2 Nephi 28

2 Nephi 28:8 There shall be many which shall say: eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God–he will justify in committing a little sin...and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last, we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. This is given by Nephi as an example of false teaching. God will not justify us in committing even a little sin, but commands exact obedience. Does this passage fit in with a merciful God? Recall, if you will, the story of the woman who washed Christ's feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Of her, Christ said, Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much. Paul tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, while Alma tells his son, Heleman, that God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. We read that the law justifies no man, and also that what was filthy shall be filthy still.

As I am coming up with these seemingly conflicting verses, I wonder if it is only because I am all too aware of my own failings and am hopeful that being a good person will be enough. This passage makes it clear that being a generally good person will definitely not be enough–you need to be a generally good person who truly sorrows for his mistakes, as did the woman who washed Christ's feet. The mistakes matter less than how you feel about them, because, ultimately, if you steal a paper-clip and do so knowing its wrong and don't feel sorry about it, that will keep you out of heaven as surely as assault and battery during a home invasion to steal a million dollars.

2 Nephi 27 (III)

2 Nephi 27:27 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. This phrase took me a bit. There's a footnote to look at Jeremiah, which is just the reference to us being clay in the potter's hands--not very helpful. I flipped over to Isaiah to see if there was anything to clarify it there, and it reads pretty much exactly the same. The context suggests that people who try to hide their works from the lord are trying to put themselves on a level with him, to say unto him that made it, he made me not. But I didn't get the part about turning things upside down being like clay. According to Barnes notes on the bible, though, There has been much diversity in rendering this phrase. Luther renders it, 'O how perverse ye are.' Lowth renders it,'Perverse as ye are! shall the potter be esteemed as the clay?'. Two different translations that leave out entirely the whole turning = clay sentiment and simply say, you're being ridiculous to think that you can possibly hide anything from God; he made you.

2 Nephi 27 (II)

2 Nephi 27:11 And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be reads by the power of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of men which ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be even unto the end of the earth. There are two other references that I know of where something is proclaimed from the housetop-Luke 12:3 Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops and Matthew 10:27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Each is describing something that had been private becoming public. This is in reference to a custom common in Israel at the time of Christ for rulers to have public proclamations made after the majority of the townspeople had returned from their labors to their homes, and the crier would ascend to the highest roof and yell for people to listen up. In Luke, Christ is saying that men's secrets are not in fact secret, and in Matthew, he is instructing his apostles to be bold in preaching, and not to assume at anything he taught needed to be a secret. In Nephi, though, he is indicating that not only secret deeds, but every action will be published before the eager ears of the world. I am much less interested in the Matthew reference, because I think the doctrine of missionary work is sufficiently clear. What interests me is this idea of shouting to the public all the wrongs you have committed. What value does that create? I can't imagine that God is doing it just for the shame we should feel, or to force us to watch as our loved ones realize that we are not as holy as they might have thought, so what's the point? At that point in time, there seems to be little for others to learn from our mistakes, and we're clearly not going to be doing a great deal of repenting, post judgement, so who benefits? Does it really come down to justice requires transparency? God needs to be clear that he is not unjustly consigning anyone to hell?

27:22 Then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me... This reminds me of that story of the group of people who thought that they knew where the cave that Mormon had used to stash the various plates from which he had compiled the book of Mormon and had all moved to that mountain and spent their time looking for the cave. I don't believe anyone ever found it, but it's entirely possible that they did and the church hushed it up and somewhere beneath temple square, there's a room full of stuff the is being held for Moroni to say, go ahead and pull it out.

2 Nephi 27

2 Nephi 27:3 And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his souls is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; yea even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against mount Zion. So, if you fight against Zion, you think you are accomplishing something but it's all in your mind? The fulfillment you think you have in your life through whatever it is you have focused on will feel pointless and your soul will be empty. I'm pretty sure I have read commentary that indicates this has reference to the apostasy but I am not sure, because, while there are scriptures that speak of the word of the lord as bread and filling your soul, this pretty specifically aims at people who are fighting against Zion. And what does it mean for a nation to fight against mount Zion? Are there nations that specifically try to erode the principles of the gospel? I don't think this reads like an attack on other religions, but on political bodies.

2 Nephi 26 (II)

Nephi defines priest craft as men setting themselves up as a light unto the world, that they may get gain. In revelation, John sees an angel with seven candlesticks in his hand, which represent the seven churches in Asia, and it is made clear that the churches are not the source of the light-merely the bearers of it. However, in Matthew, Christ says to let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Does not being the source of light apply to individuals or just to organizations? If to us, are we reflecting the light of Christ when we let our light shine? How do you let your light shine appropriately?

2 Nephi 26

2 Neohi 26:11 For the spirit of the lord will not always strive with man. And when the spirit ceaseth to strive with man then comets speedy destruction and this grieveth my soul. This passage fits in with what I have been thinking about lately: is it possible to be a good person who does bad things? At what point do you become a bad person? And can a bad person do good things? Christ said in Matthew, A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. But in real life, it is possible for a generally healthy tree to have some bad fruit on a branch or two, I.e. a good tree can bring forth some bad fruit. Once it crosses the line of mostly bad fruit it becomes a bad tree, but you get a bad piece of fruit off most trees. (To be fair, some of that is definitely related to things like worms or birds.) maybe he's speaking in terms of general quality of the fruit, and a tree known for bringing forth good fruit is a good tree, even if it has a few bad apples, but a tree that is known for bad fruit is a bad tree, even if it produces an edible apricot once in a while. This verse in Nephi makes me think that there are good people who just do bad things sometimes and that the spirit will continue trying to tell them to repent until they cross the line that God alone recognizes where there is not a chance they will turn from their choices and be wholly good.

26:16 And their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit. Nephi assumes here that we know what the voice of a person with a familiar spirit sounds like, and the casual assumption implies that he believes that people sometimes have them in truth. Clarke's commentary on the Bible says that necromancers would ventriloquize their voices as though coming from within their chest cavity, giving the impression that the ghost's voice was weak. Now, Clark clearly has an agenda limited to the version of reality defined by his christianity, and is surmising that those people did not in actual fact have a ghost or spirit speaking through them, but to me, this scripture is one that supports the idea that "there are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy."