future:

"Warring against the Saints of God,"  found in the Ensign, January 1988

1 Ne 13:4-9 states some of the characteristics of the great and abominable church.  The context is Jerusalem, right after the death of the Savior and the death of the set apart 12 apostles. Stephen Robinson compares the words Nephi uses to describe the great and abominable church, to the words John uses to describe Babylon (I copied and pasted from his article for brevity) :

1. It persecutes, tortures, and slays the Saints of God. (See 1 Ne. 13:5, Rev. 17:6; Rev. 18:24.)

2. It seeks wealth and luxury. (See 1 Ne. 13:7–8, Rev. 17:4; Rev. 18:3, 11–16.)

3. It is characterized by sexual immorality. (See 1 Ne. 13:7, Rev. 17:1–2, 5.)

4. It has excised plain and precious things from the scriptures. (See 1 Ne. 13:26–29.)

5. It has dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. (See 1 Ne. 14:11, Rev. 17:15, 18; Rev. 18:3, 23–24.)

6. Its fate is to be consumed by a world war, when the nations it incites against the Saints war among themselves until the great and abominable church itself is destroyed. (See 1 Ne. 22:13–14, Rev. 17:14–16; Rev. 18:23.)

The one difference is that Nephi sees that the great church takes away plain and precious things from the Bible, which Brother Robinson says makes sense, since John was actually writing some of the things that would be taken out.

Brother Robinson also concludes that the church mentioned in Capter 13 is actually a real entity, but it's name or really anything about it other than they were anti-Christ is not known.  Here is what I shared with my class concerning the subject:

"In 1 Nephi 13, the great and abominable church is one specific church among many. Nephi’s description of it as “most abominable above all other churches” (1 Ne. 13:5, 26) does not make sense otherwise. Moreover, the great and abominable church in chapter 13 has a specific historical description: it was formed among the Gentiles after the Jews transmitted the Bible in its purity to the Gentiles. (1 Ne. 13:26.) It is also the specific historical agent responsible for excising plain and precious truths from the scriptural record.

This period might be called the blind spot in Christian history, for it is here that the fewest primary historical sources have been preserved. That different [church] can accurately be described as hellenized Christianity.

The hellenization of Christianity is a phenomenon that scholars of Christian history have long recognized. Hellenization refers to the imposition of Greek culture and philosophy upon the cultures of the East. The result was a synthesis of East and West, a melting pot of popular culture that was virtually worldwide. In the realm of religion, however, synthesis means compromise, and when we speak in terms of the gospel, compromise with popular beliefs means apostasy from the truth.

When Jewish Christianity and Greek culture met head-on in the gentile mission field in the middle of the first century, a great battle of beliefs and life-styles arose. The Greeks’ world-view eventually won, and Jewish Christianity was revised to make it more attractive and appealing to a Greek audience.

In order to satisfy the Gentiles steeped in Greek philosophy, Christianity had to throw out the doctrines of an anthropomorphic God [a God with a body] and the resurrection of the dead, or reinterpret them drastically."  Which is what Paul fought against so forcefully.

Nephi sees a number of other things including the settlement of the Americas by a man (later identified as Columbus) and the revolutionary war and that the immigrants brought with them the Bible that had plain and precious truth missing from it's doctrine.

Those truths are restored with the coming forth of The Book of Mormon and it's doctrines.

What truths are restored?

Namely the ones that were taken by hellenized Christianity: that there was in fact a Christ, and that he was resurrected.  Two essential truths to understanding the plan of God for us. In addition to those things, there are other plain and precious truths restored in the pages of and because of the doctrines in The Book of Mormon: proper baptism with proper authority, more detail of the atonement, what happens after this life, how to live the commandments in this life, how to live the higher law that Christ gave during his earthly ministry, that one can receive personal revelation, service, charity and much more.

This does not mean the Bible does not contain these doctrines, it does and we would know Christ without it, obviously.  But The Book of Mormon, as it says on the cover, is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."  It does testify of Christ and it does this via the inhabitants on the American continents.  Same doctrine, but different people and experiences bring different perspective and in some cases, more clarity to Christian doctrines.

1 Ne 13:40-41 states the purpose of The Book of Mormon (vs 26-41 gives the whole picture)

In chapter 14, Nephi again recognizes a great and abominable church, but in a more general manner.  Same characteristics, but not narrowed down to a specific church.  It's pretty much anything that is evil or leads someone to do evil and the founder is the Devil, who by the way, doesn't care one stitch for your true happiness.

Verses 8-14 say that the Devil's church is over all the earth and that there are little pockets of Saints throughout the world.  

"It came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were ^aarmedwith ^brighteousness and with the ^cpower of God in great glory."

The way to protect ourselves from the power of the Devil is to be a covenant people, that is, we make promises to God and He makes promises to us and acting upon those promises will provide protection during and after it's all over.

Brother Robinson stresses again, that this is more a matter of your heart than it is what church you are a member of

"In either the apocalyptic sense or the historical sense, individual orientation to the Church of the Lamb or to the great and abominable church is not by membership but by loyalty. Just as there [are] Latter-day Saints who belong to the great and abominable church because of their loyalty to Satan and his life-style, so there are members of other churches who belong to the Lamb because of their loyalty to him and his life-style. Membership is based more on who has your heart than on who has your records."

It seems to me that Lehi, Nephi, John and other have visions such as these to encourage us to be prepared for opposition.  We need to know the characteristics of opposition, so that we can choose between right and wrong.  We also need be ahead of the game with our spiritual strength, knowledge and faith so that when opposition comes (in all it's many, many general and personal forms), we are not caught clinging to what we have heard or may have been taught, but that we know where to find our strength, having had experiences with it beforehand, are "continually holding fast" (as Lehi says) to the doctrines of eternal truths.

A vision of directions

Reading 1 Nephi 8-11: 12:16-18; 15  (This link starts at chapter 8, you can flip throught chapters as you like)

We are going to talk about two visions today, both have the same subject matter but they give different information regarding the subject.  As I studied these chapters a verse from the book of John kept coming to me. It is after the resurrection of the Lord, one of the times he showed himself to his apostles.  Thomas, who at first didn’t believe it was the Lord, felt the prints in his hands and side and was assured of the Christ.

John 20:29

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Although we have not seen the vision ourselves, like Lehi and Nephi, they paint a clear enough picture for us to be able to feel the spirit, so that we may believe on their words.

Here is a quick review of the components of the visions and their meaning:

These components are found in Ch 8 of 1 Nephi from around v 7 – v 26, there are a few other components in other chapters and I will make sure we include those.

V 7 – dark and dreary waste (film before clarity in the dream)

V 9 – large and spacious field (world – the chalkboard)

V 10 – tree and fruit (love of God 11:22, but partaking of the fruit is “receiving of the ordinances and covenants whereby the atonement can become fully efficacious in our lives”– Elder Bednar, “Lehi’s Dream: Holding Fast to the Rod”)

V 13 – river of water, along the tree, 1 Ne 12:16 indicates filthy water that begins with a fountain and extends into a river, 8:17 indicates that the head of the river is away from the tree

V 19 – rod of iron that led to the tree (by the bank of the river), 11:25 - the word of God, scriptures, personal revelation, words of the prophets.

V20 – straight and narrow path, by the iron rod, going to the tree, “by the head of the fountain, unto a large a spacious field, as if it had been a world.”  Can you go beyond the tree? Yes.  I believe this is what the scriptures refer to as "adding to or taking away from" the doctrine of Christ.  There is no interpretation for the straight and narrow path, it is self-explanatory.  2 Ne 31:18 indicates that there is a gate to the path and it is following the Savior’s example in baptism.

            This fountain is referred to in Ch. 11:25 as the fountain of living waters and is synonymous to the tree

 V 23 – mist of darkness (around the rod/path) – 12:17 – the temptations of the devil

V 26 – great and spacious building (across the river of water, in the air, above the earth, filled with people) – 11:35-36, pride and wisdom of the world

After Lehi told his family about the vision he had, Nephi wanted to see it for himself and to know a little more about it.  To do so, he employed three forces:

READ 1 Nephi 11:1

1.     He desired

2.     He believed

3.     He pondered (many instrumental revelations have come by taking the time to ponder)

It was during his pondering that he was caught away on a high mountain where the angel engaged Nephi in an instructive exercise agency.  The questions the angel asks Nephi are question we can ask ourselves daily:

Vs 2 “What desirest thou?

Vs 3 Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?

Nephi assured the angel (whom he later indicates was the Spirit of the Lord – v. 11) that he believed all the words of his father.  After some rejoicing, Nephi was shown the tree which his father saw and was asked again in vs 10 “What desirest thou?” He responded that he wanted to know the interpretation – what does it all mean?

Instead of just telling Nephi the definitions of all the components of the tree of life, he lets Nephi interpret the components of his dreams by experience and feelings.  With the help of my wonderfully supportive and technologically adept husband, we are going to view just a little of what Nephi saw.

He begins by viewing Jerusalem and the city of Nazareth. Then the angel asks him what he saw next:

At this point in my lesson I showed video of the birth of the Savior to help the class understand a little of what Nephi may have experienced and felt.  You can view here:

New LDS Church Bible story video

After seeing or understanding the condescension of both God the Father, and also Jesus Christ, the angel asks him what the meaning of the tree was.  His answer is in vs 22-23:

READ 1 Ne 11:22-23

At this point in the vision, Nephi has not witnessed any deeds or services by the Savior, but he has witnessed the deeds and service of God the Father, which fits perfectly with John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Elder Bednar: “Thus, the birth, life, and atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ are the greatest manifestations of God’s love for His children.” “Lehi’s Dream: Holding Fast to the Rod.”

Then the angel shows his the next component of the vision, another part of the Savior’s life to give explanation:

READ 1 Ne 11:24-26  – as we watch this clip, keep in mind that it represents the iron rod, or the word of God.

This is a 30 minute video clip, but it covers the events in that that angel showed Nephi the second and third reading

Second video clip

Nephi feels and beholds that the rod of iron represents the word of God, by witnessing “the Son of God going forth among the children of men,”  by being baptized by Johm, that there were 12 men who followed him, that Jesus healed multitudes of people both spiritually and physically.  All incidents that are recorded in the Bible – one of the volumes of the word of God.  

Then the angel helps Nephi feel the oppositional component in the vision by showing him the end of the Savior’s life.

READ 1 Ne 11:35-36 – there are certain words in this passage of Jesus’ and the apostles experience that indicate the great and spacious building

           

            Vs 32 - judged (by the wisdom of the world)

            Vs 34 – gathered together to fight

These words were used in describing Christ's arrest and death.

Then in describing the great and spacious building, he used similar words:

            Vs 35 – the wisdom of the world

            Vs 35 – gathered together to fight

            Vs 36 – all of the above happens because of pride

Evaluate for a moment the two visions. 

In the beginning of class we constructed the elements of Lehi’s vision on the chalkboard and gave everything definitions.  Defining scriptural symbols is extremely important and must be done in order to understand what the Lord wants us to know.

While we watched some of the Savior’s life, we felt the definition of the components of the dream, which is the driving force behind action.  Action that leads to a wise use of agency.

Elder Packer also talks about how to hold fast to the rod:

The mist of darkness will cover you at times so much that you will not be able to see your way even a short distance ahead. You will not be able to see clearly. But you can feel your way. With the gift of the Holy Ghost, you can feel your way ahead through life. Grasp the iron rod, and do not let go. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, you can feel your way through life. (See 3 Nephi 18:25; D&C 9:8.) “Lehi’s Dream and You” BYU devotional address delivered on 16 January 2007.

If you have felt a stirring in you heart, or felt hope or felt light or inspired or peaceful while reading or watching the clips, that is the Spirit of the Lord.  If you felt direction to do something good or change something in your life or to continue doing good things you are doing now, that is the Lord's will for you.  This is how the Spirit of the Lord communicates with you.  If you listen to that Spirit and act on the inspiration you receive you will progress toward eternal life and have joy in this life.

Things that are pleasing to God and not to men

Reading 1 Nephi 1-7 - the link will start you with chapter 1 and you can click on the next button for following chapters because I haven't figured out how to select a certain place for the link.

A good place to start in 1 Nephi is with Chapter 6:4-5
It is important to know at the outset of reading The Book of Mormon that Nephi and all prophets before him and following him, only write the things that are pleasing to God.  They do not write the things that are pleasing to man.  These things could include: changing habits, going against social persuasions, the believability of a human having visions of God, a human claiming to receive direction from God or angels, and specifically we'll talk about the command Nephi had to slay another man in order to preserve scripture.  All these things go against human nature, which oddly enough, is as it should be.  For we are here to overcome our natural tendencies and take on spiritual tendencies, which requires constant vigilance and effort.

There are so many things to talk about in the first few chapters of The Book of Mormon, but in my lesson I chose to focus on Nephi's experience of returning to Jersulam for the brass plates - or the first five books of the Bible (and additional content that we do not have in our current King James Version).  So, here we go:

After two attempts to get the brass plates from a man named Laban, who refused those two attempts, Nephi enters the city once again, this time with confidence offered from an angelic visitor.  He tries again because he knew that God had commanded him to and if God commands something, He would make a way for it to happen (see 1 Ne 3:7).  And in fact he said in chapter 4, vs 6:
"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."


As he came into the city he found a man passed out in the street, who was in fact, Laban, the man who refused to give his the brass plates. You can read about it here: 1 Ne 4:7-24
but I'll give you a little summary.  When Nephi saw Laban, he said the Spirit told him to take the sword and cut off Laban's head.  Nephi, of course, shied away from doing that, saying he had never, at any time, had he shed the blood of man.  The reasons given to Nephi were these:
1. He needed the brass plates in order to teach his family and preserve his language
2. It is better for one wicked man to perish than for a whole generation to perish in unbelief because they did not have scriptures as a guide
3. The Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth righteous purposes
4.  You must keep the commandments of God and so must your posterity and how will they know the commandments if they can't read them?


So, he does it.  In one of the foot notes in Chapter 4, ver 13a, we are referred to Doctrine and Covenants 98: 31-32.  Actually this reference gives a more complete understanding: Doc and Cov 98:32-36 in which it says: this is the law I gave to my servant Nephi (and others), that retaliation is justified if there are three offenses against God.  You should first lift a standard of peace (which Nephi and his brothers did), and if they did not accept that offer the first, second or third time, 
"Then I, the Lord, would give unto them a commandment, and justify them in going out to battle against that nation, tongue, or people." 


Nephi stated the three reasons, "standard of peace" offered in verse 11 of chapter 4:
1. "he had sought to take away mine own life"
2. "he would not hearken to the commandments of the Lord"
3. "he also had taken away our property"


So, by the Lord's law, he could intervene and deliver Laban into the hands of Nephi - sort of like David and Goliath.


If Mormons are trying to teach people the gospel, why in the world would a story like this be in the beginning chapters of The Book of Mormon?  Talk about writing things that are not pleasing to man!  Elder Jeffry R. Holland said this:
“I believe that the story was placed in the very opening verses of a 531-page book and then told in painfully specific detail in order to focus every reader of that record on the absolutely fundamental gospel issue of obedience and submission to the communicated will of the Lord.”  (“I Have a Question,” Ensign, Sept. 1976)


With obedience and submission in mind, Elder Neal A. Maxwell said this:

Thus, acknowledging God’s hand includes, in the words of the Prophet Joseph, trusting that God has made “ample provision” beforehand to achieve all His purposes, including His purposes in our lives (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 220). Sometimes He clearly directs; other times it seems He merely permits some things to happen. Therefore, we will not always understand the role of God’s hand, but we know enough of his heart and mind to be submissive. Thus when we are perplexed and stressed, explanatory help is not always immediately forthcoming, but compensatory help will be. Thus our process of cognition gives way to our personal submission, as we experience those moments when we learn to “be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).  Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Swallowed up the will of the Father.” Oct 1995

So, why is this story in the beginning of The Book of Mormon?  I believe it is like one of the parables that Christ so often used while he was on earth.  Parables were to hide meaning for those who were not ready to hear the message it taught, but to those who were spiritually ready, they would understand and want to know more.

For those who are ready for the message of The Book of Mormon (and being ready can just be a matter of situation and time of life - does not necessarily have anything to do with I.Q. or education), experiences such as Nephi had with killing Laban will lead them to want more information.  For those who do not have ears to hear for some reason or another, stories like these will be repelling.

So, the question for us is: are we ready to get over the things that are pleasing to man (or our own human nature) and dig a little deeper to understand the things that are pleasing to God (a being who knows much more than we do, I might add)?  If you are ready, read The Book of Mormon and pray for an open heart while doing so.

A New Year and a New Challenge

Here I go again.  I just returned from a Stake Conference meeting where our President challenged us to be more active in sharing the gospel through social media.  Just when I decided that I would let this blog rest for a while, too.  Not many read this blog I'm sure, but I will try again to keep a record of my studies and hope that it benefits some.

This year we are studying The Book of Mormon. I am still teaching Gospel Doctrine, so most likely the weeks I teach, I will post more.  But I will still post on the weeks I don't teach.  Also, our Stake has Conference in January, so I will be weeks off from many of you.  But hopefully the thoughts will be relevant anyway.  First post: tomorrow.