BOOK OF MORMON
2 Nephi - Chapter 11 Critique
Setting: Nephi supposedly began his second record in the Americas during 588 BCE about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and continued to 545 BCE. This would have covered the time of the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel who were prophesying in Babylon during the captivity.
Verse 1: AND now, Jacob spake many more things to my people at that time; nevertheless only these things have I caused to be written, for the things which I have written sufficeth me.
Note: True prophets of God never cut corners on the pronouncements of God.
Jeremiah 30:2 "Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: 'Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.'"
Verse 2: And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him.
Note: Nephi (Sidney Rigdon) never considered his sinfulness.
Isaiah 6:5 So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."
Verse 3: And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he proveth all his words.
Note: Two true witnesses will do.
Matthew 18:16 "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.'"
Verse 4: Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him.
Note: Biblical Scripture points to Jesus Christ not to a church, baptism, or a prophet.
Hebrews 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God.'"
Verse 5: And also my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soul delighteth in his grace, and in his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death.
Note: The old covenant of animal sacrifice according to the law has been done away with.
Hebrews 10:8-10 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Note: The new covenant of God is in the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.
Verse 6: And my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that save Christ should come all men must perish.
Note: Sincere belief (trust) in Jesus Christ provides eternal life with God not His coming.
John 3:14-15 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."
Verse 7: For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation. But there is a God, and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time.
Note: God is a plurality of persons known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Verse 8: And now I write some of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men.
Note: The first 116 pages of the original Book of Mormon were stolen by Lucy Harris. Sidney Rigdon in an desperate attempt to bulk up his replacement manuscript copied thirteen straight chapters from Isaiah using the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Despairingly he realized that it was impossible for him to reproduce the story exactly, and that to redictate it would be to invite devastating comparisons. Harris's wife taunted him: "If this be a divine communication, the same being who revealed it to you can easily replace it." Apparently she had actually destroyed the manuscript, for it has never reappeared. But for weeks Joseph writhed in self-reproach for his folly. To admit that the whole story of the golden plates was a mere figment of his dreaming would be to destroy Emma's faith in him forever. It would mean the end of Harris's patronage and the undying contempt of his father-in-law, upon whom he would probably have to depend for a livelihood. His father's family was counting on sales of the Book of Mormon to prevent foreclosure on their farm, since they had no money for the final payment. A retreat from the fantasy that he had created was impossible. No Man Knows My History, pages 54-55.