1
Nephi 19:2
He
Knoweth All Things
What
2 And
I knew not at the time when I made them that I should be commanded of
the Lord to make these plates; wherefore, the record of my
father, and the genealogy of his fathers, and the more part of all
our proceedings in the wilderness are engraven upon those first
plates of which I have spoken; wherefore, the things which transpired
before I made these plates are,
of a truth, more particularly made mention upon the first plates.
1-
Nephi has been commanded to make a second set of plates
2-He
didn't know prior to this time that he would be making a second set
3-On
the first set he recorded the record of Lehi, his genealogy and the
journey in the wilderness.
4-Nephi
testifies that these records are true.
Why
One
record was for secular things (the first one)
One
record was for sacred things (the second one)
both
records were sacred though because he didn't write anything except he
thought it would be sacred and important enough to be recorded in
this difficult manner.
In
the latter days part of the translation was stolen. Because Nephi
had made a second record, Joseph Smith could use it and the evil men
who had stolen it could not dispute the record.
11 And
behold, I say unto you, that because they have altered the words,
they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be
written;
13 For
he hath put into their hearts to do this, that by lying they may say
they have caught you in the words which you have pretended
to translate.
14 Verily,
I say unto you, that I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish
his evil design in this thing.
15 For
behold, he has put it into their hearts to get thee
to tempt the Lord thy God, in asking to translate it over
again.
16 And
then, behold, they say and think in their hearts—We will see
if God has given him power to translate; if so, he will also give him
power again;
17 And
if God giveth him power again, or if he translates again, or, in
other words, if he bringeth forth the same words, behold, we have the
same with us, and we have altered them;
18 Therefore
they will not agree, and we will say that he has lied in his words,
and that he has no gift, and that he has no power;
19 Therefore
we will destroy him, and also the work; and we will do this that we
may not be ashamed in the end, and that we may get glory of
the world.
Pattern
From
D& C. Instructor's Guide-the Lost Manuscript Lesson 3-
Having Faith in God and His Purposes (Scripture Analysis, Discussion)
The
experience of the loss of the 116 manuscript pages offers an
excellent opportunity to teach what the prophet Mormon knew so
emphatically: “I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all
things which are to come” (Words
of Mormon 1:7).
President
Harold B. Lee said that a testimony that God knows all things is
a beginning point to faith in God: “ ‛O how great the holiness of
our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he
knows it.’ (2 Nephi
9:20)
Now, if you will just keep that in mind you have a beginning point,
you have a relationship with Him. We are His son, His daughter. He
knows us. He knows the very things and the times before appointed,
and the place where we would live, and the times in which we would
live.” (“To Be on Speaking Terms with God,” University of Utah
devotional address, 12 Oct. 1973, p. 4.)
Ephesians 2:10
10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them.
Jeremiah 1:5
5 Before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou
camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee
a prophet unto the nations.
Doctrine and Covenants 76:13
13
Even those things which were from the beginning before the
world was, which were ordained of
the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of
the Father, even from the beginning;
Christ
Jesus
was ordained to come to earth and to save all who would accept him
from their sins.
Doctrine and Covenants 132:28
28
I am the Lord thy God, and will give unto thee the law of my Holy
Priesthood, as was ordained by
me and my Father before the
world was.
Conference-10/1985-
Neal A Maxwell
Premortality,
A Glorious Reality
“Everything
in our life happens as though we entered upon it with a load of
obligations contracted in a previous existence … obligations whose
sanction is not of this present life, [which] seem to belong to a
different world, founded on kindness, scruples, sacrifice, a world
entirely different from this one, a world whence we emerge to be born
on this earth, before returning thither.” (Marcel Proust, in
Gabriel Marcel, Homo
Viator, New
York: Harper and Row, 1963, p. 8.)
...
This
declaration to Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,
and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer.
1:5)
was paralleled in the 1842 Book of Abraham:
“Now
the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were
organized before the world was; and among all these there were many
of the noble and great ones;
“And
God … said: These I will make my rulers; … and he said unto me:
Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast
born.” (Abr.
3:22–23.)
The
Book of Abraham, in corroborating section 93, used words whose full
measure you and I have scarcely begun to take: “if there be two
spirits, … notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other,
[they] have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end
… for they are … eternal.” (Abr.
3:18.)
From
long experience, His sheep know His voice and His doctrine.
Meanwhile, the soul weaving in process for such a long time goes on
as described in these anonymous lines:
May
we so believe, so trust, so submit, and so behave, I pray in the name
of Him who is the “Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye”
(C. S. Lewis, At
the Breakfast Table, p.
xxv), even Jesus Christ, amen.
Apply
The
beautiful words of the poem above say it all. Sometimes we forget
that we only see the underside. The best thing we can do is to trust
in Him and try to be as Christlike as we can. We are all placed
under difficult circumstances and asked to do things that we do not
understand but we are eternal beings and “our lives have meaning,
purpose and direction” (RS theme).
May
we remember to trust the Lord in all things. Especially in the hard
times. He knows every detail of our whole eternal existence.
As
Joseph Smith said “when the Lord gives a commandment, do it.”
Hymns
189-
O Thou, Before The World Began
284-If
You Could Hie To Kolob
301-I
Am A Child Of God
Children
4-I
Lived In Heaven
D&C
138 56 Even
before they were born, they, with many others, received their
first lessons in
the world of spirits and were prepared to
come forth in the due time of
the Lord to labor in his vineyard for
the salvation of the souls of men.
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