Back to the Future!

The First Book of Nephi

We're back to where we were!

What has happened so far?

• Lehi received revelation from God that he had to take his family and flee from Jerusalem, or else they would be destroyed.
• The Lord told Lehi to send his sons to get the Brass Plates, which contained the words of the prophets from the time of Adam and Eve to the time they left Jerusalem, which would have been most of the scriptures chronologically from Genesis to Isaiah, possibly some of Jeremiah.
• The four sons tried repeatedly to get the Brass Plates from Laban, and then with the guidance of The Lord, Nephi succeeded.
• Lehi has his dream about the tree of life.
• Nephi has his vision of the tree of life.

We are now looking at the rest of Nephi's vision.

Chapter 12

Nephi sees in vision the land of promise; the righteousness, iniquity, and downfall of its inhabitants; the coming of the Lamb of God among them; how the Twelve Disciples and the Twelve Apostles will judge Israel; and the loathsome and filthy state of those who dwindle in unbelief. About 600–592 B.C.

• Nephi is shown the future.
• He is shown what happens on the American continent at the time of the Crucifixion, namely darkness and destruction.
• He is shown Christ coming to the Americas after the resurrection.
• Christ chooses and sets apart 12 disciples, just as he did in Jerusalem.
• The people were completely righteous for 3 generations, and many were in the 4th generation.
• The people then started to battle against each other.

To read chapter 12 in the scriptures, now that you know what is happening, go to 1 Nephi 12.

Chapter 13

Nephi sees in vision the church of the devil set up among the Gentiles, the discovery and colonizing of America, the loss of many plain and precious parts of the Bible, the resultant state of gentile apostasy, the restoration of the gospel, the coming forth of latter-day scripture, and the building up of Zion. About 600–592 B.C.

• Nephi saw the Gentiles and their many nations.
• The Devil set up a church among the Gentiles that was a "great and abominable" church.
• The Gentiles and the descendants of Nephi were separated by "many waters."
• The Spirit of The Lord influenced a Gentile to cross the water and to go to the land of Nephi's descendants.
• The Gentiles followed and left the bondage of the great and abominable church to go to the freedom of the promised land.
• Nephi's descendants had become very wicked.
• The Gentiles were blessed to prosper in the land.
• The "mother Gentiles" gathered on the waters to battle against them.
• The Lord protected and delivered the Gentiles out of the hands of their enemies.
• Nephi saw the Gentiles carrying a book.
• The book was written by a Jew.


• The book contains the covenants or promises made by The Lord with the house of Israel and the prophecies of the prophets.
• When the book was first written down by the Jews, it held the fulness
  of the gospel.
• When the words went from the Jews to the Gentiles and their great and abominable church, many plain and precious hints were taken out of the book.
• After the precious things were taken out of the book, the book was carried about everywhere by the Gentiles and it was very important to them.
• Since there were many things taken out, it caused many Gentiles to stumble.
• God still blessed the Gentiles in the promised land to be blessed.
• God did not allow the Gentiles to get rid of all of the remnants of Nephi's descendants.
• God will not leave the Gentiles to suffer because of the things that the great and abominable church has taken out of the book.
• The Lamb of God will visit the remnant of the House of Israel, which is the descendants of Nephi and his brothers.
• After a lot of hardships, the Lamb of God will bring to the Gentiles His gospel with those plain and precious things that were lost.
• Other books were brought forth to convince men, Jew and Gentile, that the words of the prophets and Twelve Apostles are true.

To read this chapter, I know it's a lot, but it's wayyyyyy better than the bullet list, go to 1 Nephi 13.

So someone thousands of years ago is seeing into the future???? COOL!

So why is God telling Nephi about this stuff that's going to happen in the future? Can you tell what these chapters are prophecying about?
Where are Nephi's descendants?
Who was the first man to go there?
Who were those people coming over?
What mother country was fighting them?
What book were those people carrying?
??????