2 Nephi 25

Notes

• 25:13

  Compare 1 Nephi 22:15, 2 Nephi 26:4,6 with Malachi 4:1, and compare 2 Nephi 25:13 with Malachi 4:2. While Malachi is generally dated to around 400 B.C., the writings attributed to Nephi are said to fall between 588–545 B.C., creating a chronological tension. The Book of Mormon further complicates this issue by indicating that the Nephites did not possess the words of Malachi until after the appearance of Christ. As recorded:

  "Behold other scriptures I would that ye should write, that ye have not" (3 Nephi 23:6).

  "Write the words which the Father had given unto Malachi, which he should tell unto them... And these are the words which he did tell unto them, saying: Thus said the Father unto Malachi-Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, ..." (3 Nephi 24:1).

  Quoting from Malachi 4:1: "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall" (3 Nephi 25:1-2).

  These passages suggest that the Nephites did not have access to Malachi’s writings prior to Christ delivering them.

  "According to these verses the Nephites could not have had the words of Malachi until Christ came among them. LDS writer George Reynolds stated: 'As Malachi lived between two and three hundred years after Lehi left Jerusalem, the Nephites knew nothing of the glorious things that the Father had revealed to him until Jesus repeated them.' However, if the Nephites didn't have the writings of Malachi until the coming of Christ, how did Nephi quote them in 545 B.C.?" -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 21.

• 25:16-26

  Written in approximately 550 B.C., 2 Nephi 25:16-26 provides an excellent example of a "theological anachronism."

  LDS scholar, Grant Hardy observes: "In 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the book's first critics (and certainly the first one to read it carefully), famously observed that it seemed to weigh in on all the popular religious questions of the day, including 'infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry , the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the right of the man.' This is a fair list, and references to these topics-or their analogous counterparts-can be found throughout the Book of Mormon." -Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, p. 184

  M.T. Lamb writes, "The whole Old Testament, as we have it, proceeds upon the assumption that these new Testament truths were not fully understood by the Old Testament writers. The entire system of bloody sacrifices, as found in the law of Moses, would have been the silliest nonsense to him had he understood in full the great plan of redemption to which this system looked forward in type... It would hardly seem possible for language to state more clearly or positively that the mystery of Christ's incarnation and the modus operandi or method of human salvation HAD NOT been revealed to the world until the Apostle's day. That while the Old Testament authors had presented the truth, it had been so presented in type, shadow, symbol and figure that it was not an could not be understood by them, not even by the angels of God..." -M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or The Book of Mormon, Is It From God? (New York: Ward and Drummand, 1887), pp. 148.

• 25:19

  Biblical scholars agree that meshiha (Aramaic), mashiah (Hebrew), and messiah (English) all mean “anointed one.” The Greek word Christos—from which the English Christ is derived—is simply the Greek translation of the same term and carries the same meaning: “anointed.”

  Oddly, the Book of Mormon often appears to treat Christ almost like a surname rather than a translation of the title Messiah. This suggests a possible misunderstanding of the linguistic relationship between these words.

  For example, in Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:19 uses both the titles Messiah and Christ together. Because these terms have the same meaning but come from different languages (Hebrew and Greek), placing them side-by-side is essentially redundant.

  In modern terms, it would be similar to saying something like this:

  “We will know that the sign of a good life is to be next to a house (English word). I have been told by an angel that the house will be known as maison (French translation of house).”

  In other words, the statement introduces a word and then immediately “reveals” its translation as if it were a new or different title, even though it means the exact same thing.

• 25:23

  From the late 1950s into the early 21st century, Latter-day Saints frequently cited 2 Nephi 25:23 to distinguish their understanding of grace and works from that of evangelicals. The verse was often interpreted as implying prerequisite conditions for receiving forgiveness, eternal life, and exaltation. In more recent years, however, many LDS authors and members have increasingly interpreted the passage to mean, “For we know that it is by grace we are saved, in spite of what we can do.”

  The LDS Bible Dictionary tell us that the grace unto “eternal life and exaltation” is insufficient “without total effort on the part of the recipient”:

  “This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)” (p. 697).

  Under the heading “2 Nephi 25:23—We Are Saved by Grace, after All We Can Do”, the CES manual Book of Mormon Student Study Guide reads,

  “We are saved by the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We must, however, come unto Christ on His terms in order to obtain all the blessings that He freely offers us. We come unto Christ by doing “all we can do” to remember Him, keep our covenants with Him, and obey His commandments (see D&C 20:77, 79; see also Abraham 3:25).” (p. 53)

  Dallin Oaks describes what it means to do all we can do:

  “Because of what He accomplished by His atoning sacrifice, Jesus Christ has the power to prescribe the conditions we must fulfill to qualify for the blessings of His Atonement. That is why we have commandments and ordinances. That is why we make covenants. That is how we qualify for the promised blessings. They all come through the mercy and grace of the Holy One of Israel, ‘after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23).” (Oct 2010 General Conference).

  For a thorough survey of LDS' treatment of this passage, please see: Mormonism Research Ministry: How Has 2 Nephi 25:23 Been Interpreted?

• 25:24-30

  "The Book of Mormon presents a very unusual picture of religious life between 600 B.C. and the coming of Christ. It claims that the ancient Nephites actually worshipped Jesus Christ and established Christian churches during this long period before Christ died and the New Testament was written. Bible scholars find it very hard to accept this claim, and they are even more puzzled when they learn that the Book of Mormon claims that the ancient Nephites also kept the Law of Moses at the same time. Between 559 and 545 B.C." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 206.

  Contrast 2 Nephi 25:24-30 and 2 Nephi 31:18 with 1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 Corinthians 2:7-8; John 7:39; and Colossians 1:26.

  Wesley P. Walters writes in his Master's thesis: "The transplantation of New Testament material into the Old disrupts the dispensations that God has established in the unfolding of redemption, and confuses the Old and New Covenants and their respective ordinances. The Book of Mormon is careful to point out that the American Hebrew colony 'kept the law of Moses'... Yet Christian baptism was said to be taught among the Nephites five hundred years before Christ... Furthermore by 147 B.C. a Christian Church is depicted as flourishing, of which people become members through baptism... to introduce the New Testament practice of baptism in the name of Christ into the Old Testament period is to confuse the Old and New Covenants and the ordinances connected with each. The Book of Hebrews is very specific that while the Old Testament was in force, the New clearly was not... To introduce the features of the New Covenant into the time-period when the Old Covenant was in force is to confuse the two covenants to the extent of rendering them both meaningless... The Book of Mormon, by injecting the New Testament material into the Old Testament period, completely disrupts the biblical pattern so carefully set forth in the Old Testament itself and so faithfully guarded by the New." -Wesley P. Walters, "The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," (Master's thesis, St. Louis: Covenant Theological Seminary, April 1981), pp. 15-17.