Second Nephi 28 is Nephi's Midrash on Isaiah 27. Here a dream is first used as a metaphor for the emptiness of human aspirations and ambitions separated from (and even opposed to) God. Those that "fight against Zion, and that distress her" will find it all to be as an illusion, like a hungry man waking up from a dream of a feast, or a thirsty man waking up from a dream of drinking (v. 3). Other metaphors of the shock of contact with a true glimpse of their condition are drunkenness (v. 4) and sleep (v. 5). A drunkenness so strong that one staggers, and a "deep sleep."
But he Book of Mormon itself is prefigured in dream like terms as well - "words of them which have slumbered" (v. 6), "hid from the eyes of the world" (v. 12), "words...as if it were from the dead" (v. 13), and a book that cannot be read.
But in the end, the vivid, violent and powerful struggle of the wicked will prove to be the empty illusion and the seemingly flimsy words from the dust will prove to be trustworthy and clear, enduring, revealing and powerful.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Friday, March 3, 2017
TG Mortality 30 - 3 Nephi 28
We have found mortality contrasted to immortality already, but here in Third Nephi we find mortality as one end of a spectrum with immortality being on the other. Somewhere in between them is are two odd states that we Mormons call transfiguration and translation - neither completely mortal nor completely immortal.
Mortality is characterized by pain and sorrow (v. 9), including a sorrow for the suffering of others. For almost all human beings, passing from Mortality to Immortality involves "tasting of death" and "enduring the pains of death." It is also a time when the Lord repeatedly (though not always as explicitly as he did with his disciples) asks us "what is it that ye desire"? (v. 1).
Transfiguration is a condition we know very little about. It is a temporary condition of change from mortality to "immortality" (v. 15) that allows a mortal to endure certain peak spiritual experiences while in the body, such as being "caught up into heaven" (v. 13), and being able to clearly "behold the things of god" (v. 15), or even (see Moses 1) being in the presence of deity. That such a condition is not necessarily permanent is inferred from the transfiguration of the Savior (Matthew 17) and of Moses (Moses 1), both of whom later tasted of death.
Translation is a little further along the spectrum. Nobody ever goes backwards from Translation to regular mortality. Unlike mortality, translation is free of pain and sorrow except for a sympathetic sorrow for the misery of others suffering under the "sins of the world" (v. 9). It is still a type of mortality, that will require a change from "mortality to immortality" that will occur "in the twinkling of an eye" at the second coming without having to "taste of death" or, in other words, "endure the pains of death." (v. 7-8). It is true that those who are translated still "dwell in the flesh" (v. 9). but with enhanced powers of protection (v. 19-22) and the "convincing power of God" (v. 29). Their condition is similar to that of heavenly angels (v. 30). They are free from the power and temptations of Satan (v. 39), and "the powers of the earth could not hold them" (v. 39). Whatever else they still keep of the mortal condition, for them the "probationary state" is over.
Immortality is also free from most of mortality's pain and sorrow, though even at the heights of exaltation we know that God has wept for his spirit children lost in rebellion and for those destroyed in the flood. Available in immortality to those who go to "the kingdom of my Father" is a "fullness of joy" and a oneness with and likeness to the Father and the Son (v. 10). To move from Translation to Immortality requires a "greater change" (v. 40) that will occur at the second coming.
In the mean time, translated beings get to have the desire of their hearts (recorded of almost everyone we know of who has achieved this status) to "bring souls of men unto [Christ]" (v. 9). They also get the opportunity to "behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father" (v. 7). Not just witnesses to the events of history, but in on the grand scheme into which those events fit. Coolness. Pure coolness.
Mortality is characterized by pain and sorrow (v. 9), including a sorrow for the suffering of others. For almost all human beings, passing from Mortality to Immortality involves "tasting of death" and "enduring the pains of death." It is also a time when the Lord repeatedly (though not always as explicitly as he did with his disciples) asks us "what is it that ye desire"? (v. 1).
Transfiguration is a condition we know very little about. It is a temporary condition of change from mortality to "immortality" (v. 15) that allows a mortal to endure certain peak spiritual experiences while in the body, such as being "caught up into heaven" (v. 13), and being able to clearly "behold the things of god" (v. 15), or even (see Moses 1) being in the presence of deity. That such a condition is not necessarily permanent is inferred from the transfiguration of the Savior (Matthew 17) and of Moses (Moses 1), both of whom later tasted of death.
Translation is a little further along the spectrum. Nobody ever goes backwards from Translation to regular mortality. Unlike mortality, translation is free of pain and sorrow except for a sympathetic sorrow for the misery of others suffering under the "sins of the world" (v. 9). It is still a type of mortality, that will require a change from "mortality to immortality" that will occur "in the twinkling of an eye" at the second coming without having to "taste of death" or, in other words, "endure the pains of death." (v. 7-8). It is true that those who are translated still "dwell in the flesh" (v. 9). but with enhanced powers of protection (v. 19-22) and the "convincing power of God" (v. 29). Their condition is similar to that of heavenly angels (v. 30). They are free from the power and temptations of Satan (v. 39), and "the powers of the earth could not hold them" (v. 39). Whatever else they still keep of the mortal condition, for them the "probationary state" is over.
Immortality is also free from most of mortality's pain and sorrow, though even at the heights of exaltation we know that God has wept for his spirit children lost in rebellion and for those destroyed in the flood. Available in immortality to those who go to "the kingdom of my Father" is a "fullness of joy" and a oneness with and likeness to the Father and the Son (v. 10). To move from Translation to Immortality requires a "greater change" (v. 40) that will occur at the second coming.
In the mean time, translated beings get to have the desire of their hearts (recorded of almost everyone we know of who has achieved this status) to "bring souls of men unto [Christ]" (v. 9). They also get the opportunity to "behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father" (v. 7). Not just witnesses to the events of history, but in on the grand scheme into which those events fit. Coolness. Pure coolness.
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