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Friday, June 26, 2015

2 Nephi 10, Alma 41&42 - What is the meaning of "restore"?

I have been very intrigued lately by how often I see a form of the word "restore" in the scriptures. I noticed it especially in a few chapters of the Book of Mormon. I will illustrate here what I found in the verses and how those verses changed my understanding of the meaning of "restore."

2 Nephi 10:2 says, "For behold, the promises which we have obtained are promises unto us according to the flesh; wherefore, as it has been shown unto me that many of our children shall perish in the flesh because of unbelief, nevertheless, God will be merciful unto many; and our children shall be restored, that they may come to that which will give them the true knowledge of their Redeemer."

As I read this verse I thought, What does it mean to be restored??

Verse 6 says that after the Jews crucify Jesus Christ and destruction comes upon them, those who are not destroyed will be scattered "among all nations." But "when the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance" (verse 7).

Restored = to be brought back; to return to a place of belonging

Verse 8 - "And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance."

Verse 10 - "But behold, this land, said God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land."

Restored = brought back to something that was yours before; gathered in. This implies that you are "coming back."

I love the idea that God will "restore" us to a place where we belong as He gathers the righteous together.


Alma 41 & 42 use the idea of "restoration" in a different context. These chapters discuss the plan of restoration which includes the body and soul being restored together, and good being restored for good / evil being restored for evil:

41:2 "The plan of restoration is requisite with the justice of God; for it is requisite that all things should be restored to their proper order. Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself."
41:3 "And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good."
41:4 "And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame--mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption--raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on the one hand, the other on the other--"
41:5 "The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh."
41:6 "And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness."
41:10 "Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."
41:12 "And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?"
41:13 "O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish--good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful."
41:14 "Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again."
41:15 "For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all."

Restored = to reward good for good, bad for bad, etc.

These verses introduce the idea that everything will be restored or "brought back" to its natural state. God will reward each of us according to our works and the desires of our hearts. 
Alma 42 continues with this concept:

42:23 "But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice."
42:27 "Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds."
42:28 "If he has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God."

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Alma 36:28-29 - What do the scriptures mean when they say "From time to time"?

As I was reading Alma 36 I read about how God released the people from bondage "from time to time." I wondered if that meant "from one time to the next" or "every now and then"? Did God consistently release His people from bondage, or was it dependent on certain actions on their part?

In Alma 36:28-29, Alma says to his son Helaman (regarding God), "And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he has brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he has swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time. Yea, and he has also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day; and I have always retained in remembrance their captivity; yea, and ye also ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity."

As I studied further I noticed something important in verse 30: "But behold, my son, this is not all; for ye ought to know as I do know, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; and ye ought to know also, that inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence. Now this is according to his word."

It seems to me that these scriptures are saying that God's mercy comes with our faith and obedience to His commandments. So "from time to time" would reflect how often His people choose to keep the commandments. Verse 28 could be interpreted to say, "he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity when they choose to follow his commandments." Verse 30 illustrates the principle that obedience leads to prosperity, and disobedience leads to being cut off from God. It seems, then, that God's deliverance is conditional upon our faithfulness.

Richard Lyman Bushman, in Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays, illustrates a pattern of God's deliverances in the Book of Mormon: "Book of Mormon prophets saw the major events of their own past as comprising a series of deliverances beginning with the archetypal flight of the Israelites from Egypt. Alma the Younger pictured the Exodus from Egypt and Lehi's journey from Jerusalem as the first of a number of bondages and escapes. . . . Among those bondages reaching 'down to the present day' were those of his father and Limhi, who, like their illustrious predecessors, were 'delivered out of the hands of the people of king Noah, by the mercy and power of God. And behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness . . . and again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage' (Alma 5:4-5)." He writes of the benefits of understanding God's deliverances because "they illustrated so perfectly the familiar ways of God with his people. Events took on religious meaning and form as they followed the established pattern of divine intervention." Understanding God's patterns of deliverance in the past can help us predict the consequences of future events.

My biggest takeaway from these scriptures is that God's deliverance from our bondage is conditional upon our faithfulness to His commandments. When we are obedient, we reap the benefits of His mercy, and He delivers us.