Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - 1 Nephi 1-5 Part 2 • Dr. John Hilton III • Jan 8 - Jan 14 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Dr. John Hilton III examines acting in faith, sacrifice, and hearing Jesus’s voice throughout our lives by applying principles in 1 Nephi 1-5Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/book-of-mormon-episodes-1-13/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056YouTube: https://youtu.be/ctziJMKGwdgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYPlease rate and review the podcast!00:00 Part II–Dr. John Hilton III00:07 One of the shortest verses01:56 Softening our hearts04:43 God makes things possible6:10 Nephi’s great idea08:26 The long Saturdays08:44 Go and Know and Know and Go11:55 Sariah’s perspective14:29 Helping our students know for themselves16:54 Nephi slays Laban21:20 The impact on Nephi and Zoram23:36 Sacrifice and burnt offerings26:49 Principles in this lesson29:59 Dr. Hilton shares his feelings about the Book of Mormon34:58  End of Part II– John Hilton Thanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignAnnabelle Sorensen: Creative Project ManagerWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Welcome to part two with Dr. John Hilton III on First Nephi 1 through 5. Okay, Dr. Hilton, what do we have next? Let's just jump down to one of the shortest verses on the Book of Mormon. First Nephi chapter 2 verse 15, and my father dwelt in a tent. I'm sure that both of you have had the experience when you're teaching seminary and a student gets to give the devotional and they go up and read this version and it's like, oh, they go sit down so funny. But this is actually a great verse. Going back to what we talked about earlier with a serious study of the Book of Mormon,

one technique that I really like to do is to search for how often words or phrases are repeated. With if you do that with the word tent, we find out that over the course of his writings, Nephi will refer to his father's tent more than 20 times. It was actually an important detail. It seems like Lehigh is pretty wealthy because he has so much treasure right that Leibin is going to lust after it. And that's just the stuff that they left behind. Lehigh has got a lot and now he's gone from that to living in a tent. I don't have the nicest house, but I would be really bitterly disappointed

if I had to move out of my house into a tent. That would be so hard. And I think it's interesting that Nephi and Lehi are gonna have incredible revelations while they're living in a tent. This was a step down for them. And to me, it's kind of this, and it came to pass my father,

Dwellton Attents symbolizes that even in the difficulties of our lives, even when we're metaphorically dwelling in a tent, we can still have great revelations and great joy like Lehi and his family did. That's excellent. I think of how many of our pioneer ancestors left homes in Europe and ended up in a tent in Ephraim, Utah, right? The dugout somewhere. As we keep going in, second Nephi, chapter two, there's a couple of really beautiful passages. In verse 16, Nephi says, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being

large and stature. Also, I've been great desires to know the mysteries of God, wherefore I did cry unto the Lord, and he did visit me and soften my heart. I think I heard this from you, actually, John, by the way, that the idea that the Lord comes to soften Nephi's heart suggests that there was a little bit of hardness there. It doesn't mean we need to put Nephi's heart. Suggest that there was a little bit of hardness there. That doesn't mean we need to put Nephi down, but it does humanize Nephi. He's a teenager and he's trying to figure things out, so we praise. And the Lord gives him a promise in verse 20, in as much as he shall, keep my commandments ye shall prosper and be led to a land of promise.

And this phrase is repeated in different ways throughout the Book of Mormon. And I think it's interesting that to me this appears to be a collective promise. Nephi, in as much as you and your descendants keep the commandments, you'll prosper in the land. That doesn't mean that if you personally, you and me individually keep the commandments that everything will work out for us the way we want when we want. I'm like, well, we've just been discussing. Everyone's gonna have hardships, and Nephi has some bitter hardships.

But in the long view, as we keep the commandments, things will work out. That's the message that we come to an end of chapter two. So as we flip the page and we go to chapter three, we're coming up on one of our most famous passages of Scripture. Thee, I tell us Nephi, I need to send everyone back for the brass plates, your brothers are murmuring. And Nephi says, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveeth no commandments under the children of men, save ye shall prepare a way for them, that they may accomplish the things which he

commanded them. Speaking of scriptures mentioned in general conference, as Goodly John just shared with us, I went to the scripture citation index. This is scriptures.byu.edu and you can click on a verse. It's a wonderful tool and you can look at how many times a certain verse or set of verses was reference in general conference. I'm looking at first Nephi 3 here, first Nephi 3, 1 through 5, referenced once, first Nephi 3, 1 through 7, reference once, and you keep going down and you've got reference four times, two times, two times, one time, and then you get the first Nephi 3, 7, and it's got 111 references to it in general conference. Yeah, I mean this one has stood out all the way back to

teaching the prophet Joseph Smith, Joseph F Smith, Lorenzo Snow, Spencer W Kimball, Mary and G. Romney, all the way up to 2023 and rebeiring. That's the most recent. So this one has gone the distance. most recent. So this one has gone the distance. Do you know what I love about this is it sounds like we're quoting Lehigh starting in about verse two. Nephi says my father said, behold, I have dreamed a dream. And he says, thy brother's murmurs saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them. And then Nephi says, I said unto my father, I will go and do the things which, and I do this to my class to see if they catch it. I will go and do the things which Lehigh had commanded for I know and they go, wait, wait, wait, no, it's which the Lord have commanded. Well, lay on the Lemuel said, you're asking me, Father Lehigh and Nephi says, oh, did God ask? Oh, okay. Well, then I can do it. And then a hard thing becomes just the thing which the Lord commanded because God asked me. I'm thinking of Peter saying, Lord, bid me come unto thee on the water.

If you ask me to do it, then I can do it. I'd like to like those two things here. If God is asking me to do this, then I can do it. That's a great nugget, John. I love that. It seems like Nephi frequently harkens back to the story of Moses. And that seems like a, he will prepare away,

whether it be a way to go over the walls of Jerusalem or a way through the red sea. He will prepare a way. Nephi, of course, writing, we've already said, writing decades after the fact, very well knows that the way is not perfect. It's not this opened up and it's, I know exactly what to do at the exact moment. This takes a lot of effort and criss-crossing and trying to find that way, but he won't quit because he knows the way is there. I love that. We've been doing a lot of zooming in at specific

phrases, which is awesome. Let's zoom out and just think about chapter three from a bigger picture perspective. Now, Nephynas brothers, they make a two week journey back to get the plates. They go to Laban's house, they draw lots, Laban gets the short straw, tries to get the plates, he's kicked out, so they're frustrated, okay, let's go home. No, no, the, Nephi says, I've got a great idea.

And I can see Nephi, he's thinking he's inspired. Let's grab all of mom's silverware, we'll bring it to Laban and then again the plan fails. If we were to stop maybe around verse 28, Laman and Lemuel are spiting Nephi and Sam with a rod. Now for us as readers, it's so easy to keep reading on to 29. Oh, good, the angel's gonna come, pause on 28 for a while. Think of how does Nephi feel?

He's like, wait, I said I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. And sure we tried the casting lots, maybe that wasn't the smartest idea, but I felt really good about this idea of buying the plates and now like right out, oh, hit him again. Like I'm getting beat right now, and there's no hope. I feel like it's so helpful for us to sometimes

just sit in the middle of a scripture story. We want to rush to the end, and we know what's gonna happen. But sit with Nephi for a little bit, as he's being beat with a stick after doing everything he thought was right. It's a reminder, again, as we've been discussing a little bit today, that just because I'm doing

the right thing doesn't mean that everything will turn out exactly the way I want. In my own life right now, there's a big project that I'm working on, and I have had some thoughts of how we can move it forward. And just yesterday, I realized that is not gonna work. And I'm in the middle of it. I'm in verse 28 right now.

Things are not working out. I'm looking thinking, okay, there's no way that this is going to happen. And hopefully I'll be back next year, and I can tell you things worked out. But who knows, maybe they won't work out in this life. We don't have that promise. So it's a reminder that when we're stuck in the middle,

there was a time when Nephi was stuck in the middle. I remember, John, Hilton, you teaching me it could have been here on the podcast or just one of our conversations to not skip over the Saturday of the resurrection. I was not you. Yeah, I think that was on our Easter episode. We jumped from Friday to Sunday so fast, but we forget that long Saturday. Fortunately, the angel does come and encourages Nephi, rebukes, laymen, and Lemuel, and so they decide to give it one more shot. And that takes us to, I mean, it's hard to have favorites, but this is God to be one of

the greatest verses that we're seeing today. And first Nephi chapter four, verses six and seven, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, they stay behind. Nephi goes forward in verse 6, he says, I was led by the Spirit not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless, I went forth. And there's actually a contrast. If we go back to 1st Nephi 3.7, Nephi says, I will go and do for I know because Nephi knew he was going to do. But here it's the opposite. I did not know beforehand the things which I should do.

Nevertheless, I went forth. Sometimes you go because you know, but sometimes you go and then you know. And I think actually if we were to start looking across scriptural patterns, we would find that it's more often it's go then no. Noah starts to build the ark then it rains. Moses leads the children out of Israel then the Red Sea parts. In fact, this happened to me just two days ago. I was visiting with a young adult. She's a super faithful person and she's trying to decide if she should go on a mission. She's been praying about it for a few months and she's not really getting an answer. I am so sympathetic when in a big decision, I want God to tell me what to do and then I'm

going to do it. But often God says, you make the decision. You move forward. And then as as Elder Scott said years ago, I'll confirm that it's right. Or if you made the wrong choice, I'll send you some warnings. But God is trusting us to move forward. And that's exactly what Nephi is doing here in verses six and seven. So much like the brother of Jared, bring me an idea. I can make it work, but you got to bring me an idea. There's a few phrases that come to mind. I love this one. You can't say to your fireplace, give me heat, then I'll give you wood. President Mary and G. Romney said once, God, come only guide our footsteps when we move our feet. Another one that leaps to mind for me is the 10 lepers.

Go show yourself to the priest. Well, we can't or not heal the act. They could have responded that way. Jesus says, go show yourself to the priest. It says, as they went, they were cleansed. It came as they started to go. I love this verse. I love it for young adults like you've talked about.

Not knowing beforehand. And how often all of us just tell me what to do, Heavenly Father, and I'll do it. And sometimes he says, no, commit to a course of action, then I'll guide you. Think about this young woman who's deciding whether she should go on a mission. The answer in this case is probably you decide. You start your papers or don't start your papers, but make a choice, move forward, and then trust that just like with Nephi, as he went forth, the path opened up, and the path will open up for you in the big decisions that you're making in your life. Since we've been talking about this idea of doing and knowing, as we come to 1 Nephi chapter 5, Nephi and his brothers have come back,

think about this from the perspective of Saraya. They've been gone for more than a month, two weeks to get the plates. I don't know, maybe a week, figuring everything out, now two weeks coming back. So she's rightly worried about her children. And when they return in 1st Nephi 5, 8, Saraya speaks, saying, now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness. So what does that tell us about Saraya on the day she left? She didn't know.

She didn't know. It's been maybe two months or more since they left and she has been acting on faith this whole time. Saraya is a wonderful example of someone who acted. She did. And then she knew. And even I think if we were to go to the end of the book of Mormon, Mournest promise, read these things, ask God, it's an invitation to do. And then you'll know. Soraya is an incredible example of that in action. I like how we watch different members of the family in their spiritual progress First, it's Lehigh has a vision. He knows and then Nephi wonders I got to pray about this and the Lord's soft and as hard as we talked about and then he just tells Sam

And Sam believes him and we've got that spiritual gift of believing on their words. Then Sam knows and believes. I like that Sir, I didn't say, oh, I've had a burning in the bosom. For her, it was a more evidence-based thing. Then maybe she did. Maybe she had other feelings, but here she says, ah, now I know. I have evidence. I have a fruits. I have results right here in front of me. I like to watch the family progressively get on board. What I'm hearing from both of you is to not be paralyzed and wait. Move, get moving, get doing, and move on faith sometimes. I think it's John, by the way, as quote,

and if I says I will go and do not sit and stew, is that right? That's right. John, can't we apply this in so many ways in life? Oh, I'll wait to go to the temple until I feel like it. Well, then you might not ever go, go, right? Get moving. I think Brigham Young said, if you don't feel like praying, pray until you feel like praying.

Get moving and give the Lord a chance to do some directing. God cannot steer a parked car as another way to say it. And maybe we can think about another application of this principle as it has to do with being parents or teachers. If you think about it, a child who grows up in the church ostensibly is going to hear hundreds of hours of lessons. And most of the times these lessons are, I'm going to try to help my child or student know something so that they'll do something later on. And maybe I could flip that as a parent. I could think, how can I help my children do things that will help them know, that will help them get it for themselves? John, be the

other day, we were in a conversation with someone else who was talking about how chicks hatch. And if you will open up the egg for the chicken, it will die. The chick has to get itself out of the egg. And reminds me of this quote from Elder David A. Bednar. He said, we put way too much importance on what we say. We think that by telling people that somehow that will connect and get inside. My observation is that the role of a parent or teacher, we might say, includes talking and telling, but it extends beyond that to inviting a child or student to act in accordance with truth. And only when the child acts in accordance with the truth

can the child really get it for themselves. It's only in the process of communicating, loving, and working with the child that you help them act in accordance with the truth that it moves from their head to their heart. It made me think maybe once a month, instead of having a family home evening lesson where I'm preaching to my kids,

maybe we go out and do service on that occasion. And it's as we're doing the things that the knowing will come to my children's hearts. There's a great American psychologist, not a member of the church. Her name is Marsha Linahan. She developed dialectical behavior therapy. She said something so similar.

She said, you don't think yourself into new ways of acting. You can only act yourself into new ways of thinking. So the actions change the thoughts, the beliefs. A big part of the new children and youth program is to let the youth lead to let them act and do instead of just telling them about leadership, but to get them to lead and do. And then you begin to know, I like what you said there, John.

Let's get back to the storyline in First Nephi chapter four. Now we're kind of coming to an uncomfortable part of the storyline where Nephi is going to slay Laban. And sometimes we might be tempted to skip over that part. I think if you ever done that when you're teaching the kids you're like, all right, well, let's just let the page, guys. What I find fascinating, John's, is that he doesn't have to tell us this story.

He's the only source. He could say something to the effect of, I went into Jerusalem and by a miracle I was able to obtain the plates. He doesn't have to tell us this story, but he chooses to, and there's something to think about there. It's interesting, those of us who have grown up in the church, we grow up with this story. It doesn't seem as shocking to us as someone who's maybe introduced to the book for the

first time. If we can see it with new eyes and think, okay, this is actually can be a stumbling block in the book. And maybe the Lord put a stumbling block in the beginning on purpose. Do you want to keep going? We've had a little bump in the road. What do you think? It's such a good question. And I know from experience, the investigators get to that and go, whoa, and then I know that he nibbly mentioned once what a David do with Goliath. Once he slew him, Dr. Paul Hoskasin, on one of those roundtable discussions, those are all on YouTube. He talks about the fact that Laban said that were to robber and I will slay the he called that a false accusation in the law of Moses, which was a capital offense.

In a way, Nephi having threatened to kill him, he attempted murder a couple of times. Nephi was fulfilling the law of Moses by slaying Laban because of his false accusation. And I don't know enough about the ancient law, but I thought that's an interesting way to look at it. It is true that when Nephi goes over in his head, he's having this, how can I do this? He remembers that layman had tried to slay them twice and would not obey the command of

the Lord accused them of being robbers. That softens it a little bit for me. Me too, John, he's protecting his family. I will slay thee. He could easily hunt us down out there in the wilderness. He could easily follow us. I've got to protect my brothers and our entire family. But again, this is difficult and it's okay to say this is difficult. It's okay to not be okay with this. When things like this happen in the scriptures or in the history of the church, something that I'm uncomfortable with, I often stop and I pause and I say, well, everything else about Nephi's life tells me he's a good person.

This is something I struggle with, but I trust him. I trust him that he really is getting this commandment from the Lord. And he's sincere about it. I'll leave it between commandment from the Lord. And he's sincere about it. I'll leave it between Nephi and the Lord. I'm not going to insert myself into this equation and start judging Nephi or God for this commandment. Instead, I'm going to look at the big picture and say, Nephi is a trustworthy person.

Everything else in his life tells me he's a trustworthy person. So I'm going to leave this specific difficulty between him and the Lord. It is interesting to see that Nephi really doesn't want to do this. And in some ways that also gives a little bit of evidence. I can also picture Nephi's large and stature adrenaline filled teenage boy being like, yeah, great, you said you were going to kill me. I'm going to kill you. That actually might feel more coherent with what we think of. But Nephi doesn't want to do this.

It's only the Lord's specific prompting saying it's better that one person died than an entire nation, went to an unbelief. And this takes us back to where we began, the importance of records. Nephi, you've got to get these records. You need them. Your descendants need them. Your descendants need them. Nephi is able to get the brass plates. I don't know. You guys are both really good impersonation. So I don't know if you have any insight into how Nephi was able to impersonate

the voice of Laban. I think that I would have been out of luck on that one. Was this a miracle? Any insights you can share? This is one of those where I really hope we get to see the video one day. I want to see Lame and Lemio running away and then I want to see Nephi go, oh, I just kidding, it's me, it's me, you guys. I just want to see the video of what that looks like. That's a really good impersonation that your own family thinks that someone. Yeah, first to do impersonations in the Book of Mormon is Nephi call to them in the voice of Laban, which is He must have

Sounded like him imitated him or something one thing that I find interesting is like you told us earlier Nephi is writing this long after the fact and yet he's talking about details here to me this night Is something not only that had significant impact on him, but also he thought about that. It's kept it in his memory for a long time. He said, this was a life-changing moment for me. As we come to an end of chapter four, I think it's worth just pausing for a moment on Zoram and thinking about his faith also.

How does Zoram feel when all the sudden the guy he thought was Laban isn't and he's trying to run away in verse 34 and Nephi says surely the Lord have commanded us to do this thing. Shall we not be diligent in keeping the commandments to the Lord and then Zoram takes courage and he says I'll go with you. That's another one where I'd love to see the full movie to feel what Zoram's feeling in our heart. Sometimes we just get this little compressed version of the story and we know that there's so much more, but I love to think about Zoram and the faith it took for him to say, okay, let's move forward. I've wondered about Zoram, John, that if he knows, right, if he's heard those same prophets, Lehi and Jeremiah, perhaps he knows that Jerusalem's going to fall.

And this is an opportunity. Maybe the Lord prepared his mind for this moment where he thought, this is the right thing to do to go. It was me coming to chapter 5, Nephi and his family. It was one of those times where, find my friends would have really come in handy for Lehigh and Soraya if they, you know, could have been tracking. They text us and tell us where they are. Yeah.

I know. Let's go on. Hey, look, Nephi just changed his status, you know, we don't have any of those details. But Lehigh and Soraya, they're so filled with joy once Nephine and his brothers make it back and there's an interesting detail in verse 9 They did a rejoice exceedingly and it offers sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel. I've often wondered what are they bring food with them or was it scarce because I've imagined they're traveling trying to travel light and As I've imagined, they're traveling, trying to travel light and that really sounds like a sacrifice of something that they could have eaten, the burnt offering.

I've wondered too if this could have been, they call it a sin offering, I think it would repent and so offering. Even if you know the Lord had asked you to do something that he has to need fight to do. And even though it seems like Laban had it coming by his threats and everything, that would affect you for the rest of your life. Maybe that offering was an appeal to the Lord to help him through that as well. We'll ask him one day. This commandment for Nephite is slay Laban.

How rare is it that the Lord would give someone a commandment that really contradicts other commandments? Because someone might read this story and think and he didn't think to themselves, well, the church says to do this, but I'm gonna do this, because I feel like the spirit has told me that. Don't you think this should be the rare exception and not the norm in someone's life?

Absolutely. And notice that it's multiple times the spirit's prompting. And Nephys even kind of pushing back. Now, Nephys in a tough spot where he's got to make a snap decision right now. But I feel like if I'm in a position where I'm feeling the Lord prompt me to do something that's breaking a commandment, I'm going to definitely check in with other people. It actually reminds me of a little story. One of my students told me, you know, the scripture study technique where you open up your scriptures and read the first verse that you find when you have a problem. This man was on his mission and he's struggling with his companion and he's like, okay,

Lord, help me to know what to do. And he opens up to 1st Nephi chapter 4 verse 12. The Lord sent it to me, slay him. You know, all right. So double check with the mission president before you act on that. That is actually a great key with revelation. There's sometimes like we can be deceived. If I'm getting a prompting to break a commandment,

maybe that is a situation like Nephys, but like you said, that's a rare exception. So I'm going to counsel with some trusted friends. I'm going to talk to my bishop maybe before I act on an impression like that. Excellent. I liked that the angel didn't say, this is best. This is the best possible outcome. It wasn't the best outcome.

The best outcome would have been labelled and saying, okay, I'll keep the commandments. Here's the plates. But he wasn't going to do it. So the angel says, it's better. It's not best, but it's better that to do it. So the angel says it's better. It's not best, but it's better that one man should perish than a nation, twendling, parishing on belief. This isn't the best outcome, but it's better than the alternative. A whole nation, dwindling and unbelief. That's carefully worded there in 1st, Nephi 4, 13.

And I also think there's a strange parallel that Jesus, one man, parishes so that all of us can be saved. Kind of a reverse type or something. I don't know what you would call that. I remember reading that verse once that it's better that one man should perish than a nation dwindle and unbelief in my wife goes, don't the Nephites dwindle and unbelief? They actually do. So I got the worst of both worlds. Yeah. It would have been quicker, I guess. Well, let's come to the end of chapter five.

And verses 20 through 22, I think we see a little summation of some of the principles we've talked about today. Nephi says, thus far, I and my father had kept the commandments where with the Lord had commanded us. We had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us and searched them, and found that they were desirable even of great worth, so that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children. Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us as we journeyed in the

wilderness towards the land of promise. And I see so many echoes of that for us in our own lives today. We're in the wilderness metaphorically speaking. We are journeying towards the land of promise, the celestial kingdom. And what is it? It's wisdom in the Lord that we carry those scriptures, these sacred records with us, that we search them. More than anything else, I hope that as we kind of wrap up this episode that we think about this do, no, no, do model. And that will level up like we talked about at the beginning

that we'll find some ways to do something with our scripture study to search them to have our own experiences seriously studying the Book of Mormon. This year can be the year where we feel the power of the Book of Mormon and its testimony of Jesus Christ like we never have felt before. I love it. John, I love that. Maybe in 2024, we're going to go from casual reader to serious student, like President Benson said, and then promise after promise after promise is assured to us by President Benson, if we will seriously study the book of Mormon. What a great opportunity this year is going to be. As you talked about last week with your episode with Scott and Casey, that President Nelson has given a similar promise that if we read the book of Mormon every day, we'll make better decisions

every day. These promises are real. John, when you read chapter 5, verse 22, it is wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us. I thought, how rare is it? How incredible is it? What a miracle it would be to Joseph Smith or Brigham Young, that I can carry the entire standard works. And not only that, the standard works and all the church magazines and manuals. I can carry a hundred years worth of general conference on my phone. In my pocket, it is wisdom in the Lord that I could carry this with me. And yet, sometimes it's not the app I use the most. And as Nief, I was talking about carrying them with us. You know, he's lugging these heavy plates.

Yeah. It's just right there with us. Yeah, too bad they couldn't, if they're at the red sea. Hey, I need those plates. Could you text them to me? I'll have them on my phone. Just incredible. Sometimes miracles become so common.

They're no longer miraculous, but this is an incredible time when it comes to records. And on that note, there's never been a time in the history of the world where more people have access to the Book of Mormon than have access to it right now. Beautiful. John, before we let you go, you've been studying and teaching from the Book of Mormon

for two and a half decades. You have a doctorate degree. I know you have a master's degree from Harvard. I mean, here is a highly educated individual who has been teaching from this book year after year after year. Tell me about how you feel about the Book of Mormon. In your decades of teaching and your education, I've come to love it more. I love the Book of Mormon even as a young boy.

I would read the war chapters. Those were my favorite chapters. So exciting. As a young EFY student, there was an EFY teacher who taught us about likening the scriptures to our lives. I would think about in the war chapters, how could I build my defenses against the powers of Satan? As I've gotten older, the ways that I've studied the Book of Mormon

definitely change from time to time. There's certain intricacies now that I pick up, like I see how central Jesus Christ is. Recently, I went through the Book of Mormon focusing on the words specifically that Jesus Christ says to hear his distinctive voice. And notice new patterns and themes that I hadn't seen before. In other words, the Book of Mormon does not get old. It is a book that is full of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

And I love that whether I was a little kid afraid of getting beat up by bullies and I could find comfort from the scriptures then that today in my own life when like I mentioned earlier this project that I have is kind of falling apart. I'm finding comfort right now as I'm reading 1st Nephi, chapter 3, and I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. And I want to testify that the Book of Mormon speaks of Jesus Christ. He is the central figure in the Book of Mormon. And I know that in my life I have come closer to Jesus Christ because of a serious study of the Book of Mormon. Thank you, Dr. Hilton. What a joy. John, I'm even more excited now. Here we have two weeks of Book Mormon study under our belt. And I'm feeling like my excitement is growing.

Yeah, me too. And it's so fun to get new insights. And I think the scriptures are so deep and thick that there will always be more new insights every time you go through it. And the Holy Ghost will help you find those. As you said, John, thank you. Absolutely. Wonderful. We want to thank Dr. John Hilton, the third for being with us today. What a treat. John, thanks for your time and your effort and your energy and your study. Thank you. So great to be here. Yes. And I hope people will check out your voices of the book Mormon. That sounds really fascinating. And you're the book Mormon, a master class. Thank you for using your knowledge and your gifts to bless all of us.

Thank you. We here at Follow Him are absolute supporters of John Hilton III. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Swanson. We want to thank our sponsors, David and Verla Swanson, and we always remember our founder, Steve Swanson. Join us next week. We're going to study more of these

incredible chapters of the Book of Mormon on Follow Him. Today's transcripts show notes and additional references are available on our website follow him.co that's follow him.co. You can watch the podcast on YouTube with additional videos on our Facebook and Instagram accounts. All of this is absolutely free and we'd love for you to share it with your family and friends. We'd like to reach more of those who are searching for help with their Come Follow Me study. If you could subscribe to, rate, review, and comment

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