1 Nephi 13, part 2 (verses 20-42)

I have always thought of this chapter as the Bible Chapter, for reasons that will soon be made clear. In this (second half of the) chapter, the angel spirit guide shows Nephi a vision of the origin of the Bible and its corruption by the Great and Abominable Church. Which is something we talk about a lot as Mormons, I think. I always find it interesting that we focus so much on the intentional corruption of the Bible, as if there were hundreds of shifty-eyed monks who did nothing all day but erase crucial words from Isaiah and cloak the words of Paul in dense symbolism. That's what the angel focuses on in this vision, as well, with the phrasings like "take out" and "keep back.". However, I like to think that not all that was lost from the Bible was discarded intentionally, but rather .... lost, in the literal sense of the word. As in, by accident. Over the course of thousands of years, mistranslation, semantic shift, etc. are bound to happen. I wish we would give the Catholic Church more credit for preserving what we have instead of dissing them for messing it up. Just a thought.

One more potentially controversial idea. This chapter also talks about the motivation behind the corruption of the Bible, that the representatives of the Whore of All the Earth did so intentionally because they wanted to "blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men" Here is my thought, although it may be overly kind, I don't know. So remember what I said in the previous post about Columbus and the Founding Fathers being used for righteous purposes even though they weren't very righteous guys? That allows for the idea that the Spirit can work through imperfect vessels without them really understanding what is going on. Is it possible that those people who messed up the Bible and threw out the old covenants didn't do it because they were trying to build Satan's kingdom on earth, but rather because they thought they were doing the right thing and got confused? Maybe this is what really happened more often than not, and we just don't talk about it When I taught about the Apostasy as a missionary, we focused a lot on the idea that good people without the Priesthood make mistakes. If we had tried to tell Hungarians that all non-Mormon Christians were shifty-eyed Satanists who throughout the ages had tried their best to destroy Jesus and everything He stood for, we would have had even less success than we already weren't having. Again, just a thought, I'm open to correction. Good thing nobody reads this. And I really mean nobody.

Something I often said to fellow missionaries who trashed the Catholic Church too much was, "YOU try running a church without the Priesthood! See how far you get!"

It gets a little more upbeat around verse 30 when the angel spirit guide reassures Nephi that God won't allow the Bible-thumping Gentiles to completely destroy his descendants. You know, not utterly. Just mostly. He also points out that He won't allow the Gentiles to remain forever in their state of ignorance, which is great news because I think the Puritan life in the 1600s is seriously some of the most depressing stuff I have ever read about. He describes the Gentiles as "stumbling exceedingly," which is a fantastic image, I think. I much prefer the image of the Puritans stumbling through the dark rather than flipping off the lights, know what I mean? it implies that they, like the Lamanites, weren't so much rejecting everything good but rather living as best they could in relation to what they knew, which wasn't quite enough. Poor Puritans. Maybe I can even feel sorry for them.

Next, we have the Restoration! Yay! This version of it focuses almost entirely on the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon, which given the emphasis on the Bible earlier on in the chapter, makes a whole lot of sense. the angel spirit guide says that those who we will help to bring forth the new Zion will be very blessed.

"And ^ablessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my ^bZion at that day, for they shall have the ^cgift and the ^dpower of the Holy Ghost," it reads. So it's not you, and it's not them. It's the Holy Ghost that makes the difference. I like that. It's compassionate. At the end of this chapter, angel spirit guide reminds Nephi that, after all the negative vibes we were getting in the last few chapters, there is still one God and on Shepherd over all the Earth, and everything is going to work out OK. Good, because I was getting sad.

1 Nephi 13, part 1 (verses 1-19)

1 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms.

2 And the angel said unto me: What beholdest thou? And I said: I behold many ^anations and kingdoms.

Is it just me, or do these first two verses sound vaguely Dr. Seuss-ish?

And here we have it, Major Book of Mormon Controversy No. 1!!!!!!!!!! The Great and Abominable Church, the Whore of All the Earth (Ouch). So the big discussion amongst members of the Church, or as I like to think of it, Bruce R. McConkie vs. Everyone, is: Which church is it? I think a better question might be: is it meant to be any one specific church?

Here is what Nephi says about this church:

1. It slays the Saints of God.

2. It tortures them and binds them down and yokes them with an iron yoke and brings them into captivity. It does not slice or dice them, however. What is with the intoxicating rhythm of this chapter? The whole thing sounds like a freaky Hop on Pop.

3. The Devil is the founder of it.

4. The church desires gold, silver, silks, fine clothing, and harlots.

5. They destroy the Saints for the praise of the world.

My instinct tells me that just as the Saints of God, in my humble opinion, are not limited only to those who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but rather to all those who live righteous lives and accept Christ as the Savior of the world, so too are those who fight against the Church not under one umbrella organization, but rather found anywhere. I would wager that some of the whores of all the earth are even found in this very church. Mormons are not immune to wickedness and pride and vanity and such. In fact sometimes we see the worst of it.

That is a very uncomfortable thought, I think, but I also think it's a true one.

And then, in the middle of this charming description of the worst church ever, we have a reference to Christopher Columbus! I'm just glad I didn't end up in that chapter. What a downer.

I have always kinda had issues with the whole "Christopher Columbus being inspired" thing. Not that I doubt it. I mean it's in the Book of Mormon pretty clearly, it must be true. But based on the (admittedly highly revisionist) history I've read about Columbus, he doesn't seem like a very nice guy. In fact, quite often he sounds like a world-class (if you'll pardon the pun) jerk. I guess on the one hand, I should be grateful that Heavenly Father is willing to use even the most flawed among us to accomplish His purposes. I suppose I just don't like the fact that many American Mormons use these few verses in the Book of Mormon to justify deifying Columbus and refusing to believe anything bad that historians might say about him. Ditto with the Founding Fathers. I know I will have to meet them to be 100% sure, but I think some of them were probably pricks. But God worked through them anyway, just like He can work through me, if I let Him.

Also, according to Nephi, the Nephites resembled the British colonists on some level. So they were short and pale and had bad teeth, presumably? At least they were humble, right?

Kidding, Nephi, if you're reading this. You know I kid.