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Mosiah 1-3. Beginning with Mosiah, Mormon abridges the books on the large plates of Nephi. The 5 books that follow Alma, Helaman, 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, and Mormon were abridged or condensed by Mormon and written by Mormon on the plates of Mormon..
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Mosiah 1-3 Beginning with Mosiah, Mormon abridges the books on the large plates of Nephi. The 5 books that follow Alma, Helaman, 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, and Mormon were abridged or condensed by Mormon and written by Mormon on the plates of Mormon.. This is why there is a shift from 1st person to 3rd person. Mosiah in Hebrew means “Savior or rescuer.”
Mosiah 1:3 “Mysteries of God” It denotes the saving principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are termed mysteries because they are unavailable to the natural man. They are intended to lead God’s children to eternal life. 3 Nephite Kings: Mosiah Benjamin Mosiah Mosiah 1:11-12 The name appears to be “Children of Christ.”
Mosiah 1:10 Mosiah to Be the New King There is a striking similarity between Mosiah’s ascendancy to the Nephite throne in the first chapters of Mosiah and how kings were crowned in the Old Testament. Some notable similarities between Book of Mormon and Old Testament coronation ceremonies include:
1. A belief that kings were chosen by heaven (Mosiah 1:9-10; 6:3, 5, 1 Kings 2:15). 2. The Sanctuary as the place of coronation (Mosiah 1:18, 1 Kings 1:39-45). 3. Bestowal of sacred relics, artifacts, or other objects at the time of coronation (Mosiah 1:15-16, 2 Kings 11:12). 4. Anointing (Mosiah 6:3, 1 Kings 1:33-34).
“In addition, the ideal was that the new king take office before the death of the old one, and this transfer of power was connected with the ceremony where the people make or renew their covenant with God” (Ricks, in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, 216).
Mosiah 1:16 3 tokens of Nephite Kingship: 1. Plates 2. Sword of Laban 3. The ball or director Mosiah 2 is one of the most eloquent and profound chapters of all of holy-writ. It is not for slothful servants, but a dispensation of the “mysteries of God” to some of the most diligent people whom God had led out of Jerusalem.
Mosiah 2:9-17 “A stewardship Report” Mosiah 2:17 This is a sermon about humility, gratitude, and the Atonement. King Benjamin seemed to be suggesting that they were living the Law of Moses, but maybe not understanding all of it’s emphasis placed on the Savior.
Isn’t the measure of the level of your conversion how you treat others? Service to others is what the gospel and exalted life are all about. If our service is to be most efficacious, it must be accomplished for the love of God and the love of his children. Is there any greater service rendered than that of doing work for the dead?
A member of the Church in Great Britain said it best. He had served as stake president. As that period of prominence came to an end, he told Elder Boyd K. Packer why it did not bother him to be released: “I served because I am under covenant. And I can keep my covenants quite as well as a home teacher as I can serving as stake president” (C.R., Apr. 1987, 26). Numberless officers, teachers, advisers, and clerks keep their covenants in that same way. Their service is almost invisible, except to Him who sees all things and promises all who do good that they shall “in nowise lose their reward.”
President David O. McKay said: “There is no position in the Church that is too humble for the greatest man to serve in (Stepping Stones to an Abundant Life, [1971], 166).
Mosiah 2:19-25 I don’t know of any, excepting the unpardonable sin, that is greater than the sin of _____________ (D&C 59:21). “I believe that one of the greatest sins of which the inhabitants of the earth are guilty today is the sin of ingratitude, the want of acknowledgement, on their part, of God and his right to govern and control. We see a man raised up with extraordinary gifts, or with great intelligence, and he is instrumental in developing some great principle. He and the world ascribe his great genius and wisdom to himself. He attributes his success to his own energies, labor and mental capacity. He does not acknowledge the hand of God in anything connected with his success, but ignores him altogether and takes the honor unto himself; this will apply to almost all the world.
In all the great modern discoveries in science, in the arts, in mechanics, and in material advancement of the age, the world says, ‘We have done it,’ The individual says, ‘I have done it,’ and he gives no honor or credit to God. Now, I read in the revelations through Joseph Smith, the prophet, that because of this, God is not pleased with the inhabitants of the earth but is angry with them because they will not acknowledge his hand in all things” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 270-271.
“We are not our own, we are bought with a price, we are the Lord’s; our time, our talents, our gold and silver, our wheat and fine flour, our wine and our oil, our cattle, and all there is on this earth that we have in our possession is the Lord’s… “…There is no man who ever made a sacrifice on this earth for the Kingdom of heaven, that I know anything about, except the Savior. He drank the bitter cup to the dregs, and tasted for every man and for every woman, and redeemed the earth and all things upon it.
But he was God in the flesh, or he could not have endured it. ‘But we suffer, we sacrifice, we give something, we have preached so long.’ What for? ‘Why, for the Lord.’ I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for the man who feels that he is making sacrifice for God. We are doing this for our own happiness, welfare and exaltation, and for nobody else’s. This is the fact, and what we do, we do for the salvation of the inhabitants of the earth, not for the salvation of the heavens, the angels, or the Gods” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 176-77).
“Every member of this Church who violates the Sabbath day, who is not honest in the paying of his tithing, who will not keep the Word of Wisdom, who willfully violates any of the other commandments the Lord has given us, is ungrateful to the Son of God, and when ungrateful to the Son of God is ungrateful to the Father who sent him” (Discourses of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie
Mosiah 2:25 (Moses 1:10) 1. God created all things including dust or the elements. 2. We are made of those elements. 3. Therefore our bodies belong to God. “For ye are bought with a price” (I Cor. 6:20). Our bodies therefore belong to God. Mosiah 2:36-41 We are in debt!
Matthew 18:23-35 The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant This parable teaches that there are two things we can be really good at in this life: 1. Repenting 2. Forgiving others
Mosiah 2:38 “Eternal Punishment” “Eternal punishment, or endless punishment, does not mean that those who partake of it must endure it forever. ‘It is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment. Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s gory….Behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it.
For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless punishment in my name. Wherefore --- Eternal punishment is God’s punishment. Endless punishment is God’s punishment’ (D&C 19:6-12). “The laws of God are immutable, and from this explanation we learn that the same punishment always follows the same offense, according to the laws of God who is eternal and endless, hence it is called, endless punishment, and eternal punishment, because it is the punishment which God has fixed according to unchangeable law.
A man may partake of endless torment, and when he has paid the penalty for his transgression, he is released, but the punishment remains and awaits the next culprit, and so on forever” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:228).
Mosiah 3:2 A significant portion of King Benjamin’s sermon was given to him by an angel (2 Nephi 32:3). Mosiah 3:5-12 v.7 “Blood cometh from every pore!” 2 other witnesses: 1. Luke 22:44 2. D&C 19:18
”Elder Maxwell referred to the suffering experienced by Jesus Christ as “the awful arithmetic of the Atonement”: “Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fullness, it was so much, much worse than even he with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel (Adam?) appeared to strengthen him! (Luke 22:43).
“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins --- past, present, and future --- pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement (Alma 7:11-12; Isaiah 53:3-5; Matthew 8;17) (C.R., Apr. 1985, 92).
Mosiah 3:19 “We need the Atonement!” The natural man is actually at cross purposes with God’s plan. The natural man really has different ends, seeks different outcomes, and marches to different drummers (Neal A. Maxwell, Men and Women of Christ, 8).
The natural man is the “earthly man” who has allowed rude animal passions to overshadow his spiritual inclinations (C.R. Oct., 1974, Spencer W. Kimball). Are we not wiser to understand our fallen nature and then, with equal attention, to be taught about how we can be lifted up? Indeed, for one to ask “Where do we go from here?” He must know where “here” is (Neal A. Maxwell).
Mosiah 3:19 In the language of President Ezra Taft Benson: The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ take the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature (Born of God, 6).
Brigham Young seemed to take quite a different view of who and what the natural man is: It is fully proved in all the revelations that God has ever given to mankind that they naturally love and admire righteousness, justice and truth more than they do evil. It is, however, universally received by professors of religion as a scriptural doctrine that man is naturally opposed to God. This is not so, Paul says in his Epistle to the Corinthians. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of God,” but I say it is the unnatural “man that receiveth not the things of God.”…That which was, is, and will continue to endure is more natural than that which will pass away and be no more. The natural man is of God (JD 9:305).