I’ve put off writing this post for many reasons—one being the fact that it has been difficult for me to separate the truths contained in these scriptures from the context in which those truths were taught to me. The context spans decades, so it would be a long blogpost if I gave the whole backstory. Trying to think of a way to teach what I have learned without writing a novel has been a challenge. I have also put this post off because I know that I still have a lot more to learn. However, I believe that there are many people who have the same misunderstandings that I did, and so I’m going to recount a few personal experiences with the hope that doing so will clear up those misunderstandings for others.
I was blessed in so many ways in my childhood. Regarding matters of religion, I was blessed in three ways, specifically. First, I was blessed to be raised in an LDS family. That might come as somewhat of a shock to people who have heard my current opinions of the LDS church, but it is the truth. Though the paternal side of my family has a long history of church membership, the maternal side does not. My dad also went through a very long period of inactivity before he met my mom. Circumstances were such that when my mom encouraged my dad to raise a family in a god-fearing household, he returned to his LDS upbringing. I consider that a tremendous blessing.
Secondly, I grew up close to extended family members who were well-versed in LDS doctrine and scripture. My grandfather and uncle were wonderful teachers who loved the truths of the gospel, and they taught them to me whenever an opportunity presented itself, in a way that my young mind could understand. It was common for them to talk about subjects like calling and election, the second comforter, and the second anointing—to the best of their understanding, anyway.
Finally, I was blessed to grow up in (what I see as) the last few years before subjects like those I just mentioned quickly stopped being discussed openly in the LDS church. After being taught by my grandfather and uncle, the Spirit powerfully confirmed to me the realities of those concepts in a Sunday School class when I was probably about 12 or 13. I don’t remember a specific passage of scripture that we might have been studying, but I do remember the teacher saying that we are all meant to have a face-to-face experience with the Savior, and I will never forget the Spirit telling me that I was to diligently seek after that. In the years that followed, I don’t recall those ideas being taught more than rarely, and they are almost never heard of in the LDS church today.
Fast forward a few decades and I was called to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher. I started teaching when the Book of Mormon was the course of study, just as the curriculum got to 2 Nephi 31-32. I was very excited to be teaching that class. I had taught in many positions before—every auxiliary organization, in fact, and seminary, too—but I was more than excited to be teaching a class that was strictly in the scriptures and that gave me more than 24 hours to prepare the next lesson. It gave me a reason to lock myself in my room, away from my kids, and dive into some intense scripture study throughout the week.
Knowing that you always run out of time to teach everything that you could teach in almost any class setting, I made a conscious decision to rely solely on scripture for reading material. I ditched the teacher’s manual during my lesson preparation, and that was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life! That decision, alone, put me in a position to (1) study the scriptures free from any biases from the LDS church’s curriculum department and (2) actively rely on the Spirit to clear up any confusion I had when I came to passages that I didn’t understand. It even started clearing up scriptures that I thought I did understand, like this one:
6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.
I remember being so excited about the possibility of receiving more doctrine—more understanding. And, of course, I knew exactly when more doctrine would be given. It would be after he manifested himself in the flesh. And where can we go to find an account of Christ manifesting himself in the flesh? In 3 Nephi 11, of course, when Christ visits Nephi’s descendants.
Want to know how quickly I jumped over to 3 Nephi 11? It wasn’t part of the assigned reading material that week, but I just knew that 3 Nephi 11 was surely going to yield some very “advanced” understanding about the gospel because 2 Nephi 31 was just the basics, right? 3 Nephi 11 should give us “more doctrine” than what is found in 2 Nephi 31. That’s what verse 6, quoted above, is saying, right?
Let’s find out:
31 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will declare unto you my doctrine.
32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.
33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.
34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.
35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.
36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one.
37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.
38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.
39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.
41 Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.
See any new doctrine? Yeah, I didn’t either.
I had one of those “wait a minute” moments. You know, where you realize that what you understood before doesn’t reconcile to some new piece of information? Something was wrong, and so I flipped back to 2 Nephi 32 and read verse 6 again:
6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.
It’s fascinating how words can just jump off a page and into the forefront of your consciousness. As I read that verse again, the words “unto you” immediately required me to re-examine Nephi’s intended audience. Up until that moment, I had always assumed that Nephi’s audience was his posterity—those who would witness the resurrected Lord as recorded in 3 Nephi, but it was clear to me that Christ gave no new doctrine at that time, and so something else in my understanding had to shift.
I asked what was missing, and the Spirit bore a very clear witness that “unto you” was directed to “me”—not me, specifically, but to every reader—every one of those whom Nephi calls his “beloved brethren” in verse one. He is speaking to those who have been reborn and who can have every honest expectation that they will be taught by the Holy Ghost until Christ manifests himself to them in the flesh.
The understanding that Nephi was trying to tell the reader that an intimate encounter with Christ was the inevitable result of living according to his doctrine caused my memory to race back to my old Sunday School class and to the teachings of my grandfather and uncle. As I remembered those things, the Spirit reminded me of the invitation and responsibility I had been given to diligently seek after that encounter, and it has been something that I have diligently sought after ever since.
7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be.
Before this experience, I had always wondered why Nephi’s change in dialogue is so abrupt in verse 7. His conversation with his audience seems to come to a very definite end. And that is because it is the end.
The phrase “endure to the end” gets tossed around a lot when we talk about Christ’s gospel, and I think that most people easily get the concept of enduring. This life, no matter how you look at it, is rough. Perseverance is the name of the game in many ways. Very few people, however, stop to really consider what the “end” is. I find that most people think that the “end” is death—the end of our mortal experience. But is that the end? Mormons aren’t given any reason to believe so. The LDS church teaches that there is progression beyond this life. Are we to believe that progression comes without adversity or opposition? To me, that flies in the face of reason, and so death cannot be called the “end.”
It has helped me to discover some of the definitions of “end.” Pay close attention to #15.
1. The extreme point of a line, or of anything that has more length than breadth; as the end of a house; the end of a table; the end of a finger; the end of a chain or rope. When bodies or figures have equal dimensions, or equal length and breadth, the extremities are called sides.
2. The extremity or last part, in general; the close or conclusion, applied to time.
3. The conclusion or cessation of an action.
4. The close or conclusion; as the end of a chapter.
5. Ultimate state or condition; final doom.
6. The point beyond which no progression can be made.
7. Final determination; conclusion of debate or deliberation.
8. Close of life; death; decease.
9. Cessation; period; close of a particular state of things; as the end of the world.
10. Limit; termination.
11. Destruction.
12. Cause of death; a destroyer.
13. Consequence; issue; result; conclusive event; conclusion.
14. A fragment or broken piece.
15. The ultimate point or thing at which one aims or directs his views; the object intended to be reached or accomplished by any action or scheme; purpose intended; scope; aim; drift; as private ends; public ends.
16. An end, for on end, upright; erect; as, his hair stands an end.
17. The ends of the earth, in scripture, are the remotest parts of the earth, or the inhabitants of those parts. (Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
What is the ultimate point or thing at which we should be aiming or directing our views? What is the object intended to be reached in this whole “scheme?”
It is Christ. He is the “end.” We apply this whole process of the doctrine of Christ until he manifests himself to us in the flesh. Nephi does not say any more because anything he might say would be less than what Christ can manifest to us, and Christ can’t manifest things to us until we have applied what Nephi labored to write about, so plainly, in chapter 31.
The doctrine of Christ is the means by which God transforms us from our fallen selves into sons and daughters of God worthy to be in his presence and which results in him manifesting himself unto us in the flesh.
(To Be Continued in Part II)