Nephi witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem twice. He also saw the destruction of his own people. This was a depressing revelation.

However: 2 Nephi 26:7 “Thy ways are just”

2 Nephi 25:1,4-5, 7-8

“Nephi glories in plainness!”

Plainness is the “model” for General Conference!

When was the last time that you listened/watched General Conference and afterwards said, “I wonder what President Monson was trying to say?”

It should be the “model” for parenting (plainness).

President Harold B. Lee renewed this charge in these words: “You’re to teach the old doctrines, not so plain that that they can just understand, but you must teach the doctrines of the Church so plainly that no one can misunderstand” (“Loyalty,” Address to Seminary and Institute personnel, 8 July 1966, 9).

“You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things…” (President J. Reuben Clark, Chartered Course, 9).

We ought to adopt the attitude of the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“It mattereth not whether the principle of the gospel is popular or unpopular, I will always maintain a true principle, even if I stand alone on it” (HC, 6:223).

How can we better understand Isaiah?

1. Listen to the words of modern prophets (v. 4).

2. Seek for the “Spirit of Prophecy” (v.4).

3. Understand the manners and customs of the Jews (v.5).

4. Know the geography (v.6).

2 Nephi 25:10-17 Nephi’s “9” Prophecies!

2 Nephi 25:20 “A powerful testimony”

2 Nephi 25:23 “Grace”

It really brings together Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:14-26.

Grace = enabling and strengthening power after all we can do!”

Thanks goodness for the Book of James!

2 Nephi 25:13 “With Healing in His Wings”

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke of the need for the healing effects of the Atonement --- not just for forgiveness of transgressions, but for all of life’s hardships:

“[The Savior] has risen from the dead ‘with healing in his wings.’ “Oh, how we all need the healing the Redeemer can provide. Mine is a message of hope for you who yearn for relief from heavy burdens that have come through no conscious act of your own while you have lived a worthy life. It is based on principles embodied in the teachings of the Savior. Your challenge may be a serious physical disability, a struggle with lingering illness, or a daily wrestle with a life-threatening disease. It may have roots in the death of a loved one, the anguish caused by another bound by sin, or abuse in any of its evil forms. Whatever the cause, I testify that lasting relief is available on conditions established by the Lord” (C.R., Apr. 1994, 7).

2 Nephi 25:22

Judged by our willingness to receive the Book of Mormon.

President Ezra Taft Benson asked, Do eternal consequences rest upon our response to this book? Yes, either to our blessing or our condemnation.

“Every Latter-day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life. There is a difference between a convert who is built on the rock of Christ through the Book of Mormon and stays hold of that iron rod, and one who is not” (A Witness and a Warning [1988], 7-8).

How does grace and works combine to qualify someone for salvation?

“Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home is good actions or Faith in Christ. I have no right really to speak on such a difficult question, but it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 129).

Faith and obedience are one and the same spirit, what in the heart we call faith in the will we call obedience (George McDonald, The Curates Awaken, 1985).

(George McDonald was a man that C.S. Lewis looked up to and idolized).

Some have said that an acronym for GRACE is: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!

One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation… One passage in the Book of Mormon, written perhaps… to stress and induce appreciation for the gracious gift of salvation offered on condition of obedience… is particularly enlightening:

“For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

“However good a person’s works, he could not be saved had Jesus not died for his and everyone else’s sins. And However powerful the saving grace of Christ, it brings exaltation to no man who does not comply with the works of the gospel.

“Of course we need to understand terms. If by the word salvation is meant the mere salvation or redemption from the grave, the “grace of God’ is sufficient.

But if the term salvation means returning to the presence of God with eternal progression, eternal increase, and eventual Godhood, for this certainty must have the ‘grace of God,’ as it is generally defined, plus personal purity, overcoming all evil, and the good ‘works’ made so important in the exhortations of the Savior and his prophets and apostles” (Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 70-71).

2 Nephi 25:23 “The Doctrine of Grace”

Grace is the enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on to eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.

And what is “all we can do?” It surely includes repentance (Alma 24:11) and baptism, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.

“We are not saved in our sins, as by being unconditionally saved through confessing Christ and then, inevitably, committing sins in our remaining lives (Alma 11:36-37). We are saved from our sins (Helaman 5:10) by a weekly renewal of our repentance and cleansing through the grace of God and His beloved plan of salvation (3 Nephi 9:20-22)” (C.R., Apr. 1998, 77).

God will use his heavenly powers to exalt us, but only if we have done all within our power to accomplish that end.

We must do all we can, and when we have reached our limits, when we have asserted all our mental, moral, and spiritual energies, then the powers of heaven will intervene.

There are certain occasions when our best efforts, as extraordinary as they may be, are simply inadequate.

We cannot become like God without such an endowment --- in essence, a manifestation of grace. And that grace comes because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Brigham Young said, “It requires all the atonement of Christ, the mercy of the Father, the pity of angels and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with us always, and then to do the very best we possibly can, to get rid of this sin within us” (Journal of Discourses, 11:301).

Mercy was an attribute that Abraham Lincoln possessed in magnificent measure. Robert Ingersoll penned this tribute to him: “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy” (Ingersoll, Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, 3:172).

Lincoln was entitled to this tribute---Christ infinitely more so!

Though we rightly speak of “faith and works,” faith by itself….is constant work! It is a work to be done and a process best pursued while being not only “anxiously engaged” but also engaged with “fear and trembling.” Otherwise we may lose our concentration on Christ (Neal A. Maxwell, Lord, Increase Our Faith, 111-12).

2 Nephi 25:26, 28-29

v. 28

“I have spoken so plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand.

1. We do not come from the traditional Catholic or Protestant line.

2. We do not believe in “The Trinity.”

3. Our unusual doctrines.

Concerning mainstream Christianity, they say: “You’re not like us, and we say, you’re right, and we don’t want to be!”

John Taylor

2 Nephi 26:7, 10 “God’s Ways are JustGod’s Ways are Just”

“Without the idea of the existence of the attribute justice in the Deity, men could not have confidence sufficient to place themselves under his guidance and direction, for they would be filled with fear and doubt lest the judge of all the earth would not do right” (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, 4:13).

2 Nephi 26:22 “He Leadeth Them by the Neck with a Flaxen Cord”

Elder Carlos E. Asay explained how a flaxen cord is made and becomes a yoke of unbreakable oppression: “The first wrongdoing is like a single strand of flaxen thread; it is easily broken and thrown aside. But each time the wrong is repeated another strand is intertwined around the first, and on and on it goes until an almost unbreakable cord and multi-strands is woven. “The chains of habit,’ said Samuel Johnson, ‘are too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken’” (The Road to Somewhere: A Guide for Young Men and Women [1994], 88).

2 Nephi 26:28, 33

Is one race more privileged than the other?

“I hope we can all overcome any differences of culture, race, and language…In my experience, no race or class seems superior to any other in spirituality and faithfulness” (James E. Faust, Ensign, May 1995, 61).

2 Nephi 27:5 “Spirit of deep sleep” = “Apostasy”

2 Nephi 27:7, 10

“And behold the book shall be sealed”

What is the sealed book containing the revelations of God from beginning to end?

“The sealed portion of the Book of Mormon…will give an account of life in the pre-existence; of the creation of all things; of the Fall and the Atonement and the Second Coming;… of life in the spirit world…; of the kingdoms of glory” (Bruce R. McConkie, Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, 277).

2 Nephi 27:8, 10-11

When will the sealed book be “delivered,” or published?

“When we ourselves, members of the Church, are willing to keep the commandments… then the Lord is ready to bring forth the other record and give it to us, but we are not ready now to receive it.

Elder Maxwell taught, “Many more scriptural writings will yet come to us, including those of Enoch (D&C 107:57), all of the writings of the Apostle John (Ether 4:16), the records of the lost tribes of Israel (2 Nephi 29:13), and the approximately two-thirds of the Book of Mormon plates that were sealed.

Today we carry convenient quadruple combinations of the scriptures, but one day, since more scriptures are coming, we may need to pull little red wagons brimful with books. (A Wonderful Flood of Light [1990], 18).

2 Nephi 27:12-14 “3 and 8 witnesses”

2 Nephi 27:15-19 “Deliver the Book…unto the Learned”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles expanded on the singular event with Professor Anthon to include the general reaction of the learned of this world to the Book of Mormon: “This is not solely a reference to Professor Anthon, since the plural pronoun they is used (v. 20). The reference suggests a mind-set of most of the learned of the world, who, by and large, do not take the Book of Mormon seriously. Even when they read it, they do not really read it, except with a mind-set which excludes miracles, including the miracle of the book’s coming forth by the ‘gift and power of God’” (“The Book of Mormon: A Great Answer to ‘the Great Question,’” in Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., The Book of Mormon: First Nephi, The Doctrinal Foundation [1988], 9).

2 Nephi 27:19-20 Isaiah 29

Sometimes, as has been said, certain mortals are so afraid of being “taken in” they cannot be “taken out” of their mind-sets (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle, 1970,148).

2 Nephi 27:21 “In Mine Own Due Time”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell discussed our timing and God’s timing: “Faith also includes trust in God’s timing, for He has said, ‘All things must come to pass in their time’ (D&C 64:32). Ironically, some who acknowledge God are tried by His timing, globally and personally!” (C.R., Apr. 1991, 119).

On another occasion, Elder Maxwell said: “Faith in the timing of God [is] to be able to say Thy timing be done, even when we do not fully understand it” (“Glorify Christ” [an evening with Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Feb. 2, 2001], 7, ldsces.org).

Remember that Moroni was quoting Isaiah 29 five years before it was fulfilled.

Also, remember that it was not Martin Harris’s idea to take the characters to Charles Anthon and other experts.

Joseph sent him to fulfill the prophetic statements of Isaiah.

Isaiah 29:4, 11-14, 17-18, 24

And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness (D&C 1:30).

Both President Packer and President Faust are on record as saying that the calling of President Hinckley fulfilled that prophecy.

Isaiah 29:11

Joseph sent Martin Harris to help build his own confidence in translating and to fulfill Isaiah 29.

Martin Harris showed the copy of the characters to three men:

Professor Anthon: Knew Greek, not Egyptian. Six years after meeting Martin Harris he told

Martin he was being tricked.

Dr. Mitchell: He was a genius, many called him a walking dictionary, he remembered everything.

Luther Bradish: He was an able linguist.

2 Nephi 27:28

The land of Israel “shall be turned into a fruitful field.”

“Isaiah describes a nation which would be destroyed suddenly, but which would speak in modern times, literally from the grave, by means of a book.“…Palestine is now the fruitful field he envisioned, and the book has been published” (Mark E. Peterson, Ensign, November 1977, 12).