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1 Nephi 13:17  

17. And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.

Nephi’s description of the Revolutionary War is not at all the sort of thing the Prophet Joseph or any of his contemporary Americans would have written. Joseph, who was a young man when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died, would have understood the American Revolution as a local land war.

For Americans the Revolution was mostly a land war, and would have been described by them as such. America’s navy consisted almost entirely of John Paul Jones doing some privateering off the coast of Europe and a few blockade runners on this side of the ocean trying to get into and out of American ports. The French admiral de Grass was instrumental in scaring the English navy away from Yorktown so Washington could defeat Cornwallis, but there was no actual naval engagement there.

However, that is only a part of the story. The American Revolution was the first real “world war.” What began as a skirmish in Massachusetts escalated all out of proportion. And if it had not have done so, America would never have become free. France joined America to get even with England and with the hope of absorbing the American colonies after the English lost them. Spain came into the war because France pulled her and, reluctant as she was, she had little choice. Holland (the “money bags” of the world at that time) came in because England was belligerent. Russia came in just as reluctantly, and for about the same reason.

These nations, including England, had long since divided the rest of the non-European world among themselves. Their colonies were literally scattered all over the globe, and when the mother countries went to war, so did their colonies. The result was that England found herself fighting almost all of the greatest colonial powers in Europe and fighting them all over the world. England had the world’s greatest navy, but it was not greater than the combined navies of America’s allies. For England it was a sea rather than a land war, and a devastatingly costly one at that.

Had it not been a “world war” with England’s military and economic resources spread all over the world fighting to retain her colonies, she could have concentrated all her might against the American colonies, and the United States never could have won independence. Nevertheless, even today (as in Joseph Smith’s day), Americans think of our Revelation as being only our war, fought on American soil to gain American independence.

Nephi described the American Revolutionary War that secured the environment into which the gospel could be restored as a battle that took place on the seas rather then a struggle that took place in only the thirteen colonies. In that, Nephi’s description is a much more accurate description than Joseph Smith or his American contemporaries could have been expected to write. This is one more of those little evidences that Joseph was not the original author of the Book of Mormon.

To secure their liberties, the Americans fought the American Revolution (just as Nephi had foreseen) established the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and began to spread over most of North America.

As America grew in size, its westerners worked out the final bugs in the system so that there came to be greater political, economic, and religious freedom there than ever before in recorded history. It had taken almost 2,000 years to create a perfect environment in which Joseph Smith could restore the fulness of the gospel, and then Brigham Young could lead the Saints to the safety of the Rocky Mountains.

Some historians have seen that pattern and have argued that Joseph Smith was simply a product of the times in which he lived, but from the point of view of Latter-day Saints, the environment had been carefully shaped so the Prophet Joseph could come and do his work. Looking at the past 2000 years from that prospective, even though there have been some very ugly times, in the big picture we see one of the great miracles of human history.

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1 Nephi 13:12 

12. And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

Our tendency, sometimes, when we think of foreordination, is to limit the scope of our own understanding to having it be about only the great prophets. But here is a striking example of Nephi’s knowing about Columbus’s mission 2,000 years before it happened. Nephi also described other events that required specific individuals to bring about their accomplishment. For example, President Ezra Taft Benson observed:

The restoration of the gospel and the establishment of the Lord’s church could not come to pass until the founding fathers were raised up and completed their foreordained missions. Those great souls who were responsible for the freedoms we enjoy acknowledged the guiding hand of providence.{1}

President Benson’s words echo George Washington’s:

The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”{2}

Just because those men were foreordained to their tasks does not mean that the tasks were easily accomplished. It only means that the Lord removed the obstacles that would have prevented them altogether. Elder Alvin R. Dyer observed:

The very articles of the Constitution would seem testimony enough that the ministerial bickerings of that day did not hamper, to any appreciable degree, the work for which they were foreordained of God and which they accomplished to the lasting benefit of mankind.{3}

When Wilford Woodruff did the temple work for the Founding Fathers and others in the St. George Temple, he ordained all the men for whom vicarious work was done to be elders, except a few whom he ordained High Priests. President Woodruff’s journal reads:

August 19, 1877
I spent the Evening in preparing a list of the Noted Men of the 17 Century and 18th including the signers of the declaration of Independence and the Presidents of the United States for Baptism on Tuesday the 21 Aug 1877.

August 21, 1877
I Wilford Woodruff went to the Temple of the Lord this morning and was Baptized for 100 persons who were dead including the signers of the Declaration of Independence all except John Hancock and [William Floyd]. I was baptized for the following names: [lists names] ….

Baptized for the following Eminent Men: [lists names] ….
When Br McAllister had Baptized me for the 100 Names I Baptized him for 21, including Gen Washington & his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States that were not in my list Except Buchanan Van Buren & Grant. It was a vary interesting day. I felt thankful that we had the privilege and power to administer for the worthy dead especially for the signers of the declaration of Independence. that inasmuch as they had laid the foundation of our Government that we Could do as much for them as they had done for us.
Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went forth into the font and was Baptized for Martha Washington and her family and seventy (70) of the Eminent women of the world. I Called upon all the Brethren & Sisters who were present to assist in getting Endowments for those that we had been Baptized for that day.

August 22, 1877
…. [Wilford Woodruff] ordained 2 High Priests for George Washington and John Wesley ….

August 23, 1877
…. W Woodruff Ordained 2 High Priest One for Christopher Columbus.

March 19, 1894
I had a Dream in the night. I met with Benjamin Franklin. I thought he was on the Earth. I spent several hours with him and talked over our Endowments. He wanted some more work done for him than had been done that I promised him He should have (2d). I thought then He died and while waiting for burial I awoke. I thought very strange of my Dream. I made up m mind to get 2d Anointing for Benjamin Franklin & George Washington.{4}

One can get a better sense of how completely God is in charge of the world’s affairs when we realize that not only is he aware of what is going to happen, but he is also concerned with who is going to do it. Brigham Young explained,

If God has foreordained certain men to certain ends, it is because he knew all things from eternity, as in the case of Pharaoh, who he knew would do wickedly; consequently, selected him to be put upon the throne. “You are determined to be wicked and to carry out the schemes of the Devil; therefore I will use you to promote my kingdom on the earth and to exalt me among men, for I know that you will do all you can against my children, against my work, and against my grace to save the children of men.” God raised him to the throne of Egypt, because he foresaw that in this position he could use him to the greatest advantage to His cause,—not because he was foreordained to that position.{5}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 604.

{2} John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington, 39 vols.(Washington, U.S. G.P.O. 1931-44), 12:343.

{3} Alvin R. Dyer, Who Am I? (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1966), 20.

{4} “Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 1833-1898,” Typescript in 9 vols. edited by Scott G. Kenney.

{5} Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854-1886), 8: 160.

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1 Nephi 13:1-5 
1 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms.
2 And the angel said unto me: What beholdest thou? And I said: I behold many nations and kingdoms.
3 And he said unto me: These are the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles.
4 And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church.
5 And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity.

What Nephi was being shown was the “formation” of a great and abominable church. That formation began in the old world even before the apostles were killed. Both Paul and Peter warned the saints—not that it was coming—but that it is upon them already.

The apostate movement did not originate as a single organization, but it was a widespread decay of both doctrine and priesthood authority. Nephi understood it as a single church because it had a single founder—the devil—and because, in all of its parts, it engaged in the same coercive and destructive tactics.

Christianity quickly spread all over the world. Historians credit that spread to the vigor of Christian missionaries, but we can gather from the Savior’s statement to the Nephites that he personally visited the remnants of the house of Israel wherever they were. That would account for the sudden growth of Christianity. For example, I learned while I was on my mission that there is a little chapel near Norwich, in Norfolk, England that sits on the hill where tradition says the Savior came and taught the sermon on the Mount—which, judging from his appearance in America, is precisely what we would expect he would have done. There is another tradition that both Peter and Paul were in England, as well as in Gaul and Italy. The acts of Thomas tells how that apostle went to India and was very successful there. Marco Polo reported that not long before he arrived in China, there had been a titanic battle between the Christian and non-Christian armies, and that the Christians had been wiped out. One of the greatest problems these widespread congregations had was their inability to communicate with each other. The technology did not exist that would enable men with priesthood authority to keep reins on the church organization or its eroding doctrine. There was no way for the apostles to keep in touch with each other or with their converted friends—except by letters that were slow in arriving (that is, if the letters arrived at all).

From the writings of the apostles in the New Testament, it is clear that people, rather than letting go of their old traditions, were importing them into the church. The upshot was that each of the scattered congregations was left to its own resources and its own interpretations of doctrines.

One can find other symptoms of apostasy developing even before the conclusion of the New Testament. The letters written by Peter and Paul show that neither of them had any hope that the church they had helped establish would survive. Rather, their letters focused on the hope that their friends would hold on to their own individual testimonies— that they would be able to endure to the end.{1}

There was a systematic, murderous persecution of the saints by the Roman government. In time, all of the Twelve except John were martyred and the church was left without apostles or prophets. The result of that was that many of the people who actually did have the authority to lead the church by revelation, and actually did have the true doctrines, were killed, and other people (some well meaning, others self serving) tried to take their place and established their own authority. The result was that within the first few generations in most parts of the world, Christianity was different from the Church that had been instituted by the Savior and his apostles. The apostasy was already completed within 150 or 200 years so the question was how is the Lord going to fix things. The way he accomplished that was one of the most wonderful stories in history.

So “the formation of a great church” that Nephi describes was a general apostasy, where people without proper authority sought to restructure the church and accommodate its teachings to their own purposes.
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FOOTNOTES

{1} Examples of warnings of that early apostasy are Acts 20:28-31; Galatians 1:6-8; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:13-15, 3:10-15, 4:1-8; 3 John 1:9-11.

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1 Nephi chapters 13-14 

After introducing us to the apostasy that destroyed the Savior’s Church Nephi does a quick jump, passing over a thousand years of European history to a new era of enlightenment. Much had happened in Europe during the time that Nephi skipped over. The original Christianity had been completely absorbed by pagan traditions. However, during that absorption the first steps toward preparation for the restoration of the gospel had already taken place. Europe had been “Christianized.” The pagan gods seemed to have disappeared. but the basic theology of the pagan religions still remained essentially intact,

An example of how that was done is the missionary effort of the French king Charlemagne. His missionary methods were simple and effective. When his armies conquered a village, he gathered its leading men together and forced them to hear a sermon preached by his own priest. The sermon carried a simple message: baptism was necessary for one to go to heaven, so without baptism one would go to hell. After the sermon, Charlemagne gave his captives a choice. They could either be baptized and go to heaven at their leisure, or they could refuse to be baptized and go to hell immediately. They tended to choose baptism. Charlemagne was not interested in theology, so he let them keep their old beliefs but insisted they worship “Jesus” rather than Odin. Thereupon Odin became “Jesus,” and the local gods were given the names of Christian saints. The belief systems remained the same. Jesus now looked and acted much like Odin, but Odin did not exist anymore. Since false gods only exist in the minds of their worshipers, when the worshipers no longer worship them those gods no longer exist. That is important because, no matter what their beliefs were, the Europeans were now worshiping a god whose name was “Jesus.” Consequently, centuries later when Gutenberg invented the printing press and Rasmus published the New Testament in Greek, much of the preliminary work toward a real European conversion to Christianity had already been done.

Armed with these new printed scriptures, the Reformers began to address the questions, “Who was the real Jesus, and what did he really teach?” It was not necessary to start afresh by introducing Christianity to Europe, because the Europeans already worshiped “Jesus.” All that was necessary was to redefine both Jesus and his teachings. That was accomplished on two fronts: first by the great Protestant reformers, and then by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Both groups read and accepted the New Testament and tried to make their religions square with the teachings they found there.

Then even more marvelous things began to happen. People who read the New Testament discovered a theology in which God was loving and kind and where individual people had souls that mattered. But that was not all. With the invention of the printing press, scholars began to publish works of ancient Greek histories and philosophers. Thus, the very best ideas of the ancient world were thrust upon Europeans as new and revolutionary ideas. Into the mix of the Judeo-Christian doctrines that people had individual worth, were the Greek ideas of rationality and responsibility and the Roman idea of the supremacy of the law. Calvinism added the doctrine of the Protestant Work Ethic. Ittaught that one should work hard, be frugal, honest, and generous, because those qualities are evidences that one is in God’s good graces, and such a person will go to heaven. That doctrine was the rationale behind the individual initiative that created the free market system and participatory government. All of those ideas came together in England, where they were merged with an acceptance of freedom of religion and with the very best of British legal traditions: British Common Law and the fundamental principles of local and national, democratically elected representative government. All of those ideas blossomed together into a beautiful new kind of Christianity. That Christianity had taken almost 2000 years to develop, and when it was at its purest beauty, it was transplanted to North America where it could mature to create the political, economic, and religious environment in which the fullness of the gospel could be restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

No doubt, Nephi saw all of that, but he focused on those events during that 2000-year history that were most relevant to himself and to his people. He described Columbus as being brought to America by the Holy Ghost, and then the European invasion and destruction of the cultures of the American Indians.

Thus the events that Nephi described to us may be seen in two lights—each illuminating a different facet of the same history. One is the story of corruption, decadence and apostasy in the old world. But the other is the testimony of how the Lord carefully works through human history to achieve his purposes, without violating the agency of any individual. Even though Nephi mourned because of the destruction of his own people, his mourning was subordinated to his rejoicing in the restoration of the gospel, the triumphal return of the Savior, and the establishment of His millennial reign.

There are two ways to consider the Great Apostasy. The first is to see it as a dreadful thing that extended through the period of the Roman Empire, through the Dark Ages, through the Reformation and the Renaissance, and continues on through to our time. That view is defensible but inadequate.

The second way of looking at the apostasy is to see it as a short-term event lasting less than 200 years as the Church established by the Savior was perverted from within and persecuted from without, then seeing most of the next 1600 years as events in the process of creating an environment in which the gospel could be restored. That is a much more positive and accurate description of what happened.

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1 Nephi 12:16-18 

16. And the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the fountain of filthy water that thy father saw; yea, even the river of that he spake; and the depths thereof are the depths of hell.
17. And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, that blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost.
18. And the large and spacious building, that thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever.

A common thread runs through the symbolism of each of the bad things the angel explained to Nephi. That thread is a persistence in insisting that things are real when they are not real. Jeremiah accused the children of Israel of the same sort of thing: “How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods” (Jeremiah 5:7). That same sense, that the pagan gods are not gods but just bits of wood or metal, is also found in Isaiah: “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity” (Isaiah 40:17).

Both Jeremiah and Isaiah are accusing the Israelites of the same thing: Not that they are swearing by or worshiping a god that is false, but that they are swearing by and worshiping a god that has no reality at all.

This is like the angel’s explanation to Nephi: “The mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, that blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts” (1 Nephi 12:17). Blindness of this sort is never perceived as real blindness. It mocks the light and “loves darkness rather than light.” Here again the problem is one’s refusing to see the reality of the light and insisting that a bad thing is actually good, turning from reality to a fiction and using the fiction to obscure the reality. Evil is real, but the rationale that is used to justify it is an illusion.

Hardness of heart is the same thing. The refusal to know binds us in “the chains of hell” (Alma 12:11). Having a hard heart is refusing to hear, as being in the mists of darkness is refusing to see. It is turning from the reality of the things of God to a fiction that are the “philosophies of men,” making the fiction the path of one’s life and refusing to recognize the light that is real.

“The large and spacious building…is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men.” Everything is this world, even our own bodies testify to us that they are tentative. “Vain” simply means things that have no consequence, artificial things (money, a fancy car, a big house, power, the ability to exercise authority over other people) that are transient in their nature, temporary in their worth. They seem as real as our experience in this world but are not real in terms of our being able to sustain their existence, or they ours, beyond the this life.

Not everything in this world lacks permanence. One’s house is temporary, and will decay into the elements from which it came, but inviting someone home to dinner may have eternal ramifications. The car is temporary, but giving someone a ride when he needs to get somewhere is real. Power and authority are very temporary, but blessing someone’s life is very real. Real things are things that will last through eternity.

“Vain imaginations” is a kind of redundancy. It suggests things that have no reality but that are imagined to be of worth. Pride is about things that have no reality but that are imagined to be of worth, except “pride” is one’s attitude about the imaginary things with which we decorate ourselves (like the emperor’s clothes) as opposed to the “vain imaginations” that we worship.

If this appraisal is correct, then the message of the angel to Nephi is that our successfully going to the tree of life may be as simple as having a correct perception of reality, and going anywhere else is only pretending that a non-reality has worth, and then seeking after that pretended worth. Then of course, when we get it, pride is making sure everyone else recognizes that we have it.

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1 Nephi 12:4-5 

4 And it came to pass that I saw a mist of darkness on the face of the land of promise; and I saw lightnings, and I heard thunderings, and earthquakes, and all manner of tumultuous noises; and I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent; and I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up; and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth, because of the quaking thereof.
5 And it came to pass after I saw these things, I saw the vapor of darkness, that it passed from off the face of the earth; and behold, I saw multitudes who had not fallen because of the great and terrible judgments of the Lord.

The mist of darkness Lehi described in chapter 8 symbolized the difficulty through which one must walk in this life in order to reach the tree of life. However, the one Nephi describes here is the real physical darkness that enveloped the Nephites just prior to the Savior’s coming to visit them. That prophecy was literally fulfilled. He also mentions “great and terrible judgments” associated with this “vapor of darkness.” Those judgements are physical, but there is no suggestion that they are temporary. Peter uses the same imagery to describe the final situation of the people who have fought against the purposes of God in this life, and describes them as unreal as the pride that sustains them: “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever” (2 Peter 2:17).

When one reads the catalogue of indictments against those who died in the catastrophe that occurred while their world was black ( 3 Nephi 9), it becomes apparent that the vapor of darkness that obscured the immediate intensity of their destruction may well be thought of as symbolic of the darkness of the place that awaited their spirits after they died and left this world, when the darkness may be only their individual and collective refusal to see the light.

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1 Nephi 12:10-12

10. And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood.
11. And the angel said unto me: Look! And I looked, and beheld three generations pass away in righteousness; and their garments were white even like unto the Lamb of God. And the angel said unto me: These are made white in the blood of the Lamb, because of their faith in him.
12 And I, Nephi, also saw many of the fourth generation who passed away in righteousness.

Verse 10 an assurance that the twelve disciples will receive eternal life. Now, verses 11 and 12 extend that same promise to the people in the “three generations [who] pass away in righteousness,” and to many in the fourth generation.

That same promise is, of course, extended to all persons who live their life “in righteousness” because of their faith.

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1 Nephi 12:10 

10. And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood.

“Righteous forever”—forever is a very long time. It reaches from before this world, through this world, and for all eternity hereafter. “Righteous” is one of the most important sacred code words in the scriptures.

“Righteousness” is zedek—correctness and propriety in performing and receiving sacred ordinances.{1} For one to be righteous before coming to this world presupposes correct fulfillment of priesthood assignments during and after the Council in Heaven. Doctrine and Covenants 93, Alma 13, Abraham 3, and Ephesians 1 are keys to understanding what those assignments might have been.

Modern prophets have taught us about how one can be “righteous forever.” The Prophet Joseph said,

When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, that the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses.{2}

President Marion G. Romney spoke of this often. On one occasion he said:

After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost (by the laying on of hands), . . . then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shall be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure (D. H. C. 3:380).{3}

The fullness of eternal life is not attainable in mortality, but the peace that is its harbinger and that comes as a result of making one’s calling and election sure is attainable in this life. The Lord has promised that “. . . he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Ibid., 59:23).{4}

Now in conclusion, I give you my own witness. I know that God our Father lives, that we are as Paul said his offspring. I know that we dwelt in his presence in pre-earth life and that we shall continue to live beyond the grave. I know that we may return into his presence, if we meet his terms. I know that while we are here in mortality there is a means of communication between him and us. I know it is possible for men to so live that they may hear his voice and know his words and that to receive “the Holy Spirit of promise” while here in mortality is possible. And so, in the words of the Prophet Joseph, “. . . I . . . exhort you to go on and continue to call upon God until [by the more sure word of prophecy] you make your calling and election sure for yourselves,…”{5}
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FOOTNOTES

{1} For a discussion of the meaning of “righteousness”—zedek and Zadok—priesthood and temple correctness see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 279-85; Second edition, p. 198-201.

{2} Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 150.

{3} Marion G. Romney, Improvement Era, October, 1949,754.

{4} Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, October, 1965, 20.

{5} Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, October 1965, 23.

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1 Nephi 11:34-36  

34 And after he was slain I saw the multitudes of the earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb; for thus were the twelve called by the angel of the Lord.
35 And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
36 And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb (1 Nephi 11:34-36).

Nephi’s description of the building as “the pride of the world” is very apt. Pride is a pretense used to prop up a nothingness. The building is in the air because it has no substantive foundation. It is a fabrication of the imaginations of its inmates and of those who wish to be like them. When the building’s foundation is exposed as a fraud, there is nothing left to hold it up—not even in the haughtiness of the beliefs of the people who sustained it.

Pride—whether a mask behind which one hides his own reality or an assumed wisdom by which he projects and defends a pretended truth—has no reality. Pride is often worn as a mask behind which the motives, insecurities, and indulgences of one’s real Self are intended to be obscured. Pride may be displayed as a political catch-phrase, or as fashionable clothes, or as religious self-righteousness, but however it is displayed, its object is always the same: to attract honor, prestige, advantage—often money and power—to one’s facade by concealing one’s true Self. It is most destructive when one believes his own lie, and is persuaded by the mask that it is real. Then the whole Self becomes an illusion—a bubble dancing in the air like Lehi’s great and spacious building. As long as people live within their own lie, they cannot be taught eternal truth, because to recognize truth would destroy the mask.

In his second description of the building, Nephi uses two parallel representations: “vain imaginations” and “the pride of the children of men.” Vain imaginations are principles and attitudes, accumulations, and displays for which one may be willing to exchange his integrity but which have no real value. Both “vanity” and “pride” have the same meaning: each denotes an illusion that has no substance—something that does not exist except in the mind of the believer.

A most colorful description of the nothingness called “pride” and “vanity” is Mormon’s phrase, “puffing them up with pride” (3 Nephi 6:15). One pictures a cartoon showing a person who is all puffed up like a balloon, so full of hot air that his feet barely touch the real world, oblivious to his absurdity and assuming everyone sees him as the distinguished specimen he assumes himself to be.

Perhaps the most unhappy example is Jacob’s description on one standing before the Lord, but disqualified to enter his presence:

41 O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.
42 And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them (2 Nephi 9:41-42).{1}

Such an image might be amusing if it were not so deadly serious. The Lord also described our over-inflated clown, but turning a would-be comedy into pure tragedy as the proud one not only tries to conceal his real Self, but also seeks to use the illusion of authority to “cover his sins” (D&C 121:36-37).

The real tragedy of pride is that it diverts our attention from our own reality to an illusion about our Selves. People who are proud project the illusion as reality and insist that others acknowledge it also. But, as the psalmist observed, the things we humans struggle to achieve are often no more substantial than a shadow.

3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away….
11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood (Psalms 144:3-4, 11).

That psalm may have been the inspiration behind some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines. His Macbeth laments,

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing (Act 5, Scene 5).

“Signifying nothing”—that is the key. To seek a vain thing is to be as a child who blows bubbles in the air, admires their beauty and tries to catch them and keep them forever. He reaches out to capture their effervescence, touches them, and finds there is nothing there. To exalt the vain things of this world is to do homage to emptiness, just as to worship a false god is to do homage to a carved log that cannot respond because it has no soul.

Believing an illusion does not make the illusion a truth. Truth is independent of all things—including whether or not people believe or don’t believe. Even if an entire nation believes in the substance of a bubble, it is still only emptiness. People—whether an individual or a nation—who defend the bubble deny themselves the freedom to know the truth.

Illusions that are touted as truth are, in some perverted way, also independent. That is why their proponents support them. They free their adherents from the restraints of doing truth—of keeping the commandments and of repenting—while at the same time binding them to the subjugation that comes from disobeying sacral law.

If pride is our pretending to be what we are not, then humility is simply being who we are.{2} Demeaning one’s self is not humility, it is only doing homage to the negative side of the bubble. People who cannot accept or understand the reality of themselves cannot know the reality of others. Only people who know the truth of themselves and of the Savior are free to act independently. Ultimately, only the gods who know all truth are absolutely free.

In the Old Testament, “the Preacher” points out the absurdity of expending one’s life to collect power, glory, money or reputation that have no lasting value.{3}

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 8-9).

Our soul is not an accumulation of what we have collected or achieved in the past. When we appear before God on judgement day he will not ask us for our vita or resume. Rather, we will come as we are–just then. We will appear as we are—a product of what we have chosen to be—a Self, definable in the instant. The Atonement not only permits us to repent of our past and become a new Self, it also enables us to remain what we are.

There are some lines in Hamlet that show the absurdity of collecting accolades that are not real and pretending that they are our eternal Self. In this scene, Hamlet, who has just killed Polonius and hidden the body, is confronted by the king who had murdered Hamlet’s father and usurped Hamlet’s right to the throne.

King: Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
Hamlet: At supper.
King: At supper! where?
Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that’s the end. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
King: What dost you mean by this?
Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
King: Where is Polonius?
Hamlet: In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.{4}

His point is this: even the crown of a king gives no advantage to his corpse when the king is dead, just as murdering to obtain that crown gives no advantage in hell to the soul who sat that crown upon his own brow.

Self aggrandizement is an illusion, no matter what it costs to project and sustain it. When one understands “pride” and “vanity” that way—as a sustained belief in nothingness—then one becomes free to know the reality of one’s Self.

Pride is not only self delusional, it is also self destructive. It seeks to distort everything around it, and what it cannot distort it corrodes. Its adherents seek to intimidate and thereby impose their illusions on others. They really have no other choice, because the bubble cannot sustain itself. If exposed as counterfeit, it will disintegrate like a puff of smoke. Thus the building falls.
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FOOTNOTES

{1} Other examples are 2 Nephi 28:9-15, Alma 5:37, Alma 31:27, and Moroni 7:45.

{2} When we can define “humble” in v. 27 in the same way we define “humility” in v. 39, then we can come close to understanding what it means. Jesus, the resurrected, creator, atoning God, could hardly be self-deprecating, nether could he be full of conceit. Rather, in this conversation with Moroni he was only being just himself—no masks—just “as a man telleth another.”

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

39 And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things (Ether 12:27, 39).

{3} See: 1 Nephi 11:36, “the pride of the world.” See: 1 Nephi 12:13-23, “the depths thereof are the depths of hell.”

{4} Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3.

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1 Nephi 11:28-33 

28 And I beheld that he went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory; and the multitudes were gathered together to hear him; and I beheld that they cast him out from among them.
29 And I also beheld twelve others following him. And it came to pass that they were carried away in the Spirit from before my face, and I saw them not.
30 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the heavens open again, and I saw angels descending upon the children of men; and they did minister unto them.
31 And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and the angel spake and showed all these things unto me. And they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.
32 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.
33 And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world.

The scriptures try to teach us about the Savior’s Atonement, but their words cannot open to our finite minds how badly it hurt him nor the extent of its infinite and eternal consequences. Luke, who writes with more intimate knowledge than the others, tells something of the Savior’s agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-44). The Savior himself explained it to the Prophet Joseph. His words are powerful, but equally beyond the grasp of a finite mind (D&C 19:15-19).

In 1925, Orson F. Whitney, a poet, historian, and apostle, spoke Latter-day Saint teenagers at the MIA June Conference. He told them that when he was a 21 year old missionary serving in Pennsylvania he had a vision during which he watched the Savior’s agony in Gethsemane. He said:

One night I dreamed—if dream it may be called—that I was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a witness of the Savior’s agony. I saw Him as plainly as I see this congregation. I stood behind a tree in the foreground, where I could see without being seen. Jesus, with Peter, James and John, came through a little wicket gate at my right. Leaving the three Apostles there, after telling them to kneel and pray, he passed over to the other side, where he also knelt and prayed. It was the same prayer with which we are all familiar: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:36-44; Mark 14:32-41; Luke 22:42).

As he prayed the tears streamed down his face, which was toward me. I was so moved at the sight that I wept also, out of pure sympathy with his great sorrow. My whole heart went out to him, I loved him with all my soul, and longed to be with him as I longed for nothing else.

Presently he arose and walked to where the Apostles were kneeling—fast asleep! He shook them gently, awoke them, and in a tone of tender reproach, untinctured by the least suggestion of anger or scolding asked them if they could not watch with him one hour. There he was, with the weight of the world’s sin upon his shoulders, with the pangs of every man, woman and child shooting through his sensitive soul—and they could not watch with him one poor hour!

Returning to his place, he prayed again, and then went back and found them again sleeping. Again he awoke them, admonished them, and returned and prayed as before. Three times this happened, until I was perfectly familiar with his appearance—face, form and movements. He was of noble stature and of majestic mien—not at all the weak, effeminate being that some painters have portrayed—a very God among men, yet as meek and lowly as a little child.

All at once the circumstance seemed to change, the scene remaining just the same. Instead of before, it was after the crucifixion, and the Savior, with those three Apostles, now stood together in a group at my left. They were about to depart and ascend into Heaven. I could endure it no longer. I ran out from behind the tree, fell at his feet, clasped him around the knees, and begged him to take me with him.

I shall never forget the kind and gentle manner in which He stooped and raised me up and embraced me. It was so vivid, so real, that I felt the very warmth of his bosom against which I rested. Then He said: “No, my son; these have finished their work, and they may go with me, but you must stay and finish yours.” Still I clung to him. Gazing up into his face—for he was taller than I—I besought him most earnestly: “Well, promise me that I will come to you at the last.” He smiled sweetly and tenderly and replied: “That will depend entirely upon yourself.” I awoke with a sob in my throat, and it was morning.

“That’s from God,” said my companion (Elder A. M. Musser), when I had related it to him. “I don’t need to be told that,” was my reply. I saw the moral clearly. I had never thought that I would be an Apostle, or hold any other office in the Church; and it did not occur to me even then. Yet I knew that those sleeping apostles meant me. I was asleep at my post—as any man is, or any woman, who, having been divinely appointed to do one thing, does another.{1}

The scriptures that say Christ bled from every pore all reference the Garden (Luke 22:44, Mosiah 3:7-8). About that agony, the Savior said:

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men (D&C 19:1-41).

The shock to his system and loss of blood would have killed you or me.

Then the Romans whipped him. Jewish law would have limited that to 40 stripes, but Roman law did not. After the sharp iron barbs in the whip had ripped muscle tissue from one’s back and ribs, those barbs would dig into the lungs. Such a whipping was a death sentence. The soldiers were amazed that Jesus did not die and returned him to Pilot.

In addition to the physical pain and the pain in the Garden, he also felt the sorrow of being rejected by people he tried to save.

He then experienced death on the cross.

As we understand it, all of that together was one dreadful experience, and was much more intense than we can possibly imagine. It took place on this little earth but in its magnitude it reached out to encompass the whole universe in the whole duration of linear time. We are always a bit bothered when we hear someone try to describe the pain suffered by Jehovah/Jesus, the Great God of Heaven, by comparing it to the pain suffered by hundreds of ordinary people who were killed on similar crosses. The comparison may be partially correct, but it certainly is inadequate.

While his Eternal Self stayed within that wasted body and willed it to continue to live, not die, his soul took upon himself all of the sins, sorrows, sickness, pain, inequities, and contradictions—not just for this world, but for God’s children throughout the whole universe—not just in this physical time but throughout the entirety of our existence. The Atonement it much bigger than we tend to think, as the Prophet Joseph wrote in a poem he published about a year and a half before he died.

And I heard a great voice bearing record from heav’n,
He’s the Saviour and only begotten of God;

By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,
Even all that careen in the heavens so broad.

Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,
Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours;

And, of course, are begotten God’s daughters and sons
By the very same truths and the very same powers.{2}

After Gethsemane, the Savior’s agony continued he said “it is finished,” and then died on the cross. One of the most powerful testimonies in the Old Testament that shows they understood something of the magnitude of the Atonement is the 22nd Psalm. The first two thirds of the psalm are a vivid description of the Savior’s pain while he was on the cross. Its first lines were quoted by the Savior as he experienced the horror that the psalm had prophesied:

1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1).

At the conclusion of its prophecy of the crucifixion, 22nd Psalm tells that after the Savior left the cross, he descended in triumph into the spirit world, “in the midst of the congregation” of the dead—just as in D&C 138. It is a testimony of the Savior’s final triumph before his resurrection.{3}

Our friend Ben Tingey wrote this explanation of the infinite and eternal nature of the Savior’s Atonement:

I wish to share a few insights about how the Atonement does not only consist of his suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross, but on Christ’s eternal nature prior to it. These insights have a two-fold effect: They demonstrate that the Atonement was a nearly eternal process and that Christ was the only one of Heavenly Father’s children qualified to execute it. For this I am grateful that the only person qualified was also willing to do it.
The Atonement had to be performed by someone who was:

1. Sinless
2. Perfectly Loving
3. Half mortal/half immortal.

1. Sinless:

Christ was the only qualified candidate to perform the Atonement because He was the only perfectly obedient son of our Heavenly Father. When members of the Church refer to Christ’s sinless character they are usually alluding only to Christ’s perfect mortal life (Hebrews 4:15); how Christ endured mortal temptations like we do and did not give in, never disobeying His Father. However, we know that Christ was chosen as our Savior long before He arrived on earth. He still had to fit the qualifications in premortal realms as well. Thus we can conclude that Christ has always been perfect. In His entire eternal existence, Christ has never disobeyed His Father, has always chosen light over darkness, has always chosen service over self. If a sinless existence was necessary to perform the Atonement, then that sinless existence had to be an eternal one. If Christ had ever made a mistake during any phase of His eternal progression He would have disqualified Himself from being able to perform the Atonement. Just one slip up and we would all be doomed to eternal damnation (see 2 Nephi 9). Therefore, any temptation, or even any exercise of agency, prior to the event of the Atonement (Gethsemane through Calvary), has to be included in what we call Christ’s Atonement because the fact that He was sinless allowed Him to perform it in the first place. The Atonement doesn’t just include His suffering for sin, but His own personal victory over sin which made it possible for Him to take our sins upon Himself. In this way His perfect nature becomes part of the Atonement because the Atonement required the sacrifice of a perfect being, and that perfect being had successfully endured trials and temptations for eons of time.

2. Perfectly Loving

One essential element of righteous living is that we must not only do the right thing, but we must do it for the right reasons (Moroni 7:6-12). Pure intentions and motivations must accompany a good work for it to be deemed righteous. The event of the Atonement required pure motivations and intentions. Christ possesses and embodies perfect charity. His love is infinite, without beginning or end. Christ had to perform the Atonement because He loved us and wished to obey His Father, not for any shred of glory upon Himself. There was absolutely no room for even a shadow of pride or vanity. As I stated previously, those perfect motivations had to be kept in force for an eternity prior to the event of the Atonement. If Christ had ever thought to please Himself first rather than His Father or any of us, or if He sought any kind of inappropriate recognition for His works or for His execution of the Atonement, then He would have disqualified Himself from being able to perform the Atonement. He had to do it out of love, and love alone. He has always loved us with a perfect love, even before we came to this earth. That love had to be kept pure, those motivations had to be true, for Christ’s entire eternal existence prior to the event of the Atonement for Him to have been worthy enough to perform it. If He did anything for any other reason than love then its power would have been shattered and we would “become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies” (2 Nephi 9:9). In this way, Christ’s perfectly loving nature becomes a part of the event of Atonement.

3. Half mortal/Half immortal

Many people in the Church don’t really understand the significance of why Christ had to be born of a virgin mother. It isn’t just a cute and miraculous story, it makes the Atonement possible. Amulek taught that “it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice” (Alma 34:10). Amulek is making a comparison between mortal and immortal things, temporary and permanent things. Humans, beasts, and fowls are in and of themselves not infinite and eternal beings. Our mortal existence is limited. The sacrifice of a man, or beast, or fowl will therefore only generate limited spiritual power because the sacrifice itself is mortal. The great and last sacrifice required an infinite and eternal sacrifice: the sacrifice of a god. Born of a virgin mortal mother and a heavenly immortal father, Christ was half mortal and half immortal. This enabled Him to have control over when His spirit left His body. It also allowed Him to feel the mortal struggles that we endure. We understand that he suffered more than any mortal man could have endured (Mosiah 3:7). But not only that, it made His sacrifice of infinite and eternal nature. The sacrifice of something mortal can only have mortal power. The sacrifice of something immortal wields infinite power. If Christ had been entirely mortal then His sacrifice could have only reached as far as this earth’s mortal existence, nothing before and nothing beyond. It may have paid the price for our mortal sins, but it would have stopped there. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ll achieve perfection before I die. We’ll all need the Atonement after this life, and we definitely needed it before we came. Christ’s infinite Atonement was infinite because the sacrifice, Christ Himself, was an infinite kind of being. In this way, Christ’s half mortal/half immortal existence forms a part of the event of the Atonement because if He hadn’t been half man/half God His Atonement would have been limited to a mortal scope, and not the infinite sweep which you spoke of.

We may therefore conclude that the Atonement of Christ was not limited to the period of time when he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and triumphed over death through His resurrection, but was in the works since the beginning of time. Every good choice that Christ made, with pure intentions behind it, qualified Christ to perform the Atonement. His legacy of perfect love and obedience allowed the half mortal/half immortal son of God to perform a vicarious Atonement for each one of God’s children.{4}

Scott Stewart added to the conversation, and in doing so opened our eyes to questions and possibilities that we had never considered before. Scott wrote:

I was deeply touched by your and Ben’s thoughts and beliefs on the Atonement. Over the past several years I have spent many hours pondering some of the same feelings you shared. Although I know he suffered immense physical pain, beyond any of our personal ability to comprehend, I personally believe that the greater pain came with the emotional suffering and disappointment he endured in being betrayed by those he so loved.

On one occasion I got a very small glimpse of part of what he must of endured. When I served as a bishop (and you have probably heard this many times before), I tasted for a brief moment, in the smallest possible degree, the pain of disappointment. It was on a Sunday afternoon after our normal block of meetings when I meet with a sweet sister who struggled with wayward children and many other disappointments and physical ailments in her life. Just months before we talked she had suffered a debilitating stroke that took most of her speech and greatly impacted her health. When she began describing all she was experiencing, and had for many years, I said a silent prayer, and asked if there was some way I could relieve her of those burdens for a few moments. Like you taught me on one occasion you have to be careful what you ask for, and in this experience that was certainly true. For a very brief time (probably 30 seconds or so) I felt the weight of her pains come upon me. Never before, and never since, have I hurt like that and felt such pain. Every part of my body ached with pain as it never had before. I felt a great love and empathy for this wonderful sister who was enduring so much. We shed many tears together and this sweet sister returned home.

I sat in my office for some time after that experience exhausted and overwhelmed. For just a brief moment I carried the pain and disappointment of one soul. I can’t imagine what the Savior must have suffered for all of us. In her case it wasn’t sin or physical pain, but perhaps the most painful kind, disappointment, heart ache, loneliness, and so forth.{5}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} “The Divinity of Jesus Christ by Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve,” Improvement Era, January 1926, No. 3.

{2} Joseph Smith, A Vision in Times and Seasons, Feb. 1, 1843.

{3} For a discussion of Psalm 22 in the context of the Savior’s atonement, see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, First edition, p. 415-42; Second edition, p. 300-323.

{4} Benjamin H. Tingey to LeGrand L. Baker, August 3, 2011.

{5} Scott J. Stewart to LeGrand L. Baker, August 16, 2011.

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