Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - 1 Nephi 11-15 Part 2 • Dr. Joshua Sears • Jan 22 - 28 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Dr. Sears continues to explore Nephi’s Dream and the crucial nature of the Abrahamic Covenant in the fortunate Scattering and Gathering of  Israel.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/book-of-mormon-episodes-1-13/YouTube: https://youtu.be/gqNR-eXcjbIApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BY00:00 Part II–Dr. Joshua Sears00:07 The New and Everlasting Covenant02:25 Doctrinal misunderstanding informs biblical interpretation04:49 Blindness to the covenants 06:47 Losing covenant consciousness10:21 Covenants fulfilled in the Last Days13:10 Jesus and the vision16:38 The Book of Mormon reorients to the Abrahamic Covenant20:53 The Abrahamic Covenant was not totally fulfilled in the Meridian of Time22:27 Salvation as a people25:26 The Restoration is to restore people to a covenantal relationship with God26:43 1 Nephi 13:3828:18 The Book of Mormon restores everyone to the covenant30:50 1 Nephi 15 Nephi shares what he has learned32:26 The fluidity of the concept of gentiles34:48 Focus on covenants instead of Columbus36:02 Lamanties as a type of those who need to return to the Covenant Path39:51 The Lord’s work43:46 The power of covenants to those who have strayed46:58 The Book of Mormon is full of hope48:48 Lazarus and wayward souls53:15 Spiritual Alzheimer’s54:13 Dr. Sears shares his testimony of Jesus and the Book of Mormon59:06 End of Part II– Dr. Joshua SearsThanks 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 2 at Dr. Josh Sears, 1st Nephi 11-15. You conclude by saying the writings in here are of great worth unto Gentiles. And we've got a quintessentially Jewish book, record of the Jews with their Jewish covenants, but it's important to Gentiles, those that are not Jews. And that's where you have to really understand the Abrahamic covenant in order to make sense of what he's saying. When we understand that the new and everlasting covenant and that intimate binding, exulting relationship with God is the reason all of us came here in the first place and that God has given that

covenant to a certain covenant family and that they're charged with bringing it to everyone else and it's only through Israel that anyone can get those covenant blessings, then we can start to see why for Gentiles, non-Jews, learning about and coming to those Jewish covenants are so important. When we understand that picture, we can make sense of the angels' words. But again, most people today aren't going to look at the Bible and say, that's what's going on. So that's our first clue that something is a miss. If people now don't see the Bible the way the angel sees it, we've already set up something is not matching up here. Verse 24, the angel sit unto me, thou hast be held that the book preceded forth from the

mouth of a Jew, and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew, it contained the fullness of the gospel of the Lord of whom the Twelve Apostles bear record. And they bear record according to the truth which is in the mouth of a Jew, it contained the fullness of the gospel of the Lord of whom the twelve apostles bear record. And they bear record according to the truth, which is in the Lamb of God. Wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews and purity to the Gentiles according to the truth which is in God. And then in verse 26, things take a turn.

After they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, so now we've got Old Testament and New Testament, from the Jews under the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church which is most abominable above all of their churches. For behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious, and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away. Now it says many covenants of the Lord have they taken away. Now it says, many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.

There are some later they say to have read this and they've said, oh, this is the covenant of baptism. This is the covenant of eternal marriage. This is the covenant of the sacrament. But in context, I don't think that's where Nephi is putting the focus. Certainly those are part of the bigger picture, but we've already repeated multiple times

this reference to the covenants of the Lord which he hath made under the House of Israel. So I think that's still implied here that it's the covenants with Israel that are being taken away. And what are they being taken away from? It's from the gospel of the Lamb. He is going to mention down in verse 28, and again in verse verse 29 that some stuff is taken out of the book by which you might imagine textual tampering with manuscripts of the Bible. But that's not the thing that the angel stresses at the beginning. It starts with taking away these covenants which are plain

and precious from the gospel itself. And only secondarily do we get to the point where the book is ever messed with. Sometimes we imagine that people manipulated the Bible and took things out and that led to doctrinal misunderstanding. The angel seems to present it in the reverse sequence. That doctrinal understanding is affected first and then later that determines how people interpret what's going on in the Bible. That's interesting. You would think that that would be reversed. You're right. That it would go from the text first, which would take away from the doctrinal understanding. But verse 26 starts with it's been taken away from the gospel then later taken from the text. Yeah, and I'll read a quick quote here from Dr. John Welch, who's a Latter-day Saint scholar,

a lot of us are familiar with. He was describing these verses, and I'll just read a little snippet from him here. This is a good insight. He says, first things would be taken away, not from the texts or prototypes of the Bible, but from the gospel itself. In the words of the angel, the first thing mentioned is that the Gentiles would take away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts, which are plain and most precious. This stage possibly could have occurred more by altering the meaning or understanding of the concepts taught by the Lord than by changing the words themselves. Later, Nephi says that there were many plain and precious things taken away from the book. This step apparently should be understood as a consequence of the

proceeding step since verse 28 begins with wherefore. Thus, the eventual physical loss of things from the actual texts of the Bible was perhaps less a cause than it was the result of the fact that first, the gospel and the covenants had been lost or taken away. Fascinating. Yeah, that's an interesting reversal of maybe what you would think. And then the angel explains to Nephi all this they have done that they might pervert the right way of the Lord, verse 27, and that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men.

So this kind of reinforces this too, that what is probably going on in Gentile Christianity here is bad interpretations, rather than it is maliciously messing with texts. Because when you pervert something, you're deliberately altering it, and we're talking about the gospel and these truths there. And then it says that they might blind people's eyes, and when you're blind to something, it's still there in front of you, but you're not seeing what should be obvious in front of you. So you can have the text of the Bible talking about the Covenants with Israel right there, but you're blind to the significance of it. I mean, when you look at it, even with Restoration Scripture adding and clarifying a lot of amazing things,

the bulk of what we know about the covenant is still there in the Old Testament. It's right there. We have Genesis 12. We have Genesis 15. We have Genesis 22. We've got descriptions of the blessings and cursings in the covenant in places like Deuteronomy 28 through 30 or Leviticus 26. We've got this stuff laid out. We've got the prophecies of Isaiah. We've got the history of the scattering. It's all still there. And yet what can happen and apparently did happen early in Christianity, was they look at that stuff and don't see the significance of it. And we've had some Latter-day scholars who have presented reconstructions of what the angel might be talking about that are based on text that you can find in early Christianity. And what seems to be going on is that early Christians develop this idea.

Today, it's called the doctrine of supercessionism or replacement theology. And those are fancy, schmancy terms. But in a nutshell, what they mean is that early Gentile Christians came to see themselves as replacing Israel, replacing the Jews as God's covenant people. And there's different ways this has been understood. So I'm overly simplifying 2000 years of discussion, right? But at the risk of oversimplifying, they basically said either Israel, the Jews, they blew it when they crucified Jesus, and therefore God is done with them, and he works with us now.

Or they might say Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled when Jesus came. And therefore it's done. It's no longer the program. Now God works with Gentile Christianity, broadly speaking. They see Israel as being irrelevant, as being replaced, as not having a significant role to play in God's plans anymore. And that seems to align really well with the angel seems to be describing here, about them taking away these plain and precious truths in particular the covenants of the Lord

that he's made with Israel. And the angel in the vision is constantly bringing up these covenants as if to remind us as readers that if you don't understand the covenants, you're not going to get what I'm talking about here. For example, in chapter 14 verse 8, the angel stops and says, to Nephi, remember us now, the covenants of the Father under the house of Israel, I sit under him. Yay.

And then angel just goes on. They keep puncturing the vision with references like that as if the angel saying to Nephi or Nephi is sang to us as readers, you got to keep these covenants in mind, or this vision itself isn't even going to make sense. You've got to see the significance of this. We probably have a situation where chapter 13 seems to be presenting the great apostasy, as we call it today, is fundamentally being about Gentile Christianity losing their consciousness, of misunderstanding the Abrahamic covenant. And when we really understand the covenant and how all encompassing it is, then it makes sense how this would lead people to stumble

and why in verse 29 Satan would have great power over people. Because the new and everlasting covenant is all about our relationship with God. It's the whole point of everything. And the covenants with Israel is that they're gonna bring this to everyone else on earth. This is God's program for getting this relationship out to everybody. So when you don't understand that,

you're understanding such fundamental basic truths of the entire plan of salvation. It's no wonder that that has a rippling effect at all sorts of other doctrines. Josh, that was really eye-opening thing you just said there. The great apostasy is not about losing the Bible completely or losing Jesus. It was about losing the covenant consciousness. That fits right there with 1st Nephi 13.

Yeah. And it's worth noting the way we often talk about the great apostasy today Typically is later to say and says a little bit different than the framing the angels giving it here Not that one's wrong and one's right. They're just different ways of telling the story So we often talk about loss of pre-stead keys or church structure or apostolic leaders or doctrine of the Godhead And those are all true that those can get altered But the angel doesn't mention any of that stuff here in the chapter. It's just what I'm trying to point out. The way he's framing the story, he identifies the root cause of all these other, all these other things as being a misunderstanding

fundamentally of our covenant identity and how that works. And then all the other things we talk about today, those can be details that we add to the story, but the angel seems to be going deeper than those things to saying that something about covenants went really wrong. And that we add to the story, but the angel seems to be going deeper than those things to saying that something about covenants went really wrong, and that we look at the Bible correctly the way the angel sees it in order to really appreciate how fundamental that has been all along. And the Book of Mormon hits back against supercessionism, not just here, but lots of other places. This is one of its major doctrinal contributions, actually. And as Latter-day Saints, we often don't recognize that as being that big of a deal in the Book of Mormon, because we don't know the history of Christian interpretation. So when the Book of Mormon

hits this idea hard, we don't really see the significance of it. But the Book of Mormon is very emphatic frequently that the covenant with Abraham is not fulfilled when Jesus comes, that it's still the program. For example, in chapter 15 verse 18, Nephi points to the covenant which he says should be fulfilled in the latter days, not the mariding of time. Or as another example, when Jesus shows up in third Nephi, he clarifies what he has fulfilled up to that point right after his resurrection and what he has not fulfilled. He says in verse 7 of 3 Nephi 15 verse 7, and because I said unto you that old things have passed away, I do not destroy that which have been spoken concerning things which are to come. For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled.

But the law which was given to Moses, have an end in me. So law of Moses, yes, that was done, but not the Abrahamic covenant. That is still the program. There are still those promises that are vouchsaved for Jacob's children. God is still going to gather Israel. They are still the missionary force, to bring everything to the world. And the covenant is still the way that we come under the Father, enter into relationship with Him and receive all the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So the Book of Mormon is trying to set that straight. And I think a little bit of the history here can help us appreciate how the Book of Mormon is correcting a very major false doctrine that it perceives to be out there. Yeah, that's wonderful. I think Dr. Robert L. Millett that we've had on before said once that the restoration of the gospel is in fact the restoration of the Abrahamic covenant, which was earthshaking to me to go, oh, okay, and we can throw around that phrase, plain and precious things all the time, but the sentence keeps going,

and also many covenants. I like the phrase you used, a covenant consciousness, and I think President Nelson has spoken of that so often when he speaks of the covenant path. John, this has been so insightful. It seems to me that the Book of Mormon people even lose their covenant consciousness. When you get past

Jacob, the house of Israel is really not brought up again until 3 Nephi. King Benjamin doesn't really talk about it. Alma, the younger, heelaman. Yeah, there's kind of a dip in that as a topic until Jesus shows up and brings it roaring back. Yeah, this loss, this covenant consciousness, it seems to be something that's a little slippery. It can go pretty quick. Yeah, let's talk about Jesus then, because up to this point of the vision, we should notice that if we're stepping back

and seeing a big picture of the world, things have not gone well now. We've mentioned several groups in this vision. We have the Jews, Lehigh said that they were dwindling in unbelief, and we've had that in Nephi's vision. The House of Israel is gathered together to fight the 12 apostles of the Lamb. We've had Gentile Christians who now have kind of lost their covenantal morings there, and they've got some significant problems. We've talked about Lehigh's descendants, Nephi's and Limonites

that survive Camora, that they're living in spiritual darkness. We've talked about Lehigh's descendants, Nephites and Limonites that survive Camora, that they're living in spiritual darkness. We've got the lost tribes of Israel, same things going on with them out there. So by this point in the vision, every single group, even if they had good moments in the past, they've all gone off the covenant path now. And if we were to stop the vision here, would say, wow, Abrahamic covenant, that was a spectacular failure. God needs to scrap that and come up with some new plan because this is just simply not working. Fortunately, the vision keeps going

and what God is gonna explain to Nephi now is that there is a plan in place to turn this all around and actually not get one, not two, not three, but all of these groups turned around and back into the Covenant. That's a pretty impressive feat to pull off considering everything's gone so sideways at this point in history, but there is a plan and he's got a plan to fix this. So we get this starting at the end of verse 34, I will bring forth under them in my own power, much of my gospel, which shall

be plain and precious. The exact things that went wrong, we're gonna fix. Here's the plan, verse 35, for behold, say at the Lamb, I will manifest myself unto thy seed. So Jesus talking to Nephi. So this could be talking about the entire book of Mormon that he manifests himself to Nephi, it's over centuries, or specifically third Nephi, where Jesus is gonna show up there.

We've already covered that in chapter 12. So that's probably the most immediate reference here. He's like, Nephi, you already saw this. I'm going to visit your descendants. So I'll manifest to myself to thy seed that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious. And this is where we finally circle back to that visit of Jesus to the Nephites that he remembered back in chapter 12, looked like kind of a failure. He looked like it was really disappointing

and that they had a few generations of righteousness and then that died out and they were wicked again. But here's where we learn why that visit was so important. Maybe why the Spirit told Nephhi to watch out for it. It's that those Nephites wrote what he told them down. And then he says, after thy seed shall be destroyed, so after Camora happens and the civilization falls,

and they continue those that are left dwindling unbelief and also the seed of thy brethren dwindling an unbelief, behold, these things, the records, shall be hid up to come forth unto the Gentiles by the gift and power of the Lamb. And in them shall be written my gospel, say, with the Lamb and my rock and my salvation." So it turns out that Jesus visits the Nephites, only help them for a few generations, that sad, but that visit is going to end up being monumentally important for all of world history because Jesus is going to

teach them and have them write down the exact things. He knows that people in the last days are not going to understand very well. Third Nephi in particular and the rest of the Book of Mormon in general are being custom made, crafted, that the plain and precious things that are misunderstood in Christianity at large are gonna be in the Book of Mormons so that it can get these Gentile Christians and reorient them back to their Abrahamic roots.

And this is another suggestion why when we're thinking about, well, what are the plain and precious things? Latter-day Saints often jump to assume, well, that's talking about the stuff that's unique to us today, like eternal marriage or the temple endowment or baptism for the dead or three kingdoms of glory. Those are the plain and precious things. And we assume that because we have them and we see a lot of other churches don't have that. But here the Book of Mormon frames the Book of Mormon as the

solution containing the plain and precious things that are meant to fix the plain and precious things that were lost. And you'll notice the book of Mormon doesn't have stuff like baptisms for the dead and three kingdoms of glory and all that. There's hints occasionally, right? But that's not the focus. What are the plain and precious things? Well, maybe we can look at third Nephi. What's in there? We have the sermon on the Mount. Everybody has that. It's great. I'm not trying to put it down. He reinforces fundamental things of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, clarifying those things is fundamentally important. We have Christian discipleship that's clarified, but where does Jesus spend most of his time in 35? What are most of the chapters about? Most of his time in 35, what are most of the chapters about? It's about the covenant.

Chapters 15, 16, into 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28. Chapter 30, most of the chapters of 3rd Nephi are about Jews and Gentiles scattering and gathering, fulfilling promises. All those things, that seems to be clearly where Jesus is focusing his attention in 3rd Nephi. And it says, if he's saying, I know you might guys want me to talk about flashy stuff, like details of the afterlife, or things that you might really wish I had talked about

instead, but this is what you actually need. This is not your dessert, but it's your vegetables. This is what you guys really need to understand better is the covenant, where he spends a lot of his time there talking about it. In ways that sometimes perplexes and confuses us, because we really do want the flashier stuff. We want details about the afterlife or the pre-mortal council,

or tell us more about what Gassemini was like, or all those things that we might wish Jesus had talked about instead, but the fact that he spends the majority of his time in third Nephi talking about the covenant, I think really should signal to us that there's something there that's maybe more important than we usually give it credit for. Well, it's interesting, Josh, is when he brings it up first with those Nephites in third Nephi, they seem to kind of glaze over, they're tired.

He brings it up and he says, this is so important. I need you to be a little more fresh. Go home, rest, come back and he gets right back into Isaiah. But we're gonna go through these covenants. This is fascinating. So let me make sure I understand. The plain and precious things which have been taken away goes back to what you told us earlier. They've lost their covenant consciousness

and the Book of Mormon is going to solve that problem by bringing back these plain and precious things, which is the covenant consciousness. It's like the Book of Mormon is going to be our instructor to how to really read the Bible and see it the way the angel sees it. Because again, people like Abraham, often Christians are like, yeah, he's the father, the faithful, he's got some great stories, and you kind of move on from there. The Book of Mormon trains us to look at the Abrahamic covenant and go, this is central. This is significant, and the scattering you got on

in Israel, this is all part of a huge master plan to bring the everlasting covenant out to everybody. The Book of Mormon is what teaches us to read Isaiah and Genesis and Second Kings and all these other books with a new lens on where we suddenly see, wow, this is really important and it's not passé, it's not out of date, it's not over, this is still actively what we're participating in.

President Nelson can make a statement like the gathering of Israel is the most important thing happening in the world today and we go, yeah, that makes sense. Now that I understand how much this ties into every aspect of the gospel and God's whole purpose for us, that really makes sense now.

Josh, something that you said earlier, I wanna make sure I get right. Oftentimes when the Lord comes and says, the law of Moses is fulfilled, we might think, oh, that's the entire Old Testament. That's been fulfilled. And you're pointing out, no, no, no, parts of the Law Moses are fulfilled, but the Abrahamic covenant is not even close to over.

Exactly. So that's why 3rd Nephi 15, Jesus takes a dozen verses to specifically clarify that. That the Law of Moses is fulfilled. That is done. But he says, the covenant I made with my people and the prophecies of the prophets, which, you know, are all basically about how the covenant's going to be fulfilled. That stuff is not done yet. And he's very careful. That's not until the latter days. We're not yet at the point where the great Jehovah shall say the work is done. Yeah, the gospel of Jesus Christ without the Abrahamic covenant

Yeah, the gospel of Jesus Christ without the Abrahamic covenant is good. It's a good thing and it's a good thing to study, but you're missing a very important piece of his work. Yeah, a lot of Christians have interpreted the Old Testament as being kind of a God works with a group of people and in the New Testament, they'd interpret it more as individual salvation. We're all in this individual journey to get back to God. And the Book of Mormon really bridges those two together to be like it's both. Your work, you're saved as a people and you're saved as an individual. And these covenants, it's not like we had one program in Old Testament times and we start something new with the New Testament. It's one consistent program. The Book of Mormon helps us bridge that inter-testamental gap and see both of these as working in harmony.

Excellent, Josh. That's something we've kind of lost, thinking of being saved as a people. And I think in the Book of Mormon with Sammy Lamanite says, hey, 400 years, we will no longer be a people who cares. I won't be alive. But if you're thinking of you as an individual, but if you're thinking of you as a people, and I think they thought that way more anciently. So it did mean something to them because they as a people wanted to survive. Am I on base with that? I think so. And this brings up something that Nephi himself will emphasize later in chapter

15 verse 19, as Nephi is talking to his brothers, he says, and it came to pass that I Nephi speak much under them concerning these things. Yeah, I speak unto them concerning the restoration of the Jews in the latter days. And I did rehearse unto them the words of Isaiah who speak concerning the restoration of the Jews or of the house of Israel. And after they were restored,

they should no more be confounded, neither should they be scattered again. I had mentioned earlier that the way we often talk about the apostasy is a little different from the framing that first SneFi 13 gives it, which is just two different ways of telling the same story. So it's okay, but it's good to notice the framing there. Here's another point that when we talk about restoration, the way we talk about restoration today is a little bit different from the framing that the Book of Mormon gives the concept

of restoration. Because in the Book of Mormon, when they use the word restoration, there's two different ways that they'll use it. One way is about afterlife, resurrection, final judgment, being restored. So that's one use of restoration, is afterlife stuff. So I'm going to set those aside for a second and just look at the use of the word restoration in history in this life. And the book of Mormon is 100% consistent when it uses the word restoration. It never talks about the restoration of things. Instead, it's always the restoration of people. I think it's just a great different way to look at it. So again, in the church

today, we often talk about restoration of priesthood keys, restoration of ordinances, restoration of certain doctrines, and the church, of course. And those are all true. I'm not trying to put down that. We can still say that. Those things were restored, and that's awesome. I love it. But in the book of Mormon, the framing they have is, I think, significant. You don't restore things. They focus on what those things are being restored for, which is people. But here, the restoration of the Jews, the restoration of the house of Israel, or I'll read a few other examples. 2 Nephi 3 verse 24, bringing to pass much restoration under the house of Israel and under the seed of thy brethren.

2 Nephi 30 verse 8, God shall bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth. Alma 37 19, the restoration of many thousands of the Lamanites, Helaman 15 11 about the restoration of his people upon the earth. Alma 3719, the restoration of many thousands of the Lamanites, Helaman 1511, the restoration of our brethren the Lamanites, 3rd Nephi 291, the covenant which the Father had made with the children of Israel concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance. Mormon 936, our brethren, yay even their restoration. The Book of Mormon 100% consistent when it's this life and we're using the word restoration, it's always about people who have fallen away from God and need to be restored to that state of covenant relationship and having that behold again.

Things do need to be restored, but those are always a means to an end. It's not like God restored the church and he's like, I have now completed my work. I have a church. I'm going to sit here and look at it. It's great. No, the church is for the people. The ordinance is the keys. These are all for people to bring them back to God. People have gone astray. People have left the path and we're bringing people home to God. And I love that the Book of Mormon has got that focus. Even our articles of faith, the only time the word restoration appears in the articles of faith is the restoration of what? Or who? The restoration of the Ten Tribes.

It doesn't talk there about restoring things. I just love that framing there, and it highlights the fact that these Book of Mormon prophets have their eye on, yeah, God's got to do all these things, but what's the ultimate aim? It's He wants His kids to come back to him. He's got tools that are lost and restored to do that, but it's the kids that God's really got his focus on. Wow. Really good.

Really awesome. This is a little advanced Book of Mormon study. This is really intricate, wonderful things. So let's just finish up the story here from first Nephi 13. We have the Book of Mormon coming forth onto the Gentiles, and that helps them out because it's got the plain and precious truths

that they don't understand. So jumping down now to about verse 38, Nephi says, these Gentiles are gonna receive the Book of Mormon, and then they are gonna carry it to other people. Well, first is 38 and 39, Nephi sees books coming forth by the power of the Lamb from the Gentiles unto them, meaning the remnant of the seed of my brethren. And these books are under the convincing of the Gentiles and the remnant of the seed of my brethren,

and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the earth, that the records of the Aprofits and the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb are true. Old Testament, New Testament. Again, the Book of Mormon teaching people how to read the Bible. And the angel says in verse 40, these last records which thou hast seen among the Gentiles shall establish the truth of the first records, the Bible. And she'll make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them. And she'll make known to all Kindreds, tongues, and people that, they have a following list of doctrines that the Book of Mormon and these latter-day records are going to clarify. The Lamb of God is the Eternal Father.

That's the original reading there without the Son of part. The Lamb of God is the Eternal Father. Lamb of God's a title for the Messiah. Eternal Father's a title for Jehovah. So the Messiah is Jehovah and he's the Savior of the world. And that all men must come unto him or they cannot be saved, and they must come according to the words which will be established by the mouth of the Lamb, and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the

record of Thyseed as well as the records of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Wherefore they both shall be established in one for there's one God and one shepherd over all the earth." So here's a basic recap of the story. Everybody's gone into a pasta, see they're all off. But because the Nephites wrote down what Jesus told them, that custom message, it goes forth to the Gentiles in the last days, and then the Gentiles will take it to everybody else, to the Jews, to the descendants of Lehi, to the other remnants of Israel, and this convinces

everybody of these amazing doctrines and invites them all to come participate in the full blessings of the covenant once again. This is the plan. This is how we get Lehi's descendants back into the gospel. This is how other remnants of the house of Israel come back into the gospel. This is how Gentile Christians reorient themselves back to that Abrahamic kind of framework. It's the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon spends a lot of time talking about itself, but because it is the tool. This is why missionaries are handing out copies of the Book of Mormon

left and right. This is what it's designed to do is to bring everybody back to this full sense of the covenant and to the one who makes that covenant possible. Jesus Christ. Wow. That's wonderful, Josh. The Book of Mormon is, yes, meant to bring you to the church, but really it's to bring you into the covenant. It just reminds me of Nephys closing chapters and second Nephys where he says, here's how you're going to know. Here's the sign that the gathering has commenced and it's the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. And here's how the world will react to the Book of Mormon. A Bible,

a Bible, we have a Bible, we need no more Bible, but that's the central part of Nephi's last lecture there is the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. I've always kind of seen it that way. Yeah. And that covenant emphasis there too, because he asks all the Gentile Christians, how are you treating the Jews, my name's in covenant people, you've spurned them, you've hissed at them right, you're not treating them the way you should. Again, echoing the angel's explanation here about Gentile Christianity, having a complicated relationship with its Israelite roots there and not understanding that properly.

Josh, now that you've shown us this, I look at the end of chapter 14, verse 17, and you're saying, how is this all going to work out? How is he going to bring this back? The work of the Father, this is verse 17, the work of the Father shall commence in fulfilling the covenants, which he has made into his people. All right, I'm ready to know. And then Nephi, that's it. Yeah. You're gonna have to go somewhere else if you want to rest the story. Well, in chapter 15,

Nephi now goes to his brothers and he's gonna summarize what he just learned to fill them in on those questions they had. So let's look at that. In verse seven, the brothers say, chapter 15 verse seven, we cannot understand the words, which our father has spoken concerning

the natural branches of the olive tree and also concerning the Gentiles. So we mentioned earlier that Lehigh gave a very brief description of the future history so brief that they're left with questions. Then in verse 12 Nephi begins giving his explanation. The house of Israel was compared unto an olive tree by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our Father. And behold, are we not broken off from the house of Israel and are we not a branch of the house of Israel? This is our story. 13. And now the thing which our Father means at concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fullness of the Gentiles is, here's where he's explaining the high sequence. Gentiles get the fullness of the gospel, and then Israel is gathers. This is what Nephi is saying.

He's got to explain this sequence. In the latter days, when our siege shall have dwindled in unbelief, for the space of many years and many generations after the Messiah it shall be manifested in body under the children of men, then shall the fullness of the gospel,

the Messiah come unto the Gentiles and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seat. That's why it's important the Gentiles get it first because they are going to be the missionaries. They're going to carry the Book of Mormon to Lee's descendants so that they can have it. It's how missionary work works. Somebody's got to have it first in order to share it with somebody else. You can't gather Israel unless someone's got the gathering tool on them and can go out and do that. One thing I should maybe clarify here too, this confuses people. Who are these Gentiles? What are we talking about? Well, we're talking about Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigden and Oliver Cowdery. We're talking about Lucy Mack Smith. We're talking about Mary

Fielding. We're talking about these early saints. What gets people confused is, hey, well, aren't they Israelites? Because the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 3 specifically says, Joseph Smith is the descendant of Joseph of Egypt. That means he's got Israelite, the Ena. But the title page of the Book of Mormon says, the Book of Mormon comes forth by way of the Gentile. The book, Joseph Smith seems to be called a Gentile there. And he's called both. And the reason is these terms of Israel and Gentile, they're a little bit fluid. They have different definitions and different angles and different contexts. Israel might mean someone who's strictly a descendant of Abraham, or a community who's part of the covenant. Gentile can mean someone who's not a descendant of Abraham, or someone who's not

keeping the covenant. Jesus stresses this more in 3rd Nephi. He says at the last days anyone who's part of the house of Israel but rejects him as being the son of God and the Savior will be cut off from the people who are of the Covenant, so they're effectively become Gentiles. So these boundaries are a little bit fluid. So Joseph Smith and those early saints, they're in a Gentile culture. They're in a Gentile nation. They don't walk around going, oh, my ancestors used to live in Jerusalem. They don't have that sense of heritage from Israel. For practical purposes, they're Gentiles, even if they do have Israelite DNA in them. From the Book of Mormon's prophetic perspective here, Nephys looking ahead at Joseph Smith and theirs mean like, they're basically Gentiles here.

And they are then going to get the Book of Mormon and take it to our descendants. That's why those terms are a little bit confusing sometimes, but just allow yourself for a little bit of flexibility there with those fluid boundaries and it'll be okay. Yeah, I'm glad you said it that way. Sometimes I'll show my classes when we're talking about gathering in Israel. We'll say, what's a Gentile and just look up the Bible dictionary definition and it kind of explains kind of what you just said. It's a little, I like you said fluid. I've usually said fuzzy. I like fluid better because it can change. And when we get our patriarchal blessing, we discover, oh, look at that.

I am one of those tribes. Now I am part of the House of Israel. And that's why it's so fun to get that and know I'm part of the Sabahama covenant or I've been born in the covenant. And now I'm obligated to try and fulfill this covenant as well. Josh, I love this. I hope anybody listening who's teaching, I've had lessons on Nephise vision before and the class ends up fighting about Columbus. It would just be so much better to focus on covenant than Columbus. We've got to restore the covenant. God has not forgotten his promise.

It's amazing to me. When the Lord makes a promise, thousands of years later, I'm made a promise. I'm keeping this promise. And look at what his modern day prophets are teaching us about. I love that. And let's look at the effect then. Once Lehigh's descendants receives the Book of Mormon and is invited back in, starting in verse 14, what happens. And at that day, shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the house of Israel, and that they are the covenant people of the Lord.

And then shall they know and come to the knowledge of their forefathers and also to the knowledge of the gospel of their redeemer, which was ministered under their fathers by him. Wherefore, they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine that they may know how to come unto him and be saved. I want to jump down to verse 18 because I think this is one of the most significant verses in the whole book of Mormon, and I'm about to make my case for that. Okay. What chapter are we in again, Josh? Still chapter 15, verse 18. We've had this epic story of the Lamanite, starting with Lehigh being concerned that Laman and Lemuel are making bad choices and they're gonna leave

the presence of the Lord. And that's gonna impact his grandkids and his great-grandkids and his great-great-grandkids. That's why the dream has all these people suddenly, can't find their way to the tree. There's a mist of darkness and we have to have an iron rod help. It's hard now once those first parents made the decision to leave the covenant path. But we've had this epic story now about how God is going to prepare the book of Mormon.

He's got people ready to go to bring it back to them the last days and eventually bring all these Lamanites back into the covenant. Verse 18 says this, Wherefore our Father had not spoken of our seed alone, but also of all the house of Israel, pointing to the covenant which should be fulfilled in the latter days, which covenant the Lord made to our Father Abraham, saying, in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

So here's how I interpret this. What Nephi is saying here is giving us permission to see the Lamanites and their story as a type. Lamanites represent all people who leave the covenant path. Whether that's other remnants and groups of the house of Israel or I think even individuals who have left the covenant path. The Lamanite story is in principle teaching us about God and how he relates to those who are in covenant relationship with him but have left. So I hope people don't go, why is the Book of Mormon talking so much

about this one group? It's great for them what happened to them, but I'm really concerned about my family and our problems. But I hope we can see that the Lamanites are meant to teach us about your family and your problems. Because there is going to be, of course, some specific situational differences between what happens to the Lamanites in another group or what happens between a group and an individual. But it's the same God working with everybody.

It's the same covenant. It's the same God working with everybody. It's the same covenant. It's the same gospel plan. There's principles you can learn from how he works with the laymenites. And that tells us how he works with our children, our parents, our siblings who have left the church, left the covenant path, and where we ache over them with the same tender feelings with which Lehigh ached over his sons. And that opens up all sorts of possibilities for us here to learn.

So for example, as I think about what we just learned about the laymanites and how God treats the laymanites, at least three principles come to mind. Number one, God is always willing to forgive when we repent and come unto Him. We can't go so far gone or for so long that he's not willing to forgive. When these Lamanites here in the story get the Book of Mormon and they decide to rejoin the Covenant and experience all those blessings, they are welcomed home. There's no lingering negative effects. Number two, when people are off the covenant path, God is not simply sitting there, twiddling his thumbs, waiting and hoping that they come back. He is actively out there, trying to get them back and planning and preparing and doing all that he can do. I mean,

the plan that Nephi just saw on this vision is incredible. God knew thousands of years in advance that things were going to go wrong and he was planning centuries in advance. I'm going to visit the Nephi's. I'm going to teach him these things. I'm going to have a write the stuff down. I'm going to have some Gentile missionaries ready to go later on so they can take this there. He's got everything set up so that when the people are ready themselves to make the decision to repent and come back. He's got all the ducks lined up in a row. Everything is prepared to help them and aid them to come back. He's actively pursuing here. A third thing that this suggests to me is how patient God is waiting and helping those to be able to come back into the covenant. I mean, this vision is what? About 600 BC, that's like 2500 years give or take before this book of Mormon is going to come with these missionaries back to Lehigh's descendants and bring them back in. God was patiently working with these people for more than two and a half thousand years.

And at no point did he go, you know what, Lamanites, this is just taking way too long. You've been gone way too long. I'm giving up on you. We're done. He never does that. He patiently works with them for as long as it takes until they come back.

I'm again reminded of President Nelson. I think the Lamanites are a living demonstration of what President Nelson said, quote, because God has heasted for those who have covenanted with him, he will love them. He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, he will help them find their way back to him. Because of our covenant with God, he will never tire in his efforts to help

us. And we will never exhaust his merciful patience with us." That's in the quote, and aren't the Lamanites the perfect example of that? Across thousands of years, and after so many efforts, he does manage to get them to come home. And for those of us that have a child or a sibling or a spouse or a dear friend who has once been part of the covenant and experience those blessings and is currently off that path, we all know how painful that is and how much we ache for them and how much we might say in our own way, widely high, I fear less to you're going to be cast off forever. And this vision is a testament to how much God cares for these people, and how actively he is working to entice and pull and tug them home, and how much hope we can have

that he's patient enough and merciful enough to make this happen. I want to read something from Elder Bednar. It's an important article from the March 2014 and sign called Faithful Parents in Wayward Children. He quotes a statement from Elder Orson F. Whitney and then Elder Bednar wants to offer some clarifications because sometimes the quote has been misunderstood. This is based on something Joseph Smith said, although we don't have the Joseph Smith statement. So the here's Elder Orson F. Whitney, from 1929, says, the eternal ceilings of faithful parents and divine promises made to them for valiant service in the cause of truth would not only save themselves, but likewise their posterity. Those some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the shepherd is upon them,

Those some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later, they will feel the tentacles of divine providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice, they will suffer for their sins, they may tread a thorny path. But if it leads them at last, like the penitent prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children.

Hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God. So that's Orson F. Whitney. And then Elder Bedner wants to clarify a couple things about that. He said, some people have misread this to make as saying that wayward children unconditionally receive the blessings of salvation because of and through the faithfulness of parents. He says that would be a doctrinal error in and of itself because in quotes lots of scriptures about the importance of agency and each person making the choice to come to Jesus Christ and that salvation cannot come without

repentance. Everyone has to make the choice to repent. There's no automatic well I've got a faithful relative so I'm in there no matter what I do. But Elder Bednar does affirm what an influence righteous parents can have over their posterity. He says church leaders agree on the fact that this is quoting Elder Bednar that parents who honor temple covenants are in a position to exert great spiritual influence over time on their children. Faithful members of the church can find comfort in knowing that they can lay claim

to the promises of divine guidance and power through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the privileges of the priesthood in their efforts to help family members receive the blessings of salvation and exaltation. He continues, the tentacles of divine providence described by Elder Whitney may be considered a type of spiritual power, a heavenly pull or tug that entices a wandering child to return to the

fold eventually. Such an influence cannot override the moral agency of a child, but nonetheless can invite and beckon. Ultimately, a child must exercise his or her moral agency in respond in faith, repent with full purpose of heart and act in accordance with the teachings of Christ. And then he closes the whole thing by encouraging parents who are struggling over this to say the best thing you can do is to love them, continue to be family to them and be an example of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Quote, as parents are patient and persistent in loving their children, and in becoming living examples of disciples of Jesus Christ, they most effectively teach the Father's plan of

happiness. The steadfastness of such parents, bears powerful witness of the redeeming and strengthening powers of the Savior's Atonement, and invites wayward children to see with new eyes and to hear with new ears. Acting in accordance with the teachings of the Savior, invites spiritual power into our lives. Power to hear and heed, power to discern and power to persevere. power to hear and heed, power to discern and power to persevere. Devoted discipleship is the best and only answer to every question and challenge." I think that is right in line with the overall message of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is very clear again and again that we must repent.

And that choosing not to follow God is a real option and there are real consequences for that. We see Lehigh and others aching over their children and grandchildren who are not on the right path. But I think the Book of Mormon is overall very hopeful about people's prospects, outlining what an amazing God we have who has bound himself to us by covenants What an amazing God we have who has bound himself to us by covenants and is not going to give up on people. On the title page of the Book of Mormon, Maronite could have said, one of the basic messages here is, you got a repent or you're not going to make it. But instead, he chose a hopeful note. The Book of Mormon is to show under the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord had done for their fathers that they may know the covenants of the Lord that they are not cast off forever. They are not. So we see this fear expressed in the

Psalms. Am I cast forever? Is this gonna last in the Book of Mormon's message? Is there's always hope. We have to respect agency. Everyone's gonna have to make that choice to repent in this life or the next. But we have a God who's dedicated to helping all his kids get home. He wants us to be in covenant relationship with him. So I think we can see the laminites as a people across generations of time as being a spiritual metaphor for the individual journey of even one wayward child. The Book of Mormon doesn't deal a lot with missionary work in the afterlife, but when you have a doctrine in covenants and the spirit world,

and are understanding that there are some opportunities to repent there, even if it's a little harder, and that we have chances to learn and grow beyond the confines and mortality there, we can get a sense that even with individuals, God is patient and he's going to do everything he can to pull and tug and invite, try desperately to get those kids home. So it does hurt when family members leave the covenant path and it is hard and we should pray over them.

And I think it's okay to shed some tears over them, but I think the book of Mormon's encouraging us ultimately to put our trust in God, to know that he is trying even harder than we are to get them home, and that we have every reason to be hopeful and optimistic as Heavenly Father, Becken's and plans and works hard to get people to come back to him because he wants them to have that relationship with him in his presence and join all the blessings of the New and everlasting covenant. Josh, this has been absolutely wonderful as you were speaking here in the last few minutes. I thought of John chapter 11 where Jesus comes to Lazarus' tomb. He's been gone for four days and it seems that he's far beyond the reach of the Lord. He's been gone for too long. I think it might be fun to tie that to what you're saying, that we weep and mourn over

this person. We think it's too far gone. Then the Lord opens the tomb and calls Lazarus out of the tomb and the shock of that moment. Can you imagine? And I think that could be similar to our situations where we think, oh, they're too far gone. I will never get them back. This wayward child or this wayward grandchild or sibling or old mission companion.

They'll never come back. And the message to me of John 11 with combined with your messages, oh no, they are not too far gone for him. I've referenced this quote from Joseph Smith a few times, but I think it's worth repeating. He talks about the great Jehovah. He says he knows the situation of both the living and the dead. I think that's everyone living in debt. He knows the situation of both the living and the dead and has made ample provision for their redemption?

Yeah. And if I can add to that, a quote from President Ucdorf, oh, how the great, the plan of our God from the October 2016 general conference, he says that what's going to happen at final judgment will all will eventually be saved and inherited kingdom of glory. Those who trust in God and seek to follow his laws and ordinances will inherit lives and the eternities that are unimaginable in glory and overwhelming in majesty. That day of judgment will be a day of mercy and love. A day when broken hearts are healed when tears of grief are replaced with tears of gratitude when all will be made right. Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of gratitude when all will be made right.

Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. There will be regrets and even English because of our mistakes, our foolishness and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities. But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God, we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by his infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us his children. That's not how we usually think of final judgment, but ever since I heard that, I thought of it differently. I can't remember if one of us used this phrase today or if it's just been in my mind, but just this idea that God has the long view, that we are seeing a finite period of life

and we talk about the afterlife, but God sees all of it and he's got that ample provision. I think again of this is my work and my glory. I am mighty to save and we're trying to make sense of it, but he's got this and he's got the long view. So this has been really, really great today. I hope it's going to help a lot of people feel some more hope that God's got this. He's got you. He's got your kids. He's got the long view and he knows exactly how to do his work. Yeah. John, I was talking to a friend once and she said, how do I get my children to return to the path? And I said, well, first you are not going to get your children to

return to the path. He is going to get his children to return to the path. I said, remember, this is like a surgery and the Lord is the surgeon and you're the assistant. Do what he asks you to do and let him do his work. But don't jump in and say, let's switch places. I'll be the surgeon. You be the assistant. So that surgery is not going to go well. Assist him in saving souls instead of saying, Hey,

Lord, can you assist me in saving these souls? Take that assistant role. You just remember in Dr. and a Covenants year, that beautiful little insight in section 46 verse 15, it's talking about spiritual gifts, but then it says that the Lord will suit his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men.

And great spacious building is bigger and louder, and now it has social media. Those conditions are taken into account. That's nice to know. That's faith building to know that. Yeah. My grandfather Warren Sears was a World War II veteran, and he was a doctor, had a great family. But the last few years of his life, he had Alzheimer's and had no clue who he was, or who any of us were. And that led sometimes to some inappropriate behavior, flirting with nurses, leaving the house and being a flight risk.

But what I remember is that for my dad and my aunts and my uncle and those that were caring for him, no one blamed him for those things. We all knew that if he really understood who he was, he'd be acting differently. So we took that into account and were very patient and quick to forgive when he would act inappropriately. And I think all of us have some spiritual Alzheimer's here. We would all act better if we understood better who we are and mortality is hard and the flesh has its pulls and there's distractions and the noise of the great and spacious building.

And the Lord takes that into account, I think. And that accounts for why he's so merciful He knows it's rough down here and he takes that into account in his very patient and merciful Wow, Josh. This has been eye opening and Insightful and wonderful. We would love to keep you all day and go verse by verse and see this Before we let you go. I know you love the Book of Mormon You're a Bible scholar, but I know you love the Book of Mormon. We've been friends for a while

and you talk about it often. Can you leave our guests with why that is? Why do you love this book so much? I guess I can't imagine any aspect of the relationship I have with Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ that's been meaningful in my life that hasn't been just shaped by years of reading in the Book of Mormon over and over again. I've spent a lot of time studying the Bible in the last few years for professional things, but it's not like I knew all that much going on my mission. Going on my mission, it was the Book of Mormon that inspired me to go out there. It was the Book of Mormon I was sharing with people and the Book of Mormon that I watched changed people's lives. I've just

experienced over and over that the Book of Mormon has such incredible power to bring us to Jesus Christ. What we saw today in 1st Nephite 13 helps explain a little bit of the background about why that is. And I love the fact that it's so carefully prepared by God to do what it's supposed to do. In the Bible, things came together slowly over centuries and centuries, and we don't know who wrote half the books. And for what the impact it can have, the Bible's been amazing. But the Book of Mormon just seems like it's got this extra level of God saying, there's me a lot of calamities in the latter days, and there's me a lot of trouble, a lot of tears. I need something that's very custom designed to help people with their challenges. The Book of Mormon is what I keep

turning to to help me understand the old and new testaments, and it's what gives the doctrine and covenants purpose in meaning. And it's not just this history that's there. It's this message, like we've been talking about today, that God is faithful. God will not abandon us. He's going to make sure that he's prepared every means necessary for it to overcome every challenge the world can throw at us. And I'll just finish with Nephi here. Nephi, then to chapter 15 invites us to protect from the tree of life whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits. Yay, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. So every time I go to the book of Mormon,

it just reminds me of how much I want to feast on that fruit and stay in God's presence forever, because there really is nothing sweeter. Josh, thank you for your time. Thank you for your goodness. I've been around you in our employment, and you're just good to the core. Thank you for just being so brilliant and showing us things

that we haven't seen. What a blessing you are. So thank you, Josh. Well, when we're talking about the Book of Mormon, it's hard to have a bad discussion. Sorry. Just get credit there. Well, finish where we started.

No one that brilliant should be that humble, but he is. We want to thank Dr. Josh Sears for being with us today, what a treat. We want to thank, of course, our executive producer, Shannon Swanson, our sponsors, David and Verla Swanson, and we always remember our founder, Steve Swanson. We hope you'll join us next week, or continuing in First First Nephi on Follow Him. Today's transcripts, show notes and additional references are available on our website, follow him.co. That's follow him.co.

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