Tag: 2 Nephi

When we hear the messages of “blessed are the poor” and “wo unto the rich” it is easy to simplistically conclude that money is bad for the soul but Jacob makes it clear here that being right is no obstacle IF the rich will consider wealth as having no priority before God. If they will…

I don’t think we often give enough credit to how merciful the plan of salvation is—the default is towards mercy for all those who have not received sufficient instruction. It is the opposite of the concept that infants are damned without baptism.

Now we see through a glass darkly but I’m the resurrection we will see clearly what joy and righteousness are and what actually brings guilt. I doubt it will be completely surprising but at the same time I’m confident that we will discover we were wrong about some of what we thought we knew.

The Lord is inviting His covenant people to be more concerned with His views and his power and less concerned with the views of men and their power. If they look to him and trust in him, the derision and even threats of men will be of no consequence.

The Lord commends His people to look to Abraham saying that He covenanted with Abraham individually. I think the reason is that the people were supposed to look to Abraham as an example to help guide them to make covenants with God.

We can work toward having the kind of certainty displayed here of being treated to heaven so that the opinions of man and the existence if opposition are not deterrents to our righteousness but do they make us question our direction. “God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.”

I wonder if the Nephites ever heard the prophecies regarding the distant future after the ministry of Christ and wondered how any of those projects were of concern to them.

We know in our day that a reason for the second record was to make up for the 119 pages if translation that were lost. I wonder if another reason was to have a record that Laman and Lemuel were not aware of since they had declared their intention to destroy the records. Perhaps at…

Laman and Lemuel didn’t want Nephi to be a ruler but after Nephi left and his people wanted him as a ruler he didn’t want that role. That suggests that he didn’t want to be a ruler when when he was with Laman and Lemuel. Most likely he was a defacto ruler because people turned…

I understand Nephi’s lament more personally than before. How many times have i been filled with anger at those who have chosen to act as my enemies. I am still developing the skill to calm myself down in such times.