Jan 20-26 1 Nephi 11-15

The lesson starts off with this observation:

You are among “the saints of the church of the Lamb” seen by Nephi, “who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14).

I agree with this observation; the scriptures are powerful when we liken them to ourselves. However, in the context of Nephi's vision, I think this passage is part of a description of the history of Christianity, starting with verse 9. The Restoration doesn't occur until verse 17:

17 And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose founder is the devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel.
(1 Nephi 14:17)

The passage is not specific about the "work of the Father" would consist of, but certainly it commenced at least with the translation of the Book of Mormon.

When viewed this way, we can more fully appreciate the faithful followers of Christ through the ages.

Because I still believe Joseph Smith translated the ancient engravings on the plates, I like to look at the language he would have had in his mind. This means looking at sources available in his environment.

This week's lesson includes 1 Nephi 14 which has several references to the "mother of abominations." (It also appears in D&C 88:94.) Some authors used this term in the 1700s to refer to the Catholic Church, or "Church of Rome," while others used it to refer more generally to the antichrist.

Here is one example that I like because it provides some useful context for interpreting Nephi's vision. It gives a flavor for the type of writing that was available in the late 1700s and early 1800s, although this particular book was not apparently on sale in the Palmyra printing shop when Joseph Smith lived there.

SERMONS ON THE MORAL LAW; ELUCIDATING THE NATURE, EXTENT AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE VARIOUS SOCIAL AND DIVINE VIRTUES, COMPRISED IN THAT SUMMARY OF UNIVERSAL DUTY—AND ON THE CONNECTION OF THE MORAL LAW AND THE GOSPEL.

BY DAVID M'’CLURE, Minister of the First Church in East-Windsor

The Law of the Lord is perfect.

Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, to every one that believeth.

HARTFORD: FROM THE PRESS OF BEACH AND JONES. 1795.

INTRODUCTION.

THE probability that the following letters may fall into the hands of some readers, who may not understand many allusions to the ceremonies and institutions of the Roman Catholic Religion, induces the American Editor to prefix a few sketches to the work, to render it more intelligible.

In the early ages of Christianity, after it had spread its benign influence, and become, in a great degree, prevalent in almost every nation on the eastern continent, it gradually lost ground, and its happy effects were greatly diminished, by reason of the wickedness and lukewarmness of many of its professed votaries; and the churches were rent with heresies, and torn asunder by headstrong, contending parties.

In this state of things, the Roman government, whose conquests and power had been coextensive with the world, undertook to connect the Christian religion with the civil power, and mold it to a system of state policy. The better to effect this purpose, [Page xiv] it became necessary to mingle the Christian, Jewish and Pagan religions together. The temples of the Heathen deities were converted into churches; the images of those deities, such as Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Minerva, &c. were taken away, and replaced with images of saints, male and female. The pure doctrines of the gospel were clouded with a multitude of superstitious ceremonies, by which its original simplicity was almost subverted. 

The ministers of the gospel, who before this time had been in an humble station, and, like Jesus Christ, their great Master, of a meek disposition; like him, never interfering nor meddling with civil government, any farther than practising, enjoining and enforcing obedience to it, were many of them, at this time, advanced to high offices in church and state, and invested with great wealth and civil power; whilst lower orders of the clergy were nearly as indigent as the common people: All of them, however, acting under the authority of the Roman Emperor, called the Pope, who assumed the title of supreme head of the church, and exercised complete and uncontrouled authority over all orders and ranks of men, both in a civil and ecclesiastical capacity. Every possible method was taken to throw all the wealth of the people into the hands of the church and state. [Page xv] 

The priests had the pretended power of forgiving sins, and, by their prayers, releasing the souls of wicked men from purgatory; for which they obtained frequent and sometimes large sums of money from the people. Religious houses of men and women were established, called by the different names of abbies, cloisters, convents, or monasteries. To these houses multitudes have repaired in every age of the Roman Catholic church, bestowed their fortunes on these institutions, or cast them into the bosom of the church for charitable uses, took a vow of living single through life, and spent their days in this retirement. This they have been persuaded to do, sometimes for the purpose of atoning for heinous crimes, or gaining, by their piety, extraordinary merit in the sight of God, to entitle them to a better place in heaven. The better to effect these designs, the people were kept in great ignorance; prayers were made in an unknown tongue; the common people were not permitted to read the scriptures; all the decrees of the church and declarations of the clergy were deemed infallible.

Thus the pure, benign, and heaven-born light of true religion was greatly obscured; and the true church, consisting of a small number of faithful and enlightened followers, like a forlorn, though beautiful and [Page xvi] chaste, female pilgrim, was constrained to wander here and there, without any resting place, to escape the defilement and persecution of ecclesiastical tyranny. It would require many and large volumes to enumerate the many instances of societies and individuals, who, in every age of this dreadful usurpation, nobly defended the cause of true and uncorrupted religion, and who, by the intolerant spirit of this corrupted church, were persecuted and slain because they would not adhere to its anti-christian principles. 

Millions succeeding millions have been mangled and tortured to death by this MOTHER of ABOMINATIONS, because they would not subscribe to principles which they viewed with abhorrence, (the embracing of which they believed would expose them to everlasting misery in a future world) and renounce those on which they founded their hopes of eternal felicity. 

Candour obliges me, as a protestant, to acknowledge that this spirit of intolerance is not peculiar to the Romish church alone; nor would I affirm that it is any article of that religion to butcher the heretics. Every different sect of protestants which have arisen since the reformation, have discovered a degree of the same spirit: every one, in their turn, have accused the other of popery, and persecuted [Page xvii] each other, at least with sentiments of hatred, if not with fire and sword. 

In this particular, every candid protestant will allow that we have all had a little popery. This principle of persecuting another for a difference of opinion, whether in politics or religion, when it actuates a body of men, and is blown up into a flame by some ambitious and unprincipled demagogue, will always lead them to persecute or destroy those who think differently from themselves. 

The enemies of all religion have often urged this as an unanswerable argument against the Christian system. But surely nothing can be more unjust. We might as well argue that riches and health, which in their own nature are the greatest of all temporal blessings, are in themselves a curse, because some men pervert them to the vilest of purposes: or we might join with those mistaken politicians who would assert, that rational liberty is not a blessing to any people, because the modern government of France has disgraced the name of it by embracing a system of tyranny, and, under the mask of republicanism, committed the most enormous crimes. 

The fact is, that such is the wayward disposition of man, that every faculty of body or mind, every peculiar blessing or acquirement, is often, by a misimprovement of it, rendered a curse instead of a blessing.

_____

The lesson also refers to Columbus. In my view, John Cabot is a better fit, but I'm fine with what anyone wants to believe.

I discussed this before here:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2015/08/columbus.html