LeGrand L. Baker

3 Nephi 27:28-31 & 3 Nephi 28:10-11 

28 And now I go unto the Father. And verily I say unto you, whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name shall be given unto you.
29 Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
30 And now, behold, my joy is great, even unto fulness, because of you, and also this generation; yea, and even the Father rejoiceth, and also all the holy angels, because of you and this generation; for none of them are lost.
31 Behold, I would that ye should understand; for I mean them who are now alive of this generation; and none of them are lost; and in them I have fulness of joy (3 Nephi 27:28-31).

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10 And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one;
11 And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men, because of me (3 Nephi 28:10-11).

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18 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome.
19 And it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.
20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.
21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them (3 Nephi 17:18-21).

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The term “fulness of joy” expresses several facets of the same condition. The condition is a truth/light/love/joy continuum, just as our existence is a progression, beginning in our premortal world and continuing in this life until we finding fulfillment in the presence of God.

In every stage the relationship expressed by the Hebrew word hesed (unfailing love based on a prior covenant) is an essential part of that joy. The continuum leads through fraternal love (Philadelphia, translated as “brotherly kindness”) and charity (in 2 Peter 1:7); to redemption (which in the Book of Mormon usually means to come into the presence of the Savior), to celestial glory which is being with both the Father and the Son, and also with all the other people we love.

From these scriptures it is reasonable to conclude that the “fulness of joy” is a product of eternal, loving relationship with the Savior. However, the scriptural uses of that and similar phrases teaches us that there is more to it than that. And the “more” has to do with qualifying to be a participant in such a relationship. The Savior explained that qualification (singular) while teaching his Apostles:

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (John 15:9-12).

That, of course, is the major theme that runs through all of the scriptures, just as every commandment is a subset of that great commandment. Both the love and the joy spoken of here are gifts of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 8:25-26, Acts 13:52), and, like any other gift, must be cultivated until perfected. James calls it the “royal law,” but warns that even a selective prejudice erodes our ability to love. He wrote:

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors (James 2:8-9).

As God is no respecter of persons, so we have no right to be. There is no legitimate place in the human soul that can house prejudice or intolerance. They, like a cancer, grow to discolor and distort one’s sense of Self because they cripple our ability to see the worth of the people around us. They cause us to divide God’s children into the categories of “us” and “others.” Thereby, they inhibit our ability to love and diminish our capacity to experience joy.

While love and joy may be different at first, they grow in a near-parallel continuum until they meet and become only different expressions of the same thing.

40 For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things (D&C 88:40).

This principle is made graphic in the Savior’s intercessory prayer in John 17. The initial focus of the prayer is his desire to perpetuate the relationships he has with the Apostles, that thereby “they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” (V. 13). The relationship is emphised by the words “my joy fulfilled in themselves.”Then he expands that prayer and concludes with:

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:20-26).

The Savior’s prayer among the Nephites echoes the same promise:

29 Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them. (3 Nephi 19:29).

As do these words to Moses:

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39).

The ancient psalms also testify that for man, the “fulness of joy” is being where God is.

11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Psalms 16:11).

As love and joy are the final product of eternal salvation, so also are they the products of the intermediate steps that bring us to exaltation. The scriptures frequently speak of the fulness of joy in the same contexts as they speak of brotherly love and charity. Once again, a proper analysis of these principles would require a book length discussion, so the best I can do here is to suggest some scriptures that provide the keys. I have broken the subject of the “fulness of joy” into the following parts and quoted some relevant scriptures under each heading. They are:

1. Premortal love and joy
2. Remission of sins
3. Knowledge of Truth
4. Family and Friends
5. Redeem (to come into the presence of God)
6. Endure to the end
7. Resurrection
8. The destiny of celestial persons
9. Conclusion

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PREMORTAL LOVE AND JOY

5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it (2 John 1:5-6).

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4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:1-7)

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1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full (1 John 1:1-7).

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REMISSION OF SINS

3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them (Mosiah 4:3).

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11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel (Mosiah 4:11).

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20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy (Mosiah 4:20).

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13 Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions, for Christ’s sake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy;
14 Looking forward to that day, thus retaining a remission of their sins; being filled with great joy because of the resurrection of the dead, according to the will and power and deliverance of Jesus Christ from the bands of death (Alma 4:13-14).

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KNOWLEDGE of TRUTH

There are three components of joy. The first is love—relationships with the Gods, as well as with family and friends. The second is light—the pure light of Christ that fills the immensity of space and gives life to all things (D&C 88 & 93). The third is truth which is the source of both the light and the love. “It appears that love, light, and truth are equivalents—they come from God and are expressions of his glory…. Joy is the product of truth/light/love.” (Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, first edition, p. 565; second edition, p. 802-3. The second edition is on this website.)

26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things (D&C 93:26-28).

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12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.
13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;
14 And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive (D&C 11:12-14).

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61 If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal (D&C 42:61).

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FAMILY and FRIENDS

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35).

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30 And even if they do unto you even as they have done unto me, blessed are ye, for you shall dwell with me in glory.
31 But if they reject not my words, which shall be established by the testimony which shall be given, blessed are they, and then shall ye have joy in the fruit of your labors.
32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you (D&C 6:30-32).

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REDEEM (to come into the presence of God)

See “A Meaning of ‘Redeem’— to ‘Come Unto Christ’,” in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, first edition, p. 510-20; second edition, p. 725-39.

51 Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field, and he sent forth his servants into the field to dig in the field.
52 And he said unto the first: Go ye and labor in the field, and in the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance.
53 And he said unto the second: Go ye also into the field, and in the second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance.
54 And also unto the third, saying: I will visit you;
55 And unto the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth.
56 And the lord of the field went unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour, and he was made glad with the light of the countenance of his lord (D&C 88:51-56).

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10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters (Moses 5:10-12).

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67 And the Lord showed Enoch all things, even unto the end of the world; and he saw the day of the righteous, the hour of their redemption, and received a fulness of joy;
68 And all the days of Zion, in the days of Enoch, were three hundred and sixty-five years.
69 And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, ZION IS FLED (Moses 7:67-69).

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6 Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God—
7 Therefore, what the queen desired of him was his only desire. Therefore, he went in to see the king according as the queen had desired him; and he saw the king, and he knew that he was not dead (Alma 19:6-7).

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51 Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field, and he sent forth his servants into the field to dig in the field.
52 And he said unto the first: Go ye and labor in the field, and in the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance.
53 And he said unto the second: Go ye also into the field, and in the second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance.
54 And also unto the third, saying: I will visit you;
55 And unto the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth.
56 And the lord of the field went unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour, and he was made glad with the light of the countenance of his lord (D&C 88:51-56).

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ENDURE TO THE END

2 And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end (Alma 38:2).

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36 Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.
37 Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul.
38 And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life (D&C 101:36-38).

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RESURRECTION
The condition of the Celestial glory is truth/light/love/joy, and only those who are physically capable of enduring that glory will be able to be there. The Prophet Joseph explained:

1 The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell.
2 I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire;
3 Also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son (D&C 137:1-3).

Therefore, a necessary prerequisite to the fulness of joy is to have a body that can be in the presence of that throne that is like “circling flames of fire.” If our resurrected bodies are not made of that same pure light, then in the presence of God we would sizzle.

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26 Wherefore, it [the earth] shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it.
27 For notwithstanding they die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body.
28 They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.
29 Ye who are quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness (D&C 88:26-29).

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33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy (D&C 93:33-34).

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14 All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
15 I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand.
16 They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the bands of death.
17 Their sleeping dust was to be restored unto its perfect frame, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them, the spirit and the body to be united never again to be divided, that they might receive a fulness of joy.
18 While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful;
19 And there he preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance (D&C 138:14-19).

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DESTINY OF CELESTIAL PERSONS

1 When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves.
2 And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy (D&C 130:1-2).

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6 The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth;
7 But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.
8 The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim.
9 This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s.
10 Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known;
11 And a white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word (D&C 130:6-11).

If the white stone mentioned here teaches persons in the Celestial world about “a higher order of kingdoms” then it must follow that such kingdoms are not only within the understanding but also within the reach of persons with celestial bodies. That presupposes that if one has a resurrected body that is capable of withstanding unlimited glory, then the eternities promise an amazing adventure !

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CONCLUSION

If there is a conclusion that sums up the relationship of love and joy, then Lehi’s words to his sons are probably as comprehensive as we will find:

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given (2 Nephi 2:24-26).

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14 Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth.
15 But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love (2 Nephi 1:14-15).

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3 Nephi 27:13-22  

These verses seem to explain five different principles, but they must be discussed as a single unit.

I have placed them in sections numbered 1 through 5 to make it easier to see their relationships.

(1) 13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

(2) 14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—
15 And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.
16 And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.
17 And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father.

(3) 18 And this is the word which he hath given unto the children of men. And for this cause he fulfilleth the words which he hath given, and he lieth not, but fulfilleth all his words.
19 And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.

(4) 20 Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day.

(5) 21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;
22 Therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

We have just read what is probably the most succinct and comprehensive definitions of the gospel in the scriptures. The consummate gospel is simply this: “I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.” However, there are many subsets, and each one describe or define a facet of the whole. In the next verses the Savior explains those subsets and teaches us that they are absolutely necessary to our salvation.

If we discussed just verse 13 even superficially, it would require a book length examination of what we know about the Savior’s premortal history from before the beginning, intelligence, Council in Heaven, war in heaven, creation, spirit world, as well as the powers and implications of his infinite and eternal Atonement.

I think I am  supposed to be writing a commentary on what the Savior said, but I cannot be so presumptuous as to even suggest I could undertake such a task. It is like trying to polish a silver goblet that already shines to perfection. Anything I might do would only scratch it. Yet, the Savior’s statement insists we try to approach an understanding of what he is saying. After some consideration I have decided to approach it this way: Rather than muddle the explanation with my commentary, I wish to just quote scriptures in an order that will that will tell the story. I offer them as a celebration rather than as a commentary.

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(1) 13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me (3 Nephi 27:13).

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26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth (D&C 93:26)

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1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made.
4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men (JST John 1:1-4)

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12 By the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God——
13 Even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning (D&C 76:2-13).

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8 Wherefore, I will that all men shall repent, for all are under sin, except those which I have reserved unto myself, holy men that ye know not of.
9 Wherefore, I say unto you that I have sent unto you mine everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning (D&C 49:8-9).

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47 And behold, Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul rejoiced, saying: The Righteous is lifted up, and the Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world; and through faith I am in the bosom of the Father, and behold, Zion is with me (Moses 7:47).

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21 And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn (D&C 93:76:21).

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9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:
10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning (3 Nephi 11:9-11).

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24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever (Abraham 3:24-26).

1 And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).

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16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

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(2) 14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—
15 And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.
16 And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.
17 And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father (3 Nephi 27:14-17).

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3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him——
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified (D&C 45:3-4).

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15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men (D&C 19:15-19).

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13 And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.
14 Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters (Ether 3:13-14).

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19 And there he preached to them [the dead in the spirit world] the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance (D&C 138:19).

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And now after all of the proofs made of him,
By witnesses truly, by whom he was known,
This is mine, last of all, that he lives; yea, he lives!
And sits at the right hand of God on his throne.

And I heard a great voice bearing record from heav’n,
He’s the Saviour and only begotten of God;
By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,
Even all that careen in the heavens so broad.

Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,
Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours;
And, of course, are begotten God’s daughters and sons
By the very same truths and the very same powers.

[“The Vision” by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Times and Seasons, February 1, 1843. Compare D&C 76:22-41.]

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(3) 18 And this is the word which he hath given unto the children of men. And for this cause he fulfilleth the words which he hath given, and he lieth not, but fulfilleth all his words.

19 And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.

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1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am (D&C 93:1).

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37 And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins (Alma 11:37).

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33 Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also.
34 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.
35 And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.
36 Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And thus I spake unto my brethren. Amen (1 Nephi 15:33-36).

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27 For notwithstanding they [“the righteous”] die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body.
28 They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.
29 Ye who are quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
30 And they who are quickened by a portion of the terrestrial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
31 And also they who are quickened by a portion of the telestial glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
32 And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received (D&C 88:26-32).

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(4) 20 Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day (3 Nephi 27:20).

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40 And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—
41 That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;
42 That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him
43 Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him (D&C 76:40-43).

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2 And again, more blessed are they who shall believe in your words because that ye shall testify that ye have seen me, and that ye know that I am. Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins (3 Nephi 12:2).

6 And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 12:6).

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50 But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent.
51 And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh.
52 And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.
53 And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.
54 Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.
55 And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
56 And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58 Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying:
59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
60 For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;
61 Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.
62 And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.
63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me (Moses 6:50-63).

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18 Therefore, it [the earth] must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory;
19 For after it [the earth] hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father;
20 That bodies who are of the celestial kingdom may possess it forever and ever; for, for this intent was it made and created, and for this intent are they sanctified.
21 And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom.
22 For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
23 And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
24 And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory.
25 And again, verily I say unto you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law—
26 Wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it (D&C 88:18-26).

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What we have read so far looks simple but is both profound and very complete:

(1) this is the gospel: that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

(2) my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me

(3) this is the word: no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom

(4) this is the commandment: Repent, be baptized, be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless

Now we are given a new definition of the gospel: “for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do. … Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”
As the first definition of the gospel is about the Savior’s mission: “I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me,” so the second definition is about our mission, it must also read: “I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.”

(5) 21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;
22 Therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day (3 Nephi 27:21-22).

27 And know ye that ye shall be judges of this people, according to the judgment which I shall give unto you, which shall be just. Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.
28 And now I go unto the Father. And verily I say unto you, whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name shall be given unto you.
29 Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened (3 Nephi 27:27-29).

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Even though these words were spoken directly to the Twelve, they still apply (at least to some degree) to all of us. If that is so, then the next question is: What other scriptures that describe premortal covenants might apply to each of us? There are many. The following is just a sampling.

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57 And for this cause, that men might be made partakers of the glories which were to be revealed, the Lord sent forth the fulness of his gospel, his everlasting covenant, reasoning in plainness and simplicity (D&C 133:57).

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28 I am the Lord thy God, and will give unto thee the law of my Holy Priesthood, as was ordained by me and my Father before the world was (D&C 132:28).

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7 This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, according to his foreknowledge of all things——
8 Now they were ordained after this manner——being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end——
9 Thus they become high priests forever, after the order of the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen (Alma 13:7-9).

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9 Will I accept of an offering, saith the Lord, that is not made in my name?
10 Or will I receive at your hands that which I have not appointed?
11 And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was? (D&C 132:9-11)

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7 Whereof I [Paul] was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him (Ephesians 3:7-12).

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10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full (Alma 12:10).

26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things (D&C 93:26-28).

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1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:1-26).

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28 Father, I thank thee that thou hast purified those whom I have chosen, because of their faith, and I pray for them, and also for them who shall believe on their words, that they may be purified in me, through faith on their words, even as they are purified in me.
29 Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them.
30 And when Jesus had spoken these words he came again unto his disciples; and behold they did pray steadfastly, without ceasing, unto him; and he did smile upon them again; and behold they were white, even as Jesus (3 Nephi 19:28-30).

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34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34-35).

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5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it (2 John 1:5-6).

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1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall (2 Peter 1:1-10).

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50 And again we bear record——for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ concerning them who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just——
51 They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given——
52 That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power;
53 And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.
54 They are they who are the church of the Firstborn.
55 They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things——
56 They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory;
57 And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son.
58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God——
59 Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
60 And they shall overcome all things.
61 Wherefore, let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies under his feet.
62 These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever.
63 These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his people.
64 These are they who shall have part in the first resurrection.
65 These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just.
66 These are they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.
67 These are they who have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn.
68 These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all.
69 These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood.
70 These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical (D&C 76:50-70).

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36 Thus was it made known that our Redeemer spent his time during his sojourn in the world of spirits, instructing and preparing the faithful spirits of the prophets who had testified of him in the flesh;
37 That they might carry the message of redemption unto all the dead, unto whom he could not go personally, because of their rebellion and transgression, that they through the ministration of his servants might also hear his words.
38 Among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all,
39 And our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.
[He lists several more by name and then adds]
55 I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God.
56 Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.
57 I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead. (D&C 138:36-39, 55-57).

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3 Nephi 27:5-6
5…ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day.
6 And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.

The context is the Savior’s explaining that the name of his church must be “the Church of Christ.” He asks:

8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

I think we sometimes read this passage with a shrug of the shoulders and a “Well, we aren’t called Lutherans or Baptists or some other name, so we are alright!” If that is our response, then we have missed the point entirely. The Savior is not just talking about a church’s corporate name, he is talking about a covenant name that is necessary to salvation. There is always a new name with each new covenant. So much so, that the words “name” and “covenant” can often be interchangeable in the scriptures without changing the meaning.

A new name is a new covenantal identity. In our verses, it denotes one’s relationship with the Savior. King Benjamin, Alma, and the Savior all affirm the necessity of this covenant relationship.

King Benjamin taught:

7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters (Mosiah 5:7).

Alma told his father:

24 … I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.
25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God (Mosiah 27:24-26).

And, when the Savior showed himself to the Brother of Jared he said:

14 Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters (Ether 3:14).

In Psalm 2, which was sung at the time of the king’s anointing during his coronation ceremony, he is given the new covenant name of “son,” and he quotes Jehovah as saying “this day have I begotten thee.” Thus the anointing of the king serves two purposes, one is the legal covenant of adoption, the other is giving him a new name as a part of his enthronement ceremony. He is now a “son” and therefore a legitimate heir of Jehovah.

The relevant principle to us is that we are promised that if we are righteous we will inherit “all things.” The systems of heaven are perfectly just and therefore must be perfectly consistent — “legal” in every respect. (D&C 132:7-14) Nothing is “acceptable” except it is done by a covenant that is ratified by an appropriate ordinance.

If we are to inherit “all things” we must be legally qualified to inherit — that is, we must be adopted sons and daughters of Christ just as the scriptures teach. That adoption can only be made acceptable by covenant and ordinance.

All valid new covenants must also include a new name. We must take upon ourselves the name of Christ, just as, in our society, an adopted child takes the name of his adoptive parents. That new name is a new identity. A simple example of new identities that come with covenant names is when a man becomes a “bishop.” He now has a new name/title and a new identity. But that new name and identity is only valid at church. He is still “Richard” among his friends and his associates at work. Similarly, all sacred new names are only valid in relation to the covenant they represent. Some covenants are formal, some informal, but they are all necessary. “President” is the name/title of a Relief Society president, just as “Sister” and “Elder” are name/titles of missionaries.

In those examples, accepting the call is the covenant, but that is meaningless without the appropriate ordination or setting apart blessing. In the New Testament, James said that very succinctly, “faith without works is dead.” In that passage “faith” is pistis, the Greek word for covenant or contract. “works” is a reference to the ordinances. That is, the covenants without the ordinances are dead.” Alma used James’s words the same way when he explained that the plan of redemption was “made known unto them according to their faith and repentance and their holy works (Alma 12:30).”

Therefore the name, “Church of Jesus Christ,” is more than just a corporate identity. It is an acknowledgment that its members are adopted children and heirs of the Savior. In our case, that covenant of adoption is renewed each Sunday when we take the Sacrament. But there is more, as the Prophet Joseph testified:

23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—
24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

(The importance of new covenant names is discussed at length in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, first edition, 495-517; second edition, 358-72.)

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3 Nephi 26:17-21
17 And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost.
18 And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written.
19 And they taught, and did minister one to another; and they had all things common among them, every man dealing justly, one with another.
20 And it came to pass that they did do all things even as Jesus had commanded them.
21 And they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ.

In these short verses, Mormon has laid out the conditions that are the foundation of a Zion society, and summarizes its necessary components.

1. “The disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them.” Moroni tells us the qualifications of those who were baptized:

2 Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins.
3 And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end (Moroni 6:2-3).

2. Their government was a theocracy. That is what the Savior established on the first day he came to the Nephites, and there is no reference to any other form of government until their apostasy. Then those who called themselves Lamanites had a king (Mormon 2:9), but there is no mention of any political leader among Nephites. Mormon was their religious leader, and he calls himself “a commander and a leader of this people” (Mormon 3:11), but that seems to be a military designation rather a political one.

3. “They who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ.” We know very little about how that church operated or how it was organized, but Moroni suggests it worked very much like our own:

5 And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.
6 And they did meet together oft to partake of bread and wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus (Moroni 6:5-6).

4. “As many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost.” The phrase “filled with the Holy Ghost” has a powerful meaning in the Book of Mormon. In my discussion of the Beatitudes in 3 Nephi 12, I pointed out the steps between being “visited by the Holy Ghost” in verse 2 and being “filled” in verse 6. Two of those steps are making and keeping temple covenants.

5. A Zion people follow the Brethren — “the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them.”

6. They also received individual revelation: “many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written.”

Not only did they see and hear wonder things through personal revelation, but their scriptures taught them things we do not know. Moroni reports that their scriptures included the full account of the revelations to the brother of Jared.

1 And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people.
2 And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest.
3 And now, after that, they have all dwindled in unbelief; and there is none save it be the Lamanites, and they have rejected the gospel of Christ; therefore I am commanded that I should hide them up again in the earth (Ether 4:1-3).

7. They were concerned about each other: “they taught, and did minister one to another.” That was, no doubt, expressed by personal friendships, but also by care that was organized by the Church. Moroni reports:

4 And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith (Moroni 6:4).

8. They lived the Law of Consecration: “they had all things common among them.”

9. They did all this of their own accord and seem to have been under no external or legal restraint, with “every man dealing justly, one with another.”

10. “And it came to pass that they did do all things even as Jesus had commanded them.”

This Nephite system survived intact for four generations. However, similar attempts by other believers did not last at all. An important question is, “Why did this one work while the others failed?”

After the Savior’s resurrection, the New Testament church appears to have been like the one described in 3 Nephi. Luke reports:

42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:42-47).

31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need (Acts 4:32-35).

However, in the very next chapter, he also tells us that there were those who tried to cheat the system.

1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things [Then his wife also lied and also died.] (Acts 5:1-11).

This incident of cheating was probably not the only one. There are other examples of discontent among the members of the church. It is likely that the failure of the New Testament Zion society was caused from avarice and bickering within as well as pressure from outside the church.

The same thing happened in Missouri when the LDS Church attempted to create a Zion society there. Greed on the part of some of the people, including some of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, destroyed the system from within.

The same thing eventually caused the Nephite system to collapse. We are told at the beginning of 4 Nephi:

3 And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift (4 Nephi 1:3).

And then:

24 And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world.
25 And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them.
26 And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ (4 Nephi 1:24-26).

It appears that the Law of Consecration — or rather the violation of it — is the Achilles heel of a Zion society. In the New Testament and in Missouri, a Zion community was attempted among people who were not Zion individuals. Some took advantage of the generosity of others. Covetousness blossomed and the system died from internal rot.

“And thus we see” that a Zion society only survives when each individual is himself a “Zion.” Then the culture can prosper as an association of such individuals.

Today, there is an untold number of persons in the Church who each live the Law of Consecration as individuals. But they do it quietly and privately. They give according to their ability and according to the needs of those who receive. All of the members of the Church are not that way, but many are, and others are becoming that kind of persons. So there is, within the world wide Church, a Zion community made up of people who may or may not be recognized as all that different from anyone else, but whose honesty and constancy sustain the Kingdom of God.

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Sometimes the best way to understand what is going on in the Book of Mormon is to relate it to the history, religion, or culture of the Old Testament. That is certainly true of the beginning of First Nephi. What follows is a brief attempt to provide an historical context for Nephi’s story. It seems appropriate to begin about 130 years earlier, in 728 B.C., with the reign of Hezekiah and conclude in 587 when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians.

I am using as sources for the dates the chronology in the LDS Bible Dictionary and various articles from the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, 5 vols. (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1991

Briefly, the chronology of that period is this:

740 — Isaiah chapter 6 begins in the year that King Uzziah died
728 – 697 — Hezekiah, king of Judah
721 or 722 — End of the northern kingdom of Israel; Assyrians deported the Ten Tribes to northern Mesopotamia.
697 – 642 — Manasseh, king of Judah
642 – 640 — Amon, king of Judah
640 – 609 — Josiah, king of Judah.
628 — Jeremiah began to prophesy during the time of Josiah
609 — Jehoahaz, king of Judah, removed by Necho king of Egypt
609 – 598 — Jehoiakim made king of Judah by Necho
598 – 597 — Jehoiachin, king of Judah
597 — Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem; Jehoiachin taken as a captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar; Daniel and Ezekiel also taken to Babylon
597 — Zedekiah made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar
597 — Nephi begins his narrative in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah. Soon after that, Lehi and his family leave Jerusalem
587 – Babylonians capture Jerusalem a second time, They destroy the city and the Temple; They deport all but the poorest Jews; Zedekiah taken as a captive to Babylon

There are two reasons to begin with the reign of Hezekiah. First, it was during his time that the Ten Tribes became “lost.” Second, Isaiah’s writings play a major role in the Book of Mormon. Hezekiah and Isaiah were contemporaries and good friends. Together they played a pivotal role in the history of Judah. Knowing Isaiah’s place in history helps us understand the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon.

In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, the Assyrian empire was the most aggressively expansive that the ancient Near Eastern world had ever known.

The meaning of empire had been redefined in 745 when Tiglath-pileser III (called Pul in the Bible) seized the Assyrian throne. Before his time, wars usually had been fought to obtain slaves, plunder, tribute, and commercial advantage; but now, Tiglath-pileser began aggressive wars with the intent of expanding his administrative territory. From Nineveh, his capital (located on the east side of the Tigris river, about halfway between the river’s headwaters to the north and the city of Babylon to the south), his empire reached to the south beyond Babylon and on to the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; eventually, it stretched southwest to include the lands of Syria, Israel, and Egypt. To guarantee the success of their empire, the Assyrians developed a policy of deporting conquered people to distant territories and then repopulating the vacated land with conquered people imported from other lands. It was assumed that people who were separated from their homes, their traditions, and their local gods, would not have the patriotic cohesion to start a rebellion in their strange new surroundings.

By 734 the Assyrian empire had covered much of the northern and eastern part of the fertile crescent and was beginning to threaten the western side along the Mediterranean and toward Egypt. In response, Israel and Syria formed a defensive coalition against Assyria, and tried to force Ahaz, king of Judah, to join them. They threatened to invade Judah and replace the king if he did not meet their demands. Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser for help. He responded with vigor, and, in 732, conquered Syria, deported much of its population, and made it part of his empire.

Nine years later, in 721, the Assyrians conquered Israel and deported most of its inhabitants to northern Mesopotamia and Media. The northern kingdom of Israel, the “Ten Tribes,” had lasted about two centuries after they separated from Judah following Solomon’s death. The Assyrians left only the poorest people in the land, and then brought in other peoples whom they had conquered. In time, these foreigners merged with the remaining Israelites to become the Samaritans whom we know from the New Testament.

A few years before the defeat of the ten northern tribes of Israel, Hezekiah became king at Jerusalem.

As the Assyrians became more aggressive, it became apparent that they would try to extend their empire along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea and to Egypt. As that time approached, Hezekiah made preparations for war. He made other preparations also. The people of Israel, the ten tribes, were mostly apostate, but some still worshiped Jehovah. Hezekiah provided an excuse for those faithful to flee from the impending Assyrian invasion by sending messangers through Israel to invite them to come to Jerusalem for Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1-11). The Bible says many responded and came.

Against the advice of Isaiah, Hezekiah allied himself with Egypt in defense against further Assyrian encroachments, then he prepared for war. His engineers cut a tunnel 1,750 feet long through the solid rock under Jerusalem from the Gihon spring in the Kidron valley to bring water into the city. It would also deprive an invading army of water during a siege. Even though Isaiah opposed the alliance with Egypt, he prophesied that Jerusalem would be saved from the Assyrian invaders (2 Kings 19:1-34).

As expected, Sennacherib, the new king of Assyria, brought an army south along the Mediterranean coast. They soundly defeated an Egyptian force, then turned on Jerusalem. A large contingent of the Assyrian army surrounded the city and prepared for a long siege. An account of what happened next was found by archaeologists excavating in Nineveh. Sennacherib had boasted that he had shut up Hezekiah “like a bird in a cage,” but that was his face-saving version of the story.

The prophet had promised, “Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.” The Assyrians had mockingly quoted that prophecy (2 Kings 19:10), but later the Bible description of what happened to the besieging Assyrian army tells how the promise was fulfilled.

35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead (2 Kings 19:35-37).

The sudden deaths in that part of the Assyrian army spared Jerusalem and prevented its people from being scattered, but did not keep Judah out of the grip of the Assyrian empire.

Hezekiah is reported to have been the best of all the kings of Judea. He and Isaiah successfully reformed the religious practices of the Jews and brought them back into conformity with the laws of Jehovah. But Manasseh, his son and successor, turned away from Jehovah and made Baal worship the state religion. Manasseh seized Isaiah, then offered to spare him if he would worship Baal. When Isaiah refused, the king had him stretched out and “sawed him asunder with a wood-saw.”{1}

Manasseh ruled for 45 years, the longest reign in Judah’s history (687-42). After that, the Jews never fully recovered from the apostasy he had begun. When he died (only about 50 years before Lehi left Jerusalem), he was succeeded by his son who was soon assassinated. His grandson Josiah was proclaimed king when he was only eight years old. During his minority, the regents and real rulers of Judah were the temple priests.

Because the Assyrian empire had begun to crumble from internal weakness, by 628 when Josiah was 20 years old, his kingdom had become politically and financially independent. There were small temples scattered throughout Judea. Menahem Haran explains:

In addition to the twelve or thirteen temples listed so far, ancient Israel may have known some other temples which have left no trace whatsoever in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, it is a reasonable assumption that any addition to this list (which would have to be based on new, extra-biblical evidence) would be insignificant, and that the total number of Israelite temples can not have been much greater than that which emerges from the biblical records.{2}

Josiah and his priests closed the local small temples{3} and sanctuaries that were dedicated to Jehovah, and centralized the collecting of tithes and offerings under the control of the priestly bureaucracy at the Jerusalem Temple.{4}

Beginning with the reign of Josiah and the priests, the most important religious practices of the worship of Jehovah were also changed. One of the strongest evidences of that change is that Josiah ordered that the Ark should no more be carried outside the Temple. The record simply says:

3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the Lord your God, and his people Israel (2 Chronicles 35:3)

If the Ark could no longer be taken from the Temple, then those ceremonies conducted annually outside the Temple—probably including most or all of the Feast of Tabemacles temple drama{5} —were abandoned.{6} Josiah replaced the temple drama with a prolonged Feast of the Passover and seems to have sought to validate the change in the minds of the people by providing great amounts of food for everybody for seven days (2 Chronicles 35:3-19).

Josiah ruled for 31 years, until 609 B.C.— Ezekiel and Jeremiah lived most of their early adult lives during the reign of Josiah. Their attitude toward the decreasing righteousness of the Jewish people is a very good gauge by which to judge the changes that were being made in Josiah’s new state religion and carried out by his successors. The near-culmination of this apostasy in Judah was described by Nephi: “and in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed” (1 Nephi 1:4).

Lehi may have been several years younger than Josiah. It is rather easy to calculate Lehi’s approximate age at the time he left Jerusalem. In Jewish tradition, the ages when boys did important things was pretty well established by custom. At age 8 days a boy was circumcised. Age 13 was his bar mitzvah. At age 18 to 20 years he married. At age 31 he became a “young man” and could sit in the ruling councils of the synagogue or the Sanhedrin. So the “rich young man” who went away in sorrow when Jesus told him to sell everything was about Jesus’ own age.)

Laman, Lehi’s oldest son, was not yet married, so Laman was not older than 20.
If there had been about 2 years between the births of the sons, Lemuel would not have been older than about 18,
Sam would have been about16.
Nephi would have been about 14. (He describes himself as being “exceedingly young” in 1 Nephi 2:16.)
Lehi and Sariah also had at least one daughter, but we do not have any evidence about when she might have been born.
Lehi was married by about age 20, so if Laman had been the oldest child, that would make Lehi about 40 when he left Jerusalem. (It is possible, however, that Sariah was Lehi’s second marriage.)

If those calculations are correct, then all of Lehi’s four oldest sons had been born during Josiah’s reign. Lehi was a wealthy man whose children would have associated with the aristocracy. That is, if Lehi lived in, or frequented, Jerusalem, his older sons would have known and probably associated with the young men who followed Josiah to the throne.

As the Assyrians had grown weaker, Babylon had grown stronger. Nineveh fell to the Babylonians in 612, but the Assyrian army was not completely destroyed until three years after that.

In 609, as the Medes and Babylonians gathered for the kill, the Egyptians, who feared a strong Babylon, rushed to assist the Assyrians. Josiah tried to intercede and was mortally wounded during the battle in which the Egyptians routed his army. He died a short time later in Jerusalem.

After Josiah’s death, the Jewish monarchy slowly melted into chaos. Pharaoh Necho was defeated by the Babylonians but his ambition for empire was not diminished. On his way back to Egypt, he stopped at Jerusalem and deposed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, who had been on the throne only three months. In his place, Necho installed Jehoiakim, another of Josiah’s sons, as king of Judah.

Now that the Assyrians were no longer in the game, the struggle for supremacy was between Babylon and Egypt. Their armies met at Carchemish in 605. There Nebuchadnezzar{7} soundly defeated the Egyptians, but the next day he learned that his father had died, so rather than pursue the Egyptians, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon to secure his place on the throne.

Diplomatically, Jehoiakim was forced to try to keep his balance between these two strong enemies. Geographically, Judah was on the road that the armies of both would have to travel in order to challenge the other. Egypt was the closest, and therefore had been the first to claim dominion over its Jewish neighbor.

When Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho, Jehoikim tried to avoid trouble by pledging his support to Babylon, but then switched back to Egypt again in 601 when Necho and Nebuchadnezzar fought to a draw. Because of his vacillations, Jehoikim was distrusted by both of his more powerful neighbors, and he was left without a firm ally.

By this time, the prophet Jeremiah was deeply involved in Jewish politics and urged his king to return to the Babylonian fold and stay there, saying that Egypt was too weak to be counted on. Since Lehi was apparently a friend and associate of Jeremiah, one can assume that he and the other prophets Nephi mentions were also taking the same political side. Nephi described the events of only a year later when he reported, “and in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.” The connotations of that warning seem to be as much about national politics and international relations as they are about religious righteousness. Jeremiah’s history certainly suggests that was so. The prophets were arguing that bad political decisions had been based on bad moral choices. Given the climate of the times, it is not unlikely that Lehi’s political stance as well as his cry for repentance had alienated the people who conspired to take his life.

Late in 598 Jehoiakim died, and his 18-year-old son Jehoiachin came to the throne. Even then, Nebuchadnezzar had already begun his march toward Jerusalem. After he had been king for only three months and 10 days, in the spring of 597, Jehoiachin surrendered Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. The Jewish king and most of the aristocracy were then transported to Babylon, apparently more as hostages than as slaves, for archaeologists have found records that show that Jehoiachin was well treated while he was there. Other members of the landed and merchant classes were left behind. We know of two specific examples: Lehi, whose estates were not plundered by the Babylonian armies (the boys were able to go back and gather up a good deal of treasure to take to Laban); neither was Laban’s home in Jerusalem. His royal and sacred regalia (including clothing and the sword), and also the brass plates that contained his genealogies and were the official evidence of his aristocratic birth, all remained undisturbed.

Nebuchadnezzar installed Jehoiachin’s 21-year-old uncle Mattaniah on the Jewish throne. He gave the young king the new covenant name of Zedekiah{8} (2 Kings 24:17-19), so that name, Zedekiah, represented the covenant relationship between Mattaniah and Nebuchadnezzar. If Zedekiah were to break the treaty his kingship would be forfeited. He did break the treaty and reigned only eleven years, 597-587. He was destined to be Judah’s last king.

Nephi began his father’s history “in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah.” If the above chronology is correct, that would have been in 597 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and installed Zedekiah as king.

During that year that Lehi received a commission from the Lord to warn the people of Jerusalem of their impending doom. That is especially interesting in view of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion had already passed, and he had made an alliance with Jerusalem’s new king, so Judah’s situation appeared to be stable. In fact, it would prove to be on the edge of disaster. Lehi and his family left sometime after that, but not so late that they did not have time to return twice before Nebuchadnezzar’s final and fatal attack.

The closing act in the complex drama of Judah’s last hundred years was a kind of replay of the previous calamities. Caught in the tensions between Babylon and Egypt, the weak king repeatedly sought Jeremiah’s advice, but then always rejected it. Zedekiah vacillated between keeping his covenants with Nebuchadnezzar and allying himself with Necho, until 589. Then, hanging his hopes on Egyptian promises, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had toyed with the Jewish kings too long, and this time when he came to Jerusalem with an army to remove Zedekiah from his throne, he would leave the city broken and uninhabitable.

With siege works, Nebuchadnezzar sealed Jerusalem off from the rest of Judah. Then, while the people in the city starved, the Babylonian army systematically decimated the rest of the country (see 2 Kings 25:1-21; Jeremiah 37:21, 39:1-10, 52:1-30; Lamentations 2, 4). The siege of Jerusalem began in 589 B.C., in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. The city’s walls were breached in July, 587. That would account for why Lehi’s party did not know about the fall of Jerusalem. It took them eight years to get to Bountiful, so they would have been in the new world before Jerusalem was destroyed.

After his first successful invasion, Nebuchadnezzar had taken golden vessels and other treasures from the temple, but otherwise had not damaged the building. After his second invasion, however, his attitude completely changed. The city and the temple were plundered, then the temple was burned along with most of the rest of the city.

Zedekiah and his family tried to escape but were captured and taken before the king of Babylon. There Zedekiah’s sons were killed before his eyes, after which he was blinded so their deaths would be the last thing he ever saw. “Zedekiah” had ceased to exist when he broke his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar.{9} Now Mattaniah, the one-time king, was only a blind slave. He was bound in chains and forced to walk across the desert to Babylon. There he spent the rest of his life climbing the endless stairs of a treadmill—lifting water from a canal into an irrigation ditch. The prophecies of Lehi, Ezekiel (12:13), and Jeremiah (34:2-5) had all been fulfilled.
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FOOTNOTES

{1} The Martyrdom of Isaiah, in R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913),155-62.

{2} Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry into Biblical Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School (Oxford: Clarendon, 1978; reprinted with corrections: Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1985), 39.

{3} For further information on additional Israelite temples, see “Temples,” in Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962),4:560- 68; Beth Alpert Nakhai, “What’s a Bamah? How Sacred Space Functioned in Ancient Israel,” Biblical Archaeology Review 20, 3 (May/June, 1994): 18-29, 77- 78. On page 26 there are two photographs of the remains of a small Israelite temple that was probably destroyed as part of Josiah’s crusade against the small temples.

{4} W. Eugene Clabum, “The Fiscal Basis of Josiah’s Reforms,” Journal of Biblical Literature 92, 1 (March 1973): 11-22. For a discussion of other Israelite temples, see Haran, Temples and Temple-service, especially chapter 2, “The Israelite Temples,” and chapter 7, “The Centralizations of the Cult”; Zeev Herzog, “Israelite Sanctuaries at Arad and Beer-Sheba,” Temples and High Places in Biblical Times, 120-22.

{5} See Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord? the chapter titled “Evidences of Ancient Jewish Apostasy,” first edition, 57-74; 2011(paperback) edition, 55-65. For further discussion, see Albertson, “Reflections on the Emergence of a Standard Text”; G. W. Ahlstrom, Joel and the Temple Cult of Jerusalem (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971), 77 -78, fn. 3; Klaus Baltzer, “Considerations Regarding the Office and Calling of the Prophet,” Harvard Theological Review 61, 4 (1968): 567-82; George A. Barton, The Religion of Ancient Israel (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1961),158-64.

{6} See Margaret Barker, Great High Priest, The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (London: T&T Clark, 2003), 149.

{7} His name was officially Nebuchadrezzar and is spelled that way in Jeremiah. However, his name Nebuchadnezzar was used in certain accounts and is usually spelled that way in our Bible.

{8} It is almost universally accepted that this is the Zedekiah Nephi mentions. However there is apparently another possibility. Jeremiah 27:1-4 speaks of Jehoiakim as “Zedekiah.”

{9} For a discussion of the significance of new names see Bruce H. Porter and Stephen D. Ricks, “Names in Antiquity: Old, New, and Hidden,” in John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990).

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1 Nephi 1:1-6

1. I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.
2. Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, that consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.
3. And I know that the record that I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.
4. For it came to pass in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, (my father, Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days); and in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.
5. Wherefore it came to pass that my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.
6. And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much.

The first six verses of Nephi’s account can be seen as a review of a three-act Israelite temple drama. Ancient dramas could usually be reduced to three themes or acts, divided into shorter scenes, following the pattern of the cosmic myth. The first act explained why it was necessary for the hero to leave home. In sacral dramas, the first act often took place among the gods in the Council in Heaven, it often told of the appointments and assignments to be fulfilled on the earth, sometimes it reported a rebellion and a war in heaven, and it may have included an account of the creation and the Garden. Nephi seems to sum this up in a very brief rendering of act one. Act two is the hero’s encounter with this mortal world, where he is humiliated and defeated (sometimes, as in the Osiris story, the hero is actually killed), but in the end he triumphs over his enemies. Act three is his triumphant return home to celebrate his victory and claim his throne. Sometimes, as in the “Hymn of the Pearl,” it is a shared throne.

It is also a shared throne in the first chapter of Ephesians. This is a good example, because while the pattern is the same, the focus is different. In the first 14 verses, Paul discusses the ordinances and covenants made in the premortal world. He passes quickly over the problems of this world in the next four verses by uttering a prayer that we will know what is our assignment here, and what blessings our fulfillment of our covenants will bring. Then, he concludes the chapter with the promise that just as God had enabled the Savior to fulfill his covenants, so God will enable us to fulfill ours. That reminder includes the assurance that the Father set the Savior on his throne “at his own right hand in the heavenly places.”

The most beautiful example of the pattern of the sacral myth in the Old Testament is the 23rd Psalm. It is a microcosm of the ancient Israelite temple drama in three acts.{1}

Act One, the Premortal World
.            The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
.            He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
.            He leadeth me beside the still waters.
.            He restoreth my soul:
.            He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Act Two, the Mortal World
.            Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
.            I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
.            Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
.            Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
.            Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
.            Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

Act Three, the Eternal World
.            and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (Psalm 23:1-6).

That is the most beloved of all the psalms because it resonates with our souls. It does so because it is the eternal autobiography of every man and woman.

Nephi followed that pattern with a great deal of precision. That precision evinces Nephi’s deliberateness, rectitude, and care. One can tell that an author has deliberately followed a prescribed pattern if the pattern he is following is too complex to stumble upon it by accident, and if the complex pattern is followed in sequence and without deviation. Nephi’s first six verses meet that criteria. His subtextual drama begins in the premortal world, and then moves quickly into this one.

Act One
.            I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father;

Act Two
.            Having seen many afflictions in the course of my days,
.            Having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days;
.            Having had a great knowledge of the goodness of God
.            Having had a great knowledge of the mysteries of God,
Therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days

The record is kept sacred by his writing in a dual language using the same words to convey two separate meanings. He tells us it is written in the language of the Egyptians (the world). But it is also written in the learning of the Jews (sacral language) so only those who have the keys to that knowledge can understand its second, sacred meaning.

And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.

There are several ways to make a record true with one’s hand, and one usually reads Nephi’s statement to mean that he wrote it himself. But Nephi’s emphasis in not on its production but on its truthfulness. There is one way to use one’s hand to testify about the truthfulness of something. For example, when we are on the witness stand in court we raise our hand. It is in that way that the hand testifies the words are true. It is done by covenant. Verse 2 would be able to stand as absolute evidence in any reasonable court. In it, he asserts the record is true, raises his hand as a covenant that it is true, and testifies that this is not hearsay but first hand knowledge.

Nephi then introduces the idea of kingship:
.            “in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah.”

He then introduces the idea of priesthood in the person of Lehi, who is a prophet:
.            “My father, Lehi”

He mentions sacred space, for in ancient Israel, Jerusalem and its Temple are sacred space.
.            “having dwelt in Jerusalem in all his days”

He then calls our attention to the prophets who have made covenants and who are fulfilling those assignments:

.            Prophets prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed

Now there is a prayer.
.            My father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people

Now the Shechinah—the light or veil that separates us from God.{2}
.            And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him

Act Three is very short, just as it is in the 23rd Psalm.
.           He saw and heard much

In those 6 short verses Nephi has mentioned every significant facet of the ancient Israelite temple drama. It is apparent that his intent was not to teach us about that drama but to show us that he knew it. Thereby, he has established, in a brilliantly crafted, encoded colophon, that he knows the mysteries and can be trusted as a prophet.

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FOOTNOTES

{1} For a discussion of the Twenty-Third Psalm see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 619-40; Second edition, p. 441-57.

{2} The definition of shechinah found in the LDS Bible Dictionary reads as follows:
“Schechinah, The Presence. A word used by the later Jews (and borrowed from them by the Christians) to denote the cloud of brightness and glory that marked the presence of the Lord as spoken of in Exodus 3:1-6; 1 Kings 8:10; Isaiah 6:1-3; Matthew 17:5; Acts 7:55. The Prophet Joseph Smith described this phenomenon in connection with his first vision, as a ‘light…above the brightness of the sun,’ and said that he saw two Personages whose “brightness and glory defy all description,” standing “in the light” (JS-H 1:16-18). LDS Bible dictionary, 773.

It is also the light that filled the room when Moroni came to Joseph; the smoke that filled the temple in Isaiah 6; the “pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock” in 1 Nephi 1; the light that made Moses’s bush to appear to be burning; and the cloud through which the brother of Jared spoke to the Savior.

For a discussion of the shechinah as the veils see the sections called, “1 Nephi 11:2-7, One Must Say and Do Truth” and “1 Nephi 11:8-22, The Condescension of God.”
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