Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 1–7: Insights By Gogo Goff

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come Follow Me 3 Nephi 1–7 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come Follow Me Helaman 13-16 click here). Save this pin to read later.

Peace

“And it came to pass that Nephi went forth among the people, and also many others, baptizing unto repentance, in the which there was a great remission of sins. And thus the people began again to have peace in the land.”
3 Nephi 1:23

Peace is a common goal, I don’t anyone who wants war (at least anyone who is a good person). So the question is, “how do we find peace?”

The answer to the question is the basis of every political platform, some say, “we will bring peace by killing everyone who disagrees with us” others say, “we will bring peace by having the biggest guns, and everyone will fear us” some think peace will come with international laws or organizations.
But they are all forgetting something, peace is not a by-product of human laws, nor of material goods. No amount of guns, gold, or food produces peace! Peace is a gift of the Spirit, a gift that Christ has given us “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” John 14:27

If we want personal peace, we find it in Christ’s Atoning Grace, when we embrace and follow Him the Holy Spirit will bring the promised Peace. As a nation, if we want Peace we must do the same thing, but we have forsaken Christ and God. How can we expect anything short of war and death when as a nation we have rejected the God of Love and Peace?

Why the Doctrine of Christ.

“Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again, insomuch that he did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing.” 3 Nephi 2:2

The Doctrine of Christ is the five steps that Jesus Christ set out for us and that He commanded us to follow, they are: Have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized by immersion, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and endure to the end.

This process is often referred to as “the ordinances of Salvation.” Important note, not just Salvation into any kingdom, but Salvation into the Celestial Kingdom.

There is a pattern in the scriptures, and it happens with every false Christ (Anti-Christ) they always attack the Doctrine of Christ. In Jacob 7:2 it literally says that Sherem preached “that he might overthrow the doctrine of Christ.”

Satan seeks to discourage and confuse as many of us as he can. The great recipe for happiness (The Doctrine of Christ) is the main focus of Satan’s attacks. Destroy or corrupt the plan then people will claim it does not work. Satan did this after the death of the Apostles, the true Doctrine of Christ was corrupted, and the meaning of the steps destroyed.

This explains why all the Christian Churches have different ideas when it comes to heaven, and salvation (Most of them think Salvation and Eternal life are the same thing which they are not).

Into this confusion and complete apostasy, Joseph Smith was called to restore divine truth. And now today we have the true Doctrine of Christ as taught in Scriptures, we know what Christ expects us to do to enter into the Celestial Kingdom.

Being led by men of God.

“Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge.”
3 Nephi 3:19

The Nephites show us an example on how to govern ourselves, they appointed leaders who were men of God, Prophets as Nephi put it, these men would call them to repentance when needed. In Chapter 3 both the Chief Captain and Chief Judge call the people to repentance. And it worked! The people listened and repented when their Civic, Military and Religious leaders all called on them to repent.

When the people are wicked they don’t want men of God to lead them, because they don’t want the men of God to call them to repentance. Sadly many nations have fallen into wickedness, our civic and militarily leaders are no longer men of God, and many of our religious people teach the doctrines of men mingled with scripture. But w have safety in the Prophet! but are we following the Prophet? in General Conference Elder Ronald A. Rasband asked. “Are you standing with the leaders of the Church in a darkening world so that you might spread the Light of Christ?”

Humility the attribute of deliverance.

“And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction.”
3 Nephi 4:33

Throughout history, we see cycles. A cycle of wickedness and righteousness, it is often referred to as “the pride cycle” which simply stated is:

God blesses and prospers people.
They get prideful, forget God, and commit sin.
God chastises them by afflictions.
They are humbled and repent.
God blesses and prospers people.

When the people are wicked and prideful they forsake the Lord their God and fight their own battles. Often times they lose and God humbles them to the dust. And when the people are humble and put their trust in the Lord their God, He fights their battles for them. Now that being said, they still fight, but it is in “the strength of the Lord” (v10).

This verse shows us that the Nephite success was attributed to two things, repentance, and humility. Not only is our temporal deliverance dependent on our humility and repentance, but we are taught that to obtain Celestial Glory we must repent and humble ourselves to the “will of the Father” (Mosiah 3:19).

“Humility is the essence of repentance.” Clayton M. Christensen (For more quotes on humility see this collection, “10 Quotes on humility from the apostles and prophets“)

So the question for us to ponder is, “In the pride cycle, where are we at as a nation? As a church? Where is your family? And where are you at?”

Here is the secret, if you stay humble and repent you don’t have to repeat the mistakes of history because humility is the attribute of deliverance from both temporal and spiritual dangers. There is a humility cycle just like the pride cycle, and we can choose to follow it instead. It is similar but very different.

God blesses and prospers people.
God tests and tries his people.
His people show humility and gratitude in their afflictions.
Experience is gained.
God blesses and prospers people.

The people of Alma in Mosiah 23 choose the humility cycle, they were not prideful, but they were still tested. See this article about the two cycles.

Believing ALL The Prophets.

“And now behold, there was not a living soul among all the people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken; for they knew that it must needs be that they must be fulfilled.”
3 Nephi 5:1

In this verse, it declares that the Nephites believed all the Holy Prophets. One of my pet peeves is when someone goes up to bear their testimony about Joseph Smith and says “I know he was a man, he was a sinner, he made mistakes. But….” NO! Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the restoration, Heavenly Father deemed Joseph worthy and appeared to him! He translated the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ appeared to him MULTIPLE times, he conversed with angels countless times. He was a righteous man of God, truly a Holy Prophet in every sense of the word. So like the Nephites, believe in the Prophets, believe their words, and don’t be ashamed to declare it to the world.

How sheep teach us about horses in the Book of Mormon.

“And now it came to pass that the people of the Nephites did all return to their own lands in the twenty and sixth year, every man, with his family, his flocks and his herds, his horses and his cattle, and all things whatsoever did belong unto them.”
3 Nephi 6:1

When we read this verse we see words and translate them into our understanding of what each word means. But that is not always the meaning the writers meant.

Let’s take for example the word “cattle” we hear this word and we think “cow” whereas oftentimes in the scriptures that is NOT the animal it is referring to, it is actually referring to sheep!

To illustrate this point let me reference the story of Jacob going to Egypt. This is how they describe their profession

” 32 And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.

33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?

34 That ye shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” (Gen 46:32-3)

They are “Shepherds” who feed “cattle” aka sheep.

WHY would they call sheep cattle? Simple, the Israelites milked sheep, therefore calling them cattle made sense, we associate the word cattle to cows because that is where we get our milk.

A fun fact the Egyptians milked water buffalo or cows (kine), the reason they looked down on the Israelites was that the milk of the sheep was of lesser quality than that of water buffalo or cows. This adds a whole new dimension to Aaron making a Golden calf as cows and gold were symbolic of Egypt.

Horses were used for transportation and beasts of burden. Just like how in the scriptures they call sheep cattle because they milked them, in the book of Mormon, Alpaca, Llamas, or any other beast of burden or transportation could’ve been written as horses. And just like how you thought cattle meant cows whereas it means sheep we could be misunderstanding the meaning of horse.

Boldness and bravery

“Therefore, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds—went forth among them in that same year, and began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
3 Nephi 7:16

Nephi sees the wickedness of the people, so he did something about it. He started to boldly testify. One of the biggest lies we as members believe about missionary work is that it will be easy. Missionary work is not easy, but when has the right thing ever been easy?

Missionary work requires boldness and bravery. This idea that “I will live a good life and they will come to me” is rubbish. Could you imagine if the Missionaries just sat on a park bench saying “The Lord will just bring people to us” It would be outrageous, we would tell them to stop being lazy and WORK!

We are commanded to open our mouths and declare the truths we hold dear. If you want your kids to learn and love the gospel SHOW THEM YOU LOVE IT! You show your love of the Gospel when you share the Gospel, your actions speak far louder than your words.

Is it hard? YES! I share stories of when I find success, not because I only have success; I have far more rejections than successes, but I share my stories of sharing the gospel to prove to people the work is real.

The call has been clear, there is a war for the souls of man. Christ’s standard-bearers call “COME JOIN THE RANKS! Open your mouths” Satan’s followers whisper “It’s not your job, you’ve done enough.” I know sharing the gospel is scary, but when you pray in faith and have just 30 seconds of bravery and boldness miracles can happen as you open your mouth and the Lord speaks through you!