Come Follow Me LDS- Mosiah 7-10, Book of Mormon (Apr 27 - May 3)

'Becoming & The Doctrine of Christ'

-  King Limhi sets up the reason for Abinadi's Death Penalty

-  Becoming is a major part of The Doctrine of Christ

-  We are made in the image of God, Jesus was made in the image of man

- Formula for Breaking out of Bondage

-  Zeniff goes back to the Land of Nephi - Limhi gives Ammon the twenty-four gold plates

 

Maps provided by Mike Collins

 

Podcast Links:

Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cwic-media/id1428167000

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/3BNjs4EJqo0iK4LURdTPDb 

 

 

Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families LDS Mormon Book of Mormon

 

all right in this Cwic media come

follow me episode we're going to be

covering chapters 7 through 10 in the

book of Mosiah and this is kind of

interesting the way this starts off here

we need to understand times dates to

really understand the flow of things

here remember that we've just gone

through the time of King Benjamin with

his people the covenants that they made

there in King Benjamin speech but we're

setting up a time now here where we're

going to go back in time about more or

less 70 80 years here to the time of

Zenith and so let's see how we get here

now remember that King Benjamin gave the

kingship to Messiah and then three years

later he passed away so that's where we

are here in about 121 BC as now King

Messiah is going to take over and he

starts off here in chapter 7 here Moroni

does kind of interesting Lee he says

that he wanted to know concerning the

people who went up to dwell in the land

of Lehi Nephi or in the city of Lehi

Nephi because they hadn't heard anything

from them well again this is about 70 or

80 years after these people have left

sir ahem 'la to go to the land of Nephi

or Lehi Nephi and so but again all of a

sudden it just is kind of dropped in our

laps here similar to the way chapter 1

started off in Messiah as if the book of

Mosiah had already been talking about

this and it hasn't so again that's

probably part of what was lost at the

beginning of the book of Mosiah with a

lost or lost 300 pages or so but Mormon

through his abridgement is setting us up

here where we're about to go

back in time so Chapter seven and eight

are kind of a bridge for us until we get

to chapter nine which is going to set us

square about 7080 years but before the

time of the new king Mosiah here

now we do get a little bit of this out

of the book of the words of Mormon right

which was written much later obviously

at the time of Mormon but he it is

inserted before the book of Mosiah right

before the book of Mosiah

and this is what Mormon says about that

time that's kind of interesting he says

and it came to pass also that the armies

of the Lamanites came down out of the

land of Nephi this is during the time of

King Benjamin to battle against his

people against King Benjamin's people

so here's at this time during the time

of King Benjamin and his reign the need

the Lamanites are coming from the land

of Nephi Mormon tells us so they're

occupying the land of Nephi

and so if you haven't heard from those

that were going to the left 70 or 80

years before or whatever time period

this would have been 50 years before

during King Benjamin's reign when he was

leading the battles against the

Lamanites from the land of Nephi what

would you think of them that they been

maybe exterminated right that they were

they had perished by the sword so the

new king Messiah now sets up a scouting

party led by an a man named Ammon now

this is not the Ammon who is one of the

sons of Mosiah this is a different Ammon

right here's what we get in verse three

and it came to pass that on the morrow

they started to go up having with them

one Ammon he being a strong and mighty

man now why is this not the son of

Mosiah because we're told right

afterward and he was a descendant of

Zarahemla and he was also their leader

so when they say a descendent of

Zarahemla they're not talking about the

city they're talking about the man that

the city was named

- so Zarahemla was a man and a man is

his descendant so he's a mullah kite

and he leaves this scouting party of 16

men to go and try and find the land of

Nephi but they don't know how to make

their way to the land of Nephi they

remember it's been since Mosiah the

grandfather came out of the land of

Nephi so we're talking about two

generations since someone has gone back

to the land of Nephi and maybe almost

three generations and so we're told here

and Ammon by the way is not an uncommon

name and it for maybe a couple of

reasons number one it could be an

Egyptian name right coming from some

variation of a moon the god a moon right

and then also you have the people of

Ammon or the ammonites that are usually

a group of people adjacent to Palestine

to Canaan that are enemies to the

Israelites and the Jews although

sometimes they did fight together

against say for example Assyria so there

could have been a time where there were

names that were borrowed from them they

fought together but Ammon here is

obviously a common name with a very few

people that we have written about in the

Book of Mormon we know of at least two

here but don't confuse this Ammon with

the Ammon who chops off all the arms and

goes to the Lamanites as a missionary so

they're gone for forty days which is

maybe literal or maybe not and they

wander and they come to a hill and this

is the same Hill that Mosiah would have

stopped at the grandfather Mosiah would

have stopped at the way out of the

land of Nephi to Zarahemla right this is

a place that's closer to Nephi the land

of Nephi that seems to be a very common

place that you would naturally go to and

in fact there's a city that is created

there next to this hill that is just

north of

of Shilla Salaam and then takes from

there not wanting to go any further into

the land of the knee of the Lamanites he

takes three of his brethren and they go

down to the land of Nephi now as they

get down there they are taken by the

guards they're bound and they're put

into prison and it just so happens that

the king there who is a knee fight King

Lim hi he's out and about outside of the

gates outside of the walls of the city

and so the reason that they were taken

and bound by the guards is that they

didn't know who they were and

interestingly enough they were afraid

that they were Lamanites Scouts or maybe

Lamanites that were sent to assassinate

King Limhi

so King Limhi gives them that

explanation as the four men in total

here are brought before him but what's

interesting here again is again we

talked about skin color a little bit

here and I've gone over this a few

times as we've gone through the Book of

Mormon this is a very good example of

why do they think they're Lamanites

right why do they think they're

Lamanites it's not because of their skin

color obviously so these are people that

are the same people of Limhi right

the same race the same descendants but

for whatever reason right the guards and

Lim high and the people there thought

that they might be Lamanites

and so Limhi drills them right

questions them why are you here and so

Ammon speaking to the King Limhi says

in verse 13 I am Ammon and am a

descendant of Zarahemla and have come up

out of the land of Zarahemla to inquire

concerning our brethren whom Zenith

that's the record we're gonna going to

get to in a moment

Zenith is the grandfather of King Limhi

whom Zenith brought up out of that

land and Limhi is ecstatic right he

didn't know what might have happened to

those that were in Zarahemla if

they still existed and they're hoping

for a way out of their situation right

they are they have been put into bondage

by the Lamanites

cast of half of all of their increase

and they and they can't keep this going

they just can't keep doing it and so

they're hoping that they can get the

help of their brethren from zero Hamlet

to get them out of the situation one way

or another even if they have to become

slaves to those in Zarahemla because it

would then it would be even better than

the position that they're in now and

again

slavery was very common back in the day

in all parts of the world in the western

United States we think of the very

horrific examples right of in the

Western world of the slave trade the

transatlantic slave trade but that's a

very small part of all of slavery over

time and throughout the world right that

was a common thing

it wasn't until really the 18th century

that things really started to change a

little bit there and then very

dramatically in the 19th century

so King Limhi has all of his people

come and be gathered at the temple now

what temple is this remember they are in

the land of Nephi now unless they had to

reconstruct a new temple this temple

would be the temple of Nephi right this

would be the temple that Nephi built

after the design of the temple of

Solomon it would be the same one this

would be the temple that Nephi and his

brother Jacob spoke at right very

different from the land of Zarahemla so

we're kind of coming full circle back to

that and he says a couple of important

things here is he as he begins his

speech at the temple which again what

we're gonna start contrasting here is

the land of Nephi and the land of

Zarahemla and parallelism here we

see this because this is both tradition

and ritual and because Mormon is going

to want to put in a contrasting example

between King Noah who is limb HEIs

father especially and King Benjamin

right they're the exact opposite and

that's what Mormon is setting up here

for us but they are here gather

at a different temple now then King

Benjamin was at in the land of Zarahemla

and he says recognize and put your trust

in the gut in God in that God who was

the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob

and then he goes though through examples

you remember it's helping us to remember

what God has done the God that took them

out of Egypt and through the wilderness

crossed the Red Sea provided manna etc

and then he says he has kept and

preserved his people alright we've

talked about that word preserved

especially they notice here it is put

right in with his people who are his

people God's people they're the people

that are covenant 'add to him right

they're the people of the Covenant and

so again preserved is put right where it

seemingly is supposed to be based on our

last couple weeks discussions here and

then he says it's because of our

iniquities talking about the people of

limn high especially of Noah and the

abominations that he has brought us into

bondage so again we've got a

cause-and-effect here and this is a very

I think important lesson to learn

especially in the Book of Mormon but

throughout the scriptures that iniquity

is not just something that kills our

spirit right it's not just something

where we have a spiritual consequence

from this but there are material

consequences and one way or another it's

something where we end up being put

into bondage you've been on a spiritual

side for example you know we if we make

bad decisions we can be put into

spiritual bondage if we end up with bad

habits that in a sense is a spiritual

bondage or we are desensitized from the

spirit we are binding ourselves to

something more carnal and not allowing

the spirit into our hearts and of course

then a physical manifestation of that

would be actually being in bondage such

as our the people of Limhi here many

goes into kind of an

narrative of how they arrived here

through his grandfather Zenith I'm not

going to go into that now because we can

go into this a little bit later in

chapter 9 then he starts to bring up

something that's really important here

and to me this is this is crucial and a

lot of people ignore this part because

he's gonna start talking about Obinna

die and really a Bennett I come several

chapters later the story of a Benin die

but there's some very very important

information here that limb hi is gonna

give us about Obinna die here's what he

says starting in verse 26 and a prophet

of the Lord have they slain a chosen man

of God who told them of their wickedness

and abominations okay so this is where

you know even some LDS scholars

start to go in and think that this is

why a Bennett I was killed because he

was telling King Noah and the priests

and others how bad they were which is

certainly true and certainly that would

make them upset right but that's not

what Mormon is getting at here remember

what he's going to be setting up here

with a Bennett eye is the contrast with

King Benjamin where King Benjamin is

completely open to the higher law he is

a fully acceptance of the doctrine of

Christ and all of the people because of

the doctrine of Christ that they hear

even though it's a ritual they accept

that they accept Christ and they make a

covenant to even take on the name of

Jesus Christ that's the central point

here and it's the central point of the

story of a pin and I just a little bit

further here he says and this prophet

prophesied of many things which are to

come yay

even the coming of Christ that's the

point right

27 and because he said unto them that

Christ was God the God the Father of all

things and said that he should take upon

him the image of man and it should be

the image after which man was created in

the beginning what is he going over here

he's going over the doctrine of Christ

and we're included in that right man

is this is important to understand I

think and it's something that we don't

discuss enough I try to bring this up

but what I find this is just me

personally right what I find in the

doctrine of Christ that is a core

principle is that is about becoming

right the doctrine of Christ means that

we as is being explained here by Lim hi

that we are in some ways the same as

Jesus Christ can you say that yes you

can it's important to understand that

he's a mediator he's not the father

that's not part of the plan that

wouldn't work right he is made in the

image of man just like we are when he is

born to Mary and what that opens the

door to understanding is number one

that God came down to earth and there's

a condescension that is only manifest

because of God's love for us right

that's one thing the second thing though

is that as Lemhi points out we also are

in the same image we were created in the

image of God the Father and when Jesus

is born he's going to be in the same

image as us now what are they saying

here this is all about becoming right

without the doctrine of Christ the full

doctrine of Christ you take out that

understanding the full potential and

purpose of mankind and we see that

generally speaking in most of

Christianity today the part of becoming

is not there it's gone it's watered down

but Limhi is very specific about this

and this is one of the reasons that

people don't accept the full doctrine of

Christ they will not accept these two

things

that God would descend that he would he

would lower himself that way right you

can imagine people that are elitist in

that and they're thinking like okay why

would somebody do that God is too

perfect he can't he can't lower himself

to the very depths of humility that

doesn't make any sense and then on the

other hand raising man up to that

potential of becoming is to them

preposterous and you've heard those

arguments but that is a major part of

the plan of salvation it's a major major

part of the doctrine of Christ him

descending all the way below us and us

ascending up to him at least to some

degree people just can't absorb that

they can't take that so man is created

in the image of God Christ comes down in

the image of God or as a said here in

the image of man right like us in other

words he said that man was created after

the image of God why is he including

this part right he's setting this up

right here in other words man was

creating the image of God so if God the

Son if there was a son of God and he was

made like us what does that mean about

us it's a crucial oftentimes left out

part of the doctrine of Christ and that

God should come down among the children

of man right and man well that's what

that means and take upon him flesh and

blood and go forth upon the face of the

earth okay and then in verse 28 and this

is very important and now because he

said this they did put him to death so

when we get to a Bennett I next week

remember this very important why did

they put him to death and I'm going to

go through that with you and make that

argument to support this exact statement

by Lim hi it was not because he was

telling them they were bad boys and

girls it is not because

of a nationalistic feeling that the

people of Noah were the Covenant and

promised people of God not saying that

didn't play a little bit of a part in it

but it's not the reason and you hear

that a lot now because of its a

traditional interpretation of the verses

that Obinna Dies going to go over with

the priests of Noah but I don't buy it

that's me personally I don't buy it I

don't buy that traditional

interpretation we're being told here why

he's killed and what that trial of a Ben

and I is all about right here and then

he says if we will return to the Lord

with full purpose of heart and put our

trust in him right that's faith put our

faith in Him in the atonement and the

atoning sacrifice and serve Him with all

diligence of mind if he do this he will

according to his own will and pleasure

deliver you out of bondage well there's

our formula for all of us if we are in

bondage in any way right we're stuck in

something bondage can apply to I'm on a

spiritual plateau and I can't move

forward bondage is I can't break through

something that's going on in my life

we're told the formula here to break out

of that bondage it's not easy it's a

simple it's very very simple and I've

been through this several times on

different issues I know it works but it

doesn't make it easy but first turn to

the Lord with full purpose of hearts

right you're all-in jump in with two

feet that's the first step you got to do

that right put your trust in him so

you're going to lean completely on the

Lord serve Him with all diligence of

mind all right then that's your set

that's your three-step formula right

there to get out of bondage in your life

so then King Limhi has a man come up

right in front of the temple talking to

everybody and he kind of goes through a

history of what has happened since the

time

that Zenith left so again about 70 80

years before this since the beginning of

this people in the land of Nephi and he

goes specifically into King Benjamin's

speech from three years prior right

again Moroni I want our Mormon wants to

put that in there why why does he make

sure that that is listed in here in

when abridging this down quite a bit

because he's using this to contrast

things this is the bridge that's taking

place right now at the temple of Nephi

the bridge of the comparisons so then

Limhi dismisses everybody and he has

these plates brought to Amman right and

he says that there are these twenty-four

plates of gold these are gold plates not

the golden plates that Joseph Smith ends

up with but these are plates of gold

that have been inscribed with a history

of a people and this is pretty

interesting because remember that when

grandfather Mosiah

leaves the land of Nephi and there they

end up following the probably the

Liahona they go to the same Hill that

Ammon and his brethren stopped at in

Shalom and they end up finding the Urim

and Thummim and the breastplate which is

massive these are from what they

describe as must have been massive

people the Jaredites were huge real

Giants but on that journey between the

land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla

that's where Mosiah finds the ermine

Thummim and the breastplate from the

Jaredites then he goes over here

describing that he had sent a number of

men a scouting party to look for the

land of Zarahemla to go back and find

the land of Zarahemla they could never

find it but they found a place with

countless number of human bones and

bones of beasts as well so great battle

that took place here

I don't know if it's the final battle

but great battle that takes place here

with it within the Jaredites and their

civil

war probably and they find these 24

plates and so not going the exact same

route but again the idea of going

between Zarahemla and Nephi they find

these 24 plates and he asks can you

translate these and he says no but I

know who can write someone who is a seer

and we get this comment here it says

that Mosiah had told Ammon that a seer

is greater than a prophet right which is

an interesting statement

what is a seer seems like a seer is

someone who can well look through these

instruments to see things because not

everybody can do that and in verse 16 he

says and a man said that a seer is a

Revelator and a prophet and so when we

think about the Brethren right the

quorum of the twelve and the first

presidency each of them is using these

three titles in their calling a prophet

a seer and a Revelator and then the last

point in this chapter is in verse 20

just little tidbit here it's kind of

interesting this is King Lim high and he

says oh how marvelous are the works of

the Lord and how long does he suffer

with his people, yea

and how blind and impenetrable are

the understandings of the children of

men for they will not seek wisdom all

right so if we're not seeking wisdom

then we fall into darkness our heart our

hearts are hardened and then he says

after talking about wisdom he says

neither do they desire that she should

rule over them so limb high here is

saying that she should rule over them

who is she well she is wisdom now he may

just be personifying this but there are

a lot of places in the Bible where that

may not be the case right it seems to

then stripped down about wisdom or the

lady right the lady of the temple who's

the lady of the temple well certainly we

know even in just the Garden of Eden

story that we have the story of Eve in

there that that is a temple liturgy and

she is the mother of all living and who

is the mother of Christ its Mary right

there is a figure maybe given

personification or this idea or built

off of the idea of something real like

Eve or a mother in heaven wisdom is

always female

and even in Greek for example wisdom is

Sophia

right it's a personified goddess which

is kind of interesting when we get to

the Old Testament in a couple of years

we'll go over that a lot more okay then

we jump over to chapter 9 and this is

where Zenith’s record starts so again in

the in chapters 7 and 8 so far right

we've been going in the same time period

as King Benjamin in Messiah right as

king Benjamin passes away his son Mosiah

sends off Ammon and his brethren to go

find the people here of limb high and he

does but now that we've been given this

introduction

now what Mormon does is he inserts the

record of Zenith and this is from

chapters 9 through 22 but if we see here

in the chapter summary of chapter 9 it

says when is this about 200 to 187 BC so

this starts roughly 80 years before but

we just went over here so we're going

back in time about 80 years so xenophobe

ins up here talking about how there was

a party that left is there a hem law

again about 80 years earlier and wanted

to

back to the land of their fathers the

land of Nephi or the land of Lehi Nephi

maybe they were wondering what had

happened to their brethren who had

remained which was probably the majority

of the Nephites that were there maybe

they knew that they had perished by the

sword who knows but they wanted to go

back to the land of Nephi the temple of

Nephi etc so they sent a party out there

they get around to the land of Shalom

again the hill of Shalom this is a very

common place to stop

Zenith goes out as a scout to the

Lamanites and is among the Lamanites and

he sees goodness there so the party

originally had thought well we're gonna

go out and we're going to slay the

Lamanites which is kind of hard to

understand this might just be in the

land of Nephi there can be Kings in

different areas like we have with King

Lamoni and his father but he sees that

there's goodness there so he does not

want to slay the Lamanites

and so there's infighting because others

do and so a lot of them kill each other

and they go back to Zarahemla and then

and then zenith leads another what must

have been it looks to me based on their

battles in the future what must have

been perhaps thousands of people that

end up going with him and they come in

and they speak with king layman and they

are given the permission to go in and

occupy again the land of Nephi and the

land of Shalom but Zenith is kind of a

he's you know a good character but he's

also not a great character right he says

of himself here and of us the people

that we were slow to remember the Lord

our God and it was very difficult for it

this is not an easy thing to get through

these two lands between Zarahemla and

the land of Nephi and what he had come

down lots of fatigue famine thirst same

thing happens here with zenus people

right it's very difficult to get through

these lands apparently and very

difficult to find so it's difficult

terrain and so they go in and they have

12 13 years here of roll

to peace building up this civilization

again farming industry trade etc and

then the land of Shalom is attacked by

the Lamanites and they go off and they

fight them

and they beat him in one example here at

the bottom of chapter 9 he says that we

did slay 3043 and they lost two hundred

and seventy nine of their brethren even

if they're a minority right if they've

got a smaller amount of people that are

fighting with if the Lamanites lost

three thousand and forty three how many

were there total in that army and then

they had driven the rest out of the land

so there were probably thousands maybe

ten thousand maybe more that were

fighting there had to have been

thousands of Zenith’s men that were

fighting here and they're not counting

the women and children on this right

what they do in these times is they take

the women and children and they hide

them obviously because that way another

band of the Lamanites can't come in and

take them prisoners take them as slaves

so they hide the women and children out

in the forest probably miles away so

what Zenith goes over here is that King

wanted to tax the people of Zenith he

wanted to live basically off of his

people without with heavy-laden tax and

they ended up doing that later on with

limb high but in the meantime they fight

off the Lamanites and they hold their

own and they become very industrious

right much more than the Lamanites that

seems to be one of the big disparities

between the two groups and they farm

they have large crops

apparently they make a lot of

clothing they prepare for war with a lot

of weapons and they prosper right they

prosper very well as long as they're

obeying the commandments and then

another time the Lamanites come in here

their heads are shaved they're naked

other than a girded leather girdle about

their loins and Zenith

says something interesting here or

maybe it's Mormon he says now the

Lamanites knew nothing concerning the

Lord nor the strength of the Lord

therefore they depended upon their own

strength yet they were a strong people

as for the strength of men so again

another disparity here the Nephites

fight with the strength of the Lord and

the Lamanites don't and that seems to be

a big difference that makes up for a lot

of shortcomings as far as population

goes anyway and then zenith continues

and he says they were a wild and

ferocious and bloodthirsty people

believing in the tradition of their

fathers which is this so this is this he

lays down why the Lamanites are hate the

Nephites so much right it is there is a

there's a lot of good with the Lamanites

they love their spouses they love their

children their families but one thing

that is built up here is an a is a

hatred toward the Nephites

he says they believed in the tradition

of their fathers which is this believing

that they were driven out of the land of

Jerusalem because of the iniquities of

their fathers and that they were wronged

in the wilderness by their brethren and

they were wronged while crossing the sea

so that would be the incident with Nephi

being bound to the mast probably and

again they were wronged well in the land

of their first inheritance after they

had crossed the sea right that's where

Nephi took everything the relics the

brass plates and left and so there is a

it's kind of interesting isn't it that

there is a hatred that is built up

partially because of envy at least it's

partially because of envy now we can

give the Lamanites credit where credit

is due

and in many cases now there seems to be

a lot of this kind of well let's wrap

our arms around the Lamanites and talk

about everything that must have been

good with them to some degree that's

fine they're children of God and there

is their tradition of their fathers in

this

culture that is built up that is not all

their fault that's not all their fault

and it's the sons of Mosiah later on and

others that want to go to the Lamanites

to try and reverse this trend this

culture that they have of hatred toward

the Nephites and bring them more of the

truth we get this statement here in

verse 14 which we heard about

laman and lemuel in the very first few

chapters of first Nephi he says and his

brethren were wroth with him because

they understood not the dealings of the

Lord right and so that is speaking of

Nephi and laman and lemuel they were

also wrought with him upon the waters

because they hardened their hearts

against the Lord and again what does

that mean to me that's not just saying

we're choosing evil we're choosing

what's wrong it's denying Christ and the

doctrine of Christ and it's 17 we get

more about this culture and thus they

have taught their children this is the

Lamanites that they should hate them the

Nephites

and that they should murder them and

that they should rob and to plunder them

and do all they could to destroy them

therefore they have an eternal hatred

towards the children of a Nephi and

again it's it that's such a we've talked

about this before but that's such a

culture of victimhood you know when you

allow yourself to be victims

individually or as a people you're

you're putting yourself in a very very

difficult position regardless of if

there have been oppressions or things

that have wronged you if you allow that

and allow victimhood to enter in then

you are limiting your potential it is

very difficult to have faith hope and

charity when you are a victim and you

can see that throughout different

societies today and where there are even

wars where some people have not taken on

victimhood even after they have lost

those wars

and have become extremely productive and

industrious versus others that maybe

haven't and I'm certainly not valuing

one people over another but I am valuing

a culture at times or at least aspects

of a culture where there is attitude and

attitudes and principles that are

allowed to flourish and are promoted

even of hatred and envy and victimhood

it never ever works and I think that's

an important aspect of the entire Book

of Mormon to understand right

you can see how people like even Enos

right when he prayed was forgiven of his

sins struggled with Lord and then when

he was forgiven of his sins he had a

great desire for love toward his

brethren that the Nephites and then

beyond that going to the Lamanites right

because he senses that charity toward

them and that even though he is hated by

them he wants to reach out and love them

and so you can see this dynamic with all

these different principles that play

between two different peoples one that

is inward where they are in a cycle of

Pride and prosperity right moving around

those things and one that is based on a

sense of victimhood and oppression and

there's many different things that are

right it's in other words those

that are at feel oppressed right those

that may have had some wrongs done to

them even and feel oppressed just like

we're told in King Benjamin's speech are

we not all beggars are we not all also

in the image of God and as King Benjamin

says would some of you might say to

yourselves well they deserve this

because of what they're given well

remember a lot of this has to do with

spiritual gifts and they are denied that

they're born into a culture

that has this promotion of hatred and

envy and victimhood so if you can see

beyond that then your heart opens up

more right and you can see that they are

in the image of God and then the other

way around right the coming from the

other side it's when can you see a

softening of the hearts of the Lamanites

and are reaching out of them toward the

Nephites and as we go through the Book

of Mormon

keep that in mind it's not just good

versus bad its sons and daughters of God

on one side and sons of daughters of God

on the other one side often chooses evil

because of the culture that they're in

and one side often chooses evil despite

the fact that they have the truth and so

yes we have the protagonist Nephites and

the antagonist the Lamanites

but you know just keep that in mind as

you go through it and think about the

dynamics that would be going on between

these two groups especially for those

who are more enlightened on both sides

and that's part of covenant right that's

part of covenant and so the Nephites and

Lamanites both which are joseph's fights

both who have a mixture of Manasseh and

Ephraim are battling with this whole

issue of covenant reaching out from one

side to the other I'll talk to you next

time