Flooding My Life with the Book of Mormon 2.0

2 Nephi 9:15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God. Jesus told His Old World disciples that the Father had delivered all judgment into the Son's hands (see John 5:22 ). The Holy One of Israel is Christ. Thus, the Bible and the Book of Mormon agree. Why is Christ to be my judge? Who better to determine my worthiness than the One who paid for my sins to free me from them? The Father could certainly deliver a true and righteous judgment on me, for He knows all things, but He invites me to stand face to face before my Savior and Redeemer, the very One who has pleaded for me and interceded for me with the Father all along. Jesus has already met the demands of justice for me. He knows firsthand the very worst of my sins and has al...

2 Nephi 9:17 O the greatness and the justice of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled. To fulfill is to do what is required by agreement or contract. The law is God's contract with me. For ancient Israel, the contract was the law of Moses. In my day, the contract is the law of the gospel. When I perform the terms of the contract, God will fulfill His part of the agreement. When I exercise faith, repent, receive baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end in loving the Father and the Son and my neighbor, Christ will justify and sanctify me and grant me eternal life. The contract is certain, and the promise is sure.

2 Nephi 9:14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness. Knowledge of my sins is essential to repentance. In the final judgment, my guilt will be completely and fully revealed to me. I will understand not just the details but the implications of my sins. This revealed knowledge is critical to my full repentance, for the Lord cannot forget my sins until I repent of them, and I cannot repent if I do not remember them and feel the appropriate godly sorrow for them.  Nakedness is guilt. The same feeling of exposure, vulnerability, and embarrassment that I would feel if caught naked is the feeling I will have when I face God and know that He can peer directly into my unclean soul. To be clothed is to have my guilt covered. Christ offers to cover me with the purity of H...

2 Nephi 9:13 O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. God has a plan. Indeed, He is the Master Planner. He knows how He wants things to go on both cosmic and microcosmic scales. He planned the creation of the universe, and He planned the placement of every blade of grass. Nothing is too large or too small to be excluded from God’s plan. A plan, however, is not predestination. Man's agency is also part of God's plan. Therefore, His plan is full of contingencies. As a project manager, I created many plans in my career. No project ever proceeded exactly according to the "happy path" of my plan. So, I always had...

2 Nephi 9:12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. Everyone who is not in the presence of the Father is in hell. That is the definition of hell most common in the Book of Mormon. In other words, any place that is not the celestial kingdom is hell. In modern vernacular, we tend to speak of the three degrees of glory and limit our idea of hell to outer darkness to which Satan and the sons of perdition are consigned. But in Nephi's mind, any glory that is not celestial is not worth talking about.  No matter how many levels hell may have, it's all hell to Nephi. He has only one goal, and that is exaltation,...

2 Nephi 9:11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. The plan of salvation is the way of deliverance. Only Christ's atonement provides the means by which I can escape the otherwise inescapable consequences of justice.  All laws entail a punishment, and when I break a law, justice demands that the punishment be inflicted. God cannot deny justice without denying Himself. If He were to change an eternal law, I could not trust Him; He would prove Himself fallible and changeable, and He would cease to be God. So, He must stand unequivocally by His laws and the requisite punishment.  The penalty for a broken law is the same in every case. The lawbreaker becomes unclean and therefore cannot reside in God's presence. He is cast out of God's presence forever, for he can never undo the breaking of the law. There are no do-overs. A person is...

2 Nephi 9:10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. I am not spared death, but it is not my permanent and final end. Though it may capture me temporarily, Christ provides an escape, a release. I will not remain dead forever, either physically or spiritually.

2 Nephi 9:7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. Christ had to cover every single sin of every single person who ever has or ever will live. He could not leave a single sin unaccounted for. If He had missed even one tiny sin, and that sinner chose to repent, Christ could not offer him perfect forgiveness and perfect salvation. God would be a liar.  He has commanded all men to repent, and He must provide a way for them to keep the commandment. Therefore, if for no other reason, God must know everything. If I could surprise Him even once, He would cease to be God, and I would be lost. As I am reminded elsewhere, however, God does not cease to be God, and so He knows all, and has atoned fo...

2 Nephi 9:5 Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. Behooveth is an old word meaning necessary, proper, or advantageous.   Jehovah necessarily had to become mortal to work out the atonement and become the Redeemer. It was proper for Him to fill that role because He had volunteered and been appointed to do so in the great council in heaven. It was advantageous to Him so that He could know firsthand according to the flesh how to succor His people and eternally advantageous to me because He would answer the ends of the law and bring about my salvation. We are all subject unto Christ in that we owe Him. He has purchased us with His blood and His death. Sooner or later we all must acknowledge tha...

2 Nephi 8:22 Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of his people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again. Jesus is my Advocate and Mediator. But, Advocate with whom, and Mediator between what? If He is God, with whom does He plead? With His Father and my Father and with His God and my God.  Christ is the Intermediator between the Father and me. He earned this right because, even though He was a God Himself, He also condescended to become one of us, a mortal man on a fallen earth.  No unclean thing can stand in the Father's presence, but Christ testifies that I am clean through His atonement. He shields me from the justice that would rightfully destroy me. Because of Him, the Father can welcome me back into His presence. Because Christ is on my side, I cannot fail.  Once I accepted Jesus through the saving ordinances of the gospel, His atonement became effective ...

2 Nephi 8:13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? Through the words of Isaiah, Jacob reminds his people that Jehovah, their God, is the Maker, Creator, and Organizer of all things. The temple teaches that God the Father is the celestial Architect, and Jehovah, His Firstborn Son, is the Prime Contractor to bring about all things in the universe. Living in constant fear is a terrible way to live. God can free me from fear and liberate me from anxiety. The Great Oppressor cannot destroy me if I have faith in God.

2 Nephi 8:10 Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? God's defining miracle for Israel was the Exodus, when He and He alone freed them from Pharaoh and slavery. His defining miracle in my life is redemption, when He and He alone will free me from Satan and the slavery of sin and death. The resurrection will be for me as the parting of the Red Sea, and He will bring me into the promised land of the celestial kingdom. 

2 Nephi 8:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. In other words, I must lay personal pride aside. I must not let the opinions of others manipulate me. In the end, popularity and fame are illusory goals and fickle rewards.

2 Nephi 6:10 And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted. A hard heart and stiff neck are the results of choices I make. God wants me to have a soft heart on which He can easily write His law and a supple neck that easily bows in humility. God's preferred tools are soft whispers that can be absorbed only by soft, fleshy tablets of the heart. He does not want to do harm to my heart. He wants to penetrate it to the center with lovingkindness.  A hard, stony heart, on the other hand, repels God's soft words. If God has to use a chisel or a pickaxe to get through the hard outer shell I have built up around my heart, it's going to be painful. When a whisper won't do, an earthquake and a tornado, war and famine become the jackhammers that God uses to chip away at the rock-hard hearts his recal...

2 Nephi 6:5 And now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel; wherefore, they may be likened unto you, for ye are of the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are of the house of Israel. Just as the Nephites were commanded to study Isaiah because they were of the house of Israel, I likewise am under the same commandment, for I too am of the house of Israel. I can liken them to myself, meaning that I can relate to them. Isaiah wrote to me as well as to the ancient Israelites.

2 Nephi 6:2 Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. The godly order, or the order by which God operates, we call the priesthood. According to the Topical Guide, the order to which Jacob was ordained is the Melchizedek Priesthood. To be ordained is to be appointed and invested with authority. Jacob did not take the responsibility upon himself to be the priest and minister to the Nephites. He received that assignment by ordination from his brother Nephi, who had received authority from his father, Lehi. Jacob exercised his ordained authority to lead the people in spiritual matters, including calling them to repentance.  By analogy, proper political authority is derived from the governed. The people choose their leader ...

2 Nephi 5:32 And I engraved that which is pleasing unto God. And if my people are pleased with the things of God they will be pleased with mine engravings which are upon these plates. Nephi had supreme confidence in his understanding of what pleased God. I wonder often if I am doing the right things. I doubt myself and my ability to receive promptings and instruction from the Holy Spirit. Nephi, however, never doubted his ability to hear the voice of the Lord. By the time in his life when he wrote this verse, he had had many profound experiences of receiving direction from God. He knew the voice of the Lord and recognized the whisperings of the Spirit. He did not question but always obeyed, and as a result, his confidence waxed strong in the presence of the Lord.

2 Nephi 5:25 And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction. God allows hard things to come into my life to help me and humble me. He will not remove all evil from the world until the Millennium. In the meantime, I will always have scourges (i.e., things that cause suffering)  to contend with. A scourge is as much a gift from God as is any blessing.

2 Nephi 5:11 And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind. Nephi attributes his prosperity to God. God is the source of all good things.  Many wicked people also prosper, however. More devils are rich in this world than are saints. God sends sunshine and rain on all His children.  He is willing to prosper His saints, provided they know what to do with their prosperity. I don't think God worries much about what worldly people will do with riches. They will hoard them and use them for power. But He is very concerned about His saints, and how prosperity affects them.  For those who would do good with an abundance of riches, He gives them riches. For those, however, who would be corrupted by riches, He withholds them. He prospers such people with enough, but not more than enough, lest they forget God and turn against Him.  When I think ...

2 Nephi 4:32 May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite! O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road! If I want the gates of hell closed to me, I need a broken heart and a contrite spirit. C.S. Lewis says that the gates of hell are locked from the inside. God doesn't lock hell's doors; the residents do.  Hell is outer darkness, the abode of fallen angels and the sons of perdition, and they do not want to be disturbed.