Toward a Promised Land
[A Curse Always Comes With a Blessing]
[The Lord has Nephi Overpower His Objectors]
[Nephi Shown How to Build a Ship]
[They Almost are Lost at Sea]
[Prophet Zenos]
[Isaiah Quoted with Small Changes]
[Great and Abominable Church]
[The Holy One of Israel will Unite All Nations]
225 Now, we’ve got the seventeenth chapter, the seventh verse, when the Lord says, you will make a boat—”Thou shalt construct a ship.” He didn’t have time to scout around for the necessary metals. The Lord told him, I can tell you where to get them. We said they were adept in ores—where to find ores, and how to make the bellows.
226 As far as making the trip, we’ll get to the journey here in a second. We talked about not making fire, etc. Now when his brothers saw he was going to build a ship, this was it. They thought, we really have him now; he’ll make a complete fool of himself. Verse 18: “They did not believe that I could build a ship.” Now you’ll notice this. This is where all their pent-up frustrations came out. They rejoiced and they said, We knew you could not construct a ship, ha, ha, ha [paraphrased]. But notice, Nephi himself was bowled over. He first of all said, I don’t know how to make ship. [The Lord said], I’ll show thee. Verse 9: “And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten that I may make tools?” He didn’t expect to make this journey—nobody did. They weren’t going to cross the water. They hadn’t dreamed of that, as we saw in the other verses on the preceding page. They thought they were going out into some strange wilderness where they would establish a community and Nephi would make himself king and ruler over them in the manner of the companions of the cave or of the various sectaries. This had been going on as we saw in the Nahal Hever for thousands of years, doing the usual things. They thought he was going to be another “the Star” or “the Teacher of Righteousness,”—the kinds of various teachers that lead these communities. The Teacher of Righteousness was the one up in Qumran. The Star was the name for the leader at Damascus, etc. So they never dreamed they would have to cross the water. This was something that really bowled them over.
227 1 Nephi 17:20 So they rejoiced over him and thought, we have him now. You’re just as bad as our father, they say in verse 20. Laman and Lemuel are interesting types, you notice—they’re complicated characters. If you could find all the references to them, you would find that they have a case going for them, and they are typical.
227 1 Nephi 117:21,22 “Thou art like unto our father.... [verse 21] Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness.” Now, would you say that they had a legitimate gripe? Well, from their point of view I think they certainly did. They said, And the worst of it is, we didn’t leave a wicked Jerusalem. Those people were keeping the laws; they were religious. They were the official church. The people of Jerusalem were a righteous people; “they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord and all of his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore we know they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them, and hath led us away” into this wilderness when we might have been enjoying ourselves all this time. What’s the point of having all that wealth if we can’t use it?
227,228 1 Nephi 17:33-35; D & C 6:9 Then Nephi gives them a lecture on the past, of what happened and the necessity of being Rechabites—that they should be brought into bondage. Israel, if they didn’t move, would be brought into bondage. And they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds. He [the Lord] would destroy them and He did lead them as the case may be. Now this is a very important statement he makes here, speaking in verse 33 of chapter 17: “Do ye suppose that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise [see, the whole land had been occupied by Arabs, Amorites, etc.—all related and all speaking closely related languages; closely related to Hebrew, too—the Ebla Tablets show that], who were driven out by our fathers, do you suppose that they were righteous?” If they were righteous, they would have been the chosen people, he says. Our fathers were chosen for that time, but they weren’t righteous very long, he says. “Do you suppose that our fathers would have been more choice than they if they had been righteous? I say unto you, Nay.” Then in the verse 35, “Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one [they could have been the chosen people— blood has nothing to do with it]; he that is righteous is favored of God.” And who is righteous in the Book of Mormon? There’s a very simple definition of righteousness in the Book of Mormon, as in the book of Ezekiel. He was righteous because he was repentant, and a person who is not repenting is a person who is not righteous. That’s all there is to it, because we’re all wicked and we all need to repent all the time. “Say nothing but repentance to this generation [See D&C 6:9].” The first word of the Lord to the Nephites was, This is my gospel that the Father calleth upon all men everywhere to repent [See 3 Nephi 11:32]. You have to do that. And as Ezekiel tells us, if a person has been righteous all his life but he’s not repenting any more, he’s wicked. Of course, he may have been wicked all of his life, and if he’s repenting now, he’s righteous. It makes no difference. So, always repent, always keep repenting. We’ll see what repentance is later on; that’s easy enough to get to.
228 1 Nephi 17:36-39 And now we come to that very important doctrine of the promised land—the curse and the blessing. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the FERAKAH is never mentioned without the QELALAH. The FERAKAH (the blessing) always goes with the QELALAH (the cursing). That is the penalty clause that goes with it. If you sign a contract, it gives you a big advantage. You’re not free to break the contract. There’s a penalty if you break it commensurate with the gain you would get if you kept it. There has to be a balance there. You have to be willing to run a risk in the same thing. If you’re going to get the promised land and you’re going to enjoy the benefits of it, you’d better watch out because if you don’t live up to the terms of the contract, you’re going to be “in the soup.” And this is the doctrine here. The earth is adapted to man’s pleasure and convenience. Verse 36: “Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it [we’re supposed to be here]. And he raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked [he’s not going to tolerate the abuse of the earth very long.] And he leadeth away the righteous into precious lands [gives them the best possible land and the wicked he gets rid of] ... and curseth the land [the same land] unto them for their sakes.” The land is precious—it is not to be abused. And he says he curses the land for their sake. The earth is his footstool, and there is a connection between heaven and earth. He rules “high in the heavens .. . and this earth is his footstool,” he says in verse 39 here. So, this is the basic and fundamental principle of the promised land. They’re going to a promised land, you see. This is the understanding on what they are going there for.
228,229 1 Nephi 17:42 He [the Lord] brought them out of the land of Egypt, which wasn’t their land, and they hardened their hearts (they always did), as 1 Nephi 17:42 notes also, “And they did harden their hearts from time to time, and they did revile against Moses, and also against God,” and he led them forth to a land of promise. You notice, the environment does make a difference. I mean, the ambience we live in is conditioned by our own behavior. You’ll always find that.. It’s amazing— the environment reflects the people. So heaven is an ambience. It’s an environment as well as a state of mind as far as that goes, and so is hell. They’re going to create an environment, and this environment is very important. It reflects on us.
229 1 Nephi 17:42; 1 Nephi 19:11 “They were led forth by his matchless power into the land of promise. And now, after all these things, the time has come that they have become wicked [the Jews—after all these things] nearly unto ripeness.” How much longer did they have to last? Three more years, wasn’t it. They [Nephi’s family] had been wandering for eight years, Nephi says, and Jerusalem was destroyed eleven years after they left. So they had three more years to go at Jerusalem—a winding up. And he tells them about Laman and Lemuel. He says, “Ye are murderers in your hearts and ye are like unto them” because you thought of murdering your father, and that’s not very good. And then he tells them, if you don’t hear one voice, you’ll have to hear the other. Notice, he tells us the same thing in the nineteenth chapter. He says, “Ye have seen an angel... and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but you were past feeling [notice you feel the voice]; wherefore [for that reason], he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder.” If they wouldn’t hear the gentle voice, they would get the thunder, and it knocked them out. It scared the daylights out of them. The same thing happens in the 1 Nephi 19:11: “For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power” because they’re not righteous. You have your choice of the voice you’re going to hear. Will it be a good one, or will it be the other one? The voice of thunder will get you moving all right. And so you have the two voices here. Remember, the angel spoke with a voice of thunder, and the earth shook too at the same time
229,230 1 Nephi 17:47 Oh, Nephi’s passion here! He is really worked up in verse 47: “Behold, my soul is rent with anguish because of you. My frame has no strength [and then he’s filled with strength]. Touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God [now he really gets going, and he frightens them]... for God had commanded me that I should build a ship. And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them.” And you know that people under stress do marvelous things. So if you have to do something, you can do it if you’re filled with the Spirit. And you know cases of women who have lifted cars when they’ve fallen on children and things like that—phenomenal strength under certain stress. Nephi felt that way. You’ve had that feeling when you could do almost anything. Besides that, Nephi was an overpowering person. Remember, he had a lot of practice with these fellows, and they were confounded. They durst not do this lest he should wither them. They didn’t know what would happen, “so powerful was the spirit of God.”
230 1 Nephi 17:53 “And ... the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not wither before thee, but I will shock them, saith the Lord.” So there’s an electric force here. What is it? St. Elmo’s Fire—something like that. He gives them a shock, and that’s all; it’s enough to give them a jolt.
231,232 1 Nephi 18:4-8 And then he showed them how to make the ship—how to work the timbers, etc., as we saw. It’s very interesting. It’s the natural way; they’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Of course, they knew about that much. He had seen it done, but doing it was something else. You have to be an expert. It’s inherited, etc. After the manner which the Lord showed him, he made this ship. Then he went often to the mount to pray for instructions, and the Lord showed him great things. And when the brethren saw the ship was finished, they were really impressed. This first-class piece of work had more effect on them, I’m sure, than any sermons by Nephi. He had actually made a ship, and it was a functional ship. It must have been a beauty, and it must have been nice to look at, too. He said [in verse 4] “My brethren beheld that it was good, and that the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine [it was a beautifully built ship]; wherefore, they did humble themselves again before the Lord” That would convince them if nothing else would—that he produced this ship. And so they all went into the ship, everyone according to age (Jacob and Joseph having been born in the wilderness), and they were driven by the wind “for the space of many days.”
233 1 Nephi 18:9 Now this is a character sketch. They liked to have parties; they were great party people, Laman and Lemuel, you know. Well, they say that. They enjoyed the rich things of Jerusalem, their friends, etc. The began “to make themselves merry, insomuch as they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither.” Now, Joseph Smith says that rudeness is a sin. REVERENTIA (reverence) is reverence for anything—there is no reason for being rude. We must hold nobody or nothing in contempt. We must never do that because we don’t know the values of things; we don’t know how to evaluate at all. As the Romans say, “Everything must be RITE, RECTE, PARENT SOLEMNITER—done ritually, rightly, and with proper solemnity.” In Joseph Smith’s famous address to the brethren he said, You’ve been acting like a lot of children. We must be more serious minded about this thing. The things of God are of great import. O man, your mind must be stretched as far as eternity, and you must ponder these things in great seriousness and think about them [paraphrased]. It doesn’t mean you have to be solemn all the time—nobody laughed more than Joseph Smith. But that’s a different thing from vain and empty laughter. As we’re told in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the hollow, silly laughter doesn’t mean anything. Brigham Young gave a talk on that at the dedication of the Salt Lake Theatre. [That kind of laughter] is not good. Rudeness is a sinful sort of thing. It is treating the world disrespectfully.
234 1 Nephi 18:10-15 “And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us [for the way we were behaving].... Wherefore, I, Nephi, began to speak to them with much soberness [now this would make them just madder, wouldn’t it?]; but behold they were angry with me.” What do you expect by now, after all the lecturing they’d been getting from him? This is the last straw as far as they’re concerned: “We will not that our younger brother shall be a ruler over us.” So they tied him up with cords, and tight, so much that he couldn’t move. And the compass ceased to work. Then came the typhoon, and they were driven back for three days. On the fourth day it looked as if they’re going to founder, and were about to be “swallowed up in the depths of the sea,” so they loosed his hands. His wrists and ankles were terribly swollen. But you notice the sons of Ishmael had joined them.
234,235 1 Nephi 18:19-25 “My children did not soften the hearts of my brethren that they would loose me [that didn’t work—then]. When they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the thing which they had done, insomuch that they loosed me.” Then he took the compass, and it worked, and he steered them back. And they landed with all these seeds and their preparations, etc. Remember, most of the plants in most of the countries of the world had been transplanted there in prehistoric (other) times. It’s very interesting, of course, the geography of plants—where you find them and where you don’t. Verse 23: “And it came to pass that... we did arrive at the promised land.” And they set out there. They were certainly seasoned explorers and survivors by this time. They could go through anything. He says here that as they journeyed in the wilderness they noticed all sorts of things. They knew what they could use and what they couldn’t use. They were prepared for this sort of thing. They were literary people, but after eight years of practice they knew a good deal about surviving and didn’t waste any time exploiting and exploring the land.
235 1 Nephi 19:10-16 In chapter 19 he’s talking about his writing on the plates, etc. In verse 10 he talks about the prophets Zenock and Neum, and the prophet Zenos. It’s a very interesting thing. “He spake concerning the three days of darkness ... unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel.” Notice, he’s much taken with the isles of the sea here. Notice right across the page in verse 16, “Yea, then will he remember the isles of the sea” again and “all the people who are of the house of Israel,” the same phrase. Verse 11: “The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice [again you see, either the thunderings or with his gentler voice]. ... And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos.” Now, who was Zenos, the prophet? We have a discourse on Zenos here which we won’t spend much time with, but he’s an interesting character, Zenos or Zenez. His name appears in both forms. Zenos looks like a Greek name, doesn’t it? But it isn’t; with an x it would be. Twelve times the Book of Mormon names the prophet Zenos. There’s no mention of him in the Bible—we have no record of him anywhere, not until around 1906 when he was found. The people of Lehi had brought his writings from Jerusalem, and they were popular, for preachers living hundreds of years after expected people to remember passages of his words—Jacob and Alma. Now how could an important prophet like Zenos, if he ever existed, simply drop out of sight?
236 Helaman 8:19 Then we go into the Book of Mormon Zenos who prophesies “in the midst of the congregations.” That’s the expression used here in the Book of Mormon, “in the midst of the congregations.” Like the Old World Zenez, the Book of Mormon Zenos is conscious of being one of the line of prophets, all of whom have testified of the Messiah. Helaman tells us that in chapter 8, verse 19. “And after Zenez had spoken these things he awoke and his spirit returned to him [remember that we are talking about the newly discovered book of Zenez, 1893] and he remembered not what he had said and seen. Then Zenez went forth and preached to the people, saying: ‘If such is to be the rest of the righteous after they have left this life [this shows that much of the vision is missing], it behooves them to die to the things of this corruptible world, that they may not behold its sins.’ And after he had said these things, Zenez died and slept with his fathers.”
236 But notice, [Zenos] gave them a regular Book of Mormon sermon. It sounds like New Testament or Dead Sea Scrolls. He said, “If such is to be the rest of the righteous after they have left this life, it behooves them to die unto things of this corruptible world, that they may not behold its sins” before he died. So this Zenos is a real person. And the interesting thing about it, which comes in later, he prophesies about the vineyard. He compares Israel with a vineyard, which of course the fifth chapter of Jacob does. And Jacob says he’s quoting Zenos when he tells it, so here we have a beautiful connection between Zenos and Zenez. This one is from Since Cumorah.
236 1 Nephi 19:12 This is a marvelous thing. Look at this twelfth verse here. “And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos [way back there in the time of the Judges]. And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles [that’s an odd thing to say] of the sea shall be wrought upon by the spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers.”
237,238 1 Nephi 19:13-20 “And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel”. They “have despised the Holy One of Israel” They will be hated among all nations as a result, despised for despising Him. , Yea, then will he remember the aisles of the sea; yea, and all the [scattered] people who are of the house of Israel, will I gather in, saith the Lord, according to the words of the prophet Zenos, from the four quarters of the earth. Yea, and all the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord. ... I speak unto all the House of Israel.” Again, Nephi’s great fervor and passion—notice his empathy here in verse 20: “I have great workings of the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak, for those who are at Jerusalem; for had not the Lord been merciful, to show unto me concerning them, even as he had the prophets of old, I should have perished also.”
238 1 Nephi 19:23 And they knew these things concerning this because they were written on the Brass Plates. “I did read many things unto them” that they might know what had happened in the past. And then this important statement in verse 23: “And I did read many things unto them that were written in the book of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.” And then what follows are two chapters quoted right from Isaiah, but not word for word. In this book I just read from we have a section on Isaiah. We won’t need to linger on it now.
238 Toward the close of his book, Nephi quotes two chapters (48 and 49) of Isaiah in full. This would indeed be a daring thing for a forger to do. Imagine, to include two whole pages, two whole chapters of the Bible in an attempt to fool the Bible-reading public. Well, you’re not going to get away with that. Everybody would recognize that for what it was, wouldn’t they, right off? If the author of the Book of Mormon was an imposter, his attempts to deceive are prodigiously artless here. But the Book of Mormon follows the language of the King James Bible only as far as the latter conveys the correct meaning of the original. So far is Nephi’s translation from being a slavish repetition of our Bible that there is hardly a single verse that is identical in the two translations. Most of the changes are minor, but they are there and they are important because we have the Septuagint to check them. And so we’ve given a number of sections the way they’re quoted in the Book of Mormon in Isaiah and in the Septuagint, and the Book of Mormon is closest to the Septuagint, which is actually over a thousand years older than the Hebrew text, the Masoretic text. That was until the first discovery came along with the Serek Scroll at Qumran was a complete text of Isaiah, a thousand years older than any Hebrew text of Isaiah known before. Then we could compare it and see how well it had survived and how well it has been copied. Miraculously well. There are 3,000 different readings, but they’re small readings— different punctuation, ways of expressing things, endings, etc., They are there; it’s not the same thing. It’s the same as the way it’s quoted here. Almost every verse has little changes in it. There are some verses that have some important changes, and they’re significant ones.
239 1 Nephi 19:23 Notice: “I did liken all scriptures unto us that it might be for our profit and learning” because Isaiah’s talking to them as well as he’s talking to us. Remember, we talked about the recurrent scenario, and that’s what we have here—the key to the Book of Mormon. Their history is really our history. We are all taking the same standard test, talking the same terms, etc. The props change, the scene changes, the background changes, the sets and the technology change—but the issues are always the same. It’s a test. We’re all trying to qualify for the same job, the same future employment—to rule and reign in the House of Israel. So it applies to us just as much as it does to them. That’s why Isaiah is so alive today. He said he knew they were very treacherous. He just bawls Israel out, etc.
239 1 Nephi 22:1-4 I’m going to skip these two chapters of Isaiah. Let’s come to chapter 22, when the brethren ask him what these things mean that Isaiah talks about. Notice they say in 1 Nephi 22:1, “What meaneth these things which ye have read?” Aren’t they just spiritual? We’re not going to be bound by them; these are just spiritual. This is always the way to weasel out of a situation. This is just spiritual. I’ll just pay a spiritual tithe; that’s the important thing. He says, No, they’re both. In the second verse he says, “by the spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh [it will be literal]. Wherefore, the things of which I have [spoken and] read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; for it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations [notice a complicated ethnic picture too].... And they are scattered to and fro on the islands of the sea.” As I was saying about Eldad ha-Dani, that includes the Ten Tribes, you see. Well, they had already been scattered. They were scattered in the earlier times, 720 [B.C.] when Israel fell to the Assyrians. But then the rest of them are all scattered. They continue.
239 1 Nephi 22:5,6 “And also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded [confounded means mixed up together with other people], because of the Holy One of Israel; for against him will they harden their hearts; wherefore they shall be scattered with all nations and shall be hated of all men.” Well, you know what happened. You know about the Holocaust and how many times that sort of thing has happened. Two thousand years of that—no people ever had to suffer like that. Then they will be nursed by the Gentiles [verse 6] “Their daughters have been carried upon their shoulders” and given their support. It’s a very interesting thing. When it speaks of their daughters, he says they’re speaking of temporal things. Now the interesting thing is that these Jewish girls married princes, kings, and dukes all over. They’re such fascinating women, as you know. They’re marvelous. There’s something about not just a Jewish mama, but a Jewish girl. They have such intelligence, such verve, such dash, such industry.
240 1 Nephi 22:6-12 “It meaneth us in the days to come [so there are specific references here], and also all our brethren who are of the house of Israel.” And there shall be “a mighty nation among the Gentiles upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be scattered. And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles [it’s likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles]. And [the Lord] is going to keep the promise to Abraham that “in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.” And they can’t be blessed [without help] because they can’t save themselves. You remember, they’re supposed to be reduced to almost nothing at all. They will not survive at all, chapter 25 of Matthew says, “unless the time is cut short in righteousness.” There would be none of them left. They didn’t have a chance if the Lord didn’t intervene, and so he says they “cannot be blessed unless he shall make bare his arm in the eyes of the nations [He shall intervene with force in the eyes of the nations]. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations.” This is what’s going on here. When everything is going downhill, men do not have control. They cannot reverse the trend— God must show his arm then. And then “he will bring them again out of captivity [no one knows who they are, notice] and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance [plural—not just Israel, the lands of their inheritance]; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness.” Who knows where they are? So don’t argue about where the Ten Tribes are.
240,241 1 Nephi 22:13,14 As to the abominable church which has rule over the whole earth: Elsewhere it says that, and here it says, “the whore of all the earth.” Now no one church beguiles the whole world, the whole earth. This, as we’ve seen, is the collective, as far as that goes. Verse 14: “And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another [well, of course the Arabs fight each other, the European nations fight each other, everybody fights each other]. ... All that fight against Zion shall be destroyed.” Now the point is, Zion is not an achievement. Zion is a project here, and there is no Zion. Zion is not on the earth now. We do not have one heart and one mind and no poor among us. That’s far from the case. And, there are those who oppose it. Verse 14: “And all that fight against Zion shall be destroyed,” the great and abominable and this raging hostility against the Church.
241 1 Nephi 22:16-18 And then comes the first vision. Verse 16: “For the time soon cometh [after that] that the fulness of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon all the children of men; for he will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous. Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power [and we don’t know why, but here he talks about something], even if it so be that the fullness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire.” He doesn’t refer to the sword at all in the Book of Mormon. How many times? About twenty—eight times he refers to the destruction, and it is always by fire, and in these terms. “Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire.” What’s that? A counter fire. What is it? Will the wicked destroy each other by fire and thus save the righteous? “Behold, my brethren, I say unto you these things must shortly come.” Shortly after Nephi speaking? No. Shortly after the thing described in the verse 8 above here, where he says, “And after our seed is scattered, the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles.” Then, you see. Shortly after that time will come “fire, and a vapor of smoke must come; and it must needs be upon the face of this earth [see, we find no mention of the sword here; it’s covered with a vapor of smoke]; and it cometh unto men according to the flesh [I’m not talking about a spiritual fire]. If it so be that they will harden their hearts against the Holy One of Israel.”
241,242 1 Nephi 22:19-23 This is an unimaginable situation. How could any smoke cover the whole earth? What kind of a thing would that be? Wars were very well contained up until now; this is something else. And now the whole seas incarnadine are polluted. Verse 19: “For behold, the righteous shall not perish.” Now this is the only possibl