LeGrand L. Baker

1 Nephi 15:1-6 

1 And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the spirit, and seen all these things, I returned to the tent of my father.
2 And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them.
3 For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought.
4 And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men.
5 And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.

There is an apparent incongruence about Nephi’s words that is not only real but actually typical. He has just come down from a high mountain where he has talked with God and seen things that were too marvelous for his words. Yet his response is to feel deep sorrow and to be “overcome because of my afflictions.” Actually, this kind of conflict is what one would expect of a prophet who has experienced love and truth. Truth—knowing reality in sacred time—floods his intellect, but love—knowing God and his children in sacred time—is his dominant emotion. Hence the dissonance that brings the tears.

When one knows truth and knows the exalting power it has upon the human soul, then one’s primary desire is to share truth so that it may exalt others as well. The joy of doing so is an eternal fulfillment, but the sorrow of watching them turn their back on both the truth and the joy it brings is a devastating sorrow. So, while still basking in the light of the revelation he had just received, Nephi could remember, “I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.” Similarly, the Three Nephites were warned that they would experience the same dichotomy, and with the same cause (3 Nephi 28:9).

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1 Nephi 15:1  

1. And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the spirit, and seen all these things, I returned to the tent of my father.

It may be true that there is almost nothing more difficult for earth-bound people to comprehend than the power of God to communicate by traveling through time and space, but there are many examples of people who have done it. The following are examples of people who were, like Nephi, “carried away,” either to a high mountain or to the throne of God. That throne is in the Holy of Holies of the temple in Kolob. In short, they go a very great distance, but rarely even mention the trip.{1}

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FOOTNOTE

{1} Examples are Isaiah 6:1;Ezekiel 1:3-4 and 26, 40:2-3; 2 Corinthians 12:2-6; Revelation 1:9-13, 21:9-10;1 Nephi 1:6-8, 11:1; Moses 1:1-2.

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1 Nephi 14:27  

27. And I, Nephi, heard and bear record, that the name of the apostle of the Lamb was John, according to the word of the angel.

When the Prophet Joseph asked the Lord about some symbolic meanings in the Book of Revelation, he received information about John himself:

14 Q. What are we to understand by the little book that was eaten by John, as mentioned in the 10th chapter of Revelation?
A. We are to understand that it was a mission, and an ordinance, for him to gather the tribes of Israel; behold, this is Elias, who, as it is written, must come and restore all things.

9 Q. What are we to understand by the angel ascending from the east, Revelation 7th chapter and 2nd verse?
A. We are to understand that the angel ascending from the east is he to whom is given the seal of the living God over the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, he crieth unto the four angels having the everlasting gospel, saying: Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And, if you will receive it, this is Elias that was to come to gather together the tribes of Israel and restore all things (D&C 77:14, 9).

It appears that John is the Elias in both of these verses, and that the book John received (like the book Lehi read) was the account of his own mission, and that his receiving that book was an ordinance that assured his ability to fulfil of that mission. If that is correct, then the Book of Revelation is a brief description of the contents of the book John read—information given to him about what his own mission had been, was then, and would be until after the end when there “should be time no longer” (Revelation 10:6).

John, who was the last living apostle of the meridian of time, was therefore the senior apostle and the last living President of the Church. Since he could not pass on his administrative responsibilities to a successor for almost 2000 years, until Joseph Smith’s time, it appears that John’s mission was to look after things in the interim. Having John be responsible was probably necessary because, even though the whole world was in apostasy, the Lord would not leave the world without the directing hand of mortal (even if translated) men who held the sealing powers of the priesthood. Apparently John was responsible for the things on the European front, that would include bringing Europe through the apostasy and preparing its people for the restoration, while the Three Nephites may have been responsible for doing essentially the same thing in America.

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1 Nephi 13:36-37 

36 And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation.
37 And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.

These verses contain the promise that the fulness of the gospel will be written on the gold plates and that they will be a keystone in the restoration performed by the Prophet Joseph. The verses are profoundly beautiful and deeply encoded, following the full sequence of the ancient Israelite temple drama. It lasted eight days.

Days 1, 2, and 3 were devoted to the beginning acts of the drama: the Council in Heaven, creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden, receiving priesthood and kinship authority, and finally the symbolic destruction of Jerusalem and death of the king.

During days 4, 5, and 6, while the king remained in the world of the dead, the drama focused on the life and Atonement of the Savior; then on his mission among the dead, and finally on his resurrection.

Day 7, Jehovah (represented by the Ark of the Covenant) and the rescued king, emerged from the Underworld, and joined by the people in a grand procession around the city, then into Solomon’s Temple to celebrate the coronation of the king.

Day 8, the festival concluded with a day of sacrificing, feasting, rejoicing, and celebration, representing the fulfillment of Jehovah’s covenants and his millennial reign.{1}

The central part of that chronology is the three days that celebrated the Savior’s Atonement. That drama is the subject of our book, Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord?
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FOOTNOTE

{1} The sequence suggested here is my own. Others see it differently. A. M. Hocart suggests the sequence was the same as the seven days of creation in Genesis. Kingship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 202.

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1 Nephi 13:17  

17. And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.

Nephi’s description of the Revolutionary War is not at all the sort of thing the Prophet Joseph or any of his contemporary Americans would have written. Joseph, who was a young man when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died, would have understood the American Revolution as a local land war.

For Americans the Revolution was mostly a land war, and would have been described by them as such. America’s navy consisted almost entirely of John Paul Jones doing some privateering off the coast of Europe and a few blockade runners on this side of the ocean trying to get into and out of American ports. The French admiral de Grass was instrumental in scaring the English navy away from Yorktown so Washington could defeat Cornwallis, but there was no actual naval engagement there.

However, that is only a part of the story. The American Revolution was the first real “world war.” What began as a skirmish in Massachusetts escalated all out of proportion. And if it had not have done so, America would never have become free. France joined America to get even with England and with the hope of absorbing the American colonies after the English lost them. Spain came into the war because France pulled her and, reluctant as she was, she had little choice. Holland (the “money bags” of the world at that time) came in because England was belligerent. Russia came in just as reluctantly, and for about the same reason.

These nations, including England, had long since divided the rest of the non-European world among themselves. Their colonies were literally scattered all over the globe, and when the mother countries went to war, so did their colonies. The result was that England found herself fighting almost all of the greatest colonial powers in Europe and fighting them all over the world. England had the world’s greatest navy, but it was not greater than the combined navies of America’s allies. For England it was a sea rather than a land war, and a devastatingly costly one at that.

Had it not been a “world war” with England’s military and economic resources spread all over the world fighting to retain her colonies, she could have concentrated all her might against the American colonies, and the United States never could have won independence. Nevertheless, even today (as in Joseph Smith’s day), Americans think of our Revelation as being only our war, fought on American soil to gain American independence.

Nephi described the American Revolutionary War that secured the environment into which the gospel could be restored as a battle that took place on the seas rather then a struggle that took place in only the thirteen colonies. In that, Nephi’s description is a much more accurate description than Joseph Smith or his American contemporaries could have been expected to write. This is one more of those little evidences that Joseph was not the original author of the Book of Mormon.

To secure their liberties, the Americans fought the American Revolution (just as Nephi had foreseen) established the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and began to spread over most of North America.

As America grew in size, its westerners worked out the final bugs in the system so that there came to be greater political, economic, and religious freedom there than ever before in recorded history. It had taken almost 2,000 years to create a perfect environment in which Joseph Smith could restore the fulness of the gospel, and then Brigham Young could lead the Saints to the safety of the Rocky Mountains.

Some historians have seen that pattern and have argued that Joseph Smith was simply a product of the times in which he lived, but from the point of view of Latter-day Saints, the environment had been carefully shaped so the Prophet Joseph could come and do his work. Looking at the past 2000 years from that prospective, even though there have been some very ugly times, in the big picture we see one of the great miracles of human history.

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1 Nephi 16:19-22 

19 And it came to pass that we did return without food to our families, and being much fatigued, because of their journeying, they did suffer much for the want of food.
20 And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael did begin to murmur exceedingly, because of their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness; and also my father began to murmur against the Lord his God; yea, and they were all exceedingly sorrowful, even that they did murmur against the Lord.
21 Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, having been afflicted with my brethren because of the loss of my bow, and their bows having lost their springs, it began to be exceedingly difficult, yea, insomuch that we could obtain no food.
22 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren, because they had hardened their hearts again, even unto complaining against the Lord their God.

Writing an autobiography is an exceedingly difficult task. When we begin, there is a tangle of motives and perspectives with which he must deal. Some people write to “set the record straight,” to tell one’s own story, to show how things came to be—but always from hindsight, knowing how the story ends. It is also a daunting task. If we are honest, if we do not deliberately seek to portray ourselves as something we are not, writing can be a soul-wrenching experience, as we remove the facades and expose our inner Self for everyone to see. Nephi’s task was complicated beyond that because what he was writing was autobiographical but not actually an autobiography. He and his family spent eight years on a trail that could have taken them as little as four months. The Hiltons have calculated,

It is 2,156 miles from Jerusalem to Dollar, Oman/Bountiful. This is less than a four-month journey. Lehi’s group took eight years to do it. Where were they camped for the seven years and eight months that remained?{1}

No doubt, Lehi and his family had spent most of that time either in camp or among the people who lived in the cities, but Nephi tells us almost nothing about those times. His intent was only to write “the things of God” (1 Nephi 6:3-6, 2 Nephi 5:29-34). He does that by avoiding the events that do not give context to the principles he wishes to teach. Notwithstanding his care in doing that, we are often inclined to read First Nephi as a travel narrative, rather than a doctrinal essay.

Nephi was a prophet who had been commissioned by God to write holy scripture. He knew that, as do we, but it is easy for his readers to lose sight of his intent when we come across stories like this one about the discontent of his brothers and brothers-in-law, and even the discouragement of his father. He seems to be making himself the hero of his own story when he writes, “I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren,” but those words can more accurately be read as an abbreviated memory of his intense sorrow and frustration. The Lord had promised him that his posterity would inhabit a new world. The conclusion of the journey was not the issue because, in his mind at least, it was not in doubt. What was in doubt was the salvation of his brothers’ souls through the exercise of their agency. The issue was whether they world obey God and be blessed accordingly.
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FOOTNOTE

{1} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969), 32.
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