Today’s entry is just a quick blurb and not at all exhaustive. I share much more in my ongoing YouTube playlist titled “Book of Mormon Spotlights.” In my studies, I noticed a hierarchy of Gentiles mentioned in various places in the Book of Mormon, but mostly within the first two books of Nephi. They are:
1. Mother Gentiles 2. Gentiles 3. Gentiles who repent 4. Gentile Kings and Queens
Consider the following and feel free to make any corrections. Nephi wrote about the Mother Gentiles (1 Nephi 13:17) who would wage war against those Gentiles (1 Nephi 13:12-16) who wanted a better life and were brought to America by the power of the Lord. In the Old Testament, the northern kingdom of Israel, also known as Ephraim was destroyed by Assyria and the people were dispersed. They assimilated into gentile nations, but dispersed Ephraim was predicted to emerge in the last days to serve as “nursing fathers” and “nursing mothers” (2 Nephi 10:9) to the remnant of the House of Israel that is restored in the end-time. These “kings” and “queens” who are also referred to as these nursing fathers and nursing mothers by Nephi and also referred to as “foster fathers” and “nursing mothers” by Isaiah will be among those Gentles who repent and become covenant people of the Lord (2 Nephi 30:2) because as many of the Gentiles as repent are the covenant people of the Lord;
Now lets fast forward to Joseph Smith’s day. Joseph Smith knew that he and the converted saints were those Gentiles (D&C 109:60) that Nephi prophesied about – and that the Book of Mormon would come by “way of the Gentile” (Title Page) – should become the Gentile Kings and Queens because of Ephraim’s birthright. This refers to spiritual kings and queens and not political kings and queens. There are NO kings and queens on the Earth who care about Zion. They – meaning world leaders and leaders of nations – love Babylon and all her riches and power and don’t care at all about Zion.
In order to understand this concept better, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 48 where Jacob blesses his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh. Remember that Ephraim was the younger brother who was given the birthright blessing of the first-born, which traditionally would have been Manasseh’s birthright. Ephraim was blessed to become a greater nation than Manasseh and that the descendants of Ephraim would become a “multitude of nations.”
Latter-day Ephraim has the birthright duty to bring the fullness of the gospel to his brother, Latter-day Manasseh, and also his other brethren of the House of Israel (D&C 103:1). Those of us who have been through the temple know that we have been anointed to become kings and queens but that we will not see this realized except through our faithfulness. How do we know what serving as kings and queens involves unless we learn how the scriptures define those roles and then begin emulating those who had those roles? How can we expect to be exalted as those kings and queens IF we never serve or know how to serve, using the role models provided in the scriptures of what those kings and queens actually did? One example would be Ammon, son of King Mosiah who selflessly declined becoming the next political king and instead became a spiritual king to serve his heathen brothers and sisters, the Lamanites in the form of a lowly servant to the vassal king Lamoni.
You get the idea. Then Jesus Christ gives a sequence of events in 3 Nephi chapter 21, which are already underway. But there are still a number of great events which I consider will be the great and marvelous work (although it began with Joseph Smith). But pay attention to how many times Jesus Christ declared, “…and then shall…” and it will become clear just how much is yet to happen. But these events will be sequential. 3 Nephi chapter 21 is a great chapter to study deeply.
Most Latter-day Saints probably think they’re somewhere along the iron rod. Very few, if any, have ever considered that they themselves are the ones pointing their fingers in derision and self importance from that building so high up in the air.
I have begun uploading bite-sized commentaries (+/- 2 minutes each) to my YouTube channel for this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum for those who are looking for unique insights from the Book of Mormon and to deepen their personal relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.
I have read the Book of Mormon well over one hundred times and I’ve also made an intensive study of its many revelations, truths, and principles. My videos are not strictly following the curriculum, but rather complementing them. They are my personal insights which I have gained over the last forty or fifty years of my life. You can watch the first two and then click the link to my growing playlist to follow along on YouTube as I try to upload one or more per day:
Joseph Smith was fond of the German translation of the Bible.
“I have an old edition of the New Testament in the Latin, Hebrew, German and Greek languages. I have been reading the German, and find it to be the most [nearly] correct translation, and to correspond nearest to the revelations which God has given to me for the last fourteen years” – History of the Church 6:307.
“The old German translators are the most nearly correct — most honest of any of the translators; and therefore I get testimony to bear me out in the revelations that I have preached for the last fourteen years” – History of the Church 6:364.
In the German Lutheran Bible, the names of the two sons of Zebedee are Jacob and John. In the King James Bible, the translators oddly changed the name of Jacob to James. But this is beside the point…or maybe it helps to make my point. I served my mission in Germany and became fluent in the language and as such, I collected a number of German Bibles. I will now quote an interesting passage from the Lutheran Bible:
Epheser 6:12 Denn wir haben nicht mit Fleisch und Blut zu kämpfen, sondern mit Fürsten und Gewaltigen, nämlich mit den Herren der Welt, die in der Finsternis dieser Welt herrschen, mit den bösen Geistern unter dem Himmel.
Translated into English, it reads:
Ephesians 6:12 For we do not battle with flesh and blood, but rather with rulers and mighty ones, namely with the lords of this world who rule in the darkness of this world with the evil spirits under heaven.
Lord is defined as someone or something having power, authority, or influence like a landlord, a warlord, or even a druglord.
That is how I personally render the translation and it provides interesting context in light of the distorted translation rendered by the King James Version:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
An earlier English translation than the 1611 KJV, namely the Geneva Bible in 1587, renders the translation so:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the worldly gouernours, the princes of the darkenesse of this worlde, against spirituall wickednesses, which are in ye hie places.”
An even earlier translation, the Bishops’ Bible of 1568 renders it similarly:
“For we wrastle not agaynst blood & flesshe: but agaynst rule, agaynst power, agaynst worldly gouernours of the darknesse of this worlde, agaynst spirituall craftynesse in heauenly places.”
My point is that we are being warned against what the Book of Mormon calls secret combinations which are perpetrated by people who hold high offices. This carries many implications which alone could fill a book. Secret combinations have existed in the church and in governments throughout history since the days of Adam. Secret combinations murdered Abel. Secret combinations murdered the Son of God, even Jesus Christ. Secret combinations also murdered Joseph Smith. They were perpetrated by the “lords” and by the “rulers” of this world. I have thought about writing my own commentary on the Book of Mormon addressing things which I have not yet seen written, but I have not felt impressed by the Spirit to do it.
Some commentaries are by prominent men who follow favorable yet trite and banal narratives. This does the membership a disservice and keeps them asleep when we are commanded in Ether chapter 8 to awake to a sense of “your” awful situation because of the secret combination that shall be among “you” (Ether 8:24). There is a duality about the last days believing Gentiles (goyim) and Ephraimites implied by Book of Mormon prophet-authors. Isaiah also warned about the Drunkards of Ephraim. Incidentally, relatively few people have read, or for that matter, admitted to reading my free book By A Thread which is a very easy read at barely 170 pages. How would I be able to persuade anyone to read a book that might easily be between 700 to 1,000 pages?
But if I could summarize succinctly what I might have written about in my giant tome, it would be this: The Book of Mormon teaches you two paramount lessons: how to seek Christ (and behold Him face to face) AND how to identify and avoid modern “Gadiantons” and the “Nephites” who support them. If this interests you, then my free book By A Thread is a good start. But it’s directed towards disciples of Jesus Christ who hunger and thirst after HIM. It is probably too dry/tedious for anyone else.
As gospel doctrine teacher where I attend church, I have been expounding on the Old Testament and now recently the New Testament over the last year or two in Sunday School and striving to build upon a certain theme, continually helping those who attend to aggregate information line upon line and precept upon precept using figures like Noah, Job, and others to shed light on what I probably consider not only the most important saying of Jesus Christ, but also a commandment: to be perfect without delay. This has involved teaching repetitively two concepts: idolatry and repentance. The Old Testament provided a plethora of examples to illustrate both.
In my lifetime, I have heard so many friends say that it’s impossible to be perfect in this life. But what they really mean is it’s impossible to be flawless. The way most people use the word perfect, they really mean to say without fault. And yet we readily use the word perfect to describe a sunny day, an article of clothing, or even a gift. We throw the word around with hyperbolic flair all the time: “It’s perfect!”
Jesus Christ used this word differently when He summarized a powerful sermon: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).” After His resurrection, He visited the people in the Book of Mormon and taught them essentially the same sermon and summarized it with a small difference: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect (3 Nephi 12:48).” Therefore many Latter-day Saints believe they will only be able to become perfect after they resurrect because of this modification and so this important sermon then gets pushed into the proverbial back burner to be given little to no more thought.
The New Testament’s usage of the word perfect was translated from the Greek word teleios which means complete and refers to a person’s integrity and maturity. The Old Testament’s usage of perfect was translated from the Hebrew word tam which means complete and also blameless. Consider the following scripture:
Job 1:8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
God describes Job in no uncertain terms: perfect, upright, etc. How could he have been the only one on Earth to be so highly regarded? Where were the patriarchs? Did Job live after Abraham? He did not have a covenant like Noah, Abraham, or Moses did. He was not under a law like the Israelites were. He was a random guy in the Old Testament from the land of Uz and yet God said he was perfect and God is not a liar. Because of Job and others in the scriptures that were considered perfect, blameless, etc, it is reasonable to conclude that any of us can be perfect in this life, too. And because Job was perfect, he had Satan’s and God’s attention. This resulted in Job not only suffering greatly because of Satan, but he was also given a personal tour of the universe by God, and more importantly developing a personal relationship with God.
I would like to postulate the following: They who are perfect in God’s eyes are they who have reached the full degree of development that God expects of them at any given time. And as they grow in the light and as their understanding increases, so does His expectation of their degree of development. Where much is given, much is required! Are we doing everything to our best ability that we understand God expects of us? We will not be able to claim ignorance while our scriptures collect dust on our shelves either. The following image is an oversimplified bar graph of Job’s development with relation to God’s expectation:
In the New Testament, a certain young ruler who was rich approached Jesus Christ, calling Him Good Master, and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus essentially told him that he needed to keep all the commandments to which the young man said he had done from his youth up to that point. Jesus told him that he yet lacked one thing: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me (Matthew 19:21).” If this young man had done so, he would have become perfect as Jesus declared or in other words, complete and blameless and no doubt Jesus would have taught him more things and expected more things of him. Instead the young man went away sorrowful because his heart was set upon his worldly treasures. A crude bar graph of his life would look something like the following:
He was so close yet so far! He had knelt before Jesus and Jesus had loved him, but did this young ruler really believe that Jesus was the Son of God or did he consider Jesus to be just another rabbi? So Jesus challenged him asking why he called Him good. Likewise, do we really believe Jesus Christ’s sayings? Do we really believe that He expects us to be meek, to refrain from being angry with a brother, to be reconciled with others before we bring our offerings to the altar and all the other things He commanded us to be and do in His sermon? Was His injunction to “be ye therefore perfect” just an arbitrary suggestion or is it a very real and paramount expectation? What would a bar graph look like for any of us today?
Are we slothful in our discipleship? Are we striving to learn everything that proceeded from Jesus Christ’s mouth and to do all that He said to do and to become all that He said to become? Are we aligning ourselves with ALL that we understand that God expects of us? If we are not aligned with Him, we will inevitably stray off the straight and narrow path. We must be oriented toward Him alone. To deviate from this path is to miss the mark. The Hebrew word for this is hata which means to stray or miss the mark. The English translation of this is to sin. How do we not sin? How do we ensure that we do not miss the mark or stray from the path? He gave the Nephites slightly different words than He did the Jews who needed to be more righteous than the Pharisees. In His sermon to the Nephites, He added:
3 Nephi 12:19 And behold, I have given you the law and the commandments of my Father, that ye shall believe in me, and that ye shall repent of your sins, and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Behold, ye have the commandments before you, and the law is fulfilled.
20 Therefore come unto me and be ye saved; for verily I say unto you, that except ye shall keep my commandments, which I have commanded you at this time, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The “Sermon” wasn’t a set of suggestions. We are commanded to obey it. God expects us to become perfect and we can do that right now according to our best understanding. But we must do everything that we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ would do in our place and not do anything that we believe in our hearts that Jesus would not do if He were in our place. Whatever your understanding is right now of loving your enemies, you are expected to live by it and as your understanding of it grows, so should your actions match it and so on with all the sayings, teachings, and commandments. As you learn line upon line, precept upon precept, you must live accordingly to remain perfect from day to day. Of course we know that Jesus Christ was perfect throughout His mortal life and the standard by which we must strive to live. He lived up to everything that He knew His Father in heaven expected of Him, thus He was sinless. And when He resurrected, His perfection was enlarged as He was glorified which is why He told the people in the Book of Mormon to be perfect as He also was perfect.
The more light and truth that we accumulate and live up to, the more like Jesus we become and this should be our focus. He is the light. He is the truth. Conversely, like that rich young man who preferred his riches and to go no further, but instead turned around, whenever we decide that we have had enough light and desire no more understanding, by halting our growth, we damn ourselves. This by definition is damnation. Like flowing water that becomes stopped, we simply stagnate and eventually dry up. This is spiritual death. Don’t be like that rich young man. Take inventory of all that you know you should do and be. Then begin living up to it today. If you’re not sure how Jesus would conduct Himself or what you should work on first, prayerfully ask the Lord, “what lack I yet?” Whatever inspiration the Lord gives you, work on that. You probably already know what you should be doing (or not doing) right now. Then work on the next thing. Take it one step at a time, incrementally, line upon line, precept upon precept. We become in spirit what we do in the flesh. Strive to become perfect today.
Latter-day Lamanite 