Nephi’s Ministry in 3 Nephi 7 as a Parallel of Christ’s

15 And it came to pass that Nephi—having been visited by angels and also the voice of the Lord, therefore having seen angels, and being eye-witness, and having had power given unto him that he might know concerning the ministry of Christ, and also being eye-witness to their quick return from righteousness unto their wickedness and abominations;

16 Therefore, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds—went forth among them in that same year, and began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.

17 And he did minister many things unto them; and all of them cannot be written, and a part of them would not suffice, therefore they are not written in this book. And Nephi did minister with power and with great authority.

18 And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily.

19 And in the name of Jesus did he cast out devils and unclean spirits; and even his brother did he raise from the dead, after he had been stoned and suffered death by the people.

20 And the people saw it, and did witness of it, and were angry with him because of his power; and he did also do many more miracles, in the sight of the people, in the name of Jesus.

21 And it came to pass that the thirty and first year did pass away, and there were but few who were converted unto the Lord; but as many as were converted did truly signify unto the people that they had been visited by the power and Spirit of God, which was in Jesus Christ, in whom they believed.

22 And as many as had devils cast out from them, and were healed of their sicknesses and their infirmities, did truly manifest unto the people that they had been wrought upon by the Spirit of God, and had been healed; and they did show forth signs also and did do some miracles among the people.

23 Thus passed away the thirty and second year also. And Nephi did cry unto the people in the commencement of the thirty and third year; and he did preach unto them repentance and remission of sins.

24 Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water.

25 Therefore, there were ordained of Nephi, men unto this ministry, that all such as should come unto them should be baptized with water, and this as a witness and a testimony before God, and unto the people, that they had repented and received a remission of their sins.

26 And there were many in the commencement of this year that were baptized unto repentance; and thus the more part of the year did pass away. (3 Nephi 7:15-26, emphasis added)

In 3 Nephi 7, during the awful disunity among the Nephites, when the government was destroyed and society broke up into tribes, the bright spot is the prophet Nephi and his ministry.

It struck me that there were many ways that Nephi’s ministry paralleled that of Jesus Christ half a world away. You can notice the timing—Nephi started in the 30^th year after the sign of Christ’s birth and continued on right to the sign of Christ’s death. Verse 15 tells us Nephi had power given him that he might know of the ministry of Christ, which means that either in dreams or open visions he saw it happening and likely did his best to follow the example he was given.

Although Mormon doesn’t go into detail about the things Nephi said in his ministry, besides his testimony and preaching faith in Christ and repentance of sins, we are told his words were very powerful and he had great authority given to him. He did many miracles, such as casting out devils and unclean spirits, and raising someone (his brother) from the dead. He had angels minister to him daily.

He converted but few at the beginning, but their conversions were real, and then he ordained others to preach and baptize, and then we are told many were baptized unto repentance. It sounds as though he was re-forming the church organization that had been previously broken up and that he was making significant headway in improving how things were. It is really sad we don’t have more about him because I’m sure that point-for-point his ministry would have followed Christ’s.

There was a time in the 90^th year of the reign of judges (corresponding to about 2 B.C.) when there were Nephites who wondered why Jesus would not show himself to the Nephites as well as those in Jerusalem. They worried about being kept in ignorance just because they couldn’t witness with their eyes that the prophecies of Christ were coming true (see Helaman 16:18-20). The ministry of Nephi seems to have been the Lord’s answer to that concern, meant to show the Nephites what the ministry of Christ was like, so as to leave them without excuse. The result was that the humble and repentant were visited by the power and spirit of God, and were blessed for their belief in Christ—they were healed, and did show signs and did some miracles, while others were angry that Nephi had more power than they did.

In the larger perspective, Nephi’s ministry was a very serious thing—it was the last call to repentance the people would have before the great destruction that would occur at the time of Christ’s death. Rejecting such a powerful witness brings very serious consequences.

But for those who believed and repented, all the great things they saw and heard and did and felt during Nephi’s ministry were only a preliminary blessing to what they would receive when Christ visited them after His resurrection.

The disciples reason who should be the greatest

Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. (Luke 9:46)

The way the scriptures talk about this incident we learn from Jesus’s response that it was kind of an egotistical thing for them to do to reason who of them should be greatest.  But I suppose if we were to think about it, we’d probably see it came out of a different place than ego and then turned into ego.

I bet that it first came out of the consciousness of the amazing things Jesus did and their knowledge that He was the Messiah, the anointed one.  From this they would begin to ponder the high privileged role they each filled in being so close to Him, being of that inner circle.   They knew Jesus was going to be remembered and I suppose they wondered if any of them would be remembered too.  This would cause them to ponder which of them deserved to be remembered for being the greatest, next to Jesus of course.

This is when Jesus tells them that the greatest will be the least, or the servant of all.  I guess one shouldn’t spend time thinking about one’s legacy, but rather concentrating on finding ways to be of service to others.

KJV versus JST: Seek ye first the kingdom

KJV	JST
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt 6:33)	Wherefore, seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. (JST Matt 6:33)

Interesting differences here.

The first one I notice is by saying “But seek ye first the kingdom of God,” the KJV implies the disciples of Christ do not have the kingdom of God and have not attained to God’s righteousness, since they are told to seek those things. 

The JST, on the other hand, by saying “seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God” assumes the disciples do have both the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.  This states that since they have those things, their mission is to build up that kingdom and establish the righteous principles they have learned among its citizens and among as much of the world as they can.

Another difference I notice is the KJV makes it seem like the disciples are allowed to seek the things of the world as long as they seek the kingdom of God first.  But the JST, with the addition of “Wherefore, seek not the things of this world” clarifies that the disciples are not to seek the things of the world at all. 

So, the JST clarifies what the disciples have, what their mission is, and what they are not to worry about.

Paul finds some odd disciples

1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.

4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. (Act 19:1-6)

This is such a peculiar story.  First, Paul finds “certain disciples.”  Considering what we read about how little they knew, I have to wonder how he determined they were disciples.  They only knew the baptism of John (or thought they had it), yet they didn’t even have the essentials of John’s message about the coming Messiah who would baptize them with fire and the Holy Ghost.  It is when Paul starts probing into their foundational religious experience with ordinances that he discovers their ignorance.  A real disciple of John would have known about that promise of the Holy Ghost.

What are we to make of this?  I personally think this indicates there were people running around claiming authority to administer baptism, claiming to be disciples of John, yet who had discarded the essentials of John’s message about the coming of the Messiah and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  One of these false teachers seems to have gotten to these people and made converts of them. 

Paul had to fill them in on what they didn’t know about John’s baptism and testimony of Christ.  Happily, they were sincere and honest of heart, so they listened and submitted to be re-baptized (since their previous baptism was invalid) and received confirmation.  They could easily have refused with suspicion, wondering if Paul was yet another false teacher.

From this story we can detect how Satan works in the background to try to keep people from the truth.  He presents counterfeits of the truth or partial truths, knowing that when people encounter the truth they will wonder how to know it isn’t just another counterfeit.  He knows people worry about being “taken in again” once they discover they were deceived.

Thankfully, this story also shows how one can know one is gaining the truth.  Paul explained to these disciples the missing information about John’s baptism and the purpose behind it.  Truth reveals missing info and missing purpose.   Also, when they received the ordinances, they received the Holy Ghost which manifested itself in the gift of tongues and prophecy.  This was the Lord’s sign to these disciples that they had found and obeyed the truth and it was from God.  They could know for themselves and not just what some person had told them.  True ordinances bring true spiritual manifestations from God.

I love this story because it shows that this is not the work of man, but the work of the Lord and He is the one that fulfills the promises.  The Lord is still at work today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and fulfills His promises in the holy ordinances.  Our church can add many missing pieces to what other Christians are missing, helping them to understand where they come from, why they are here in this life, what this life is for, and where they will go in the afterlife.  If you want to know, ask your Mormon friends, or chat with the missionaries or come to one of ourchurches and ask us.

The Gift of Being Translated

 3 Nephi 28 is a very interesting chapter about the two different gifts that Christ gave to his disciples.  Nine were given the gift that they would come speedily to His kingdom when their days on the earth were over, and three were given the gift to remain on the earth until Christ’s second coming so they could have more time to teach the gospel.

This chapter is significant for a number of reasons.  First, we don’t have detail about translated beings in the Bible and this chapter tells us much about the nature of translated beings.  We learn:

·      They are holy and sanctified in the flesh (v39)

·      Satan has no power over them to tempt them (v39)

·      They are like angels and can show themselves to people when they pray for it (v30)

·      They will have a fullness of joy for their efforts. (v10)

·      They have power over natural forces and the powers of earth can’t hold them (v19-22, 39)

·      They don’t experience pain or sorrow except for the sins of the world (v9)

·      They won’t die, but instead will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality (v8)

In the Bible, all we have about translated beings is a little bit about Jesus suggesting that John would tarry until the second coming.  But in the Book of Mormon, we get a whole chapter mostly devoted to not just one, but three people who are given this amazing gift.  The language is clear and explanatory.

We also learn that the desire to stay on the earth longer in order to do missionary work is a better desire than to quickly go to God’s kingdom in heaven.   I suppose that staying to do missionary work is much more unselfish and even involves sacrificing rest in the spirit world, not to mention the prospect of being together with the wife and the children.

What always gets me is that a desire so incredible can be granted like that.  Every time I read about it, I am astounded and it makes me feel like I don’t have enough vision to sense what is possible.  Not only does it astound me that Jesus granted their desire, it astounds me that the three Nephites had it.  Somehow they believed enough in Jesus’s power of resurrection to think that he could grant them the power to stay on earth longer.  But now it occurs to me, what is more miraculous—to be granted the ability to live for thousands of years longer before passing to immortality, or to die and then be resurrected later? 

What this story also does is indirectly bring us to ask ourselves the question, “If I wanted to live for several thousand years longer while not subject to pain or sorrow (and perhaps enjoying a body at the peak of its prime), what would I do with my time?”  Would I become a major sports star?  Would I build a business empire and accumulate mountains of wealth?  Would I have oodles of children?  Would I go on mission after mission after mission after mission…?  What the three Nephites wanted to do was essentially the same as God’s work and glory—to help bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  They would go on one mission after another, such that all their missions were connected together.

So I was asking myself why the Lord would want us to know about this and how it can help us today.  When I was looking at the list of things above, I noticed that there is one aspect that is within our reach as Saints—that of becoming holy.  It’s a spiritual transformation that we can attain to through the Atonement.  Being translated is a transformation of the body to a higher state, being sanctified in the flesh.   And it is seems to me that this may be something that is can be attained gradually, as is spoken of in the oath and covenant of the priesthood.  “For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.” (D&C 84:33) 

So maybe being faithful to obtain the priesthood and magnifying one’s calling brings a slow transformation through the power of the Holy Ghost with the same ultimate end as one would have if they were translated in an instant like the three Nephites. 

A final thing I notice is that Moroni was forbidden to write the names of these three Nephites, making them anonymous. (We can’t go around testing people by asking them their names, nor can we give those names to our children and make them common.)  Then he confides to us that the three Nephite disciples will be among both the Jews and the Gentiles and both these peoples won’t know it.  (They are like secret agents for God, spiritual navy seals, as it were.)  Finally, he gives a warning: “wo be unto him that will not hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and sent among them; for whoso receiveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent receiveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day” (v34).  It seems the Lord wants the world to receive any missionaries as if they are one of these three Nephite disciples.