Nephi’s Final Testimony
I, Nephi, can’t write everything that was taught to my people. I’m not as good at writing as I am at speaking. When a person speaks by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit carries it into people’s hearts. But many people make their hearts hard against the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has no place in them. So they throw away many things that are written. They think these things are worth nothing.
But I have written what I have written. I think it’s very important, especially for my people. I pray for them all day long. At night my tears wet my pillow because of them. I cry to my God in faith. I know he will hear my cry. I know the Lord God will bless my prayers to help my people. The things I have written in weakness will be made strong for them. It leads them to do good. It tells them about their fathers. It speaks of Jesus and leads people to believe in him and stay faithful to the end, which is eternal life. It speaks strongly against sin, according to the plain truth. So no one will be angry at the words I have written, unless they have the spirit of the Devil.
Nephi’s Love for His People
I’m proud to speak plainly. I’m proud of truth. I’m proud of my Jesus, because he has saved my soul from hell. I have love for my people. I have great faith in Christ. I believe I will meet many people without sin at his judgment seat. I have love for the Jews. I say Jews because I mean the people where I came from. I also have love for the Gentiles. But for none of these can I hope, unless they come to peace with Christ. They must enter through the narrow gate and walk on the straight path that leads to life. They must stay on the path until the end of the day of testing.
A Call to Believe in Christ
And now, my dear brothers, and also Jews, and all you people of the earth, listen to these words. Believe in Christ. If you don’t believe in these words, believe in Christ. If you believe in Christ, you will believe in these words. They are the words of Christ. He has given them to me. They teach all people to do good. If they are not the words of Christ, judge for yourselves. Christ will show you with power and great glory that they are his words at the last day. You and I will stand face to face before him. You will know that he commanded me to write these things, even though I’m not perfect.
I pray to the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.
Nephi’s Farewell
And now, my dear brothers, all you who are from the House of Israel, and all you people of the earth, I speak to you like a voice crying from the dust. Goodbye until that great day comes. And you who will not receive the goodness of God and respect the words of the Jews and also my words and the words that come from the mouth of the Lamb of God, I say goodbye to you forever. These words will judge you at the last day. What I seal on earth will be brought against you at the judgment. This is what the Lord has commanded me, and I must obey. Amen.
Influences
- 33:2 — John 8:37 (KJV)I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
- 33:4 — Hebrews 11:34 (KJV)Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
- 33:8 — Matthew 12:44 (KJV)Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
- 33:9 — 2 Corinthians 5:20 (KJV)Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
- 33:10 — John 8:24 (KJV)I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
- 33:12 — Matthew 24:40 (KJV)And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
- 33:12 — John 6:39 (KJV)And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
- 33:13 — 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 33:15 — John 1:29 (KJV)The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
- 33:15 — John 12:48 (KJV)He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Notes
- 33:6
In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the “mystery of Christ” as something hidden from all previous generations but revealed in the apostolic era. In Ephesians 3:4–6, this mystery is that Gentiles are now equal heirs, members, and partakers in God’s promises through Christ—without the former distinctions of Jewish law. Paul reinforces in Colossians 1:26 and Romans 16:25 that this truth was not known in earlier ages, meaning it was not fully understood by Old Testament figures.
This is supported in Acts 10, where Peter struggles to accept Gentile inclusion even after revelation, and in Acts 15, where early Christians debate whether Gentiles must follow Jewish law. Likewise, Hebrews 11 and First Peter indicate that earlier prophets only saw partial foreshadowings of Christ, not the full picture.
In contrast, the Book of Mormon (e.g., 1 Nephi 10; 1 Nephi 14) portrays ancient prophets as clearly teaching about the Messiah, the gospel, and Gentile inclusion with New Testament-level clarity, including ideas similar to Romans 11.
This creates a chronological and theological conflict: if Paul is correct that this mystery was only revealed in the first century, then the Book of Mormon’s depiction of earlier prophets possessing that same knowledge suggests an anachronism—projecting later doctrine into an earlier time.
"When one begins to read the Book of Mormon, if he is well-acquainted with the Bible, he will at once be impressed with the large scale use of the biblical materials in the book. Not only is there an unskilled mimicking of the style of the King James Version, but there is an artificial clarity added to that portion of the Book of Mormon that claims to date from the Old Testament period. This contrived clarity is the result of writing back into that Old Testament period New Testament words, phrases and quotations, as well as the introduction of New Testament concepts and teachings into that time-frame... The usual Mormon defense is that such knowledge was supernaturally made known to the people in America, just as God in a vision showed Ezekiel that Jerusalem was about to fall and the temple to be destroyed, or Peter given a vision of Cornelius before he met him in person. Such an explanation might be more readily accepted if the Book of Mormon had presented its material in the format of a vision. Instead it introduces its material in much the same way that a nineteenth century frontier preacher introduced biblical quotations into his sermons. The frequency with which the Book of Mormon introduces this chronologically misplaced material into its text would require that God supernaturally provided this American colony with virtually the entire New Testament text, as well as those portions of the Old Testament which postdated their departure for America.... passages from the New Testament... are sprinkled generously into the speeches and sermons of the Book of Mormon characters in the same manner as one might find them in the sermons of a Methodist or Baptist preacher of Joseph Smith's day. This type of usage implies an acquaintance with the New Testament books themselves. Only after knowing the entire work can one select from it appropriate words and phrases to employ in this sermonic manner. It is naive to suggest that in every one of those instances God made known each of those biblical phrases and quotations so that the Old Testament Book of Mormon speakers could work them into their message. It is far more reasonable to believe that the insertions of such phrases and quotes came from one who already had the New Testament in hand before him while composing the Book of Mormon... The really fatal blow to the proposal that the New Testament material in the Old Testament portion of the Book of Mormon is due to Joseph Smith's employment of such phrases in the process of translating the book is that such material goes much deeper than the mere use of words and phrases. New Testament concepts, interpretations and theology are all worked into the text itself." -Wesley P. Walters, "The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," (Master's thesis, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 1981), pp. 7, 10-13.
LDS author Grant Hardy writes, "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