The Book of Mormon
~600–592 BC

1 Nephi 12

Nephi has seen the Messiah's ministry and crucifixion. The angel shows him his descendants' future in the promised land. He sees generations of warfare, then devastating destruction at Christ's death. The resurrected Christ appears and appoints twelve disciples. Three righteous generations follow, but pride leads Nephi's descendants to fall and be overcome by Laman's descendants.

Visions of Future Generations

The angel said to me: 'Look! See your children and your brothers' children!' I looked and saw the promised land filled with people—crowds as vast as sand on the seashore. I watched massive armies gathering to fight each other. I saw wars, heard rumors of more wars, and witnessed terrible slaughter among my people. Generation after generation passed before my eyes, all filled with wars and fighting. I saw so many cities rise up that I couldn’t count them all.

Then a thick darkness covered the promised land. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and earthquakes shook everything. I heard terrifying sounds. The earth and rocks split apart. Mountains crumbled to pieces. Plains cracked open. Some cities sank into the ground. Others burned with fire. Many more collapsed from the violent shaking. After all this destruction, the darkness lifted. I saw crowds of people who had died in God’s terrible judgment.

The Lamb Appears to the Survivors

Then the heavens opened, and I watched the Lamb of God come down from heaven. He appeared to the survivors and showed himself to them. I saw the Holy Spirit come upon twelve others. God ordained and chose them. The angel told me: 'These are the twelve disciples of the Lamb, chosen to serve your descendants.' He continued: 'Remember the Lamb’s twelve apostles? They will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. These twelve ministers you see will be judged by them, and they in turn will judge your descendants—because you are part of Israel’s family.' 'These twelve ministers you’re looking at will judge your children. They will remain righteous forever. Their faith in the Lamb of God has made their robes white in his blood.'

The angel said: 'Look!' I saw three generations living righteously. Their robes were as white as the Lamb of God’s. The angel explained: 'Their faith in him made them pure through his blood.' I also saw many from the fourth generation who lived righteously.

The Final War Between Brothers

Then I watched crowds gathering across the land. The angel said: 'Look at your descendants and your brothers' descendants!' I looked and saw my descendants gathering in huge armies against my brothers' descendants. They were preparing for battle.

The angel explained: 'That fountain of filthy water your father saw—the river he talked about—its depths represent hell itself.' 'The dark mists are the devil’s temptations. They blind people and harden their hearts, leading them down wide roads to destruction.' 'That huge, fancy building your father saw represents human vanity and pride. A terrible gulf separates them—it’s the word of God’s eternal justice and Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The Holy Spirit has testified of him from the world’s beginning until now, and will forever.'

While the angel spoke, I watched my brothers' descendants fight against mine. Just as the angel said, my descendants' pride and the devil’s temptations gave my brothers' descendants the victory. I saw my brothers' descendants completely defeat mine. They spread across the land in great numbers. I watched them gather in crowds. Wars and rumors of wars continued among them for many generations.

The angel told me: 'Watch—they will lose their faith.' I saw that after losing their faith, they became a dark, repulsive, and filthy people, lazy and full of every kind of evil.

Influences

  • 12:1 — Hebrews 11:9 (KJV)
    By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
  • 12:2 — Matthew 24:6 (KJV)
    And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
  • 12:4 — Revelation 8:5 (KJV)
    And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
  • 12:4 — Matthew 27:51 (KJV)
    And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
  • 12:6 — Revelation 21:10 (KJV)
    And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
  • 12:7 — Acts 11:15 (KJV)
    And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
  • 12:9 — Revelation 21:14 (KJV)
    And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
  • 12:9 — Matthew 19:28 (KJV)
    And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
  • 12:10 — Revelation 7:14 (KJV)
    And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
  • 12:11 — Revelation 7:14 (KJV)
    And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
  • 12:17 — Matthew 4:1 (KJV)
    Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
  • 12:18 — Romans 1:21 (KJV)
    Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
  • 12:18 — Luke 16:26 (KJV)
    And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
  • 12:18 — Ephesians 3:9 (KJV)
    And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
  • 12:21 — Matthew 24:6 (KJV)
    And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Notes

  • 12:1-23

    Both Joseph Smith’s father and Nephi’s father are described as having multiple dreams. In her book, Lucy Mack Smith recounts several of her husband’s visions, which were likely shared often within the family. One of these dreams is dated sixteen years before Joseph Smith obtained the plates:

    "In 1811, we moved... to the town of Lebanon, New Hampshire. Soon after arriving here, my husband received another very singular vision, which I will relate..."

    Readers have noted similarities between this account and the dream of Lehi in the Book of Mormon.

    The following outlines parallels between Joseph Smith Sr.’s dream, as recorded in Lucy Smith's Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations, and Lehi’s dream in 1 Nephi 8, along with Nephi’s expanded description of the same vision in 1 Nephi 11-14.

    1. Both Joseph Smith's father and Lehi state they were traveling (1 Nephi 8:8; Smith, p. 58).
    2. Both mention a field (1 Nephi 8:4,9; Smith, p. 58).
    3. Both dreams compare the field to a world (1 Nephi 8:20; Smith, p. 58).
    4. Both Joseph Smith Sr. and Lehi have a guide (1 Nephi 8:5-6; Smith, p. 58).
    5. Both mention a broad road or roads (1 Nephi 12:17; Smith, p. 58).
    6. Both mention a narrow path (1 Nephi 8:20; Smith, p. 58).
    7. Both mention a stream of water (1 Nephi 8:13; Smith, p. 58).
    8. Both mention something extending along the bank of the stream (1 Nephi 8:19; Smith, p. 58).
    9. Both mention a tree (1 Nephi 8:10; Smith, p. 58).
    10. Both mention the beauty of the tree (1 Nephi 11:8; Smith, p. 58).
    11. Both trees bore fruit (1 Nephi 8:10; Smith, p. 58).
    12. Both compared the whiteness of the fruit to snow (1 Nephi 11:8; Smith, p. 58).
    13. Both Joseph Smith Sr. and Lehi ate of the fruit (1 Nephi 8:11; Smith, p. 58).
    14. Both found the fruit to be delicious (1 Nephi 8:11; Smith, p. 58).
    15. Both wanted their families to partake of the fruit (1 Nephi 8:12; Smith, p. 58).
    16. Both families came and partook of the fruit (1 Nephi 8:16; Smith, p. 58).
    17. After eating the fruit both experienced great joy (1 Nephi 8:12; Smith, pp. 58-59).
    18. Both mention a spacious building (1 Nephi 8:26; Smith, p. 59).
    19. Both indicate the building reached high into the air (1 Nephi 8:26; Smith, p. 59).
    20. Both buildings were filled with people (1 Nephi 8:27; Smith, p. 59).
    21. In both buildings the people were finely dressed (1 Nephi 8:27; Smith, p. 59).
    22. In both cases the people in the building pointed the finger of scorn at those partaking of the fruit (1 Nephi 8:33; Smith, p. 59).
    23. Both state they ignored the people in the building (1 Nephi 8:33; Smith, p. 59).
    24. Both state the meaning of the fruit is the pure love of God (1 Nephi 11:21-22; Smith, p. 59).
    25. Both state two members of the family are not present (1 Nephi 8:17; Smith, p. 59).
    26. Both mention the fall of the building (1 Nephi 11:36; Smith, p. 59)
    27. Both imply that pride was connected with the building or its inhabitants (1 Nephi 11:36; Smith, p. 59).

    For a full treatment of this subject, including a side-by-side comparison of the above references, see Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, pp. 161–163.

  • 12:18

    The current editions of the Book of Mormon (1981, 2013) state, "... even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God..."

    "The first edition, in fact, makes it clear that the name Jesus Christ was known not only before Lehi's death, but it was used by Nephi himself before he came to the New World:

    'And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and Jesus Christ, which is the Lamb of God...' (Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, page 28).

    Since the Book of Mormon later states that the name was first made known to Jacob years after Lehi's death (2 Nephi 10:1-3), in the second edition Joseph Smith changed the words Jesus Christ to the Messiah. It must be born in mind that the change could not represent a better translation as Smith did not claim to have access to the plates at that time....The printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon was also altered to reflect this serious change. The words Jesus Christ, which have been struck out, and the words Mosiah who have been written in above the line. It is obvious, of course, the correct words should be Messiah who...it is obvious that a deliberate change was made..." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 216.

1 Nephi 111 Nephi 13