3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi

Note: Please forgive the lateness of this post. There was something wrong with the formatting and I had to redo the entire post. There are still some spacing issues that I can't figure out. Sorry. I apologize.

Quotes of the Week:

"Most men yearn for peace, cry for peace, pray for peace and work for peace, but there will not be lasting peace until all mankind follow the path pointed out and walked by the living Christ."

--Marvin J. Ashton, CR, 10/85, 89

"We need to learn, practice, study, know, and understand how angels live with each other. When this community comes to the point to be perfectly honest and upright, you will never find a poor person; none will lack, all will have sufficient."

--Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 232

Further Reading:

D. Todd Christofferson, "Justification and Sanctification", Ensign, June 2001, 18

Andrew C. Skinner, "From Zion to Destruction: The Lessons of 4 Nephi", Ensign, Sept. 2000, 56

Handouts:

3 Nephi 27:3-The Church of Jesus Christ

LeGrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, p. 135-36

The matter of the name of his Church should bear was of great importance

3 Nephi 27:20--Sanctification

Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 459B

The sanctification spoken of in this verse is a complete cleansing, which can only be possible because of the Savior’s Atonement. Because He offered Himself to pay the price for our sins, we are able to become clean through repentance. But there is another aspect of sanctification: we are cleansed of the effects of sin by the Holy Ghost, who has the power to purge sin from our souls.


D. Todd Christofferson, "Justification and Sanctification", Ensign, June 2001, 18

If justification removes the punishment for past sin, then sanctification removes the stain or effects of sin.

. . . The gift of grace or mercy is received as a believer repents, enters into the specified covenants, and receives the Holy Ghost. This action of acceptance on our part opens the door for the process of justification (remission, or pardoning, of sins) and sanctification (cleansing from sin) to work in us—something we may refer to as being born again.

. . . Perfection is not, as some suppose, a prerequisite for justification and sanctification. It is just the opposite: justification (being pardoned) and sanctification (being purified) are the prerequisites for perfection. We only become perfect “in Christ” (see Moro. 10:32), not independently of Him.

Harold B. Lee, Church News, 5/5/73, 3

The most important of all the commandments of God is that one that you’re having the most difficulty keeping. . . . Today is the day for you to work . . . until you’ve been able to conquer that weakness. Then you start on the next one that’s most difficult for you to keep. That’s the way to sanctify yourselves by keeping the commandments of God.


Bruce Van Orden, Doctrines of the Book of Mormon, The 1991 Sperry Symposium, 221

One does not reach the state of sanctification in one day or as a result of one experience. Indeed the process of sanctification takes place over scores of years and through hundreds of spiritual experiences.


Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 265-66

It is the work and mission and ministry of the Holy Spirit of God to sanctify the souls of men. This is his assigned labor in the Eternal Godhead. How he does it we do not know except that it is a work that can only be performed by a spirit being, and hence the need for one of his personality, status, and standing in the Supreme Presidency of the universe.


Lorenzo Snow, Journal of Discourses, 5:323

Take it individually or take it collectively, we have suffered and we shall have to suffer again; and why? Because the Lord requires it at our hands for our sanctification.

3 Nephi 27:23-25--Journals

Spencer W. Kimball, "President Kimball Speaks Out on Journals," Ensign, 12/80

You should continue on in this important work of recording the things you do, the things you say, the things you think, to be in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. Your story should be writeen now while it is fresh and while the true details are available.

Your private journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you. Do not suppose life changes so much that your experiences will not be interesting to your posterity. Experiences of work, relations with people, and an awareness of the rightness and wrongness of actions will always be relevant. Your journal, like most others, will tell of problems as old as the world and how you dealt with them.

Your journal should contain your true self rather than a picture of you when you are "made up" for a public performance.

Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully. You are unique, and there may be incidents in your experience that are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other life.

What could you do better for your children and your children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and plaes, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

We hope you will begin as of this date. If you have not already commenced this important duty in your lives, get a good notebook, a good book that will last through time and into eternity for the angles to look upon. Begin today and write in it your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. We hope you will do this, our brothers and sisters, for this is what the Lord has commanded, and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives.

3 Nephi 27:27; 28:10—Even as I Am

Spencer W. Kimball, CR, 10/77, 71

Hard to do? Of course. The Lord never promised an easy road, nor a simple gospel, nor low standards, nor a low norm. The price is high, but the goods attained are worth all they cost. The Lord himself turned the other cheek; he suffered himself to be buffeted and beaten without remonstrance; he suffered every indignity and yet spoke no word of condemnation. And his question to all of us is: Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?” And his answer to us is: “Even as I am.”

3 Nephi 28--Translated Beings

Joseph Smith, as quoted in Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 461

Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions.


Harold B. Lee, as cited in Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 463

I have always wondered what the purpose was that there should be in the earth translated beings. . . . I remember a few years ago, one of the brethren in a general conference made a statement like this that caused quite a flurry among the brethren. He said, “That gospel plan he gave, and when he gave it, he said it would never be taken away until the end of the world. It is my faith that the Gospel plan has always been here on the earth, and that it will continue to be so until the end comes.”

After that sermon was delivered, I walked over to the Church Office Building with President Joseph Fielding Smith and we were discussing this discourse. He said this: “I believe that God has never for one moment of time since the creation, abandoned the earth to Satan without having someone holding the priesthood to check him.” To me that was the answer as to why translated beings have been here on the earth always among men and will be until the coming of the Savior.

4 Nephi 1:2 Conversion

Marion G. Romney, CR, 10/63, 23-24

Membership in the Church and conversion are not necessarily synonymous. Being converted . . . and having a testimony are not necessarily the same thing either. A testimony comes when the Holy Ghost gives the earnest seeker a witness of the truth. . . . . Conversion, on the other hand, is the fruit of, or the reward for, repentance and obedience.

4 Nephi 1:2--Dealing Justly

Sheldon F. Child, Ensign, 5/97, 29

When we say we will do something, we do it.

When we make a commitment, we honor it.

When we are given a calling, we fulfill it.

When we have a financial obligation, we pay it.

When we enter into an agreement, we keep it.

4 Nephi 1:3--Law of Consecration

Robert D. Hales, Ensign, 11/02, 27

Until the day we are commanded to live this higher law [consecration], we are commanded to live the law of the tithe, which is to freely give one-tenth of our income annually.

4 Nephi 1:4--Peace in the Land

Dallin H. Oaks, CR, 5/90, 91,93

The peace the gospel brings is not just the absence of war. It is the opposite of war.


Andrew C. Skinner, "From Zion to Destruction: The Lessons of 4 Nephi", Ensign, Sept. 2000, 56

Though the concept of Zion is multifaceted, the Lord has decreed that at least three ingredients must exist among the people of Zion: purity, unity, and equality.

4 Nephi 1:5--Miracles

The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 499

We do have miracles today—beyond imagination! If all the miracles of our own lifetime were recorded, it would take many library shelves to hold the books which would contain them. . . .

Where are they recorded? In the records of the Church, in journals, in news and magazine articles and in the minds and memories of many people.

4 Nephi 1:2, 13, 15, 18—No Contention

Gordon B. Hinckley, CR, 10/02, 109-10

My brothers and sisters, we must work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it. If we fail in our homes, we fail in our lives. . . . The consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting.

4 Nephi 1:17,20,38-39--Lamanites

Dean L. Larsen, You and the Destiny of the Indian, 21-22

It is significant that the name “Lamanite” here appears to become a generic term. That is, it refers to a general classification of people—those who revolted from the Church. These people may or may not have been the direct descendants of Laman and Lemuel.


Spencer W. Kimball, “The Lamanites: Their Burden—Our Burden,” BYU Speeches of the Year, 261

The Lamanites [today] are a mixture of many lines. Undoubtedly, there is in their veins the blood of Nephi, Joseph, and Jacob, as well as that of Laman, Lemuel, and Sam, and also that of the Mulekites of Judah. . . . The name “Indian” was given to the early possessors of the Americas by Columbus. As they intermarried with the invading European conquerors and nations were formed, they became Mexicans, Peruvians, Bolivians, Guatemalans, and other. But the correct name for ALL the descendants of Lehi and Ishmael is “Lamanite.” This is an honorable name. It was the Lord who so designated them, and every descendant of Lehi should proudly say, “I am a Lamanite and I am proud of my heritage.”