“Let's go to chapter
11. I guess we don't really know exactly when Christ came to the Nephites.
There are people who take different sides to that issue. It seems to me, from 3
Nephi 11:8—11, that the text indicates several months had passed before he came.
It is the ending of the thirty and fourth year (see 3 Nephi 10:18). The
destruction began the first month of the thirty and fourth year (see 3 Nephi
8:5). The Savior appears at the ending of the thirty and fourth year.”[1]
After hearing the
voice of God, the Nephites looked towards the heavens and saw a Man descending
from heaven, wearing a white robe. This even had been prophesied. “And I saw
the heavens open, and the Lamb of God descending out of heaven; and he came
down and showed himself unto them” (1 Nephi 12:6).
“AND after Christ
shall have risen from the dead he shall show himself unto you, my children, and
my beloved brethren; and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the claw which ye shall do…
“But the Son of
righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall
have peace with him, until three generations shall have passed away, and many
of the fourth generation shall have passed away in righteousness” (2 Nephi 26:1,
9).
“And many of the
people did inquire concerning the place where the Son of God should come; and
they were taught that he would appear unto them after his resurrection; and
this the people did hear with great joy and gladness” (Alma 16:20).
“And now, as I,
Moroni, said I could not make a full account of these things which are written,
therefore it sufficeth me to say that Jesus showed himself unto [the brother of
Jared] in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same
body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites.
“And he ministered
unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man
might know that he was God, because of the many great works which the Lord had
showed unto him” (Ether 3:17-18).
“The writing of Juan
de Cordova regarding the light that emanated from a powerful man, and the
account in the Popol Vuh of the sun's being like a person may stem from
Christ's visit to the Americas. These two stories do not appear to be Christian
manipulations and are in keeping with Christ's visit to Book of Mormon peoples.
Although 3 Nephi 11:10–11 does not specifically say that the Lord descended
from the clouds as a personage with light emanating from his being, it is
plausible that he did. After all, he wore ‘a white robe’ and, on the second day
of his visit, radiated a brilliant light to his 12 disciples (see 3 Nephi 11:8;
19:25, 30).”[2]
The people were
speechless at what they saw. When he stood among the people, he said, “Behold,
I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world” (3
Nephi 11:10).
After a session in
the Brigham City Temple, I was waiting for my wife. I sat across from a
painting of Christ’s appearance to the Nephites. Damage was still visible. I
began to wonder what it had been like to have been there. Their world had been
turned upside down. Damage was extensive. The death toll was high. Here they
were, working to rebuild the world. Out of nowhere, they Savior appeared to
them. I can’t even begin to imagine the surprise, yet joy at the appearance of
the Savior. It would have been an experience of a lifetime, standing in the
presence of the Savior.
“The Word of the
Lord. From the presence of the Lord in the temple, says Psalm 17:2, the word of
the Lord comes forth as his ‘oracle.’ It was in the Holy of Holies that Isaiah
saw the Lord ‘sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled
the temple’ (Isaiah 6:1), and there the word of the Lord was given to him.
Throughout 3 Nephi, one hears in abundance the word of the Lord. He himself
spoke. He identified himself: ‘He stretched forth his hand and spake unto the
people saying: Behold I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come
into the world’ (3 Nephi 11:9–10). He delivered the very words of God the
Father, with whom he was ‘one’ (3 Nephi 28:10).”[3]
The Savior
proclaimed He is the light of the world.
He has been referred to as the Light throughout scripture. “THE LORD is
my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid” (Psalms
27:1)
“The people that
walked in darkness [The ‘dimness’ and ‘darkness’ were apostasy and captivity
(Isa. 8:20–22); the ‘great light’ is Christ (Isa. 9:6–7)] have seen a great
light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the
light shined” (Isaiah 9:2).
“In him was life;
and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
“That was the true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9).
“Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
“And the city had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof” (Revelation 21:23).
“The light and the
Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because
the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men”
(D&C 93:9).
“In the
New World, light from a star announcing the birth of Christ extended through
the night. Darkness and destruction signaled the Savior's death, and morning
light shone with his resurrection. Darkness and then light marked conditions
before the Savior's appearance in the New World. Out of the darkness came the
Redeemer's voice: ‘I am the light and the life of the world’ (3 Nephi
9:18). Subsequently, the Savior appeared to the Nephites at the temple,
declaring his identity as Jesus Christ and reaffirming that he was the light
and the life of the world (3 Nephi 11:11). In striking ways, light in
3 Nephi is thus both creative power and a symbol of the Creator. And just
as ‘Let there be light’ is an essential beginning to the story of creation in
the first chapter of the Bible, so the book ends with creation of a new earth
in which there is ‘no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it [the
city of God]: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof’ (Revelation 21:23).”[4]
“The Bible records
Jesus’s teaching: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Later, in the New World, He declared, “I
am the light and the life of the world” (3 Nephi 11:11). He is the life of the
world because He is our Creator and because, through His Resurrection, we are
all assured that we will live again. And the life He gives us is not merely
mortal life. He taught, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28; see also
John 17:2).”[5]
He had drunk of the
bitter cup given Him by the Father. “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove
this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
He had taken upon Himself the sins of the world. “The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world” (John 1:29). He had “suffered the will of the Father in all
things from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:11).
“The
Christ of Third Nephi is the victor over temptations and trials, not the
glorified stage prop of modern apocrypha. The divine tragedy of rejection is
the theme of the opening and closing words of Christ to the Nephites. At the
outset his voice from heaven sorrowed at the rebellious who had perished in
American Sodoms and Gomorrahs. Then he descended and spoke of ‘that bitter cup
which the father hath given me,’ insisting that he had ‘glorified the Father…in
all things from the beginning’ (3 Nephi 11:11). John's Revelation reveals the
triumphal Savior at the final judgment, but Third Nephi records the poignant
voice of divine suffering just after his sacrifices for mankind had been
accomplished.”[6]
[3] Seeing
Third Nephi as the Holy of Holies of the Book of Mormon, John W. Welch, Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other
Restoration Scripture 19/1 (2010): 47.
[4] Light:
A Masterful Symbol, Richard Dilworth Rust, Maxwell Institute website.
[5] Teachings
of Jesus, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, October 2011 General Conference.
[6] Imitation
Gospels and Christ's Book of Mormon Ministry, Richard Lloyd Anderson, Reprinted
by permission from C. Wilfred Griggs, ed., Apocryphal
Writings and the Latter-day Saints (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center,
1986), 53-107, Maxwell Institute website.
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