The 3 Lamanites?

One thing (out of hundreds) I have learned from Grant Hardy's Oxford Annotated Book of Mormon, is that  the phrase "3 Nephites" is not scriptural. It is another example of our inability as a group of people to actually read and understand what the text states. The BOM describes the 3 New World hand-picked leaders by CHRIST, as the "three disciples". Nowhere does it designate their ethnic background. For all we know these 3 exemplary men were all Lamanites. 

It would make sense, since the Lamanites are described in the book as being more righteous immediately prior to JESUS's visit than their brethren the Nephites. Why do we keep calling them the 3 Nephites? Because we like to think of think of the Nephites as the good guys, and the Lamanites as the bad guys. Interesting, when GOD preserved the Lamanites and destroyed the Nephites. 

The most CHRIST-like group in the entire text are the people of Ammon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis. You may recall those people were converted Lamanites. Only GOD can truly tell who the good guys are at any moment in time. 

My personal preference would be if the three disciples were made up of one Nephite, one Lamanite, and one Indigenous person. Whatever their ethinic background, those three disciples are still alive today. We might even meet one, or two, or all of them if had the faith that the people of 4th Nephi had. I know I do not have the kind of faith (yet) so I am going to have to most likely wait until the next life to find out what who and what the 3 Disciples were. 

If I do see them before that, I will let you know. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Earthquake in New York is a Warning

 I live in California and earthquakes are just part of the experience here. New York is different. What if the recent 4.8 earthquake in New York is a warning from GOD? My best guess (and this is the guess of a sinner) is that New York has had time to decide what to do about abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V Wade. You can currently get an abortion in New York for any reason in the first 24 week period. GOD might be against abortion for any time period or any reason. Certainly 24 weeks seems excessive by any standard of common sense. If GOD mandated an earthquake in California, another home of infanticide, no one would think anything happened out of the ordinary. Have an earthquake in the Empire state (empire of secret murder) and you might get a few people wondering what is going on. I am a firm believer in targeted strikes by the Almighty. Everything from the  angel Moroni falling off  temples, to unusual weather, to Lincoln being shot by John Wilkes Booth...
Read more

France to be Destroyed

  I am sure you are aware the France has become the first sovereign state in the history of the world to make abortion a constitutional right. It makes sense, this is same country that basically laid down for Hitler at the start of WWII. The French are consistently foolish and cowardly. Based on the Lehite cities in the Book of Mormon, I predict (not prophesy) that France will one day soon be destroyed. Why? "The blood of the saints" (aborted children) cries from the ground to the GOD of this Earth, Jesus Christ. I have a strong feeling He has had enough of listening to the distress calls of people whose second estate has been horrifically terminated before it began. When the day of mercy runs out, the day of justice begins. Will it start with France? The US is not going to fare much better, but at least we have not as yet made abortion a constitutional right. If that does happen, you may want to move to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Madagascar, or the Dominican Republic....
Read more

17 Million Mormons?

Dr. Ryan Cragun has done some excellent research on the decline of religion generally (secularization). He grew up LDS in beautiful Morgan, Utah (up Ogden Canyon), served a mission to Costa Rica in the 1990s, and then left the church in 2004. His latest work turned up the fact that Utah is no longer a majority Mormon state. The LDS church via its media holdings in Utah would like you to believe that 60 percent of the state is still Mormon. They are just not allowed to utter the word "Mormon" for fear of spontaneously combusting, or at the very least going to Hell at some future date (despite the fact the founding scripture of the institution has "Mormon" in the title). Perhaps the church will rename the book, The Book of Nephi, which would be great since it was actually Nephi that appeared to Joseph Smith all those years ago. Cragun's research indicates with a 99.9 percent confidence interval (most studies only use 90-95 percent) that 38-46 percent of the popula...
Read more