Mists of Darkness

It is surprising, though it shouldn’t be at how, with all our access to knowledge and information, we live in profound mists of darkness. How can two people or different groups of people see the same information and come to such completely different understanding of what has happened? How can both be right? Yet, there are times when both are right and wrong about the issue... at the same time. How does that happen? Even in our highly connected world, it's easy to live in darkness or ignorance of the truth.

How do we deal with it?

We must first understand what is actually happening: Another way to describe our circumstances is we choose, because of pride and mistaken assumptions, to ignore the voice of the Spirit. We listen only to that which we agree with and look with disdain on information, which true, undermines our closely held beliefs. To wit: we walk in the light of our own understanding. We do so, often glibly unaware that there is far more to every story we read about. Much of that additional context, if we knew it, would profoundly change our understanding and judgement of the story.

Our only real recourse is to rely upon Heavenly Father. But how do we do that? We deal with each situation as it arises by trying to learn both sides of an issue then thinking through and asking for confirming counsel from Heavenly Father. If we get it, we proceed. If we don’t, then we exercise the faith and humility to accept it and change our mind: to acknowledge, we are wrong. Only this way, will we learn to see things as they are.

Additionally, I have learned that while tweets and sound bites say one thing, the nuances of the story tell a profoundly different and more powerful accounting of the event. Sometimes the story, in ignorance, is exaggerated beyond it’s true accounting. Sometimes we think a person's motivation to act is malice even when ineptitude is the better explanation.

Again the only safe way forward is to live the Gospel: to live the principle of revelation. By doing so, when we hear of something, we also hear the whispering of the Spirit to give us the necessary context to accurately know what our role and response should be. Or not receiving that, we exercise patience and withhold judgement and say, to ourselves if need be, “let the Lord judge between me and thee.”

2 Nephi 3-6 - The Separation

The concentrated presentation of great doctrines continues through this section of the narrative. It starts with Lehi reciting the prophecies of Joseph, Son of Jacob, of the coming of a Moses and of a future Joseph who would restore the Gospel and do a great work among the people. This also contains Nephi’s lamentation and praise of God known as the “Psalm of Nephi.” It ends with more recitation of Isaiah by Nephi's brother, Jacob.

There is a lot to cover here. But as I’m not writing to discuss the content so much as my thoughts about it, I’ll write what impresses me.

Remember, Joseph Smith translated this passage last. By the time he got to it, not counting the lost Book of Lehi, nearly 90 percent of the work was done. I can’t speculate on the Book of Lehi’s contents other than to say it was probably much more of a historical narrative with lessons drawn from what happened… Just like what we have from Mosiah forward. So what happens here? Joseph reads/translates the prophecy about a future Joseph, named after his father who would be the instrument of God to bless a future people.

A review… God unfolds things to us not all at once, but in bite-sized pieces so we can assimilate and process them. When He unloads a lot of information, you run the risk of having Nephi’s experience when he saw the future destruction of his people… it was devastating. So, in His mercy, God gives things to us in smaller amounts.

Such is what happened here with Joseph. He’d been told to this point, that his name would be had for good and evil. Now, he sees that not only is he bringing forth scripture, he’s going to do a lot more. He realizes his life mission is already set and that through him God is going to restore the authority and organization needed to carry the message in the Book of Mormon to the world. I wonder what conversations he had with Emma as they talked about these things?

1 Nephi 9-10 - It's all personal

What I find interesting here is how Nephi introduces his desire to see the things his father saw. After Lehi told them about the vision of the tree, he recounted coming events. It’s obvious he saw more than just the tree.

In particular, it’s how Lehi mentions the Savior that’s instructive. He speaks of the coming of a prophet and Messiah. My impression is this was new doctrine for him. As an observant Jew, he knew the Messiah would come, but he didn’t fully understand His role or His reason for coming. This vision opened his mind to that.

It’s an example of Heavenly Father approaching us at our level and raising us from there. It’s also why the doctrines taught by the Church today are the basics: faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. Even the epitome of public worship in the church, the temple ceremonies, are rote and repetitive: everyone sees and hears the same things.

The beauty of the Gospel and doctrines is despite all this sameness, when it comes to living it, it’s all intensely personal. That’s the great lesson of the visions here. Lehi saw and experienced something amazing. Nephi wanted to learn for himself. Heavenly Father shows them the same information, but their experiences were different… they learned different things.

It’s the same for us. Through the teaching power of the Holy Ghost, study of the Book of Mormon will be a unique experience for each of us. We get what we’re willing to receive and can comprehend at that time. Even as I go through it again, I’m seeing different things. While there is a lot of repetition, there are many new insights too. When I go to the temple, and I go every week, I learn something new each time. Such is the power of the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

This personal experience, this personal relationship with God, is what He wants for us all. This is the Book of Mormon’s subtext.