100 Days Week 2 (Oct 1): 1 Nephi 19 - 2 Nephi 13

[Wingnut]

Hey everyone,

Sorry I'm so late getting this week's assignment out. I just barely got it last night myself from my own coordinator.

Anyway, I'm excited for this week's assignment. 2 Nephi 2 and 9 are both great chapters!

This should take us through Sunday (according to my friend), and hopefully we can get back on track then.

Pam, can you make this a sticky post like the other one please? Thanks!

Oh and if you're not sure what "100 Days" has to do with anything, see this thread: 100 Days: Read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year

[Hemidakota]

2:14. And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and leading for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.

Things to act and things to be acted upon] The living and the dead, the animate and the inanimate- all are subject to the mind and will of God. Thus Nephi stated: "If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done." (1 Nephi 17:50.)

2:15. And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

2:16. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

Our first parents] Adam and Eve are the mortal parents of all. There is no scriptural justification for the idea of pre-Adamites. In a revelation directed to our day, Adam was declared to be the "father of all" (D&C 138:38). As to the manner in which Adam was placed on earth, the First Presidency of the Church (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund), in an official statement titled "The Origin of Man," stated:

"[Adam] took upon him an appropriate body" the body of a man, and so became a 'living soul.' . . . All who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner. . . . Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our Heavenly Father. True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. There is nothing in this, however, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man." (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency 4:200-206.)

Perhaps no story in scriptural writ matches that of Eden in its symbolic richness. In the midst of the Garden of Eden was the tree of life- a symbolic representation of Christ and immortality (see 1 Nephi 11:4-21). Standing opposite the tree of life was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Each tree bore its distinctive fruit- the fruits of eternal life or of endless death, the one being sweet and the other bitter. Thus Adam and Eve could exercise agency, having a choice of which fruit they would partake. Had there been nothing within the garden that was forbidden to Adam and Eve- had there been no opposition- there could be neither agency nor progress available to them.

[Nappaljarri]

I've been AWOL with a virus... Yay!! So my reading has slowed up, but will still get done this week. I love Isaiah!!

Friday 3rd October 2008

1Nephi: 19 – 22, 2 Nephi: 1

Points of interest are:

1. 19: 6 – 7 - Nephi says, “forgive my erring” to those who would think that what he thought and wrote as sacred, is not sacred to them. In other words, if we think that Nephi’s words are not sacred, then we are trampling God’s wisdom under our feet. Vs 9: And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men. (I love this scripture).
2. 2 Nephi: 1: 13 “Oh that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the selep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.” Who is told to awake from sleep in the temple? vs 23 “Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.”

[Hemidakota]

Welcome back and hang in there.

[Brenton]

"[Adam] took upon him an appropriate body" the body of a man, and so became a 'living soul.' . . . All who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner. . . . Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our Heavenly Father. True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. There is nothing in this, however, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man." (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency 4:200-206.)

I would take from this that, the Church does not believe in Evolution, then?
[by the way, im not necesarily critical of that]

[Wingnut]

Originally Posted by Brenton

I would take from this that, the Church does not believe in Evolution, then?
[by the way, im not necesarily critical of that]

The LDS church believes that God created man in His own image (see Genesis 1:26).

Evolution vs. creation/intelligent design could be an interesting discussion topic. If you'd like to continue it, please start a new thread, as this one has a specific topic already.

[Misshalfway]

Onward to 2 Nephi 13!

I am now reading the New Testament along side this BofM reading! Boy, am I feeling some amazing spirit feelings. I love the scriptures! Can anything replace the kind of knowledge that the Spirit fleshes out in ones mind thru this kind of study? I mean, I can't even explain. It is simple....yet complex. I don't know. Just love it, that's all.

[Wingnut]

Originally Posted by Misshalfway

Onward to 2 Nephi 13!

I am now reading the New Testament along side this BofM reading! Boy, am I feeling some amazing spirit feelings. I love the scriptures! Can anything replace the kind of knowledge that the Spirit fleshes out in ones mind thru this kind of study? I mean, I can't even explain. It is simple....yet complex. I don't know. Just love it, that's all.

Halfers, you sound like a Seminary teacher gearing up for a new school year! I love it!

[pam]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

The LDS church believes that God created man in His own image (see Genesis 1:26).

Evolution vs. creation/intelligent design could be an interesting discussion topic. If you'd like to continue it, please start a new thread, as this one has a specific topic already.

I was going to say the same thing but noticed you already had. Brenton we appreciate your questions but let's keep this one on the Book of Mormon study.

[skalenfehl]

Reporting in. I started 2 Nephi 29 today just before priesthood session of general conference.