Come Follow Me LDS- 3 Nephi 1-7 Part 2 (Sep7-13)

Gathering'
- The Nephites and Lamanites remain "gathered" to defend against the Gadianton Robbers.
- The Nephites/Lamanites eliminate all of the Gadianton Robbers
- Mormon inserts his words about gathering, Jesus Christ and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
- The people prosper and quickly grow in pride and wickedness.

 Raw Transcript

all right all right in this come follow
me episode we are covering
third nephi chapters one to seven here
this is part two we're covering chapters
five
six and seven and those of you that are
watching again
behind me here this is still a little
bit of a danger zone here as we're
making some changes here to the studio
at the beginning of chapter 5 here we
get an
important statement because we want to
see just how fast things
are going to turn here it says here in
verse one and now behold there was not a
living soul among all the people of the
nephites remember this is
happening after they have fought off the
gaddian robbers here they are
overjoyed with their success and their
victory because they know it's because
they have repented
they know it's because they've turned
their hearts to christ
so there's not a single soul among all
the people of the nephites who to doubt
in the least the words of all the holy
prophets right because
understanding now that this has all come
to be that this is
another example of the prophet saying
this is what will happen
right just like with the sign of the
birth of christ
they've seen this they know this and now
they're saying okay
we believe everything now we believe
everything that the prophets have said
we'll see how long this lasts
and they knew it must needs be expedient
that christ had come
because of the many signs which had been
given right so
before they're rationalizing a little
bit here it's like okay
we believe everything here and so they
take
all of the rest of the robbers the gaddy
ant robbers
that are in prison and they
they bring them the word of god right
they
teach them the word of god this
is you know you can imagine them being
put away in a facility of some sort
right where they are locked in as
prisoners some type of prison
and this then would be what we call
today
a correctional facility
right that's not really what we have
today though is it
think of all the good that we could do
with prisons
if we actually made them correctional
facilities
for many if not most that go to prison
today
they come out worse than they were when
they went in
think of the good that could actually be
done there in those prisons
and there's certainly efforts and
ministries and
people that do help but that from a
systemic point of view
we could definitely make these places to
help
individuals go back into the world
and change so the gadiant robbers that
accept
the word of god they enter into a
covenant that they will murder
no more and they are set at liberty a
true correctional facility
but those that don't accept the word of
god
keep within them that absolute hatred
you can just see that right
that hatred that drives some individuals
and they are punished according to the
law who knows what that means
and then we get the end of this first
section of third nephi
in each of these four sections that we
have in third nephi
mormon intercedes here in first person
in his narrative and so here he is in
chapter five
and he says therefore i have made my
record of these things
according to the record of nephi that
would be all of the records that they
have ongoing
which was graven upon the plates which
were called the plates of nephi and
behold i am called
mormon being called after the land of
mormon
and he says i do make my record from the
accounts which have been given by those
who were before me
right he's compiling all these
actually there's two separate records
apparently nephi here has a record
the nephi of this time and then there
are many many other records of
what has transpired among the people of
nephi
mormon takes this record of nephi
and that's what he is going to abridge
he says i am a pure descendant of lehi
right and that existed all the way
through it's one of the issues with the
mulikites and others
and he says i have reason to bless my
god
and my savior jesus christ that he
brought our fathers out of the land of
jerusalem
and no one knew it save it were himself
and those whom he brought out of that
land
surely he hath blessed the house of
jacob
and hath been merciful under the seed of
joseph right these are josephites and
remember where he's inserting himself
here this is where
all of the nephites slash lamanites have
gathered themselves together to fight
off the gadiant robbers and now they're
victorious
but this is kind of a theme here of
gathering
he says and surely as the lord liveth
will he gather
in from the four quarters of the earth
all the remnant of the seed of jacob
that would be all of israel who are
scattered abroad upon
all the face of the earth remember the
ten tribes
and of course judah same thing happens
with them in the diaspora
and he hath covenanted with all the
house of jacob
even so shall the covenant wherewith he
hath covenanted
with the house of jacob be fulfilled in
his own due time
now mormon here has a little bit of a
different perspective right than what's
going on here with
with nephi and laconius and others the
getting
robbers he's looking back here 400 years
in great sorrow
at his time but he says the house of
jacob shall be restored
unto the knowledge of the covenant that
he hath covenanted with them
what does that mean right what is the
what were the covenants
made with abraham isaac and jacob well
again these were
this is the new and everlasting covenant
this was
the covenant of the melchizedek
priesthood this is the covenant of the
son of god
and he supports that in the last verse
of the chapter here he says
and then shall they know their redeemer
who is jesus christ the son of god
and then shall they be gathered in from
the four quarters of the earth
unto their own lands from which they
have been dispersed
yea as the lord liveth so shall it be
amen
so mormon's message here is about this
covenant
and jesus christ and the gathering back
of
all of jacob all of israel and then he
continues on with the story here and he
talks about the nephites
the lamanites going back to their lands
now now that they've gotten
rid of the gadiant robbers and they
become very industrious again
and they become wealthy well some become
wealthy
as we're told here but it came to pass
in the 29th year
this is the 29 years since the sign of
the birth of christ there began to be
some disputings among the people and
some were lifted up
unto pride and boastings because of
their exceedingly great riches
yea even unto great persecutions and the
people began to be distinguished
by ranks according to their riches and
their chances for learning
yea some were ignorant because of their
poverty and
others did receive great learning
because of their riches
so you're getting a an elite class here
again
that's separating itself from those that
are without
when there is hyper opportunity right it
looks like they're going back here
think about this they've left their land
for quite a number of years
right for several years they've come
back think of all the opportunity that
is
available to those that are
competent to those that are driven
to those that are skilled
in building everything back up again
right where there is
hyper opportunity there's going to be
hyper disparity
unless there is relational covenant
where you're able to work together in
this case and they don't
and this is almost always the big cause
of
revolution of major conflict in politics
it's the disparity in economy
and we're told here in verse 14 and thus
there became a great inequality
in all the land in so much of the church
began to be broken
up and we're told that satan has great
hold on the hearts of men and women here
and they're carried about by temptations
and we get this important point here in
verse 18 it says now they did not sin
ignorantly remember just a couple of
years here previously they had just
beaten the gadian robbers
they were preserved and they knew it was
by the hand of the lord
and this quickly now they're turning
again and as we're told here they did
willfully rebel against god
so there are several men that are
inspired
as prophets to go and preach about what
about christ and they testify of his
resurrection
they testified boldly of his death and
his sufferings
so the doctrine of christ and there's
several here
of the nephites that are angry with
these
preachers and again this is where we get
right here again
at this this
center point right this axis
of the doctrine of christ and those that
are
anti-christ
as we get closer and closer to the time
of the visitation of the resurrected
savior
now in the land you had to go to the
chief judge
in order to have a death sentence for
someone
so instead of doing this a lot of the
local
judges those that have been elected
right by the people their local areas
take these preachers who are preaching
about christ and they put them to death
secretly and so they're back
into these murders again why why the
doctrine of christ why those that are
preaching the doctrine of christ
how does that hurt these other
individuals
well of course it changes everything
right because it's
well because it's what provides the most
amount of liberty
and really in a sense democracy for
every individual
we get that duality again throughout the
book of mormon the doctrine of christ
and liberty and those that are in charge
those that have the money
those that have the chief judge
positions they don't want to give that
up
they want more and more power
they don't want the attention of the
people going to the church
nor do they want the cultural
position to hold that we bow to
christ that would require humility
so the murderers are back to where they
were when when
maybe some of them were guardian robbers
we're told here they did enter into a
covenant one with another
yea even into that covenant which was
given by them of old
which covenant was given and
administered by the devil to combine
against
all righteousness right it's you scratch
my back i'll scratch yours and we're
going to see to it that christianity
and liberty are destroyed
we get this here in 30 the natural
direction that that is going to take you
it says
and they did set at defiance the law and
the rights
of their country those rights
those individual rights have an awful
lot to do with christianity
and they did covenants one with another
to destroy the governor
and to establish a king over the land
that the land should no more be at
liberty
but should be subject unto kings
surprise surprise
so those that have entered into this
covenant they end up killing the chief
judge
and the people end up breaking out into
tribes
right this is what happens when you
again when you lose the trust of society
in that civilization everybody's going
to become more and more tribal this is
this is what's happening today we're
told
they did separate one from another into
tribes
every man according to his family and
his kindred and friends
and thus they did destroy the government
of the land
so just as you would hope that the
doctrine of christ
and the church and liberty
would would unify you
right you would hope it would do that
here we have a case where it has
completely fallen apart
previously in the nephite nation we've
seen a minority as a dissenters and then
everybody else
here it's completely dissolving into
these tribes
so these tribes would likely break down
into
seven tribes right the ones that they
started off with they've always had that
connection
we don't read much about that but
with the the nephites there's four of
them right there's nephi the nephites
the zoramites the jacobites and the
josephites right those last two
are brothers of nephi and then on the
other side with the lamanites
the three there would be the lamanites
the lemuolites
and the ishmaelites and so they would
have a
chief judge over each one of these
tribes
and they would loosely be together no
major wars yet
but it's more like a confederacy now
and so the more righteous part of the
people have now become wicked and there
are but few righteous men among them
again setting the stage here right up to
the visit of christ
and this secret combination would be
separate from those seven
tribes and they want a king so they set
up a king named
jacob and then those that killed the
prophets
were that had entered back into these
covenants were not of the seven tribes
necessarily they may have been but they
they separate themselves back again into
a secret combination
and they set at their head a man named
jacob and they make him their king
and we're told here specifically that
jacob
is one that had given his voice against
the prophets who testified
of jesus so we get kind of these extreme
sides here right the prophets preaching
about jesus christ
and the evil secret combinations and the
leaders those that were
pushing those covenants and and
murdering the prophets on the other end
and so those are the two sides now that
you get the tribes and the secret
combination
now those are the seven tribes are not
righteous but they
are pitted against the secret
combination
so jacob the king of the secret
combination realizes that these other
seven tribes are going to outnumber of
them
outnumber them vastly and so he says
look we're heading out and they end up
going north
this is actually where the gediant
robbers
tried to go before up into the north
land
but even among the seven tribes
that are left as the those the prophets
and those that are preaching christ come
among them
they stone them and they cast them out
so nephi meanwhile sees all of this and
of course he's
he's very grieved over everything and he
goes around
boldly testifying about christ and as he
does so
some things happen here that are kind of
interesting because it's what's going on
in the land of judah in the land of
judea
with jesus christ in his mortal mission
we're told here with in regards to nephi
that so great was his faith on the lord
jesus christ
that angels did minister unto him daily
and in the name of jesus he did cast out
devils
and unclean spirits and even his brother
did he raise from the dead
of course what did christ do with
lazarus
and others after he had been stoned and
suffered death by the people
so his brother had been a preacher a
prophet that was out preaching about
christ
and he was stoned to death and so the
people are angry with him
because he's he's performing all these
miracles
and so we're told here in verse 21 that
it came to pass that the 30 and first
year
did pass away this is probably about
27ish a.d right not 31 a.d
we have to be careful here when we look
up at the
dates in the summary chapters here for
example here in chapter seven
it says about ad30 to 33.
what we need to look at here is really
not ad30 to 30-33 necessarily but
30 to 30 years after the birth of christ
christ was likely born sometime
around 4 to maybe 6
maybe even 7 bc
most scholars would say somewhere you
know 4 bc is a good place
we have different things that tie that
birth
in history to the accounts in the bible
for example we have the death of king
herod
and if he's the one that went and sent
out the decree to
kill all of the babies that were up to
two years old
well he dies well before ad1 he dies in
4 bc so obviously christ's birth has to
happen before that death
and there are other things as well that
we're not going to go into right now but
we're roughly speaking here you know in
putting this
in parallel with what would be happening
in
jerusalem in the land of judea this is
about
27ish probably a.d
and it says that there were but few who
were converted under the lord
right the numbers are dwindling to the
very bare minimum
the the very stalwart christians are
left and that's it
says that those that were converted did
truly signify unto the people that they
had been visited by the power and spirit
of god
which was in jesus christ in whom they
believed
it's interesting isn't it i mean we're
all weak
right i mean i mean think of how many
signs these people have seen
and think of what they were saying and
how strong they were in believing all of
the holy prophets just a few years
before
this is the same people it's peer
pressure
how easy is it for us to lose our
faith and hope and charity
because of peer pressure because of
changes in the culture
because of temptation and riches and
pride
when they become more available in in a
society
the more part of the people here that
have had
all of this history here all these signs
and
and saved them from the gadian robbers
the lord saving them from the gadian
robbers
they turn they become a product of their
environment
instead of creating their own
environment
they are acted upon right instead of
acting so thus did pass away the 30 and
second year
also so 32 years from
the sign of the birth of christ and
nephi being
a powerful prophet regardless of the
tide which is turning away
from the doctrine of christ and from the
church
he preaches boldly and he baptizes many
and he calls and he's and he ordains
several men to the ministry and he
baptizes many
and this is now the scenario that we are
at here in the year previous
to the visit of jesus christ
tribes everywhere a breakdown in society
wickedness temptations everywhere
murdering the prophets this is a very
different scenario than when we had
basically the nephites and the lamanites
on the other side
and i think it's interesting as we come
to this
time here where christ is about to be
crucified
in in jerusalem that we're told also
about a
coming of christ the second coming of
christ
and we're always seemingly in that mode
right of preparing
for the second coming and i think that
that's a big part of
of that state of being that we're
supposed to be in
preparing for the coming of christ again
the lower law
preparing the way for the higher law the
procession
for christ to come through and to sit on
his throne in the holy of holies in the
temple
nephi is doing his job here and a few
others
are doing their job to prepare the way
for christ's visit but very few are
doing that
i think that's the way it was in
jerusalem when jesus came
with his triumphal entry into jerusalem
i think it was very few i think the
crowds were though
many they were few compared to everybody
that was there for the passover feast in
jerusalem
the crowds that hailed him and yelled
hosanna
and had their palms and their garments
laid down before him they were preparing
the way
for christ to come to the temple and of
course that's our job as well
is is we need to be preparing constantly
for the next coming for the second
coming of christ
that's a part of the gospel
not just thinking well he could be here
in five years or 10 years or 20 or 50
years a hundred
but rather being in that state
that's i think how we're supposed to be
the idea
goes it works the same way with the
gathering of israel we should constantly
be
in the mode of gathering israel
and preparing for the coming of christ
i'll talk to you next time

Come Follow Me LDS

Book of Mormon 3 Nephi