Come Follow Me LDS- 1 Nephi 11-15 Part 2 (Jan 20-26)

'The Lamb & The Folds' Part 2

-  'White' is 'Pure'

-  Corruption and the Great and Abominable Church

-  'Tolerance', mercy and 'broad roads'

-  Justice (Cherubim) separate the Great & Spacious Building from the Tree of Life

-  The House of Israel fights against the twelve apostles

-  Who are the gentiles?

-  Different 'Olive Branches' allows for us to participate in God's Plan

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and then going to chapter 12 here we've

had this the whole vision set up here

and now we start to move into a

prophetic type of a vision where he

starts to look at these different folds

of sheep right these different groups

and first of all what he sees is he sees

his own people and we get launched now

from the tree of life in the Great and

spacious building now moving toward

something else and now it's his people

that are moving toward the land of

promise which we can also call the tree

of life in a sense right

that is the oath and covenant of the

priesthood which is exaltation given to

us in a physical representation here and

so the vision then goes toward the land

of promise he sees his own seed and the

seed of his brethren and he sees the

appearance of Christ's coming there to

the Americas and in verse 6 it says and

I saw the heavens open and the Lamb of

God this is all about restoration

descending out of heaven and he came

down and showed himself unto them and

then he goes through what we would

expect whenever you have a new group of

people a hierarchy right he's got to

just establish the heavenly hierarchy

here or the priesthood hierarchy and so

he goes over how the twelve apostles of

the Lamb will judge all of Israel and

that these twelve disciples that will be

called here when Jesus comes to the

Americas will judge his people Nephi's

people and they will report to the 12

apostles so we get this hierarchical

structure of priesthood that's being

developed you have to have that and then

he sees how for most of four generations

there is peace and then there is a

gathering of opposition that starts to

come about again here that's how it

works you have a restoration and then it

lasts for a little while sometimes

longer than others and then it starts to

disintegrate and corruption comes in and

the laws of this world start to take

effect because we are weak

and eventually it wipes out truth and he

describes that again in the terms of

Lehigh's vision he says here in 17 and

the mists of darkness are the

temptations of the devil which blinded

the eyes and hardeneth the hearts it

hardeneth the hearts think about this

and think about others that you may know

where it takes them away from the

doctrine of Christ by that hardening of

their heart and leadeth them away into

broad roads where there isn't this is I

think a very important principle here

what is a broad road and I don't

want to step on anybody's toes here but

you can't have tolerance for everything

tolerance is a popular word and

certainly in many ways we do need to be

more tolerant of certain things but if

there is just a broad brush of tolerance

that is given meaning that everything

goes then you're going into broad roads

correct it is a narrow road that you

need to follow to be able to progress

and to grow and have fulfillment and a

broad road just keeps you in idleness

so the concept of tolerance is crucial

and very very important and in a lot of

ways we can see mercy and love tied in

with tolerance especially when we're

talking about covenant people that are

different from us for everything for any

reason you want tolerance and you want

love there but tolerance of things that

are not doctrinal or tolerance of sin is

something completely different tolerance

of the philosophies of men is going to

put you into a much broader road that

doesn't really get you anywhere and in

eighteen and the large and spacious

building which thy father saw is vain

imaginations and the pride of the

children of men and a great and terrible

gulf divideth them yea even the word of

the justice of the eternal God so let's

go back here in our mirror image and go

back to the tree of life

and understand that at the tree of life

in the Garden of Eden story there is

something that divides us from that tree

of life that does not permit us to go

there what is that let's keep going here

so it's a terrible gulf that divided

them yeah even the word of the justice

of eternal God divides them and the

Messiah who is the Lamb of God is on the

other side of whom the Holy Ghost birth

record ok so again what divides us from

the tree of life is justice

that's the cherubim in the Garden of

Eden story cherubim and the sword that

they carry the flaming sword and then he

sees that because of pride moving away

from the doctrine of Christ and

practice of the doctrine of Christ then

his the seat of his brothers overtakes

his own seed we know that's what happens

at the end of the book of Mormon and

then there's wars and rumors of rumors

of wars and then this is important as we

continue to build up this idea of dark

and light and white and black etc it

says and the angel said unto me behold

thee shall dwindle and unbelief write

the is the seat of his brethren and it

came to pass that I beheld after they

had dwindled in unbelief they became a

dark and loathsome and a filthy people

full of idleness and all manner of

abominations ok so what does dark mean

here if we are looking at the

terminology than what we see with the

Tree of Life and with the Virgin Mary

right and we're talking about purity and

those things that are associated with

the Tree of Life now we get darkness

right so darkness is pride in the sense

it's falling away from the doctrine of

Christ is what dark and darkness is and

then in chapter 13 we get the story of

the Gentiles who are the Gentiles we're

gonna get a better idea of what Nephi

means about the Gentiles here so we get

the Christ the doctrine of Christ and

the Great and spacious building the Tree

of Life Nephi sees his own seed and then

falling into unbelief

that's important because what he's going

to see in the future here everything

he's going to see is all about covenant

and ultimately all about the Abrahamic

covenant and it's about different

people's working through love with each

other and now we're gonna go into the

Gentiles here in chapter 13 and he says

in verse 1 and it came to pass that the

angel spake unto me saying look and I

looked and I beheld many nations and

kingdoms so Gentiles means Nations

that's what it means so we could we

could look at that in different few

different levels wine we could look at

that as the world outside of the house

of Israel right that they are the

Gentiles and that is one way of looking

at it and oftentimes we hear we'll hear

in the Book of Mormon about those the

Gentiles they're out upon the Isles of

the sea and everybody will have the

chance for example to hear the gospel of

Jesus Christ here specifically Gentiles

is used more as the nations of Europe

and this would have been something from

Lehi and Nephi point of view right where

they knew of the Greeks very much so

knew of the Greeks and others that were

going up into the European areas here

that's what we're basically looking at

here when we're talking about the

Gentiles so that's another level and

throughout the Book of Mormon oftentimes

we get that as some a little bit more of

a specified definition to the Gentiles

then the other thing to look at is

sometimes even the Gentiles aren't

considered Gentiles sometimes the

Gentiles or at least those that are in

the Americas and maybe it's a portion of

those that are in the Americas are

considered Ephraim also right who would

be the brother of Manasseh who are the

descendants of the Levites here okay so

13 though here specifically is talking

about the Gentiles and primarily focused

on Europe and so he's going to give us

kind of a background of the Gentiles

coming to the Americas and meeting up

eventually with the his seed and his

brothers seed their descendants and he

says and it came to pass that I saw

among the nation

of the Gentiles the formation of a great

church so he's gonna want to talk about

again that religious football what's

going on with the Tree of Life here

where is that and the angel said unto me

behold the formation of a church which

is most abominable above all other

churches so we get kind of this level of

different churches but we're gonna see

later on that anything that is not of

the Church of God is of the Church of

the devil so to speak here as they call

it or the great and abominable Church so

it says it's above all other churches

but in the end he ends up talking about

everything that is not of the Church of

God as being of the formation of a the

abominable church there's more to this

I'll probably go into that in the study

group but we are not gonna have time to

go into that right now and this church

then slays the Saints of God and torture

them and bind it them down and yoga'

them with a yoke of iron and bringeth

them down into captivity basically what

we're talking about here is evil we're

talking about anything that is going to

fight against the church anything that

brings you into captivity of your agency

of your body etc and he says that the

devil is the founder of this church and

then in 7 he says and I also saw gold

and silver and silks and scarlets and

fine twined linen and all manner of

precious clothing and I saw many harlots

okay so remember the references that we

get oftentimes in the pride cycle in the

Book of Mormon and what the author's

will usually bring out here Mormon

primarily is that things go well for a

year or two and then all of a sudden

there is started to be a class

distinction and people become prideful

and what is the outward manifestation of

that it's right here right it is the

fine precious clothing that comes out

and that starts to be something that in

their world is very important

right we have a lot of things and in

consumerism and in modern the modern

world we can manifest a class

distinction in a lot of different ways

but for them socially that was almost

and primarily by their clothing and in

verse nine it says and that the great

and abominable church looked for the

praise of the world and so you know we

can today we might call that virtue

signaling in many ways here's the

orthodoxy that we're following let's

let's look for the praise of the world

in sending out some virtuous virtue

signaling here and that can happen on

both sides of the political aisle

certainly and there were many waters

that divided the gentiles from the seat

of his brother and of course that would

be the Atlantic ocean remember many

waters is made when you make something

plural oftentimes anciently what you're

doing is you're saying it's large see

it's for example the term Elohim that

means many gods or in other words it

could be just the great God when you

make it plural and so the term eerie

anthem which we're gonna get in

Bountiful and the bountiful of Arabia in

the Book of Mormon really probably just

means a large body of water and then

many Gentiles come over the great waters

to the land of promise and the seed of

laman and Lemuel's the descendants are

spread out and scattered and the wrath

of God is upon them it says why some

because they're bad people it's because

they don't have the gospel it's because

their fathers and their fathers father

is going way back rejected the tree of

life and then we get to an important

principle here again that I'm trying to

build up to here verse 15 and I beheld

the Spirit of the Lord that it was upon

the Gentiles and they did prosper and

obtain the land for their inheritance

okay so the Europeans come across the

Atlantic they get to the Americas and

they're going to start populating the Americas

and by the way they populate Central and

South America very much so right there's

a very strong especially Spanish and

Portuguese bloodline throughout most of

Latin America and it says that they were

white and exceedingly fair and beautiful

like unto my people before they were

slain okay

touchy unless you understand what

is being done here and again I'm not

going to go into too much detail here on

this but understand that white and

exceedingly fair and beautiful is the

exact same way that the Tree of Life was

portrayed the exact same way that the

Virgin Mary was portrayed and it's the

exact same way that he says here that

his people were before they were slain

which means what before they became a

dark and a loaf some people the Nephites

became a dark and a loathsome people

also right they had completely rejected

Christ with Mormon and Moroni in the end

and so exceedingly white and fair and

beautiful my take on this and I have a

lot of evidence to back this up this has

nothing to do with skin color right it

has nothing to do a skin color this is

about whether or not they are partaking

of the fruit fruit of the tree of life

and the type of life that they are

living that's what this is about yes we

have Europeans who have a whiter skin

than indigenous people in the

Americas and so immediately in our minds

in a lower law physical way that's how

we easily distinguish things there as if

there is these have these explanations

here have anything to do with skin color

they don't this is all about your

spirituality this is all about the

doctrine of Christ

that's my take on it and there are

several scholars that would agree with

that and there's a lot of evidence again

probably study group time to go over

that that would that would show that

that is exactly what they are talking

about and I'll go through that as we go

as this comes up throughout the Book of

Mormon and it says that the power of the

Lord is with them well they don't have

all of the doctrine of Christ that has

been removed or he's going to go over

that here in a minute the angel is but

they still have the Christianity with

them and they have a book and that

little bit of difference is everything

it's a big difference and it gives those

peoples those Gentiles a lot more power

and a change in their culture it gives

them strength because of the gospel at

least the portion of the gospel that

they have and we're gonna get that here

a little lower down here in nineteen it

says that I beheld that the Gentiles

that had gone out of captivity were

delivered by the power of God out of the

hands of all other nations and that they

had a book and it was carried forth

among them and of course this is of the

similar to the plates of brass except

not so many and it comes out of the

mouth of a Jew right so it's the Jew

it's that it's the old and new

testaments ultimately but the formation

of the abominable church is going to

change this and there are several places

where we can see this especially with

the Old Testament what we have today in

the Old Testament the earliest full

versions of this that we have are in the

800s and 900s ad there were changes that

were made small changes but important

changes that were made in the texts

between the beginning of Christianity

and the eight nine hundreds ad

all right that's an important thing to

do because you had a Jewish and a

Christian rivalry and the Jews went out

everybody ended up adopting their

finalized text of the Masoretic text we

don't actually know when that was

finalized before that we have changes

that would have been made with the

Deuteronomists we know that they edited

a lot of what we have

a lot of scholars believe that that's

the original writing of the Old

Testament we know that's not true

but they actually believe that that is

toward the original portion of the

writing and that a lot of the writing

may not have even happened until they

were in Babylon taken into Babylon after

Nephi's time we don't know that of

course they've got the black brass

plates here and we know that there was

writing before that but there could have

very well have been a lot of edits that

were made and even books removed like

Zenos Zenok Niham

etc and changes that were made

using things like titles like the Son of

God and what that means and the Lamb of

God and what that means and the son of

the Eternal Father and what that means

all these titles that have great

significance may very well have been

removed from the prophets and from the

even Genesis and we continue to get a

reference with the title of the Lamb of

God as we go throughout this vision the

restorer because here we have the church

The Abominable Church which does what

it's the same thing it's removing the

Tree of Life it's taking away from the

doctrine of Christ and so the Lamb of

God is the right term to use here

because it's talking about a restoration

this is talking about the Tree of Life

the religious football right being

moved around from gen Jew to Gentile it

cetera and being reduced in what it

really is and in 29 and after the plane

and precious things were taken away it

goeth forth unto all the nations of the

Gentiles and after it goeth forth unto

all the nations of the Gentiles yay even

across the many waters which thou has

seen that would be to the Americas

because of the many plain and precious

things which have been taken out of the

book which were plain under the

understanding of the children of men

according to the plainness which is in

the Lamb of God but because these things

were taken out of the gospel of the Lamb

an exceedingly great many do stumble ye

and so much that Satan hath great power

over them what is being led up to here

what they're leading up to is the Tree

of Life being removed or let's call it

pruned excessively right with the

doctrine of Christ is a restoration of

what Nephi's descendants are going to

provide they're going to provide the

Tree of Life which is going to check on

all the other scripture which is going

to check on the book brought forth by

the Gentiles which has been pruned back

and we need to be careful of that

because even in in LDS scholarship right

now you're going to see if you get more

and more involved or for you already are

more and more involved in LDS

scholarship you'll see sometimes the

other way around right you'll see

sometimes the Bible becomes a check on

the Book of Mormon more than the other

way around

so anyway just keep that in mind to be

careful about that and then we get down

to a very important part of this chapter

here and we're gonna start off on verse

35 it says for behold saith the lamb I

will manifest myself unto thy seed that

they shall write many things the Book of

Mormon which I shall minister unto them

which shall be plain and precious right

so this is the fullness of the gospel

the fullness of the tree of life and

after thy seed shall be destroyed

and dwindle in unbelief and also the

seed of thy brethren behold these things

shall be hid up to come forth unto the

Gentiles by the gift and power of the

lamb the restorer

okay and of course that is where Joseph

Smith comes in and then in verse 37

we're going to have a major focus on

this when we get to King Noah and this

is gonna be really important so note

this 37 and blessed are they who shall

seek to bring forth my Zion at that day

he's going to write here directly to

Isaiah 52 7 to 10

for they shall have the gift and the

power of the Holy Ghost and if they

endure unto the end they shall be lifted

up at the last day so this is emulating

Christ is what that's saying it's not

just resurrection

it's emulating Christ when he's lifted

up on the cross and shall be saved in

the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb

and whoso shall publish peace yea

tidings of great joy how beautiful upon

the mountains shall they be that is the

scripture that Abinadi wrestles with

with the priests of Noah and we'll get

to that and the different distinctions

of what that really means and how that's

being treated right now in LDS

scholarship when we get to a Ben and I

but just understand and take note for

now that Isaiah 52 7 to 10 is laying the

groundwork for the entire Book of Mormon

right here and what this means and as we

talk about the restoration of the gospel

coming to the Book of Mormon coming to

the Gentiles from Manasseh right from

Manasseh who wrote the Book of Mormon

then coming to III him or the Gentiles

through Joseph Smith and Moroni we are

talking about covenant we're talking

about these two groups of people working

together that is how everything works

that's what a family is there's a father

who has a certain role and a mother and

a child and we all feel hopefully

eventually all those different roles

that lead either in this life or the

next so that we have covenant with

everyone around us we play the different

roles just like having different titles

and you have to have this to give any

kind of a stage for charity you have to

have a fall away from each other

just like we have a fall from God there

is no chance for charity

from God even not ultimately an ultimate

love from God for his children if

there's not a fall there's no ability to

pay the price

by God himself there is no ability to

make that kind of a sacrifice for his

children and just like he would

sacrifice there's no ability for us

overall to have a role in being like the

Savior and being a part of covenant with

other peoples if we don't have first a

family second community going beyond

that and third these olive branches of

different folds for the Shepherd that

are going to work together like a Jew

and Gentile house of Israel and those of

the Isles of the sea that's what this is

all about Christ and covenant and that's

ultimately with the temple and temple

work is all about and that's what

happens here in 38 and it came to pass

that I beheld the remnants of the seed

of my brethren and also the book of the

Lamb of God which had proceeded forth

from the mouths of the Jews of the Bible

that it came forth from the Gentiles

unto the remnant to the seat of my

brethren so it's laying a groundwork

primarily through in Latin America

Catholicism and in Northern America

through Protestantism and after it had

come forth unto them I beheld other

books which came forth by the power of

the Lamb the Book of Mormon the Doctrine

and Covenants the pearl of great price

could look at specifically the Book of

Moses the Book of Abraham etc and

probably more there will probably be

more and then we get this great phrase

of covenant right here in 42 and the

time cometh that he shall manifest

himself unto all nations this is Jesus

both under the Jews and also under the

Gentiles and after he has manifested

himself unto the Jews like he did in

Palestine and also under the Gentiles

like he does through the restored gospel

then he shall manifest himself under the

Gentiles and also under the Jews and the

last shall be first and the first shall

be last

that is the chiastic phrase of covenant

and then in 14 we're not going to cover

a whole lot here just

times sake but just wanted you to look

at this is mostly about again how the

Gentiles they have the book they have

Christianity they've got some and again

the reason I think that is so important

even if you don't have the fullness of

the gospel is the idea again of

Christianity that you have that much of

a loving God that your what you

worship whether you have the doctrine of

Christ right or not

what Christianity does have is

the idea that what you put at the

highest level of your values hierarchy

what you worship the most is a God that

would love so much that he would

sacrifice everything for you I think

that that is when you embed that into

culture that is going to benefit culture

because we become and use more of the

golden rule when your idols so to speak

when your God does exactly that then you

get the marvelous work and a wonder

among the Gentiles where they're

hardened hearts can be that you can be

delivered from your hardened hearts with

the fullness of the gospel that would

mean with the tree of life we're told

here again that there are only two

churches and that would be again when we

think about that what that means is

there is the restored gospel and the

priesthood that goes along with that and

then there's everything else that takes

you away from the tree of life so when

we say churches we don't necessarily

mean congregations of other Christians

or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or

anything else it would be everything and

everybody every type of organization

advertising right entertainment anything

that pulls you away from the Tree of

Life and so that's kind of the story of

the Gentiles they're going to struggle

because of the Great and abominable

church that is going to take this tree

of life that they originally had

starting out here which would have been

at the time of Paul when he was

preaching among the Gentiles and he's

going to that church is going to prune

it back right so that it is a shadow of

what it is supposed to be and you can

that we understand that and see that

going through for example the Creed's

especially the Nicene Creed but all of

them you see a pruning back of the

doctrine of Christ and a loss of course

of the priesthood and so they're going

to stumble as they come forth here we

can see that now I mean we're just a

little behind Europe right and where

Europe is right now with the religiosity

and their Christianity what you see

there now is churches that have become

museums they're rarely ever used they

are for architectural purposes and

tourists they're more tourists that go

through them than there are patrons and

and trends here in the United States and

North America and elsewhere around the

world the Christian world are the same

thing is happening and so the gospel

from the Gentiles is brought back to the

seed of Nephi and laman and lemuel and

they will eventually blossom as the rose

but the Gentiles are going to struggle

over time they're going to really

struggle because of that great and Obama

to the church and then in Chapter 15 we

come right back to the Tree of Life this

is the end of the vision has happened

now and now Nephi is going to explain

some things in Laman and Lemuel and

clarify some things about the vision the

dream of the Tree of Life I think it's

interesting here in verse 2 it says and

it came to pass that I beheld my

brethren and they were disputing one

with another concerning the things which

my father had spoken unto them why are

they disputing it again it's not because

they're not religious that's not what

they're talking about they're trying to

reconcile their beliefs their religious

beliefs with Lehigh's dream and it's not

it's not converging very well right and

so it says in verse 3 for he truly spake

talking about Lehi many great things

unto them which were hard to be

understood save a man should inquire of

the Lord so especially if you've been

brought up in this environment even with

a father and a mother who taught the

doctrine of Christ at least later in

their life we don't know what Lehigh's

earlier life was like when you have the

older sons who have been a part of

society

and have gone along with his new

orthodoxy and this new religion so to

speak

pretty much then they're having a hard

time making that fit with this Tree of

Life thing and so this gives us our cue

right here in verse 4 and now I need 5

was grieved because of the hardness of

their hearts right pushing against the

tree of life they don't understand it

and he goes over and talks about the

people the Gentiles and the house of

Israel how they are all branches of an

olive tree some are grafted in and

grafted out again it's this whole idea

of covenant we get this big idea from

this in from Zenos in Jacob 5 and

we'll get to that that's gonna be pretty

fascinating and he brings it right back

in to the beginning of the vision here

where he goes right back to the Savior

in 13 it says and now the thing which

our Father meaneth concerning the

grafting in of the natural branches

through the fullness of the Gentiles is

that in the latter days so he's talking

about the different groups the different

folds of sheep here and he's gonna go

right to the Savior is that in the

latter days when our seed shall have

dwindled and unbelief yet for the space

of many years and many generations after

the Messiah shall be manifested in body

into the children of men then shall the

fullness of the gospel of the Messiah

come unto the Gentiles Joseph Smith and

from the Gentiles unto the remnant of

our seed that first shall be last and

the last shall be first down further

wherefore they shall come to the

knowledge of their Redeemer and the very

points of his doctrine there it is come

to the knowledge of the Redeemer and the

very points of his doctrine just like

the angel was explaining the Nephi with

the tree of life that they may know how

to come unto Him and be saved

and at the end of 15 EA will they not

come unto the true fold of God right

there's gonna be many folds out there in

this case right here it's going to be

the Gentiles a small very small portion

of the Gentiles that are part of the

true fold and they're going to bring it

back to Manasseh and tying it in with

Abraham and eight

this points to the covenant which should

be fulfilled in the latter days which

covenant which covenant the Lord made to

our father Abraham saying in thy seed

shall all the Kindred's of the earth be

blessed that's how it's done one fold

working with another fold and ultimately

through our work at the temple and then

laman and lemuel are asking what these

other symbols of the vision mean he goes

over the tree and says it's the tree of

life that rod of iron is the word of God

the temptations and the fiery darts of

the adversary I have my own take on that

I've got a video that I've put on that

and how that is paralleled to the brazen

serpent the river of water that goes

along the side of the rod of iron not

the one that's at the Tree of Life

is filthiness and then we get this

division of justice again here an

explanation of that in 30 and I said

unto them that our Father also saw that

the Justice of God did also divide the

wicked from the righteous right and the

brightness thereof was like unto the

brightness of a flaming you might think

sword right there but here it's fire

same thing though right it's the flaming

sword which has sent it up unto God for

ever and ever and hath no end

it's the cherubim guarding the Tree of

Life and then they asked me fie this

question well is this something is this

gonna happen temporally in other words

in this world where we're gonna suffer

because of our bad mistakes or is this

an eternal thing

and so then Nephi brings us all back

down to judgment and lets us know that

our works are essential that the Tree of

Life is there for us because of the love

of God but that of course we have to

hang on in the rod of iron and we have

to make our way to the Tree of Life so

judgment is both temporal in this life

in other words the consequences are

temporal and they're also spiritual and

he finishes off in verse 30

six where for the wicked are rejected

from the righteous and also from that

tree of life whose fruit is most

precious and most desirable above all

other fruits yay and it is the greatest

of all the gifts of God

so again tying it all back together

again Christ and the doctrine of Christ

is all about covenant the covenant that

is between us and our Father in heaven

and then covenant amongst us with each

other is how that love is played out

throughout time and how we weave in and

out and the first is last and the last

is first and we all have the opportunity

to offer charity and love to those

around us

and to other peoples and to spread the

gospel and to live the gospel and to

emulate the Savior as is described by

the Tree of Life

I'll talk to you next time