all right welcome to
the quick media come follow me series we
are covering
mormon chapters one through six today
uh this is a tragic story mormon is a
tragic figure being placed in a time
when
he observes is a witness to the absolute
destruction of his people if you can
imagine
being a part of a people that you knew
was going to be
extinguished and then being the leader
a prophet who would have the love and
the sacrifice
to bear their burdens regardless of
their iniquity
the man who puts together abridges the
book of mormon and gets the whole book
of mormon to us
for the most part is the most
tragic figure perhaps of the entire book
of mormon because of what he
is a witness to now
think about that mormon is going through
the destruction of his people by the
lamanites as
he is abridging the record from the
plates of nephi
so what kind of a perspective does he
have
he's not like any other prophet of the
book of mormon
he's essentially looking down
the past of a thousand years
of his people the lehights
with the perspective of all the writings
coming all the way
down to what he knows is the end
of the nephite nation you would think
that that probably
has an impact on what he chooses to put
into the book
right he sees this whole narration here
he sees
how to pick and choose what would be a
bridge what would be put in
to the record and imagine him wanting to
put in the warnings
of what can happen to a civilization to
a people
as he goes through this time and what
does he focus on in his book we're going
to see
it's about of course the doctrine of
christ it is about
lehi's vision the
tree of life versus the great and
spacious building
now let's take a look here in chapter
one verse one it says and now i
mormon make a record of the things which
i have both seen
and heard so of course this is different
right this is
this is his own eyes this is his own
experience
everything that we've had from the large
plates starting with mosiah
up to this point is an abridgement of a
record that was already
laid down now we get mormon one-on-one
even though he was primarily the the
narrator of fourth nephi
and and does insert himself a little bit
in in certain places in the book of
mormon
this is his experience now down in verse
3
amiron who is the record keeper before
mormon
tells him that when he is about 24 years
old i would that you should remember
the things which he have observed
concerning this people
right this is about their destruction
and when you are of that age go to the
land
anthem unto a hill which shall be called
shem and there have i deposited unto the
lord
all the sacred engravings concerning
this people this goes
beyond the plates of nephi even all the
the cash of records
put together by the prophets and maybe
by many others
now the hill shim is interesting and
huby nibbly talks about this a little
bit
the hebrew shemal means
north or left and
the reason those two go together is
because
it would be your left hand which is the
north why is that
well it's because anciently they used to
orient themselves from the east what is
the orient
right that term that we use orientation
means from the east right just like we
have the orient
on the globe the east
so they would face east and that's where
the sun rose
that's where you would the temples would
be built and you would have the opening
of the temple that faced east
and then the holy of holies and the for
example in the temple of solomon
would be on the west where the sun set
right so if you're facing east where the
sun rises
that's your orientation we use modernly
we use the north
right like with the north star today
it's funny because you think about a boy
scout who would be
learning his orienting his orienteering
i think it is
merit badge and the word means from the
east but he's got a compass here that's
focused on the north
so facing east and and putting your arms
out
to your left the left hand would go to
the north
so that's why shem or shemal
would be left and north so they're up in
the northern area here
of the nephite nation and then amron
tells him you're going to take
just the plates of nephi out of all
these sacred records you're just going
to take the plates of nephi
and that's what mormon uses to abridge
the record
now mormon also says in verse 5 that he
is a
descendant of nephi why why would he
need to
describe this why would he need to tell
us this because that's a big deal
it always has been right they are the
nobility
of the nephites and that's where perhaps
a lot of contention came up with the
mulakites and others
right the the chief judge and the kings
were direct descendants of nephi
the prophets are direct descendants of
nephi and probably
in their culture the direct descendants
of nephi probably had a higher status
and and there was somewhat of a
birthright that would that would go
along with that
so he's not trying to be proud here he's
saying
it's part of my birthright right abinadi
was was a direct descendant of nephi so
was alma
and of course alma the younger then and
then down in verse 8 we're going to see
more of this disintegration right where
we've moved into the tribes again and
and out of everybody being as one as we
were
at at the beginning of fourth nephi it
says and it came to pass in this year
there began to be a war between the
nephites who consisted of the nephites
and the jacobites
and the josephites and the zoramites and
this war was between the nephites
and the lamanites and the lemony lights
in the ishmaelites so there's our
original seven tribes
that we had assigned by lehi when he
made his blessings before he
died and the message here
in this first chapter of mormon is very
simply now that we've gone through this
disintegration what happens is that the
grace of god
the blessings of god the gifts of god
the holy ghost being one of those are
all going to be removed
from the civilization and of course this
applies to us individually also
as we sin as we turn as we'll see here
from christ
and from the doctrine of christ
then we lose the grace of god
we lose his stretched out hand and so we
get a list of this
starting here in verse 13 it says but
wickedness did prevail upon the face of
the whole land in so much that
the lord did take away his beloved
disciples so
the priesthood is being removed here now
i've seen commentary on this where this
is the three nephites well maybe that's
so
i would i would guess just guess
that this actually means the 12 as well
right that these they maybe it's through
being murdered maybe it's through
they had to run and hide
maybe it's from falling away
but but i would guess we're talking
about the priesthood here and the
organization of the church
i think that is also disintegrating
that's the point that they're at and
then also here it says and the work of
miracles and healing did cease because
of the iniquity of the people right so
it's things that are being removed in 14
and there were
no gifts from the lord right
so those would be all the all the the
blessings and the gifts of the spirit
and the holy ghost did not come upon any
that's the next one
because of their wickedness and unbelief
in 15 we get something interesting it
says and i being 15 years of age this is
about joseph smith's age
and being when he saw the first vision
and being somewhat of a
sober mind we get sober again therefore
i was
visited of the lord so he has a vision
and
tasted and knew of the goodness of jesus
again as you've heard me say many times
before it's my belief
that the tree of life represents the
doctrine
of christ not just christ right but it
is the
doctrine of christ and all of the
elements that go in with that
and so this is to me a metaphor of the
tree of life right tasting and knowing
of the goodness of jesus
and then again in 16 and and i did
endeavor to preach unto this people but
my mouth was
shut so again sealing off the heavens
here
because of turning away from the
doctrine of christ
and toward this great and spacious
building and because of their iniquity
and then down in 18 we get the same
thing we've had before before the visit
of christ to the americas
their treasures are slippery right they
hide them up and they are slippery and
they lose those so
not only do they lose in their society
every every all these spiritual things
all the grace of god but they're losing
their own
material things as well and why would
that be because when a civilization
falls apart
because it does not hold on to the
eternal principles
of the gospel and the doctrine of christ
then faith and trust completely fall
apart
and there are robbers and there are
those that would take what they can
when they can power reigns supreme above
all
the charity is gone trust is gone
so all of so material items as well
are going to be lost now we're gonna
skip over to chapter two and again i'm
gonna make this a little bit shorter
than i usually do just
trying to catch up on everything here
but we get something interesting we see
this throughout the scriptures actually
right these references to things like
the magic art and the witchcraft and
then we'll get later on
sorcery what what is going on here with
all of this
i mean we don't really believe in that
kind of thing anymore
right because we have so many scientific
explanations of these things what
what is this what actually happens to go
back and think about
uh moses and aaron the the staff that
they throw out
with uh at pharaoh's court that turns
into a serpent right and then think
about the
magicians of pharaoh
that throw out the staff and then of
course moses's serpent
consumes the other two serpents right
showing what what are they showing there
they're showing the priesthood of god
over the priesthood of pharaoh
that's important to understand the
magicians
then are what they are priests
and so we should think of these things
in that way
i believe right magic art now the
magicians
magic here we get magic art in verse 10
what about the magi
that visit jesus christ that means visit
joseph and mary and and the baby jesus
why are they given that name magi right
because it has to do with priesthood it
has to do with
wisdom and so what i do
when i see these things in the
scriptures i'm not sure always of the
the the the staffs turning to serpents i
mean
completely open mind on that but i i
don't know how all of that happens i've
never seen anything like that
but yeah of course my mind is totally
open to that
right i know that the lord has the
potential to do anything but what i do
understand is that these things have to
do with the priesthood a
false priesthood right sorcery
for example the words that might be used
for that in greek in the new testament
are from the same root as magicians you
know i think it's
magi or something to that effect and and
and uh
pharmacaya or something like that i
think is pharmacaya that's
that has to do with pharmaceuticals
right so that would be something that
like a
shaman would use in in latin america
um for their tribes the medicine man
that are forcing hallucinations
and then visions that would help
interpret things and determine the
future and prophesy
right and and visit the ancestors and
the gods
right so it's about a false priesthood
think about uh
the first facsimile of the book of
abraham
right abraham in the form of osiris
right in the form of the god osiris is
is laying on the lion couch
and who is it that's about to kill him
with a knife
it's the priest of pharaoh and this is
an example of the priesthood of pharaoh
about to overcome abraham and the
priesthood of god
and of course he's saved by the angel
right same kind of thing with moses and
the magicians of pharaoh
so think about merlin the wizard
right who who is that well he's a
priest right that that is a
priest that is someone who would be
considered a priest a
medieval priest he might be a sorcerer
of some sort or a wizard
but when we think about those magic
things and different things like that
that's that's typically just a false
priesthood
that we would look at merlin by the way
one of the possible
sources of his name you know his the
looking at it etymologically
is an emerald right a green stone
that is often associated with things
like alchemy
right or a urim and thumb right a
precious stone where you would see
certain things
so you know same kind of idea there
right with the priesthood
just quick here i'm going to insert this
because you know i love this but in
verse 19
again he makes a reference he says i
know
that i shall be lifted up at the last
day so he hasn't left that out
he keeps going back to that very
important phrase to
to learn about in the scriptures we also
get here another land up in the north
called
shem hashem can mean a number of
different things but it's very similar
to
shem and this probably has something
else to do with
a city of the north i i also find it
very interesting here
in verse 23 that
he's he's he gives a speech to his army
right he's now controlling the army
mormon is
this is what he says about them he says
he urged them with great energy
that they would stand boldly before the
lamanites
and fight for their wives and their
children
and their houses and their homes all
right all
noble causes but
if you contrast that with the primary
message of captain moroni with the title
of liberty
right that mormon names his son after
you're to see some glaring things here
you're going to see some glaring items
missing
in this speech here and that has to do
with their religion
with christ with liberty
right there that's not going to rally
the troops here
they're too far gone for those things
captain moroni
that's what they fought for with mormon
we've we've
lowered the expectations here quite a
bit and then down here
toward the end of chapter 2 we see
something that happens in a lot of
civilizations
it's kind of a natural progression
politically
and geographically even
the nephites fight back under mormon
who is a great general and they take
back their lands of inheritance that the
lamanites have
conquered and then we get this and in
the 350th year we made a
treaty with the lamanites and the
robbers of gadianton
in which we did get the lands of our
inheritance divided
so the inheritance when they talk about
that it's the promised land right it's
the promised land under
lehigh and the lamanites did give unto
us the land
northward yea even to the narrow passage
that would be on the southern border
which led into the land southward and we
did give unto the lamanites all the land
southward all right so there's an
exchange of lands
so that they can be completely divided
now with a with
one single border between the two of
them
look for example how things are
politically in the united states and in
most places now i mean you have a a very
strong
two-party system so that you have one
border
politically and ideologically and you
might have factions underneath each
one of those the libertarians
the green type party the evangelicals
the statists right you've got
different factions under each of those
but they
go under the banner of well
under a single banner right and they
rally more people and make alliances
through those factions and eventually
it's it's one on one it's one banner
against another
you look at the flag of mexico which is
really interesting because
that is an aztec flag well how many
tribes are there
were there in mexico right remember the
flag of mexico has
the eagle with the serpent in its mouth
which is very interesting
right a feathered serpent the idea of a
feathered serpent a flying serpent that
we get there
that's standing on a cactus right that's
in the valley of mexico that is in the
territory of the aztecs
the name mexico is an aztec name
and yet you have everybody eventually
the tribes that come
you know they're all mexicans now right
everyone's mexican there in mexico but
they come from
different tribes and and they're all
under the same banner now
so that's a very natural thing to happen
and it's
it wouldn't be surprising to see more
and more people
uh um congregating in red states
that are red and more and more people
that congregating the blue states
that are blue in the united states right
as things become more and more extreme
and and more and more divided between
the two groups ideologically okay now
starting in chapter three
we're going to start seeing more of a a
glaring narrative here from mormon
about the destruction of his people and
why
there is the destruction here in verse 3
it says and i did cry into this people
but it
was in vain and they did not realize
and they did not realize that it was the
lord that had spared them
right what we're going to get is the
great and spacious building here there
the division if we understand lehi's
vision
his dream that the tree of life is the
doctrine of christ now what would that
be think of
one element of that right is absolute
humility
even even jesus christ is humble
right and always doing the will of
someone else always doing the will of
the father
lowering himself below all of us even
lowering himself in the waters of
baptism that's what that means that is
part of the condescension of god
lowering himself to the earth and taking
upon himself flesh
being born of mary lowering himself
below all of our sins in gethsemane
being judged of men
and being raised up on a cross
right that's that is the opposite of
what it's the opposite of
pride and so the great and spacious
building
is pride it's us it's meritocracy it's
pure meritocracy
we can do this it's the building of the
tower of babel
we'll get to heaven on our own merits on
our own building here
in verse 9 they began to boast in their
own strength
and began to swear before the heavens
that they would avenge themselves of the
blood of their brethren
who had been slayed by their enemies so
what becomes more of a driving force
here it's hate and revenge
right and one once that takes over then
what does that do to your values
hierarchy
individually and in your society
right that's at the top that is that is
what you are living for
now in verse 12 we get something pretty
interesting here he says
he makes these choices here about
whether he's going to lead
such a wicked people because
they have much more success militarily
when he's in charge
it says behold i had led them
notwithstanding their wickedness
i had led them many times to battle
and had loved them hmm
what does that mean right it means that
he cares
it means that he it makes him sick
that they are so wicked because he's
bearing their burdens
and he had loved them according to the
love of god
which was in me so charity with all my
heart
and my soul had been poured out in
prayer unto my god all the day long for
them nevertheless
it was without faith because of the
hardness of their hearts well wait a
minute
why would mormon pray without faith he's
a prophet he's a he's a
great prophet and he's praying without
faith
what does that mean well we know from
the lectures on faith and comments by
joseph smith
that true faith is only based on truth
right in reality eventually we can have
faith in something that is a false faith
it's almost we can say maybe it's just a
hope it's not based on something that is
true it is not based on a true principle
that's not faith that's not really faith
faith is trusting in something that is
true that is true faith so regardless of
his hopes and his desires here
that he's pouring out for his people
it's not faith that they're going to be
saved
because that's not true they're not
going to be saved
because of their choices and then he
moves on here in chapter 3 now and
starting in verse 17 and he starts
talking about the gentiles
and the remnant of the house of israel
right
that isn't he knows where this is
leading right he's he all the way going
all the way back to nephi we know how
this word this formula is going to work
we've been told
the gentiles will restore the gospel
in the latter days and then they will
bring it through with the book of mormon
and the abrahamic covenant and the
fullness of the melchizedek priesthood
they'll they will bring that to the
world
and so he talks about the gentiles and
how they must repent
so this is a common theme that mormon is
going through and what we get throughout
the book of mormon
is about the last days and about the
roles of
of different people globally
and then he says to all people gentiles
house of israel the people upon the
isles of the sea
everyone he says that we must stand to
be judged
of your works whether they be good or
evil right again we we get that often in
the book of mormon reminding us
it is our works reaching up for god it
is his grace
reaching down to us right we have to
have both
of those and also
that ye may believe the gospel of jesus
christ
which he shall have among you and also
the jews
the covenant people of the lord shall
have other witnesses
other witness besides him whom they saw
and heard
that jesus whom they slew was the very
christ and the very god well how are
they going to know that they're going to
know that through the book of mormon
that is the message of the book of
mormon to the house of israel and to all
peoples
right so as he's writing this out and
he's looking to the future
he's doing this because imagine
his perspective again what has happened
his people
have denied christ they have denied the
tree of life
and and the the full doctrine of christ
and as he has abridged this book of
mormon here the whole book of mormon
and writes now he knows that this is the
tool
that is going to bring the abrahamic
covenant and the restoration of the
gospel
and the message of jesus christ who he
is
to the world think about an
understanding
of the position that he's in right all
of the emotion the tragedy that is
happening here
and and his role in history
and in the future and then we move to a
point where
uh societies have gone too often times
especially anciently
right where the lamanites the nephites
are fighting the lamanites conquer an
area
and they take prisoners including women
and children
and what do they do they sacrifice the
women and children they're sacrificing
the purest things
and that's what sacrifice usually is in
many ways
right you in in terms of think for
example of animal sacrifice you know
right you would take the
the lamb without blemish it's the purest
thing that you have and you're going to
give that up
and so that's what's happening here the
innocent
are dying and being sacrificed
of course that's what happened with
jesus
now as the lamanites
start getting the upper hand here and
the nephites start to flee
well what's going to happen to them
right that what is going to happen to
the nephites here who goes first
we see the women and children being
sacrificed now here's something we get
in chapter 5 verse 7.
and it came to pass this is as they are
taking flight that those who
whose flight was swifter than the
lamanites did escape
and those whose flight did not exceed
the lamanites
were swept down and destroyed this is
where we get a
breaking down of the relational covenant
and charity
among their own people right we're we're
losing everything here
we're losing trust we're losing the
spirit we're
losing our gifts well natural
consequences that the
weakest among you are no longer
going to exist they are going to suffer
and they're going to die
that's what happens in those societies
and this is a natural consequence here
and those whose flight did not exceed
the lamanites were swept down
and destroyed who is that that's the
children
that's the women that's the handicapped
that's the diseased and the sick
right they're the ones that are going to
be swept off the earth
they're going to be slaughtered first
we can see these kind of formulas in
this this again this
disintegration of a society
and then he goes back to talking about
the future and the gentiles and the
house of israel now we should understand
why he's doing this right he's
he's running through this short book
this narrative here
about what's happening to the lamanites
and the nephites and then he interjects
these things about the gentiles in the
future and the house of israel in the
future
and the doctrine of christ right it all
goes hand in hand
so then he says talking about the book
of mormon he says
and these things they shall go unto the
unbelieving of the jews
and for this intent shall they go this
is the purpose
of the book of mormon that they may
be persuaded that jesus is the christ
the son of the living god that the
father may bring about
through his most beloved his great and
eternal purposes
in restoring the jews or all the house
of israel
to the land of their inheritance which
the lord their god hath given
them unto the fulfilling of his covenant
we're talking about the abrahamic
covenant see the book of mormon
is the message of jesus christ who he is
and and a witness drawing from the brass
plates the old testament
the torah the tanakh right the
scriptures of the jews
as a witness that jesus is the christ
and about the fulfillment of the
abrahamic covenant that they are not
aware of
so as we think about the book of mormon
and what what the tool it
what type of a tool this is right it's
message we should you know when when
sharing that with others and as we get
this out to the rest of the world
we should think about that right it is
about who
jesus christ is it's about the doctrine
of christ
and it is about the abrahamic covenant
and the tool to gather israel
we should be very familiar with this
well that's why we need to know about
isaiah
and how the the book of mormon is
constructed
and then he goes right back to the
current lamanites and says
for behold the spirit of the lord hath
already ceased to strive with
their fathers and they are without
christ right that's the key
that's what turns everything
in 17 they were once a delightsome
people
right that means a righteous people a
fair pure
white delightsome those are all
metaphors for righteousness
they were once a delightsome people and
they had christ
for their shepherd that's what pulled
them away they moved from the tree of
life
to the great and spacious building and
then in 20
going back to the future talking about
primarily the laments but we're going to
apply this to the jews and the rest of
the house of israel as well as far as
scattering goes
there's always a scattering of breaking
apart before there's a bringing back
together which is what we need to do
with the house of israel so they're
scattered everywhere
and after they have been driven and
scattered by the gentiles
behold then will the lord remember the
covenant
which he made unto abraham and unto all
the house of israel and what is that
they're going to be gathered back
together to a promised land either the
old jerusalem or the new jerusalem
and they're going to have the fullness
of the gospel that their fathers
rejected
at sinai all right now let's move to the
last chapter chapter 6 here so in
chapter 6 we get a few numbers here that
we can look at
right mormon is leading 10
000 people this is the very last
battle where they have gathered together
in the land of kimora
not sure where that is those that would
follow like the heartland idea would say
that is the hilkemore in new york
right others would say that that is in
mesoamerica and some might even argue
that it is in south america
it doesn't really matter to me but
they're in the land kimura
gathered together as one final body
of nephites knowing that they're about
to be
slaughtered there's no way out of this
they know the judgment that is coming
down on them
so mormon goes out with his 10 000
people now remember when i say
people right it's because i they're not
soldiers
this is men these are soldiers these are
men who are not trained this is every
person this is
the elderly this is women this is
children everyone who can hold a sword
or a knife or a rock
is going out to this battle and we get
mormon with ten thousand he actually
falls
wounded here and moroni leads ten
thousand and then we get many others
that are each leading ten thousand these
are ten thousand
again people and it looks like we have
about
two hundred and thirty thousand nephites
here together that are all
almost all virtually all going to be
slaughtered
by the lamanites
again uh probably a fairly small portion
of that
are actually soldiers we're told that
there's a band of 24 maybe a few others
here and there
that are left after this great battle
including mormon and moroni
so that's where mormon is now right he's
made his abridgement already of the
plates of nephi
he's a student certainly of of those
last thousand years
and here he is wounded on a battlefield
witnessing the absolute
final destruction of the nephites
this is what he says in verse 17 here
after he's gone through this
oh ye fair ones the righteous
they used to be righteous how could ye
have departed from the ways of
the lord oh ye fair ones how could ye
have rejected
that jesus who stood with open arms to
receive you again
if we look for it if we understand
always what is at the core of the book
of mormon and the teachings here
it is the dissension from the doctrine
of christ
a lot of times we try to just say oh
they became wicked
well why what are they departing from
what are we departing from when when we
do something wicked
right we we need to focus in on that
doctrine of christ that tree of life
that's his message it's always been his
message through his abridgement
of the entire book of mormon the tree of
life and the doctrine of christ on one
side and the great and spacious building
and pride on the other side and as he
writes here he's basically
summing up the destruction of his people
and what has been
lost the doctrine of christ and the
abrahamic covenant their liberty
and constantly throughout his
abridgement going through those things
and making sure we understand that the
doctrine of christ
is at the core of all righteousness
and at the core of success and at the
core of
building up a proper society and moving
towards zion
that the abrahamic covenant is
represents the fullness of the gospel
and that if we don't get things right
that we're going to be judged
he says as he says here again ending in
verse 21
according to our own works
and what we choose between those two
ways
and he finishes off here in verse 22
with that he says
and he doeth with you according to
his justice and mercy
i'll talk to you next time
