CHAPTER 30
You must believe in God's Three Testaments: Old, New, and Book of Mormon or God will burn
you with fire--If you believe in all three, God will make you white and delightsome. (559-545 BCE)
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A
white pure and delightsome people
1 And now behold, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you; for I, Nephi, would not
suffer that ye should suppose that ye are more righteous than the Gentiles shall be. For behold,
except ye shall keep
the commandments of God ye shall all likewise perish; and because of the words which have been spoken ye need not
suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed.
If you don't obey all of God's commandments, you'll die. [1]
2 For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the
covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off; for
the Lord covenanteth with
none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel.
The Jews who won't repent and believe in his Son will be cast out. [2]
3 And now, I would prophesy somewhat more
concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For
after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the
Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the
remnant of our seed.
4 And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out
from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.
5 And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they
shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among
their fathers.
Then the new book that I mentioned will be released, after being sealed for a while. [3]
6 And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them
from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and
many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and delightsome people.
Those who believe in it will (withing a few generations or so) become a white pure and delightsome people. [4]
7 And it shall come to pass that
the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to
believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ
shall also become a delightsome people.
8 And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence
his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his
people upon the earth.
Someday the Jews will believe in Christ.
Then they will become a delightsome people.
9 And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge the poor, and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
10 For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among
the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be
that he must destroy the wicked by fire.
Then God will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of his lips and with fire.
11 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
12 And then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, together; and a little child shall lead them.
13 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and
the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Righteousness will be the girdle of God's loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his kidneys (reins).
14 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child
shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den.
15 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
16 Wherefore, the things of all nations shall be made known; yea, all things shall
be made known unto the children of men.
17 There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed; there is no work of
darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light; and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall
be loosed.
And the young child will put his hand on the cockatrice's den. [4]
18 Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at
that day be revealed; and Satan shall have power over the hearts of the children of men no more, for a long time. And
now, my beloved brethren, I make an end of my sayings.
I'm going to stop talking now.
Notes
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Except ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall all likewise perish. (v.1)
In the last chapter, Nephi explained that God had written a new Bible,
a Third Testament, "a marvelous work and a wonder," which we all know today as the Book of Mormon.
You've got to obey the commandments in the first book or you'll perish without covenanting with God.
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The Lord covenanteth with none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son;
and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off. (v.2)
The Jews believe in the first but not the second, so god will cast them off.
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After the book of which I have spoken (v.3)
But believing in the first two is not enough; you also need to believe in the third book, as Nephi prophesied somewhat more about.
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They shall be a
white pure and delightsome people. (v.6)
If you believe in the Book of Mormon, your skin will turn white! (Well, it might take a few generatios.)
In 1981 the Mormon chuch changed "white" to "pure" to soften the obvious racism in this verse.
Original version: "They shall be a white and delightsome people."
And here's the same verse after the 1981 change: "They shall be a pure and delightsome people."
Stuff you missed in Sundy School
The Mormon Curtain
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The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. (v.14)
A cockatrice is a serpent, hatched from a cock's egg, that can kill with a glance. They are rare nowadays.
And it came to pass: 30:7, 8
Behold: 30:1(2), 2
Yea: 30:10, 16
30:8 every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people -- Revelation 14:6
30:9 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
-- Isaiah 11:4
30:11 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. -- Isaiah 11:5
30:12 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and
a little child shall lead them. -- Isaiah 11:6
30:13 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. --
Isaiah 11:7
30:14 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the cockatrice' den. -- Isaiah 11:8
30:15 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. -- Isaiah 11:9
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Dwindling in Unbelief
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The Book of Mormon: The Whiter the Skin, the Closer to God (2 Nephi 30:6)
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They shall be a
white pure and delightsome people
- The Annotated Book of Mormon
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2think.org
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A-BOM