LeGrand L. Baker

1 Nephi 8:29-30 

29 And now I, Nephi, do not speak all the words of my father.
30 But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.

We know only one way to interpret what is meant by that, and it would have been very familiar to Lehi and Nephi. It is, as described in the 95th Psalm:

1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand (Psalm 95:1-7).

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1 Nephi 8:24-28  

24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
25 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
26. And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.
28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.

Later, the angel explained to Nephi,

18 And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever (1 Nephi 12:18).

The question might be asked: After tasting the fruit of the tree of life, why would people turn away and take the path that they had earlier chosen not to take? There are as many answers as there are individual choices, but they all fall under two great umbrellas. One is the nature of the persons who choose to leave the tree, and the other is the nature of the persons in the building to whom the drifters look for guidance.

There is an ancient, and very insightful, document that purports to be a description of what happened in the Garden of Eden. It describes this world as a place of “great distractions and pains in life, so that their men should be preoccupied with life, and not have time to attend on the Holy Spirit.”{1}

That is the first umbrella under which so many of the answers can be found: People let themselves get so busy attending to the perceived traumas and advantages of this world that they do “not have time to attend on the Holy Spirit.” Some who are at the tree recognize the weight of this message as it comes from the people in the building, and they become ashamed that they are not spending their time, energy—and their lives—being successful enough that they can also get in the building and wear the beautiful clothes. They do not have enough time to continue to enjoy the fruit of the tree and also achieve the goals that are requisite to becoming a part of the society that the building houses. “They were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.”

The second is the description of the attitudes—but more especially of the clothing—of the people in the building. Again we find that the key may be in the story of Adam and Eve. As we observed above, when God asked, “Who told you, you are naked,” he was not seeking information, he was asking them to consider the source of their nakedness and of the instruction to clothe themselves as they were then dressed.

As there are two paths on which to walk, so there are two ways to dress. One is in the pattern of the garment God gave to Adam and Eve as a temporary representation of their garment of light. The other is in the pattern of worldly prominence—which, like the fig leaf, will eventually dry up and turn to dust. Those folks who are in the building, who are dressed so well in their own sorts of clothes, have accepted the proposition that one ought to be preoccupied with the things of this world, and are laughing because they think the folks at the tree have missed the point and do not know how to find success in this world.
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FOOTNOTE

{1} The Hypostasis of the Archons, The Coptic Text with Translation and Commentary by Roger Aubrey Bullard (Berlin, Walter De Gruyter & Co., 1970), 28-29.

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1 Nephi 8:20 

20 And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world.

This is a perfect description of the uncompromising necessity to hang on to the rod of iron with all our might. The path which leads to the tree of life forks along the way, and the only way one can know which fork to take, is by holding on to the rod. The rod will direct us along the path leading to the tree. The alternative leads by the filthy river—to the world and all the advantages the world can contrive. The following are three quotes from Hugh Nibley. He was not discussing Lehi’s vision of tree of life,{1} but his analysis of the doctrine of the Two Ways is a perfect description of fork in the path that Lehi saw.

You come to the crossroads of the way of light and the way of darkness. It’s universal, the doctrine of the two ways. But the reason he [the gatekeeper] is weeping is that some people get by and go halfway to heaven. Why is he weeping? Because a lot of them must go to hell.{2}

About the two ways, Nibley wrote:

One may well ask if it is necessary to choose between such absolute extremes, and wonder if there is not some more moderate approach to the problems. By the very nature of things, there is no third way—as the early Jewish and Christian writers remind us repeatedly in their doctrine of the Two Ways. According to this oldest and best-established of teachings (though quite unpopular with the conventional Christianity and Judaism of our time), there are Two Ways lying before every person in this life, the Way of Light and the Way of Darkness, the Way of Life and the Way of Death; and every mortal every day of his life is required to make a choice between them. Unfortunately for our peace of mind, any compromise between the Two Ways is out of the question, since they lead in opposite directions.{3}

Satan’s masterpiece of counterfeiting is the doctrine that there are only two choices, and he will show us what they are. It is true that there are only two ways, but by pointing us the way he wants us to take and then showing us a fork in that road, he convinces us that we are making the vital choice, when actually we are choosing between branches in his road. Which one we take makes little difference to him, for both lead to destruction.{4}

In Lehi’s vision he saw that there are only two ways, and that when we come to the fork that separates them, the only way we can identify the right one is to hold on to the rod of iron, and go the direction it leads us. Even in doing that there always remain only two ways—we may continue to hold to the rod, or we may try to find our way without it. Lehi tells us that those who tried to find the correct path without holding on to the rod of iron were lost. Nephi tells us that the mist of darkness is the same as the second path Nibley described (1 Nephi 12:16-17).
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FOOTNOTES

{1} See: 1 Nephi 8:10-12, Lehi’s description of the tree, the water, and the fruit.

{2} Hugh Nibley, Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price, edited by Robert Smith and Robert Smythe (n.p., n.d.), 3 .

{3} Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, edited by Don E. Norton (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1989), 30.

{4} Nibley, Approaching Zion, , 112 – 113.

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1 Nephi 10:12-14 

12 Yea, even my father spake much concerning the Gentiles, and also concerning the house of Israel, that they should be compared like unto an olive-tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth.
13 Wherefore, he said it must needs be that we should be led with one accord into the land of promise, unto the fulfilling of the word of the Lord, that we should be scattered upon all the face of the earth.
14 And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fulness of the Gospel, the natural branches of the olive-tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer.

It appears that this may be Lehi’s abbreviated version of Zenos’s prophecy that Jacob quotes in Jacob 5. If it is, then it is also the key to interpreting the prophecy.

In ancient Israel, the olive tree was the living symbol of the tree of life, so there is a close relationship between the tree in Lehi’s dream (ch. 8) and the tree that he likens to the house of Israel.{1} The one in chapter 8 represents our coming to the Savior, and this one (10:12-14) is about scattered Israel’s coming to a knowledge of the Messiah. In chapter 11:21-22, Nephi tells us the tree represents the love of God. In chapter 15, Nephi ties all these ideas together by promising that as Israel is gathered, the people will “receive the strength and nourishment from the true vine,” for “they shall be grafted in, being a natural branch of the olive-tree, into the true olive-tree” (1 Nephi 15:15-16).
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FOOTNOTE

{1} See: 1 Nephi 8:10-12, Lehi’s description of the tree, the water, and the fruit.

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1 Nephi 10:11 

11. And it came to pass after my father had spoken these words he spake unto my brethren concerning the gospel that should be preached among the Jews, and also concerning the dwindling of the Jews in unbelief. And after they had slain the Messiah, who should come, and after he had been slain he should rise from the dead, and should make himself manifest, by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles.

A phrase that is frequently used in the Book of Mormon that means to be in the state of apostasy is “dwindle in unbelief.” Since “dwindle” is a word that is not much used in our culture, the impact of the phrase is often overlooked. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of “to dwindle” is: “to become smaller and smaller; to shrink, waste away, decline; to decline in quality, value, or estimation; to degenerate; to reduce gradually in size, cause to shrink into small dimensions.” So dwindling in unbelief is not a static state of apostasy. Rather, it is a state of ever diminishing understanding of what is truth. Alma uses that same concept to describe individual apostasy and to define the “chains of hell” (Alma 12:9-11). An example of this type of apostasy being widespread over an entire culture is found in 4 Nephi. That example is followed almost immediately by a description of a different kind of apostasy: “they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel” (4 Nephi 1:34, 38).
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1 Nephi 10:8-10 

7 And he spake also concerning a prophet who should come before the Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord—
8 Yea, even he should go forth and cry in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know not; and he is mightier than I, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. And much spake my father concerning this thing.
9 And my father said he should baptize in Bethabara, beyond Jordan; and he also said he should baptize with water; even that he should baptize the Messiah with water.
10 And after he had baptized the Messiah with water, he should behold and bear record that he had baptized the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of the world.

Lehi is quoting Isaiah 40:3. The context of Isaiah’s prophecy about John the Baptist is the Council in Heaven (sode)where John was given his earthly assignment. The first two verses of that chapter are a review of the entire ancient Israelite temple drama in the setting of the Council in Heaven (sode).

The key word in Isaiah 40:1-2 is comfort, which means to empower. The “comfort” is Isaiah 61 is a coronation ceremony: to wash, anoint, clothe, crown, and give a new name. {1}
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FOOTNOTE

{1} For a discussion of the Hebrew word translated as “comfort” see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 467-71; Second edition, p. 340-42.

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