2 Nephi 1-6; 9-10

Quotes of the Week:

Existence came from God; death came by Adam; and immortality and eternal life come through Christ.

--Bruce R. McConkie, “Christ and the Creation,” Ensign, 6/82, 9

The depth of our belief in the Resurrection and the Atonement of the Savior will, I believe, determine the measure of courage and purpose with which we meet life's challenges.

--James E. Faust, Ensign, 11/96

Further Reading:
JST Genesis 50:24-38
Alma 42
Doctrine and Covenants 76
Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, "Atonement"
Jeffrey R. Holland, "Enemy of My Soul,"  Ensign 5/10
"The Living Christ,"  April 2000
Richard G. Scott, "First Things First," Ensign 5/10
Russell M. Nelson, "The Atonement," Ensign 11/96
Bruce R. McConkie, "Christ and the Creation," Ensign 6/82
Bible Dictionary, "Devil"

Handouts:

2 Ne 1:9-12--Preserving the Promised Land

Mark E. Peterson, Conference Report, 4/68
We Americans must learn that [our nation] can continue to exist only as it aligns itself with the powers of heaven.  If we turn our back upon the Almighty, even by ignoring him, we jeopardize our national future.  If we deliberately oppose his purposes, we place ourselves in danger of destruction. . . . And it is possible that our greatness can be buried in profound obscurity if we refuse to turn to God . . . .

2 Ne 2:5--Law of Justice

Gerald N. Lund, Selected Writings of Gerald N. Lund, 195
To be "just" means to be right or be in order with God. Therefore to be justified (the process of justification) is defined as the "declaration of right, thus judicial acquittal, the opposite of condemnation."
Why was it, then, that Lehi said  that no flesh is justified by the law?  Because no one keeps the law perfectly!  If the law of justice were the only thing operating, no one could be justified (declared to be right or just) by virtue of the law alone, because as Paul said, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  Romans 3:23

2 Ne 2:6-10--How Did It All Work?

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant,  p. 229
It is a matter of surpassing wonder that the voluntary and merciful sacrifice of a single being could satisfy the infinite and eternal demands of justice, atone for every human transgression and misdeed ever committed in the history of the world, and provide for the sweeping of all mankind into the encompassing arms of God's compassionate embrace--but that is what happened.

2 Ne 2:10--The Law

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p. 225
Once guilty, none of us could personally do anything to overcome that fate.  We do not have in us the seeds of immortality allowing us to conquer death physically, and we have not been perfect in our behavior, thus forfeiting the purity that would let us return to the presence of God spiritually.  Furthermore, God cannot simply turn a blind eye to the breaking of divine law, because in so doing he would dishonor justice and would "cease to be God."  The absence of law or the lack of any penalty for breaking it would leave the world in amoral chaos.

 2 Ne 2:11-27--Opposition

Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 58

Notice the major points in Lehi's argument as to why there must be opposition before a man can be truly free and before he can experience real joy: 1 every law has both a punishment and a blessing attached to it.  2. disobedience to law requires a punishment which results in misery. 3.  Obedience to law provides a blessing which results in happiness 4.  Without law there can be neither punishment nor blessing, neither misery nor happiness--only innocence.  5.  Thus happiness or joy can exist only where the possibility of the opposite (unhappiness or misery) also exists.  6.  In order to exercise free agency a person must have the possibility and the freedom of choice; in a world without law--and thus without choice--there could be no freedom of choice and thus no true exercise of free agency.

2 Nephi 2:14-16--Another Creation Perspective

Timothy, Archbishop of Alexandria, "Discourse of Abbaton,"  cited by Russell M. Nelson, A Book of Mormon Treasury--Gospel Insights from General Authorities and Religious Educators, p. 27-28, 31

I found a rare book in London one day while searching through the library of the British Museum.  It was published as a 20th century English translation of an ancient Egyptian text.  it was written by Timothy, Archbishop of Alexandria, who died in AD 385.  This record refers to the creation of Adam.  The premortal Jesus is speaking of His Father:

"He . . . made Adam according to Our image and likeness, and He left him lying for forty days and forty nights without putting breath into him.  And He heaved sighs over him daily, saying, 'If I put breath into this [man], he must suffer many pains.'  And I said unto My Father,

" 'Put breath into him; I will be an advocate for him.' And My Father said unto Me, 'If I put breath into him, My Beloved Son, Thou wilt be obliged to go down into the world, and to suffer many pains for him before Thou shalt have redeemed him, and made him to come back to his primal state.' And I said unto My Father, 'Put breath into him; I will be his advocate, and I will go down into the world, and will fulfill Thy Command.' "

2:17-25--Sin and the Law 

Orson F. Whitney, Cowley and Whitney on Doctrine, p. 435-36
What is Sin?  Sin is the transgression of divine law.  A man sins when he violates his conscience, going contrary to light and knowledge--not the light and knowledge that comes from his neighbor, but that which has come to himself.  He sins when he does the opposite of what he know to be right.  Up to that point he only blunders.  One may suffer painful consequences for only blundering, but he cannot commit sin unless he knows better than to do the thing in which the sin consists.

2 Ne 2:25--The Fall of Adam and Eve

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p. 205
The privilege of mortality granted to the rest of us is the principal gift given by the fall of Adam and Eve.
Thus, and only with this knowledge, can a student of the gospel of Jesus Christ grasp the full import of the magnificent line already cited: "Adam fell that men might be." That doctrine, fully understood and thoroughly taught only in the restored gospel, is as important as any taught in the entire Book of Mormon. Without it the world would be ignorant of the true nature of the fall of Adam and Eve, ignorant of their life-giving decision, and ignorant of the unspeakable love they demonstrated for all of God's sons and daughters.

2 Ne 2:27--Agency

  Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 26

Agency requires four conditions:

1.  Laws ordained by an omnipotent power must exist, laws we can either obey or disobey.

2.  There must be opposites--good and evil, right and wrong.

3.  We must have knowledge of good and evil; we must know the difference between the opposites.

4.  We must possess an unfettered power of choice.

2 Ne 4:17-18,28--Enemies of Our Souls

 Dallin H. Oaks, "Free Agency and Freedom," in The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure, p. 13-14
Regardless of a person's susceptibility or tendency, his will is unfettered.  His free agency is unqualified.  It is his freedom that is impaired. . . . We are all responsible for the exercise of our free agency. 
Most of us are born with thorns in the flesh, some more visible, some more serious than others.  We all seem to have susceptibilities to one disorder or another, but whatever our susceptibilities, we have the will and the power to control our thoughts and our actions.  This must be so.  God has said that he holds us accountable for what we do and what we think, so our thoughts and actions must be controllable by our agency.  Once we have reached the age or condition of accountability, the claim 'I was born that way' does not excuse actions or thoughts that fail to conform to the commandments of God.  We need to learn how to live so that a weakness that is mortal will not prevent us from achieving the goal that is eternal.
God has promised that he will consecrate our afflictions for our gain.  The efforts we expend in overcoming any inherited weakness build a spiritual strength that will serve us throughout eternity.

Meaning of Atonement

Russell M. Nelson, “The Atonement,” Ensign, Nov 1996, 33

In the English language, the components are at-one-ment, suggesting that a person is at one with another. Other languages  employ words that connote either expiation or reconciliation. Expiation means “to atone for.” Reconciliation comes from Latin roots re, meaning “again”; con, meaning “with”; and sella, meaning “seat.” Reconciliation, therefore, literally means “to sit again with.” . . . In Hebrew, the basic word for atonement is kaphar, a verb that means “to cover” or “to forgive.”  Closely related is the Aramaic and Arabic word kafat, meaning “a close embrace”—no doubt related to the Egyptian ritual embrace. 

2 Ne 9:5--Subjection to Christ

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p. 231

What that subjection means, what these people choosing redemption "owe" to Christ, their new master, is a life of discipleship, beginning with faith, repentance, and baptism and leading on to all the ordinances and covenants of the gospel and a life of living kindness. Clearly all of humankind is still in debt even after the full effect of the Atonement has transpired.  But fortunately he to whom we are indebted is Christ the Merciful rather than Lucifer the Miserable.  We still have obligations, but they are of a much higher and happier sort.  We are in debt, but we are not in bondage.

2 Ne 9:8--Price Required for Sin

Gerald Lund, Doctrines of the Book of Mormon, Sperry Symposium, 1992, p. 86
To help us begin to grasp with our finite, mortal minds the enormous price required, consider a few rough indicators of how much sin there is in our world.  If you look at the United States alone, there are now more than fifty murders committed every day (that's nearly 19,000 per year).  There are more than 21,000 thefts reported every day, and more than 5,500 reported cases of child abuse and neglect. . . . Think of how many times on a singe day adultery or some other violation of the law of chastity is committed somewhere in the world.  How many cases of incest, child abuse, pornography, burglary, robbery?  How many times in any one day is the name of God taken in vain?  How many times are sacred things profaned?  Then multiply these over the span of human history.  And that takes into consideration only our world.  We know that the Atonement extended to other worlds as well.

2 Ne 9:14-15, 20--Ultimate Judgment

Neal A. Maxwell, For the Power Is in Them, p 37 9:41
There is another dimension of reassurance, too: not only will the ultimate judgment not be delegated in order to serve the purposes of divine justice, but also divine mercy can best be applied by him who knows these things what only he can know--the quiet moments of courage in the lives of his flock, the un-noticed acts of Christian service, the unspoken thoughts which can be 'credited' in no other way, except through perfect judgment.

2 Ne 9:21-24--Atonement

Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 1999
I cannot comprehend the burden it must have been for God in His heaven to witness the deep suffering and Crucifixion of His Beloved Son in such a manner.  His every impulse and instinct MUST have been to stop it, to send angels to intervene--but He did not intervene.  He endured what He saw because it was the only way that a saving, vicarious payment could be made for the sins of all His other children from Adam and Eve to the end of the world.
I am eternally grateful for a perfect Father and His perfect Son, neither of whom shrank from the bitter cup nor forsook the rest of us who are imperfect, who fall short and stumble, who too often miss the mark.

Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 1999
In that most burdensome moment of all human history, with blood appearing at every pore and an anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sought Him whom he had always sought--His Father.  'Abba," He cried, 'Papa,' or from the lips of  a younger child, 'Daddy.'  This is such a personal moment it almost seems a sacrilege to cite it.  A Son in unrelieved pain, a Father His only true source of strength, both of them staying the course, making through the night--together.

Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 2010
Your personal witness of [the] reality [of the Resurrection and the Atonement] . . .  must be more than principles you memorize.  They must be woven into the very fiber of your being. . . . I realize that no mortal mind can adequately conceive, nor can human tongue appropriately express, the full significance of all that Jesus Christ has done for our Heavenly Father's children through His Atonement. Yet it is vital that we each learn what we can about it.
There is an imperative need for each of us to strengthen our understanding of the significance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ so that it will become an unshakable foundation upon which to build our lives.

Jeffrey R. Holland, “None Were with Him,” Ensign, May 2009, 86–88
That the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.

But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings--divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was “finished.” Against all odds and with none to help or uphold Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God, restored physical life where death had held sway and brought joyful, spiritual redemption out of sin, hellish darkness, and despair. With faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”