Happiness awaits those that endure - 2 Nephi 22

1 ^aAnd in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedest me.

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will ^atrust, and not be afraid; for the Lord ^bJehovah is my ^cstrength and my ^dsong; he also has become my salvation.

3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw ^awater out of the wells of salvation.

The above verses come from 2 Nephi 22. This is such a great set of verses about someone's journey to be with the Savior:

1) He presumably made some mistakes as God was angry for a time with him

2) Now he is comforted though by the same God who was angry

3) Christ is who he leans on for help, strength, salvation, and is the source of joy

4) He has joy thanks to salvation that flows to him (it sounds like salvation is continual, not a one-time thing; process of learning/growing/happiness; it also means salvation may always involve work (drawing out water from a well), but it's happy work.)

I like that the person was not "perfect" and still ended up doing so well. It's a great lesson for us.

2 Nephi 5 - structuring life

2 Nephi 5 gives the account of Nephi and his followers leaving his brothers who wanted to kill him. It talks about the critical things he did in establishing their new city/civilization. Here's some thoughts:

3 Yea, they did murmur against me, saying: Our younger brother thinks to ^arule over us; and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to^brule over this people.

No one has "right" to rule. It's a sign of pride to think that some privilege or prestige is something automatically granted.

10 And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the ^astatutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things, according to the^blaw of Moses.

11 And the Lord was with us; and we did ^aprosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind.

12 And I, Nephi, had also brought the records which were engraven upon the ^aplates of brass; and also the ^bball, or ^ccompass, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord, according to that which is written.

13 And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land.

14 And I, Nephi, did take the ^asword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many ^bswords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their ^chatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.

15 And I did teach my people to ^abuild buildings, and to ^bwork in all ^cmanner of wood, and of ^diron, and of copper, and of ^ebrass, and of steel, and of ^fgold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.

16 And I, Nephi, did ^abuild a ^btemple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of ^cSolomon save it were not built of so many ^dprecious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s ^etemple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of^fSolomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.

17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be^aindustrious, and to ^blabor with their ^chands.

Notice that their lives were very complete. They built a temple, many buildings, farms, had the scriptures, kept the commandments, worked hard, had families, prepared for war. They had very complete lives. Notice that they established a permanent life, not a transient life. They built expensive buildings and also farmed, which is something that takes time. In some ways hunting can be a "hit or miss" proposition that farming hopefully is not. Contrast the farming of Nephi's people with the Lamanites:

24 And because of their ^acursing which was upon them they did become an ^bidle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.

23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that ^amixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.

Verse 23 about cursing might be taken to imply something about race. It is very unlikely that Nephi is saying God cares about skin color since in 2 Nephi 26 he says this:

33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he ^ainviteth them ^ballto ^ccome unto him and partake of his goodness; and he ^ddeniethnone that come unto him, black and white, ^ebond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the ^fheathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

The curse likely involves the Lamanites not being members of the church and/or keepers of the commandments. The curse that comes with it is the curse that comes to all who do not follow the commandments of God and do not have the blessing of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

34 And it sufficeth me to say that forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren.

Without the Spirit of the Lord, war and anger comes quickly.

27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of^ahappiness.

The Nephites' manner of living was a good one. :)

Anti-Christ - Satan

Here's a few thoughts about Satan and his role.

I have often thought that the best description of Satan is imitator. Hugh Nibley wrote that anti-Christ means imitation of Christ. I think that aligns well with what Elder Oaks said in Oct. 2004 Priesthood session; an anti-Christ is simply someone or something that teaches salvation can come in a way that isn't correct: i.e., that isn't through Christ. A clear example of anti meaning imitator is the anti-nephi-lehis were people who wanted to be like Nephi and Lehi. Another example is that a type of the Savior was a serpent when Moses held it up on a rod. Therefore, when Satan is called the serpent in the garden of Eden it is referring to him being a false imitation of the Savior. I think this is pretty clearly true. He told them, "if you eat of the fruit, you won't die" - he essentially taught Adam and Eve a different plan of salvation that wasn't correct.

Satan does the same thing today. He gives people many opportunities and alternatives that create a momentary happiness, similar to what the gospel brings, but that is not lasting. Then he gets people to be addicted to those things that bring momentary "happiness", like money, prestige, or things like drugs, sex, etc. It's his way of giving something as close as possible to the plan of salvation without giving it. Satan learns from the Savior's plan also and then just adjusts it a little. I think one of his dirty little secrets is how much he learns from and benefits from God's and the Savior's original ideas. Also, he is completely without love. I think the inspiration to come up with great things comes from God and Satan reacts to these. For instance, in the Book of Mormon, why didn't Satan come up with the armor and great city protection ideas. It's either because he didn't know them and couldn't get the bad guys to use them for that reason (unlikely unless his followers are those who help make ideas happen and not all of them know everything - also unlikely), or it was because he knew armor existed but just didn't care enough about his followers to protect them more than the good guys. Since it is by the "wicked that the wicked are punished", I think it's because Satan has weaker motivations (no love) and isn't nearly as effective as a result.

He is a poor imitator of the truth but does his best and gets a lot of people, unfortunately.

Christ promises "peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come." D.C. 59:23. That's very different than promising success or riches or "happiness". Just a promise that peace can exist despite all the tough things in the world.

I was going to write about the spirit world and the Atonement and unfairness, but that will wait for tomorrow morning.