1 Nephi 19:11-16

After having prophesied about the coming of Christ, Nephi wrote the day will come when Christ will visit all of the house of Israel. Some he will visit “with his voice because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation” (1 Nephi 19:11).  The Lord told Joseph Smith, “[B]ehold, whosoever believeth on my words, them will I visit with the manifestation of my Spirit; and they shall be born of me, even of water and of the Spirit—“ (D&C 5:16).

However, those who are not righteous will face “the thunderings and the lightnings of his power” (1 Nephi 19:11).  Samuel the Lamanite warned the Nephites of what awaited them at Christ’s death if they continued in their sin.

But behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead.

Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of "many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up;

Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath.

And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great.

And many highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate.

And many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead; and many saints shall appear unto many.

And behold, thus hath the angel spoken unto me; for he said unto me that there should be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours.

And he said unto me that while the thunder and the lightning lasted, and the tempest, that these things should be, and that darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days.

  Helaman 14:20 - 27

The thunderings and lightnings also occurred in the Old World.  “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth [GR earth, region, land, or country] until the ninth hour.  And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst [GR middle]” (Luke 23:44 - 45).

Hugh Nibley wrote about those who would not listen to Christ.

If they wouldn't hear the gentle voice, they would get the thunder, and it knocked them out. It scared the daylights out of them. The same thing happens in the 1 Nephi 19:11: "For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power" because they're not righteous. You have your choice of the voice you're going to hear. Will it be a good one, or will it be the other one? The voice of thunder will get you moving all right. And so you have the two voices here. Remember, the angel spoke with a voice of thunder, and the earth shook too at the same time.[1]

John Welch writes about how this prophecy supports consistencies in the Book of Mormon.

Even more remarkable are the extensive, intricate consistencies within the Book of Mormon. Passages tie together precisely and accurately though separated from each other by hundreds of pages of text and dictated weeks apart … [An] example is found in the account of the destructions in 3 Nephi 8:6-23, fulfilling the prophecy of Zenos preserved in 1 Nephi 19:11-12. The ancient prophet foretold that there would be thunderings and lightnings, tempests, fire and smoke, a vapor of darkness, the earth opening, mountains being carried up, rocks rending, and the earth groaning. The fulfillment of his prophecy is recorded hundreds of years (and pages) later. Third Nephi 8 expressly speaks of the same list: tempests, thunderings and lightnings, fire, earth being carried up to become a mountain, whirlwinds, the earth quaking and breaking up, rocks being rent, a vapor of darkness, and the people groaning. Apparently, one of the reasons that Mormon gave such a full account was to document the complete fulfillment of that prophecy of Zenos.[2]

These things must occur according to the words of the prophet Zenos.  After recording these occurrences in the New World, Mormon wrote, “And thus far were the scriptures fulfilled which had been spoken by the prophets” (3 Nephi 10:11).  Here were similar occurrences in the Old World. 

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent [GR torn into two pieces] in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept [GR who had died] arose,

And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Matthew 27:51 - 54

Zenos prophesied that “they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel” (1 Nephi 19:13).  Before being crucified, Christ lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would [GR have I desired to gather] I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37 - 39).

Christ would be despised by the Jews.  King Benjamin would teach:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

Mosiah 14:3 - 6

The day will come with they will no more deny Christ.  At that time, He will remember the covenants that were made with their fathers.  Zenos prophesied that in that day, they will be gathered from the four quarters of the Earth.

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[1] Lecture 15: 1 Nephi 17-19, 22, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 27, 2013.

[2] Textual Consistency, John W. Welch. Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 27, 2013.

3 Nephi 8:1-11

Chapter 8

Tempests, earthquakes, fires, whirlwinds, and physical upheavals attest the crucifixion of Christ—Many people are destroyed—Darkness covers the land for three days—Those who remain bemoan their fate. About A.D. 33–34

The Nephites were a wicked people.  They had killed the prophets and turned away from God.  The Gadianton Robbers were spread throughout the land.  There are some righteous people, but they are a distinct minority.

Mormon’s tone suddenly changes.  There is a sudden, unexpected change in his writings.  He testifies as to the truthfulness of the record and the character of the author of the record.  “[W]e know our record to be true, for behold, it was a just man who did keep the record—for he truly did many miracles in the name of Jesus” (3 Nephi 8:1).

The miracles he did are recorded in the record.

And in the name of Jesus did he cast out devils and unclean spirits; and even his brother did he raise from the dead, after he had been stoned and suffered death by the people.

And the people saw it, and did witness of it, and were angry with him because of his power; and he did also do many more miracles, in the sight of the people, in the name of Jesus.

3 Nephi 7:19 - 20

The only way he could have done these miracles in Christ’s name was because “he [was] cleansed every whit from his iniquity” (3 Nephi 8:1).

If there were no mistaken dates in the record, we have arrived at the 34^th year after the signs of Christ’s birth were given.  The people looked for the signs that he been prophesied that there would be three days of darkness throughout the land.

And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel.

1 Nephi 19:10

But behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead.

And he said unto me that while the thunder and the lightning lasted, and the tempest, that these things should be, and that darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days.

Helaman 14:20, 27

The Nephites, being the Nephites, found a way to turn this event into disputes among the people.  Many signs had been given, but they still argued among themselves. And, when the Nephites argue, bad things follow. 

In the first month of the thirty-fourth year, there was a great storm, unlike any storm they had ever seen.  There was so much thunder, “that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder” (3 Nephi 8:6).  Russell Ball writes, “This apparently is the first time the Nephites had experienced earthquakes approaching this intensity, and they seem to have assumed incorrectly that thunder was the cause of the earthquakes …  The thunder and the shaking of the ground were actually independent, both caused by severe seismic events.”[1]

Nephi₁ quoted the prophet Zenos.  “For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up” (1 Nephi 19:11).

Matthew recorded occurrences in Jerusalem.  “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour … Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice [JST Matt. 27:54 ... a loud voice, saying, Father, it is finished, thy will is done, yielded up...] yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain [GR torn into two pieces] from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;” (Matthew 27:45, 50 - 51).

In addition to the thunder and earthquakes, “there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land” (3 Nephi 8:7).  John Tvedtnes writes about the destruction.

The great destructions which took place among the Nephites and Lamanites at the time of Christ's crucifixion can be likened to the effects of hurricanes and tornadoes as well as tectonic activity such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The cataclysm began with a "great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land," followed by "a great and terrible tempest" and "terrible thunder" that "did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder. And there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land" (3 Nephi 8:5–7).[2] 

Mormon details the destruction.

·         The city of Zarahemla caught fire.

o   Hugh Nibley writes:

§  "And the city of Zarahemla did take fire" (3 Nephi 8:8). It would appear from the account of the Nephite disaster that the main cause of the destruction was fire in the cities (3 Nephi 9:8–11), which agrees with all the major statistics through the centuries; for "earthquakes are largely a city problem," mainly because the first heavy shock invariably sets fires all over town: in the Japanese experience "wind-driven flames were shown to be more dangerous than the greatest earthquake."[3]

• The city of Moroni sank into the depths of the sea and all were drowned.
• The city of Moronihah was covered by earth and, where the city was, there was a mountain.

o   Mormon, writing about the Lord, wrote, “Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is done” (Helaman 12:17).

o   Hugh Nibley describes similar situations.

§  In September 1538 during a tremendous storm and tidal wave a volcanic mountain suddenly appeared and covered a town near Puzzuoli on the Bay of Naples; ever since, the mountain has been known as Monte Nuove, or New Mountain. The carrying up of the earth upon the city suggests the overwhelming of Pompeii by vast heaps of volcanic ash or the deep burial of Herculaneum under lava in 79 A.D.[4]

• There was great destruction in the land southward.

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[1] An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of Darkness among the Nephites, Russell H. Ball, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed November 15, 2012.

[2] Historical Parallels to the Destruction at the Time of the Crucifixion, John A. Tvedtnes, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed November 15, 2012.

[3] Some Fairly Foolproof Tests, Hugh Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed November 15, 2012.

[4] Some Fairly Foolproof Tests, Hugh Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed November 15, 2012.