3 Ne 8:1 there was not any man who could do a miracle…save he were
cleansed every whit
The scriptures are clear in
their teachings about controlling the powers of heaven. The seminal scripture
is found in DC 121, the powers of heaven cannot be
controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may
be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or
to gratify our pride…the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is
grieved ; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of
that man (DC 121:36-7). So righteousness is the prerequisite for
performing miracles because a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt
7:18).
In DC 46, we learn of the gifts of the Spirit. Two of those gifts
are faith to heal and the working of miracles (DC 46:21). Seldom do we carefully read
the words of the Lord before and after this list of gifts. He counsels us to
follow the Spirit…in all holiness of heart, walking
uprightly before me…And ye must practise virtue and holiness before me
continually (DC 46:7,33). In other words, in order for us to exercise
the gifts of the Spirit, miracles included, we must first be cleansed every whit from iniquity.
Hartman Rector Jr.
“The
prophet Mormon stated very plainly what I like to call the qualification for
the performance of miracles. It is recorded in 3 Nephi…‘there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save
he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity.’
“So
this is the qualification: we must be cleansed every whit from our iniquity.
When I first read this passage of scripture, I felt to say ‘Hurray for
repentance!’ for if it were not for repentance, there would be no miracles
performed.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1970, p. 103)
Elder Charles A. Callis
“Isn't
this a clarion call to purity of life? The cleaner our lives, the purer our
thoughts, the greater will be our power, by the prayer of faith, to heal those
who are afflicted with bodily ills. It is the truth that the many mighty
miracles that Jesus the Redeemer wrought was due to the fact that he lived so
close to the Father, lived so perfectly the celestial laws of God, that unto
him was given that superhuman power.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1924, p.
81)
3 Ne 8:3 the people began to look with great earnestness for the
sign
The timing of Christ’s death
is not specified in Mormon’s abridgement of Samuel’s prophecy, but Samuel apparently
prophesied the approximate lifespan of Christ. This is evidenced by the fact
that the people in AD 34 began to look for the sign of his death, the thirty and third year had passed away; And the people
began to look with great earnestness for the sign which had been given by the
prophet Samuel, the Lamanite, yea for the time that there should be darkness
for the space of three days over the face of the land (3 Ne 8:3). It is
truly remarkable that the Lord allowed Samuel to give the exact timing of such
an apocalyptic event. What is even more remarkable is that the people did not
repent in preparation. Rather, they continued in their wickedness arguing about
what those signs were to mean until it was too late and they were destroyed.
3 Ne 8:5 in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there
arose a great storm
“The
New Testament account of the crucifixion of Christ would seem to indicate that
the Savior was crucified the very week he became thirty-three years of age. The
Book of Mormon not only substantiates this account, but also provides us with
an exact date of the crucifixion. According to the Nephite calendar system, the
Savior was crucified ‘in the thirty and fourth year,
in the first month, on the fourth day of the month.’ (3 Nephi 8:5.)
Although we are not certain when the first month of the Nephite calendar would
occur, if the Nephites were using the same calendar system as the Hebrews, the
first month would be in the spring of the year sometime between about the
middle of March and the middle of April.” (Daniel Ludlow, A Companion To
Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 258-9)
Orson Pratt
“We
find that the ancient Israelites on this continent had a sign given of the
exact time of the crucifixion and a revelation of the exact time of the
Savior's birth, and according to their reckoning, they made him thirty-three
years and a little over three days old from the time of his birth to the time
that he hung upon the cross.” (Journal of Discourses, 13:127)
Orson Pratt
“It
is generally believed and conceded by the learned, who have investigated the
matter, that Christ was born in April. I have seen several accounts--some of
them published in our periodicals--of learned men in different nations, in
which it is stated that, according to the best of their judgment from the
researches they have made, Christ was crucified on the 6th of April. That is,
the day on which this church was organized.” (Journal of Discourses,
15:257)
3 Ne 8:6-23 Great
destructions come upon the Nephites
The apocalypse, or end of
the world, has caught the imagination of religious and non-religious alike.
Consumed with a morbid curiosity, human nature has conjured up a hundred
different scenarios. Many movies have dealt with the subject in one form or
another. Countless sermons have expounded on and speculated about the Second
Coming and its attendant destructions. Others have preferentially studied the
book of Revelation in an uninspired attempt at understanding the prophesied
plagues and sequence of events.
Living in the last days, we,
too, concern ourselves with the “signs of the times,” always wondering whether
we are really prepared. We wish that the prophet would announce the time of His
Coming even though that day, and hour, no one
knoweth; no, not the angels of God in heaven (JS—Matt 1:40). Yet, here
in the Book of Mormon we are given a vivid description of what apocalyptic
destructions are like. We should not wonder about phrases like all the earth shall quake, or the sun shall be darkened, or there shall be weeping and wailing among the hosts of men,
or there shall be a great hailstorm (DC
29:13-16). How terrible will these
destructions be? Mormon gives us the answer in his description of the
destructions which occurred among the Nephites at the time of Christ’s death.
Even scriptural history repeats itself.
|
NEPHITE DESTRUCTIONS |
DESTRUCTIONS AT 2nd
COMING |
|
1) a great storm (v. 5) |
An
overflowing rain and great hailstones
(Ezek 38:22) |
|
2) terrible thunder (v. 6) |
There were
voices and thunderings and lightnings
(Rev 8:5) |
|
3) exceedingly sharp lightnings (v. 7) |
Fierce and
vivid lightning (DC 87:6) |
|
4) Zarahemla did take fire (v. 8) |
I will send a
fire on Magog (Ezek 39:6) |
|
5) Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea (v. 9) |
The waves of
the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds (DC 88:90) |
|
6) the whole face of the land
was changed (v. 12) |
Every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low (Isa 40:4) |
|
7) many…were slain (v. 15) |
Seven months
shall the house of Israel be burying of them (Ezek 39:12) |
|
8) some…were carried away in the whirlwind (v. 16) |
The whirlwind
shall take them away as stubble (Isa
40:24) |
|
9) the rocks were rent in twain (v. 18) |
The voice…shall
break down the mountains (DC 133:22) |
|
10) there was darkness upon the face of the land (v.
19) |
The sun shall
be darkened (DC 29:14) |
|
11) the inhabitants…could feel the vapor (v. 20) |
Blood and
fire, and vapors of smoke (DC 45:41) |
|
12) they were heard to cry and mourn (v. 25) |
There shall
be weeping and wailing among the hosts of men (DC 29:15) |
Ezra Taft Benson
“In
the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Second Coming. A major
portion of the book centers on the few decades just prior to Christ’s coming to
America. By careful study of that time period, we can determine why some were
destroyed in the terrible judgments that preceded His coming and what brought
others to stand at the temple in the land of Bountiful and thrust their hands
into the wounds of His hands and feet.” (Ensign, Nov. 1986, pp. 6-7 as taken from
Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas
Bassett, p. 407)
Spencer W. Kimball
“These
tremendous convulsions of nature not only impressed the Nephites greatly so
that they recorded them in their history, but the memory of them also stayed in
the minds of the Lamanites, or the American Indians, for fifteen hundred years.
Shortly after the discovery of America, the Catholic missionaries and explorers
learned that the American Indians had a tradition of the great convulsions of
nature that took place at the time of Christ's death. For example, I would like
to quote from a Lamanite, an Indian prince named Ixtlilxochitl, who lived near
the city of Mexico and wrote his book in 1600 A.D.:
‘…the
sun and the moon eclipsed, and the earth trembled, and the rocks broke, and
many other things and signs took place, . . . This happened . . . at the same time
when Christ our Lord suffered, and they say it happened during the first days
of the year.’ (Works of Ixtlilxochitl, cited in Milton R. Hunter and Thomas
Stuart Ferguson, Ancient America and the Book of Mormon. p. 190.)”
(Conference
Report, Apr. 1961, p. 50-51)
3 Ne 8:6 a great and terrible tempest
Hugh Nibley
“Major
earthquakes are so often accompanied by ‘heavy rains, thunder and hailstorms,
violent tempests,’ etc., that some specialists insist that ‘there is some
evidence that certain weather conditions may trigger an earthquake,’ as in the
Japanese earthquake of 1923, of which some Japanese seismologists maintain that
‘the low barometric pressure was the trigger force which set off the
earthquake.’ At any rate, great earthquakes are preceded by great storms often
enough to cause speculation.” (Since Cumorah, p. 232)
3 Ne 8:6 it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide
asunder
“…the
account of the great destruction given in 3 Nephi 8 finds remarkable parallels
with what modern seismology and vulcanology show about cataclysmic geological
events and with historical reports of such catastrophes…the region of
Mesoamerica…is a place of continuing volcanic and seismic activity.”
(Daniel C. Peterson, Ensign,
Jan. 2000, p. 19)
Hugh Nibley
“If
you go into books on earthquakes and check this out, you'll see that the order
of the events is all very correct and accurate…The Book of Mormon just
describes a No. 12 earthquake-No. 8 on the Richter Scale might do it. But the
Assam earthquake in August 1950 was 12 on the scale. Remember, every time you
go up a number, you double the strength of the earthquake, so you can imagine
what a 12 would be if the last San Francisco earthquake was a 7.5 at the
extreme. So this is some earthquake, and the order in which the events are
described is very good here-all the things that should take place. So we've
summed them up here in this very factual account (3 Ne 8).
“Well,
it was a terror, about 11 or 12 on the Wood-Neuman scale. It is probably not the
worst earthquake on record, because Assam was total destruction, and in this
one we're told there were some cities which remained. It was not total. It
describes what happened at the epicenter. There were cities that remained;
whereas, in the great Assam earthquake of 1950 the damage was total over a
large area. I'm going to read you an account of that Assam earthquake…On August
15, 1950, there was an earthquake (in Tibet) that was total over 10,000 square
miles and [killed] 500,000 people. Only 14 people survived. Imagine an
earthquake [that killed] 500,000 people over that area. Well here's a
description of it.
“’On
the morning of August 15, 1950, the day of the biggest and strangest earthquake
in our times, it gave no inkling of what was to come.’ All of a sudden just
this terrible storm and then the earthquake. All the seismographs in the world
went mad…The energy unleashed was the equivalent of three million atom
bombs…Stranger things were to follow. By all the rules the scene of the
cataclysm should have been invaded by reporters, scientists, and relief
workers. Nothing-it was just wiped out completely. Instead, they didn't even
have to bother. They were afraid of the Chinese going [in there]; that's the
Chinese border with Tibet. No worry after that-the map had completely changed.
‘Where there had been rivers before, there were mountains now. Rivers that ran
in one direction now ran in the opposite direction.’” (Teachings From the
Book of Mormon, Lecture 82, p. 316-7)
3 Ne 8:7 there were exceedingly sharp lightnings
Hugh Nibley
“According
to an eyewitness account, the great earthquake that completely destroyed the
old capital of Guatemala on September 11, 1541, was preceded by ‘the fury of
the wind, the incessant, appalling lightning and dreadful thunder’ that were
‘indescribable’ in their violence. One of the still unexplained phenomena of
earthquakes is that ‘all types of lights are reported seen. . . . There are
flashes, balls of fire, and streamers.’ The terrible wind at Guatemala City is
matched in the Book of Mormon by high winds with occasional whirlwinds that
even carried some people away.” (Since Cumorah, p. 233)
3 Ne 8:8 And the city of Zarahemla did take fire
Hugh Nibley
“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.’” (Since Cumorah, p. 233)
3 Ne 8:9 the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea
Hugh Nibley
“The
tsunami or sea wave ‘is the most spectacular and . . . appalling of all
earthquake phenomena’ and almost invariably follows a major shakeup on the
coast. Along with this, however, we have in the Book of Mormon record what
seems to be a permanent submergence of coastal areas when ‘the waters . . . [come] up
in the stead thereof’ and remain (3 Nephi 9:7). Such a submergence
happened on a spectacular scale in the Chilean earthquake of 1960: ‘We would
have taken these flooded stretches—permanently flooded—for coastal lagoons,’ a
geologist reports, ‘if here and there we had not seen roads that ran straight
toward them and into them. . . . roads that vanished, or sometimes showed under
the stagnant water, branching into what had been the streets of a town.’ In the
New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake of 1811, two vast tracts of land were covered
with fresh water both by the damming of streams and the bursting out of
numerous earthquake blows or fountains, flooding the newly submerged areas.” (Since
Cumorah, p. 235)
3 Ne 8:10 the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that
in the place of the city there became a great mountain
Hugh Nibley
“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. On the other hand, other cities were ‘sunk, and
the inhabitants thereof . . . buried up in the depths of the earth’ (3
Nephi 9:6). This could have been an actual engulfment: in the great earthquake
of 1755, which was felt all over Europe, the ‘quay [at Lisbon] sank, with all
the people on it, into a fissure, and no trace of quay or people was seen
again.’” (Since Cumorah, p. 235)
3 Ne 8:12 the whole face of the land was changed
Hugh Nibley
“The
Book of Mormon also mentions the rising and sinking of the land, forming new ‘hills and valleys’ (3 Nephi 9:5-8)…Hydrographic
surveys after the Japanese quake of 1923 showed that over an area of 500 square
miles some ‘areas were . . . lowered as much as 689 feet and other . . . areas
raised 820 feet’—a difference of over 1,500 feet.’” (Since Cumorah, p.
236)
Hugh Nibley
“…they
used to tell us that the Rocky Mountains and the Andes were the results of this
earthquake. Would you believe anything like that? Utter nonsense, isn’t it.
These mountains out here weren’t formed in that way, were they? What does this
describe? It describes a good earthquake, maybe 8.5 on the Richter Scale.” (Teachings
From the Book of Mormon, Lecture 89, p. 38)
3 Ne 8:19 The quakings…did last for about the space of three hours
Hugh Nibley
“…though
the aftershocks, correctly described as the tremblings and groanings, continued
for three days (3 Nephi 10:9), during which time the afflicted people carried
on in hysterical fashion with frightful howling and lamentation. This too is a
normal part of the picture, since ‘the incessant recurrence of aftershocks
after a great earthquake is most unnerving to the populace.’” (Since Cumorah,
p. 235)
3 Ne 8:20-22 There was thick darkness…the inhabitants…could feel the
vapor of darkness
Hugh Nibley
“This,
like much else in the account (e.g., that God ‘did
send down fire and destroy them,’ 3 Nephi 9:11), suggests nearby
volcanic activity. And indeed, in many cases earthquakes are the preparation
for the volcano that follows, as in the Chilean 1960 quake, which triggered the
activity of long-dormant volcanoes in the area. Most of the victims of the
great catastrophes of Pompeii, St. Pierre (Martinique, 1902), and Mt. Pelee
(1906) died of suffocation when earthquake dust, volcanic ash, steam, and hot
gasses (mostly sulfureted hydrogen gas) took the place of air. In some areas,
the Book of Mormon reports, people were ‘overpowered
by the vapor of smoke and of darkness,’ and so lost their lives (3 Nephi
10:13). Even without volcanic accompaniments, however, major earthquakes kick
up a terrible dust and, according to Sieberg, are accompanied by phenomenal
vapors and astonishingly thick air. In the Assam earthquake such contamination
‘reduced [visibility] to a few feet and made breathing a nightmare.’
“According
to 3 Nephi 8:20-21 the ‘vapor of darkness’
was not only tangible to the survivors, but defeated every attempt to light
candles or torches for illumination. At present, intensive studies are being
made of the destruction of the Greek island of Thera (today Santorini) in 1400
B.C. This catastrophe, well within historic times, is thought to have been
eight times as violent as Krakatoa and is described in terms exactly paralleling
the account in 3 Nephi. Among other things it is pointed out that the
overpowering thickness of the air must have extinguished all lamps.” (Since
Cumorah, p. 236)
3 Ne 8:23 there was great mourning and howling and weeping among all
the people
Hugh Nibley
“We
must bear in mind that what the Book of Mormon reports are the happenings as
the people experienced them rather than as instruments would record them. Most
earthquake data are of this very human nature, and exactly match the account in
3 Nephi. The Book of Mormon description emphasizes the fact that it was not any
one particular thing but the combination of horrors that made the experience so
terrible. As N.H. Heck puts it, what makes a major earthquake so devastating is
‘the combination of forces . . . into an almost irresistible source of
disaster.’ The picture of cumulating disaster at the destruction of Guatemala
City in 1541 strikingly parallels the story in the eighth chapter of 3
Nephi ‘It had rained incessantly and
with great violence. . . . The fury of the wind, the incessant, appalling
lightning and dreadful thunder were indescribable. The general terror was
increased by eruptions from the volcano to such a degree that . . . the
inhabitants imagined the final destruction of the world was at hand...’
“We
have then in the Book of Mormon a factual and sober account of a major upheaval
in which by comparison with other such accounts nothing seems exaggerated.
However wildly others may have chosen to interpret the Book of Mormon record,
so far is it from bearing the marks of fantasy or wild imagination that it
actually furnishes convincing evidence that the person who wrote it must have
had personal experience of a major Meso-American quake or else have had access
to authentic accounts of such.” (Since Cumorah, p. 238)
3 Ne 8:23 for the space of three days…there was no light seen
“These
three days of darkness obviously accord with the three days that the body of
the crucified Christ lay in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. How appropriate that the lands of the Book
of Mormon be draped in darkness to commemorate the death and suffering of their
king! The coming of light each morning
ought be a reminder to all of the manner in which our Redeemer brought to an
end that long night of darkness we associate with death and ought also be a
reminder of the promise granted us, through him, of a newness of life.” (McConkie,
Millet, and Top, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 4, p.
39)
3 Ne 8:24 O that we had repented before this great and terrible day
N. Eldon Tanner
“Here
another lesson is obvious. Throughout ecclesiastical history we find that those
who rejected the prophets and failed to repent of their wickedness were struck
by calamities which caused them literally to weep and to mourn and to regret
their failure to heed the warnings of the prophets. We know that Christ was
crucified and some of his apostles persecuted and stoned simply for trying to
establish the kingdom of God and bring people to repentance and a happier way
of life.
“Today
the world is rejecting the messages of the prophets of God. Is it not true that
there is weeping and wailing over the face of the land because men are at war
one with another? Do we not have among us many who lament the waywardness of
their youth and the tragedies that befall them as they turn away from
righteousness and suffer the consequences of tampering with alcohol, tobacco,
and drugs, and other forbidden things? How many mourners do we have as a result
of the lawlessness that is extant in our communities? We need to heed the
lessons from the history of the past lest we be consumed as were some of those
earlier civilizations.” (Conference Report, May 1975 Ensign, p. 34)