9 January 2012

1 Nephi 9 – 10
I wonder if Nephi ever had an idea of why the Lord required two records—even a reason other than the one we associate with the requirement based on hindsight. All of these things Lehi prophesied here were part of his vision of the tree of life but he told them separately because he did not want Laman and Lemuel to conclude that he thought their eternal destiny was fixed already apart from the tree of life.

Nephi sought to see and hear and know for himself not because he doubted his father but because he was spiritually mature enough to desire his own witness that his testimony might be his own and not a faded copy of his father’s.