LeGrand L. Baker

1 Nephi 12:1-3  

1 And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Look, and behold thy seed, and also the seed of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld the land of promise; and I beheld multitudes of people, yea, even as it were in number as many as the sand of the sea.
2. And it came to pass that I beheld multitudes gathered together to battle, one against the other; and I beheld wars, and rumors of wars, and great slaughters with the sword among my people.
3 And it came to pass that I beheld many generations pass away, after the manner of wars and contentions in the land; and I beheld many cities, yea, even that I did not number them.

One day, a friend came to my office to ask: “Where is Hell?” Without any hesitation, and with no more contemplation, I replied, “You’re in it.”

That was not intended to be a flippant response, and since then we have thought even more about that. There is evidence that devils “who kept not their first estate” move freely among, and influence the humans in this world. The people whom Nephi describes in these verses live here, in this world. The people who murdered Jesus lived here. There are presently some very bad people in our world who delight in hurting and killing innocent people. But there are also some very, very good people who in our world—noble and great ones who fought and won the first war in heaven. The concluding battles of that war are being fought in our world. Ultimately, goodness will prevail, this earth will be redeemed, and the bad guys will have to go somewhere else.

But here, now, if evil men and devils are free to walk about, then their society is pretty much the same as hell. In the end, the final hell will be worse only because all the good people will be gone and only the bad guys will be left to interact with each other. But sometimes this world gets like that too (like at the very end of the Book of Mormon)— all the good guys are killed or gone, and only the bad guys are left to create and manage their own affairs.

We wonder about other worlds. We wonder about why this one is filled with people who enjoy hurting and enslaving and murdering each other. We believe that if we understood more about those things we would also have some answers about why the very best of the best of God’s children also came here to this world. Sometimes the scriptures ask more questions than they give answers to.

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1 Nephi 11:34-36  

34 And after he was slain I saw the multitudes of the earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb; for thus were the twelve called by the angel of the Lord.
35 And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
36 And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb (1 Nephi 11:34-36).

Nephi’s description of the building as “the pride of the world” is very apt. Pride is a pretense used to prop up a nothingness. The building is in the air because it has no substantive foundation. It is a fabrication of the imaginations of its inmates and of those who wish to be like them. When the building’s foundation is exposed as a fraud, there is nothing left to hold it up—not even in the haughtiness of the beliefs of the people who sustained it.

Pride—whether a mask behind which one hides his own reality or an assumed wisdom by which he projects and defends a pretended truth—has no reality. Pride is often worn as a mask behind which the motives, insecurities, and indulgences of one’s real Self are intended to be obscured. Pride may be displayed as a political catch-phrase, or as fashionable clothes, or as religious self-righteousness, but however it is displayed, its object is always the same: to attract honor, prestige, advantage—often money and power—to one’s facade by concealing one’s true Self. It is most destructive when one believes his own lie, and is persuaded by the mask that it is real. Then the whole Self becomes an illusion—a bubble dancing in the air like Lehi’s great and spacious building. As long as people live within their own lie, they cannot be taught eternal truth, because to recognize truth would destroy the mask.

In his second description of the building, Nephi uses two parallel representations: “vain imaginations” and “the pride of the children of men.” Vain imaginations are principles and attitudes, accumulations, and displays for which one may be willing to exchange his integrity but which have no real value. Both “vanity” and “pride” have the same meaning: each denotes an illusion that has no substance—something that does not exist except in the mind of the believer.

A most colorful description of the nothingness called “pride” and “vanity” is Mormon’s phrase, “puffing them up with pride” (3 Nephi 6:15). One pictures a cartoon showing a person who is all puffed up like a balloon, so full of hot air that his feet barely touch the real world, oblivious to his absurdity and assuming everyone sees him as the distinguished specimen he assumes himself to be.

Perhaps the most unhappy example is Jacob’s description on one standing before the Lord, but disqualified to enter his presence:

41 O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.
42 And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them (2 Nephi 9:41-42).{1}

Such an image might be amusing if it were not so deadly serious. The Lord also described our over-inflated clown, but turning a would-be comedy into pure tragedy as the proud one not only tries to conceal his real Self, but also seeks to use the illusion of authority to “cover his sins” (D&C 121:36-37).

The real tragedy of pride is that it diverts our attention from our own reality to an illusion about our Selves. People who are proud project the illusion as reality and insist that others acknowledge it also. But, as the psalmist observed, the things we humans struggle to achieve are often no more substantial than a shadow.

3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away….
11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood (Psalms 144:3-4, 11).

That psalm may have been the inspiration behind some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines. His Macbeth laments,

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing (Act 5, Scene 5).

“Signifying nothing”—that is the key. To seek a vain thing is to be as a child who blows bubbles in the air, admires their beauty and tries to catch them and keep them forever. He reaches out to capture their effervescence, touches them, and finds there is nothing there. To exalt the vain things of this world is to do homage to emptiness, just as to worship a false god is to do homage to a carved log that cannot respond because it has no soul.

Believing an illusion does not make the illusion a truth. Truth is independent of all things—including whether or not people believe or don’t believe. Even if an entire nation believes in the substance of a bubble, it is still only emptiness. People—whether an individual or a nation—who defend the bubble deny themselves the freedom to know the truth.

Illusions that are touted as truth are, in some perverted way, also independent. That is why their proponents support them. They free their adherents from the restraints of doing truth—of keeping the commandments and of repenting—while at the same time binding them to the subjugation that comes from disobeying sacral law.

If pride is our pretending to be what we are not, then humility is simply being who we are.{2} Demeaning one’s self is not humility, it is only doing homage to the negative side of the bubble. People who cannot accept or understand the reality of themselves cannot know the reality of others. Only people who know the truth of themselves and of the Savior are free to act independently. Ultimately, only the gods who know all truth are absolutely free.

In the Old Testament, “the Preacher” points out the absurdity of expending one’s life to collect power, glory, money or reputation that have no lasting value.{3}

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 8-9).

Our soul is not an accumulation of what we have collected or achieved in the past. When we appear before God on judgement day he will not ask us for our vita or resume. Rather, we will come as we are–just then. We will appear as we are—a product of what we have chosen to be—a Self, definable in the instant. The Atonement not only permits us to repent of our past and become a new Self, it also enables us to remain what we are.

There are some lines in Hamlet that show the absurdity of collecting accolades that are not real and pretending that they are our eternal Self. In this scene, Hamlet, who has just killed Polonius and hidden the body, is confronted by the king who had murdered Hamlet’s father and usurped Hamlet’s right to the throne.

King: Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
Hamlet: At supper.
King: At supper! where?
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that’s the end. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King: What dost you mean by this?
Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
King: Where is Polonius?
Hamlet: In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.{4}

His point is this: even the crown of a king gives no advantage to his corpse when the king is dead, just as murdering to obtain that crown gives no advantage in hell to the soul who sat that crown upon his own brow.

Self aggrandizement is an illusion, no matter what it costs to project and sustain it. When one understands “pride” and “vanity” that way—as a sustained belief in nothingness—then one becomes free to know the reality of one’s Self.

Pride is not only self delusional, it is also self destructive. It seeks to distort everything around it, and what it cannot distort it corrodes. Its adherents seek to intimidate and thereby impose their illusions on others. They really have no other choice, because the bubble cannot sustain itself. If exposed as counterfeit, it will disintegrate like a puff of smoke. Thus the building falls.
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FOOTNOTES

{1} Other examples are 2 Nephi 28:9-15, Alma 5:37, Alma 31:27, and Moroni 7:45.

{2} When we can define “humble” in v. 27 in the same way we define “humility” in v. 39, then we can come close to understanding what it means. Jesus, the resurrected, creator, atoning God, could hardly be self-deprecating, nether could he be full of conceit. Rather, in this conversation with Moroni he was only being just himself—no masks—just “as a man telleth another.”

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

39 And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things (Ether 12:27, 39).

{3} See: 1 Nephi 11:36, “the pride of the world.” See: 1 Nephi 12:13-23, “the depths thereof are the depths of hell.”

{4} Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3.

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1 Nephi 11:28-33 

28 And I beheld that he went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory; and the multitudes were gathered together to hear him; and I beheld that they cast him out from among them.
29 And I also beheld twelve others following him. And it came to pass that they were carried away in the Spirit from before my face, and I saw them not.
30 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the heavens open again, and I saw angels descending upon the children of men; and they did minister unto them.
31 And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and the angel spake and showed all these things unto me. And they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.
32 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.
33 And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world.

The scriptures try to teach us about the Savior’s Atonement, but their words cannot open to our finite minds how badly it hurt him nor the extent of its infinite and eternal consequences. Luke, who writes with more intimate knowledge than the others, tells something of the Savior’s agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-44). The Savior himself explained it to the Prophet Joseph. His words are powerful, but equally beyond the grasp of a finite mind (D&C 19:15-19).

In 1925, Orson F. Whitney, a poet, historian, and apostle, spoke Latter-day Saint teenagers at the MIA June Conference. He told them that when he was a 21 year old missionary serving in Pennsylvania he had a vision during which he watched the Savior’s agony in Gethsemane. He said:

One night I dreamed—if dream it may be called—that I was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a witness of the Savior’s agony. I saw Him as plainly as I see this congregation. I stood behind a tree in the foreground, where I could see without being seen. Jesus, with Peter, James and John, came through a little wicket gate at my right. Leaving the three Apostles there, after telling them to kneel and pray, he passed over to the other side, where he also knelt and prayed. It was the same prayer with which we are all familiar: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:36-44; Mark 14:32-41; Luke 22:42).

As he prayed the tears streamed down his face, which was toward me. I was so moved at the sight that I wept also, out of pure sympathy with his great sorrow. My whole heart went out to him, I loved him with all my soul, and longed to be with him as I longed for nothing else.

Presently he arose and walked to where the Apostles were kneeling—fast asleep! He shook them gently, awoke them, and in a tone of tender reproach, untinctured by the least suggestion of anger or scolding asked them if they could not watch with him one hour. There he was, with the weight of the world’s sin upon his shoulders, with the pangs of every man, woman and child shooting through his sensitive soul—and they could not watch with him one poor hour!

Returning to his place, he prayed again, and then went back and found them again sleeping. Again he awoke them, admonished them, and returned and prayed as before. Three times this happened, until I was perfectly familiar with his appearance—face, form and movements. He was of noble stature and of majestic mien—not at all the weak, effeminate being that some painters have portrayed—a very God among men, yet as meek and lowly as a little child.

All at once the circumstance seemed to change, the scene remaining just the same. Instead of before, it was after the crucifixion, and the Savior, with those three Apostles, now stood together in a group at my left. They were about to depart and ascend into Heaven. I could endure it no longer. I ran out from behind the tree, fell at his feet, clasped him around the knees, and begged him to take me with him.

I shall never forget the kind and gentle manner in which He stooped and raised me up and embraced me. It was so vivid, so real, that I felt the very warmth of his bosom against which I rested. Then He said: “No, my son; these have finished their work, and they may go with me, but you must stay and finish yours.” Still I clung to him. Gazing up into his face—for he was taller than I—I besought him most earnestly: “Well, promise me that I will come to you at the last.” He smiled sweetly and tenderly and replied: “That will depend entirely upon yourself.” I awoke with a sob in my throat, and it was morning.

“That’s from God,” said my companion (Elder A. M. Musser), when I had related it to him. “I don’t need to be told that,” was my reply. I saw the moral clearly. I had never thought that I would be an Apostle, or hold any other office in the Church; and it did not occur to me even then. Yet I knew that those sleeping apostles meant me. I was asleep at my post—as any man is, or any woman, who, having been divinely appointed to do one thing, does another.{1}

The scriptures that say Christ bled from every pore all reference the Garden (Luke 22:44, Mosiah 3:7-8). About that agony, the Savior said:

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 19:1-41).

The shock to his system and loss of blood would have killed you or me.

Then the Romans whipped him. Jewish law would have limited that to 40 stripes, but Roman law did not. After the sharp iron barbs in the whip had ripped muscle tissue from one’s back and ribs, those barbs would dig into the lungs. Such a whipping was a death sentence. The soldiers were amazed that Jesus did not die and returned him to Pilot.

In addition to the physical pain and the pain in the Garden, he also felt the sorrow of being rejected by people he tried to save.

He then experienced death on the cross.

As we understand it, all of that together was one dreadful experience, and was much more intense than we can possibly imagine. It took place on this little earth but in its magnitude it reached out to encompass the whole universe in the whole duration of linear time. We are always a bit bothered when we hear someone try to describe the pain suffered by Jehovah/Jesus, the Great God of Heaven, by comparing it to the pain suffered by hundreds of ordinary people who were killed on similar crosses. The comparison may be partially correct, but it certainly is inadequate.

While his Eternal Self stayed within that wasted body and willed it to continue to live, not die, his soul took upon himself all of the sins, sorrows, sickness, pain, inequities, and contradictions—not just for this world, but for God’s children throughout the whole universe—not just in this physical time but throughout the entirety of our existence. The Atonement it much bigger than we tend to think, as the Prophet Joseph wrote in a poem he published about a year and a half before he died.

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.{2}

After Gethsemane, the Savior’s agony continued he said “it is finished,” and then died on the cross. One of the most powerful testimonies in the Old Testament that shows they understood something of the magnitude of the Atonement is the 22nd Psalm. The first two thirds of the psalm are a vivid description of the Savior’s pain while he was on the cross. Its first lines were quoted by the Savior as he experienced the horror that the psalm had prophesied:

1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1).

At the conclusion of its prophecy of the crucifixion, 22nd Psalm tells that after the Savior left the cross, he descended in triumph into the spirit world, “in the midst of the congregation” of the dead—just as in D&C 138. It is a testimony of the Savior’s final triumph before his resurrection.{3}

Our friend Ben Tingey wrote this explanation of the infinite and eternal nature of the Savior’s Atonement:

I wish to share a few insights about how the Atonement does not only consist of his suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross, but on Christ’s eternal nature prior to it. These insights have a two-fold effect: They demonstrate that the Atonement was a nearly eternal process and that Christ was the only one of Heavenly Father’s children qualified to execute it. For this I am grateful that the only person qualified was also willing to do it.
The Atonement had to be performed by someone who was:

1. Sinless
2. Perfectly Loving
3. Half mortal/half immortal.

1. Sinless:

Christ was the only qualified candidate to perform the Atonement because He was the only perfectly obedient son of our Heavenly Father. When members of the Church refer to Christ’s sinless character they are usually alluding only to Christ’s perfect mortal life (Hebrews 4:15); how Christ endured mortal temptations like we do and did not give in, never disobeying His Father. However, we know that Christ was chosen as our Savior long before He arrived on earth. He still had to fit the qualifications in premortal realms as well. Thus we can conclude that Christ has always been perfect. In His entire eternal existence, Christ has never disobeyed His Father, has always chosen light over darkness, has always chosen service over self. If a sinless existence was necessary to perform the Atonement, then that sinless existence had to be an eternal one. If Christ had ever made a mistake during any phase of His eternal progression He would have disqualified Himself from being able to perform the Atonement. Just one slip up and we would all be doomed to eternal damnation (see 2 Nephi 9). Therefore, any temptation, or even any exercise of agency, prior to the event of the Atonement (Gethsemane through Calvary), has to be included in what we call Christ’s Atonement because the fact that He was sinless allowed Him to perform it in the first place. The Atonement doesn’t just include His suffering for sin, but His own personal victory over sin which made it possible for Him to take our sins upon Himself. In this way His perfect nature becomes part of the Atonement because the Atonement required the sacrifice of a perfect being, and that perfect being had successfully endured trials and temptations for eons of time.

2. Perfectly Loving

One essential element of righteous living is that we must not only do the right thing, but we must do it for the right reasons (Moroni 7:6-12). Pure intentions and motivations must accompany a good work for it to be deemed righteous. The event of the Atonement required pure motivations and intentions. Christ possesses and embodies perfect charity. His love is infinite, without beginning or end. Christ had to perform the Atonement because He loved us and wished to obey His Father, not for any shred of glory upon Himself. There was absolutely no room for even a shadow of pride or vanity. As I stated previously, those perfect motivations had to be kept in force for an eternity prior to the event of the Atonement. If Christ had ever thought to please Himself first rather than His Father or any of us, or if He sought any kind of inappropriate recognition for His works or for His execution of the Atonement, then He would have disqualified Himself from being able to perform the Atonement. He had to do it out of love, and love alone. He has always loved us with a perfect love, even before we came to this earth. That love had to be kept pure, those motivations had to be true, for Christ’s entire eternal existence prior to the event of the Atonement for Him to have been worthy enough to perform it. If He did anything for any other reason than love then its power would have been shattered and we would “become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies” (2 Nephi 9:9). In this way, Christ’s perfectly loving nature becomes a part of the event of Atonement.

3. Half mortal/Half immortal

Many people in the Church don’t really understand the significance of why Christ had to be born of a virgin mother. It isn’t just a cute and miraculous story, it makes the Atonement possible. Amulek taught that “it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice” (Alma 34:10). Amulek is making a comparison between mortal and immortal things, temporary and permanent things. Humans, beasts, and fowls are in and of themselves not infinite and eternal beings. Our mortal existence is limited. The sacrifice of a man, or beast, or fowl will therefore only generate limited spiritual power because the sacrifice itself is mortal. The great and last sacrifice required an infinite and eternal sacrifice: the sacrifice of a god. Born of a virgin mortal mother and a heavenly immortal father, Christ was half mortal and half immortal. This enabled Him to have control over when His spirit left His body. It also allowed Him to feel the mortal struggles that we endure. We understand that he suffered more than any mortal man could have endured (Mosiah 3:7). But not only that, it made His sacrifice of infinite and eternal nature. The sacrifice of something mortal can only have mortal power. The sacrifice of something immortal wields infinite power. If Christ had been entirely mortal then His sacrifice could have only reached as far as this earth’s mortal existence, nothing before and nothing beyond. It may have paid the price for our mortal sins, but it would have stopped there. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ll achieve perfection before I die. We’ll all need the Atonement after this life, and we definitely needed it before we came. Christ’s infinite Atonement was infinite because the sacrifice, Christ Himself, was an infinite kind of being. In this way, Christ’s half mortal/half immortal existence forms a part of the event of the Atonement because if He hadn’t been half man/half God His Atonement would have been limited to a mortal scope, and not the infinite sweep which you spoke of.

We may therefore conclude that the Atonement of Christ was not limited to the period of time when he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and triumphed over death through His resurrection, but was in the works since the beginning of time. Every good choice that Christ made, with pure intentions behind it, qualified Christ to perform the Atonement. His legacy of perfect love and obedience allowed the half mortal/half immortal son of God to perform a vicarious Atonement for each one of God’s children.{4}

Scott Stewart added to the conversation, and in doing so opened our eyes to questions and possibilities that we had never considered before. Scott wrote:

I was deeply touched by your and Ben’s thoughts and beliefs on the Atonement. Over the past several years I have spent many hours pondering some of the same feelings you shared. Although I know he suffered immense physical pain, beyond any of our personal ability to comprehend, I personally believe that the greater pain came with the emotional suffering and disappointment he endured in being betrayed by those he so loved.

On one occasion I got a very small glimpse of part of what he must of endured. When I served as a bishop (and you have probably heard this many times before), I tasted for a brief moment, in the smallest possible degree, the pain of disappointment. It was on a Sunday afternoon after our normal block of meetings when I meet with a sweet sister who struggled with wayward children and many other disappointments and physical ailments in her life. Just months before we talked she had suffered a debilitating stroke that took most of her speech and greatly impacted her health. When she began describing all she was experiencing, and had for many years, I said a silent prayer, and asked if there was some way I could relieve her of those burdens for a few moments. Like you taught me on one occasion you have to be careful what you ask for, and in this experience that was certainly true. For a very brief time (probably 30 seconds or so) I felt the weight of her pains come upon me. Never before, and never since, have I hurt like that and felt such pain. Every part of my body ached with pain as it never had before. I felt a great love and empathy for this wonderful sister who was enduring so much. We shed many tears together and this sweet sister returned home.

I sat in my office for some time after that experience exhausted and overwhelmed. For just a brief moment I carried the pain and disappointment of one soul. I can’t imagine what the Savior must have suffered for all of us. In her case it wasn’t sin or physical pain, but perhaps the most painful kind, disappointment, heart ache, loneliness, and so forth.{5}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} “The Divinity of Jesus Christ by Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve,” Improvement Era, January 1926, No. 3.

{2} Joseph Smith, A Vision in Times and Seasons, Feb. 1, 1843.

{3} For a discussion of Psalm 22 in the context of the Savior’s atonement, see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 415-42; Second edition, p. 300-323.

{4} Benjamin H. Tingey to LeGrand L. Baker, August 3, 2011.

{5} Scott J. Stewart to LeGrand L. Baker, August 16, 2011.

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1 Nephi 11:26-27  

26 And the angel said unto me again: Look and behold the condescension of God!
27 And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him; and after he was baptized, I beheld the heavens open, and the Holy Ghost come down out of heaven and abide upon him in the form of a dove.

Matthew gives the most complete account of Jesus’s baptism. It reads:

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:13-17).

John the Beloved’s description of the Savior’s baptismcontains additional information:

32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him,{1} the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God (John 1:32-34).{2}

The Savior’s baptism was strikingly like his coronation on the Mount of Transfiguration.{3}

Psalm 2 gives the royal new name as “son” (“The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee [Psalm 2:7]).”.{4}
The title, “My Beloved Son,” is discussed in that book on pages 633-34. It begins with the Father introducing his Son to the Nephites:

7 Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name–hear ye him (3 Nephi 11:1-7).

This introduction is the same as that spoken many times by Heavenly Father.{5} It is also the same as Jehovah spoke in the second psalm, sung at the coronation services of the festival drama, when he declared that the king is a son of God.{6} Here, in 3 Nephi, the royal name-title “Son” is used in precisely the same way—as part of the coronation service in which Christ is enthroned as Eternal King. Consequently, the words spoken by the Father, “this is my Beloved Son,” would have been understood by the people to be an announcement that Christ is God, but it also would also have been understood as the ceremonial announcement that he is Jehovah, the King of kings. A whole series of psalms had predicted his coming, as Mowinckel has outlined:

Yahweh’s enthronement day is that day when he ‘comes’ (Psalm 96. 13; 98. 9) and ‘Makes himself known’ (98.2), reveals himself and his ‘salvation’ and his will (93.5; 99. 7), when he repeats the theophany of Mount Sinai (97.3ff.; 99.7f), and renews the election (47.5) of Israel, and the covenant with his people (95.6ff.; 99. 6ff.). The mighty‘ deed of salvation’ upon which his kingdom is founded is the Creation, which is alluded to in a rather mythic guise (93.3f.).{7}

Thus the people in America heard the voice of the Father declaring that Jesus is his rightful Heir—Eternal Priest and King—“my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name.”

The early kings of Israel, Saul, David, and Solomon, were first anointed to become kings then anointed to be kings. Just as we see evidence of the first in Jesus’s baptism, so we see evidence of the second in the Mount of Transfiguration. {8}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} The Prophet Joseph clarified the meaning of the dove: “He was trusted & it was required at his hands to baptize the son of Man. Who ever did that? who had so great a privilege & glory?—son of God into the waters of baptism & beholding the Holy Ghost—in the sign the form of a dove—with the sign of the dove. instituted before the creation Devil could not come in sign of a dove.—Holy Ghost is a personage in the form of a personage—does not confine itself to form of a dove—but in sign of a dove.” (Diary of Willard Richards, quoted in Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph, [Provo, Utah, BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980], 160). It should be observed that these notes were taken at the time Joseph spoke. The version in the History of the Church, 5:60-61 (and subsequently in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 375) has been made into full sentences by editor B. H. Roberts.
It is instructive to note that the word the Prophet Joseph chose here is “personage,” just as in lecture 5 of Lectures on Faith.

{2} For additional insights into the Savior’s baptism see Acts 10:34-42, 2 Nephi 31:5-12, D&C 93:15-17.

{3} Matthew 17:2-8, Mark 9:4-9, JST Mark 9:3-41. Luke 9: 28 -36, 2 Peter 1:12-19.

{4} For a discussion of that new covenant name see see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 495-517; Second edition, p. 358-73.

{5} Matthew 17:5; Mark 1:11, 9:7; Luke 3:22, 9:35, 20:13; 1 Corinthians 4:17; 2 Timothy 1:2; 2 Peter 1:17; 2 Nephi 31:11; D&C 93:15; Moses 4:2; Joseph Smith—History 1:17.

{6} See the chapters beginning, “Act 2, Scene 9: The Coronation Ceremony in Isaiah 61,” 457-516.

{7} Mowinckel, Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1:118. He defines “election,” as he uses it here, as “of the deliverance from Egypt, of the miracle at the Reed Lake and of the Covenant of Kadesh-Sinai and the victory over the natives after the settlement, in short the election.” Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1:140. Each of the citations in this quote refers to the psalms.

{8} Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-10, 2 Peter 1:16-19. See the chapter, “Act 2, Scene 2: Anointed to Become King” in Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 353-359; Second edition, p. 253-258.
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1 Nephi 11:22-25 {1}

22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things
23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.
24 And after he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him.
25 And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.

In our scripture, “the most joyous to the soul” is bracketed by”the love of God.” Nephi notes that the “love of God” is “the most desirable above all things.” The angel responds, “Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” As one examines other scriptures, it becomes apparent that love and joy are more than just necessary components of each other. Rather, they are equivalents. “Love” as used in this context, and “joy” as the angel expresses it, are simply the same thing. To know joy is to love others and to be worthy of being a recipient of their love—to love and to be loved as the Savior loves, and as he accepts our love.

Our very lives testify that this is true. As we acknowledge the eternal reality of a dear friend, we become more alive. We begin to rediscover the eternal truth of who and what that friend was, is, and will be. That recognition opens a window through which we can get a glimpse of our own eternal Self. The light that emanates from the soul of one’s friend penetrates just a bit of the veil that clouds our memory of our own past eternal self. It reveals a shining new aspect of a forgotten portion of who and what we were before we came into this world. It does that by teaching us who our friend was and how dearly we loved him.

As we re-experience the light that is his personality and goodness, we feel again the love we shared for each other before we came into mortality. The friendship brings more truth, light, and love that blend anew into a unity of joy. It gives new vibrance to our lives and helps us overcome the loneliness of this otherwise dreary world. Thus the friendship makes both beings more complete—more of what and who we were. The friend’s light seems also to extend a beckoning hand even beyond the veil of death that obscures the hope of our eternal future.

The love of God is something within us—it is the ultimate power of our souls. It is within us in something like the way that the light reflected by a mirror is within in the mirror. Our love for God is a gift of the Spirit, and so it is a reflection of his love for us. Mormon said it succinctly: “But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him” (Moroni 7:47).

The prophets of the Book of Mormon equate the word “charity” with an exalting love. It is Nephi’s message, beginning with his statement that the “love of God” is the most desirous of all things; to the sobriety of his poem, “He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh”; to the solemnity of his warning, “wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing.”{2}

No expanse of friendships is documented more thoroughly in the scriptures than those of the Savior himself. He invites us to be his friends. Such a friendship is most sacred—it is neither casual nor nonchalant. There are clearly defined conditions that are prerequisite to the fruits of that friendship—they are the same conditions for our being forever where he is. Notwithstanding the certainty of the laws of redemption, this friendship is not a somber affair, as is testified by Heber C. Kimball:

I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have His Spirit. That is one reason why I know; and another is—the Lord said, through Joseph Smith, “I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.” That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man.{3}

In extending the invitation to us to come to where he is, the Savior seeks to teach us how we can qualify, and help others to qualify, so we may be there. Both the qualifications and the fruit of salvation are, as both Mormon and Peter described, love and joy (Moroni 8:26, 1 Peter 1:7-9).

One of the New Testament’s repeated evidences of Jesus’s divine nature is its many references to his devotion to his friends. The Apostle John refers to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 20:2, 21:7). But John does not imply that it was only he whom Jesus loved. The story of Lazarus is a shining example of others whom Jesus loved very dearly (John 11:5-44). That same love is expressed by Mark, when he tells the story of the rich young man (Mark 10:21).

The Savior understood, and frequently tried to teach, that salvation is a state of unity with the Savior and also with others whom we love. That is the dominant theme in the great intercessory prayer which he delivered the night before he was crucified (John 17:1-26). It was not only the apostles and other church leaders whom the Savior called his friends. The Prophet Joseph explained,

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).

Jesus’s half-brother James understood the importance of this commandment and its implicit relationship with sacral kingship. He wrote, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8 ).

James’s reference to the “royal law” was written in the covenant context of the gospel. The scriptures approach it by two ways, but the destination is the same. Charity describes what one is; the law of consecration describes what one does. The consequence of both is peace, love, and joy. The gospel of John puts that concept in an eternal perspective (John 15:8-12).

The point is, love is not only the criterion by which our lives will be judged, it is also the definition of our eternal Selves. It is the sealing power that will enable us to live eternally with those we love and those who love us in return. Priesthood is necessary to perform the sealing ordinances, but ultimately it is love that is the sealing power that enables us to be a part of the celestial world.
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FOOTNOTES

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

{2} 1 Nephi 11:22-25; 2 Nephi 4:21, 26:30, 31:20.

{3} Journal of Discourses, 4:222.

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1 Nephi 11:24 

24 And after he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him.

We and Nephi approach the story of the Savior’s life from two opposite directions, so that when we read what Nephi wrote, we see it through eyes different from his. The path we take includes our knowledge of the New Testament, especially the gospels. We also know about the Savior’s visit to the Nephites and to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Nephi lived 600 years before Jesus, and had access to none of those writings. We do not know what information he had on the Brass plates, but it is reasonable to suppose that almost all of Nephi’s scriptural understanding of the Savior had to do with the premortal Jehovah presiding over the creation and visiting prophets in this world.

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