The Book of Mormon

2 Nephi 25:20

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~559–545 BC

1830 Edition

And now my brethren, I have spoken plain, that ye cannot err; and as the Lord God liveth, that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should heal the nations, after that they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock, and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven, save it be this Jesus Christ of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.

Influences

Acts 4:12 (KJV)
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Changes

And now, my brethren, I have spoken plain,ly that ye cannot err;. aAnd as the Lord God liveth, that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should heal the nations, after that they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock, and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven, save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.

Simple English

My brothers and sisters, I have spoken plainly. You cannot make a mistake. As the Lord God lives, he is the one who brought Israel out of Egypt. He gave Moses power to heal the nations. This happened after they were bitten by poisonous snakes. They were healed if they looked at the bronze snake he lifted up. God also gave Moses power to hit the rock so water would come out. These things are true. As the Lord God lives, there is no other name under heaven where people can be saved. Only through Jesus Christ can people be saved.

Paraphrase

My brothers and sisters, I’ve spoken plainly. You can’t miss this. As surely as the Lord God brought Israel out of Egypt, as surely as he gave Moses the power to heal people bitten by poisonous snakes when they looked at the bronze serpent, as surely as he gave Moses the power to strike the rock and bring forth water—I tell you, there is no other name under heaven by which anyone can be saved except this Jesus Christ I’ve been talking about.

Notes

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.