Publish Peace

1 Nephi 13
In this chapter, Nephi saw in vision many heroes who would be led by the Spirit to the promised land, including Christopher Columbus, the Puritans, and the Pilgrims. He saw that these people, the Gentiles, would seek independence from and battle against “their mother Gentiles.” They would be successful in their endeavors because they “did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.”

Heroes are humble. They recognize their strengths and wisdom, but they understand that ultimately they can’t succeed in their quest on their own so they humbly seek additional guidance and power from the Lord. As they receive additional inspiration and help from the Lord, heroes come to realize that their greatest quest is also the Lord’s quest, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). For as the angel told Nephi “blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion.”

Heroes seek to bring forth Zion. Nephi saw that the Gentiles would have the record of the Jews “which contains the covenants of the Lord, which he hath made unto the house of Israel; and it also containeth many of the prophecies of the holy prophets” (1 Nephi 13:20-25). This record of the Jews, the Bible, would be “of great worth unto the Gentiles.” However, over time the “plain and most precious” parts of the “gospel of the Lamb” and “many covenants of the Lord” would be “taken away from the book.” Because of this perversion of the “the right ways of the Lord….an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them” (1 Nephi 13:27-29).

But the Lord “will be merciful unto the Gentiles” and the nations of the earth. The angel told Nephi that the Lord would manifest himself unto Nephi’s posterity and minister unto them and that his seed would “write many things which [the Lord] shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious.” The things which his posterity would write “shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb.” The record of Nephi’s posterity is the Book of Mormon and in it is “written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation.”

Heroes publish peace when they share the gospel of the Lamb with others. The purposes of the Bible and the Book of Mormon are to “establish the truth” of each record and to “make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved” (1 Nephi 13:40). Then all men will know that “there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth” and be ready to receive Him when he returns to reign  (see Micah 4:1-7 and Revelation 20:1-6).

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