The following is the text to a series of videos I produced to expand upon the meaning of First Nephi 1:1.
21. Ancient Emphatics
Adding truth and power to your life.
View the Video (5:42)
If I close my eyes, I can just see an earnest and enthusiastic Nephi regaling an anxious crowd with tales from his storied past. At one point he pauses. “Listen,” I imagine him saying, his arms slowly opening. “You think those experiences were great? They were just the warmup. Yes!” He crashes his hands together, jabs a finger at his audience and then points to Heaven. “Let me tell you what happens next.” He then brings them to their knees with prophecy. Propelled by his testimony, the Spirit breaks through their doubts and buries itself in their faith.
Man, I wish I had been there.
All of this is revealed by one little cinematic word: “Yea”. Or, as Nephi used it, “Having been highly favored of the Lord, yea …” Let’s take a closer look at what that emphatic entails and why Nephi aimed it at us.
The word “yea” is an ancient word of emphasis adding truth and power to statements following the original observation. “What happened before was great,” Nephi said in effect. “I was born of goodly parents, my father taught me, I had many afflictions—but I was highly favored of the Lord. Not only that—insert emphatic here—but I gained a great knowledge of God’s goodness and mysteries.”
The audience must have been awed. Talk about being highly favored of the Lord! Nephi must have been one exemplary son.
He was.
Can you see the balance at play here? Nephi said he had afflictions, but he also had good times. God balanced the good and bad in his life based on Nephi’s response to trials. Opportunity, temptation, response, reward—a harmonic balance calibrated to his strengths and weakness and aimed to help him progress. Nephi emphasized that good comes to the obedient.
God has the same plan for you.
The root of this process is the eternal balancing act between justice and mercy, two seemingly irreconcilable forces. In the Atonement, God’s supreme act of mercy, Christ recognized that sometimes we don’t make it through our challenges well. We fall short of our potential, of what God knows we can do. That recognition makes us uncomfortable in God’s presence. In essence, we stand at the entrance of a glowing banquet hall, staring at the people inside, all of whom are dressed in white. We recognize them. They are our family. We want to join them but a doorman blocks the way, staring at us.
We follow his gaze. Looking down, we see ourselves covered in ragged filth. Surprised, embarrassed and even anguished, we shudder and turn away. We could never be comfortable among people dressed like that, no matter how welcoming they are. The doorman is right to keep us away.
At the other side of the hall, the host notices a problem and sends his son to the door. He invites us to enter but we turn away.
Through the Atonement, Christ took upon Himself the price of our separation from His Father. While justice in effect says to us, “You can’t come in here like that,” Christ buys us back by taking upon himself the price of our actions, freeing us from the impossibility of paying for them ourselves. He helps us wash away our dirt, as it were, and exchanges our rags for new clothes. Arm-in-arm, He escorts us into the hall to a roar of approval.
This process fulfills and restores balance between justice and mercy and allows us to be judged under God’s grace. This allows us the time, circumstances, and helps to overcome our challenges. What He asks in return is our gratitude. We show our gratitude by verbally thanking Him, of course, but more importantly by giving up what separates us from Him, by changing our lives to be more like His. He gives us everything He has and asks us to do the same for Him. In doing so we become more able to live the life He lives and eager to enter that hall.
Next time we will learn more about ourselves and this process.
22. Great Knowledge
Gaining a broad and deep knowledge of God, yourself and your purpose.
View the Video (6:15)
Nephi applied the scientific method to his writings, detailing a testable, repeatable, and observable process for gaining revelation. He exercised this process again and again over his entire life, preserving the formulas in his books, adding quotes from others who had applied the same tests and gotten the same results.
For him, revelation was a fact so real that he staked his life on it several times. Through this process he gained a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God. His goal was for us to accept and apply this process in our lives so we can experience similar results. How can we do this? Let’s take a look.
I want to be clear—you will never find God though worldly means. Certainly, the scientific method can point to evidence, but you will never discover God in any microscope or telescope, or by appealing only to logic or philosophy.
Over-reliance on worldly methods to certify spiritual truths will end in frustration. Why? Because God values free will. He wants us to surpass the seductive and sometimes deceptive search for mere facts and live by faith. In so doing we can become rather just accept. While anyone can read a passage declaring that one plus one equals two, not until they willingly immerse themselves in the mathematic disciplines will they see that formula’s complexity, beauty and universal power.
Similarly, having God show Himself to everyone at their whim will not unveil to us the power and beauty of discovering Him ourselves, allowing us to gain confidence in Him and ourselves through experience. That way we gradually, naturally take upon us His attributes, discovering not only who He is but why. We can turn passive acceptance of His ways into living, willing, earnest—and even sacrificing—emulation, harvesting the joys that line that path.
Therefore, it is perfectly appropriate for Nephi to use the phrase “great knowledge”. “Great” can mean wonderful, as in “I know something. Isn’t that great?” It can also mean broad, as in having a knowledge of several things. But I like to think that Nephi centered the word here on capacity, highlighting that he knew God in depth. Why would he say that? To help us develop our own testimonies by relying on the rock and power of his. It piques our curiosity: Nephi knew this stuff. How can I?
For Nephi to have great knowledge of God, he must has known his subject intimately. Like any scholar, he would have studied his writings and anything written about him, talked with people who knew him, visited his home town, maybe learned his language and ate the same kind of food.
Ideally, he would have known him personally, heard his voice, learned his mannerisms, asked him questions and analyzed his responses. He would have spent time with him, watched his responses and then stood back to see how history judged him. That process could have even led the scholar to become a bit like him.
Nephi did these things.
This is where the phrase “great knowledge” has power. Knowledge of what? Of whom? Of God. Of His goodness and mysteries. Note that Nephi uses the word knowledge—not “faith” or “belief” or even “maybe”. He fulfilled those by knowing. This book contains facts and truth, builds faith, and shows us how to apply these concepts in our own lives. As such, it is a conduit for revelation from the source of all truth itself.
Truth is knowledge of things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come. It is experience added to example added to study. It is real, lifelong, eternal learning and real, sustaining joy. This is the very definition of eternity. This book’s truths apply as surely now as they did when the book was written, even though we live in wildly different times. The same is true for Nephi’s promise that you can gain knowledge as he did, by study, by personal experience, by gaining direct instruction from God through the Spirit, and in your prayers.
Next time, we will look at one of Nephi’s most wonderful discoveries: God’s goodness.
23. Goodness
Good is the defining characteristic of God and His plans for us.
View the Video (7:41)
All good things come from God. This is something I learn more each day. God gave us this planet, our life, and the ability to overcome the wrong in our lives and change. He implanted in us our longing for Him and our inner sense of divine potential, granting to us challenges, opportunities, plans, and helps, even the air we breathe. He also enables bugs, thorns, weeds, opposition, and trials. Ultimately, as we said before, all of this was planned and allowed for and will work toward our ultimate good. How does this happen? Let’s take a look.
It is significant that, of God’s many attributes, Nephi focused on His goodness: “Having had a great knowledge of the goodness … of God.” He bookended his writings with it, mentioning it here in the first verse and as the nearly final subject of his writings, where he warns of consequences for those who will not partake of God’s goodness.
Ultimately, the disasters, droughts, floods, fires, wars, murders, hate and many other challenges we face are evidence of God’s goodness. He warns us not to get involved in destructive or destractive behaviors, tells us why, and shows us the glorious or miserable consequences that naturally follow our choices. He then lets us choose our way, setting up guidebooks, inspired people, personalized impressions and teaching circumstances to help us move forward in our own way and time, supporting us every moment.
Like any loving parent steadying a toddler, He stands behind us, His hands ready to catch, waiting for us to choose for ourselves to take the needed steps. He knows that He cannot take those steps for us. His goal is to help us become like him, willingly, not with frustration, resentment or robot-like submission, but eager to leap into our glorious destiny. And those encouragements and helps continue with us into the next life, where our understanding will be perfected and those who have not had a chance to hear of Him will be fully taught.
When all is done and we behold Him at the judgment day, we will know that all things He allowed to happen were perfect and just opportunities for us to be completely and fairly taught and judged according to our thoughts and actions.
That is because He is good. Eternally, ultimately, unfathomably good. Nephi came to know this, as we can, by daily immersing himself in good things and by avoiding evil. As Moroni says, “Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.
“But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”
The human heart is a journey of change. Nephi experienced the dregs of life so he could be opened to and receive God’s goodness. What he went through changed his heart so that he could change his life and willingly, eagerly seek to seek his Father’s side.
The same applies to us.
As wonderful as this sounds, that someone can be so unconditionally and uncompromisingly good remains one of life’s greatest mysteries, something we will explore next time.
24. Mysteries
The greatest mystery in the universe, revealed to help you unveil your own mysteries.
View the Video (6:35)
Nephi quoted his father as saying, “Men are that they might have joy”. This simple statement reveals the primary reason why men and women are on Earth, and what God wants most for each of us.
By inference, he also stated that God is happy and that He wants us to share in that happiness.
With all the pain in this world, how can our purpose be happiness? Why would God allow bad things to happen to us? Nephi’s statement that he “had a great knowledge … of the mysteries of God” qualifies him as a good source of answers. Let’s take a look at what he said about this.
One of life’s greatest mysteries is our relationship to God. Who is He? Does He exist? Why? Does He care about us? Why should I care about Him?
Last time we said that God’s relation to us is as a parent to a child. He is our actual father in Heaven, the father of our spirits. Before birth, we lived as fully developed spirits with Him, having free will, individual personalities, and spirit bodies much like our physical bodies today. He gave us life, food, air, unconditional love, patience, and teaching opportunities that encouraged us to learn and improve.
In coming to earth, we found it to be much the same as our pre-Earth life, except that our spirit bodies are now crammed into unfamiliar physical packages. One of our purposes here is to learn how to pair the two, eventually uniting them into one final, eternal form. Essentially, this life is a well-planned and closely monitored school to help us learn who we are and how to master our physical and spiritual identities. Constant helps surround us but even so, like any child, we have to learn how to master our forms ourselves.
Like any loving father, God understands if we fall short. He doesn’t condemn us if we fall while trying to walk; He helps us to our feet and encourages us to try again. He gives with no expectation of repayment; He appreciates our appreciation and is happy when we take His advice. He is deeply touched when we thank Him for what He has done.
If all that is true, why can’t we see Him? There are many reasons, the biggest being mercy. It is a mercy that God has hidden Himself from us in this life, because should we compare our own imperfect, fearful, doubting mortal state with His all-knowing, perfect, immortal life, we would shrink from Him, resent our comparative unfitness and run from His forgiveness and love.
Isn’t that how we react every time we meet someone we admire—a little doubtful, a little jealous, a little fearful? Sometimes we just hide from them. And yet we still are drawn toward him or her. God understands that. His gradual reveal raises the curtain behind which He stands a little at a time, helping us acclimate to His fullness and the processes of mercy, grace, repentance and atonement, stoking our fire to find Him as we are able to bear it, one return-to-our-feet-after-we-fall at a time.
Nephi spoke of many more of God’s mysteries, which time will not permit us to discuss here but which I encourage you to explore. He made it clear that we should all aspire to that same knowledge which He attained, a process outlined by a later prophet named Alma:
“It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.
“And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
“And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries …”
Nephi must have had a wondrously open heart. He sought to do what God wanted. His reward was to learn about God a little at a time until he attained great knowledge of Him. At that point, God’s mysteries were mysteries to him no more. Our challenge and destiny is to do the same.
We will touch more on this process next time.