Judgment Day, the Greater Portion, and Zion
Book of Mormon Notes - Monday, March 11, 2024, 3 Nephi 26
This is great. The Lord answers the obvious question that future readers of the Book of Mormon would ponder: What was the purpose of delivering more scriptures to the Nephites in Bountiful?
And he saith: aThese scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations. (3 Nephi 26:2)
In fact, because of the faith, preparation, and humility of these ancient Nephites, the Lord taught them much more than what could be written. He expounded “all things unto them,” “even from the beginning until the atime that he should come in his bglory.” Wouldn’t you like to know all things from the beginning until the coming of Christ? Wouldn’t you like to know “all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the celements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be dwrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away”? That sounds like the ultimate class. The Nephites were ready for it. They listened with rapt attention. Over several days, the Lord had blessed them and prepared them to receive these marvelous revelations.
I’ve almost forgotten that this is Mormon’s narration of the events. Mormon had access to much more on the records, and he wrote much less than he knew. And I almost passed over the description of the end of the world without pausing to consider how close we are to these events. The elements melting with fervent heat? The earth wrapt together as a scroll? The heavens and the earth pass away? Those don’t sound like conditions in which any human being can survive. But the Lord taught the Nephites everything, “even unto the agreat and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall bstand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.”
In our busy, bustling lives, we probably don’t pause too much to think about “the agreat and last day.” Malachi calls it the great and dreadful day of the Lord. But the great and last day, the great and dreadful day, and judgment day will come sooner or later, whether we like it or not. Elder Oaks asked the most pertinent questions:
“This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:32). Are we preparing?
What if the day of His coming were tomorrow? If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow—through our premature death or through His unexpected coming—what would we do today? What confessions would we make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgivenesses would we extend? What testimonies would we bear?
If we would do those things then, why not now? Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained?
The agreat and last day approaches. Everyone shall bstand before God. We will each be judged of our works, whether they be good or evil. And what will be the standard and the criterion for this judgment?
If they be good, to the aresurrection of everlasting life; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of damnation; being on a parallel, the one on the one hand and the other on the other hand, according to the mercy, and the bjustice, and the holiness which is in Christ, who was cbefore the world began. (3 Nephi 26:5)
Elder Uchtdorf describes this day in unforgettable terms:
After the Resurrection, there will be a Day of Judgment. While all will eventually be saved and inherit a kingdom of glory, those who trust in God and seek to follow His laws and ordinances will inherit lives in the eternities that are unimaginable in glory and overwhelming in majesty.
That Day of Judgment will be a day of mercy and love—a day when broken hearts are healed, when tears of grief are replaced with tears of gratitude, when all will be made right.3
Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. Yes, there will be regrets and even anguish because of our mistakes, our foolishness, and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities for a much greater future.
But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God; we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by His infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us, His children. If our desires and works are good, if we have faith in a living God, then we can look forward to what Moroni called “the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge.”4
I repeat Elder Oaks incisive questions:
What is the day of His coming were tomorrow?
If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow - through our premature death or through His unexpected coming - what would we do today?
If we would do those things then, why not now?
Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained?
In 1965, President David O. McKay instructed a group of Church employees regarding a similar topic, and he taught them the order in which the Lord would ask them to account for their earthly responsibilities:
First, he will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual?
Second, he will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.
Third, he will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the preexistence.
Fourth, he will want a summary of your activity in your Church assignments. He will not be necessarily interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and a mission president are probably equals, but he will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellow man in your Church assignments.
Fifth, he will have no interest in how you earned your living but if you were honest in all your dealings.
Sixth, he will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in a positive manner to your community, state, country, and the world.
I don’t know about you, but when I read this list and think about judgment day, I see a lot of room for improvement in my own life. Thank Heavens for our Savior Jesus Christ who makes it possible for us to improve and to prepare for that day of great mercy and love. We don’t need to wait until judgment day to help heal broken hearts, dry tears of grief, or try to make things right. We don’t need to wait until judgment day to repent - to confess and forsake sin - to start correcting our mistakes, or to seize the great opportunities that the Lord places before us each day. We don’t need to wait until judgment day to shape our desires and our works to that which is good, or to have faith in the Living God. The greater our preparation, the more pleasing the bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge will be.
This is one reason why I love the Book of Enos in the Book of Mormon, particularly the final verse:
And I soon go to the place of my arest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall brest. And I rejoice in the day when my cmortal shall put on dimmortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the emansions of my Father. Amen. (Enos 1:27)
These are the words of a man who, though imperfect, had prepared himself very well for judgment day.
But what about those of us who aren’t quite as prepared as Enos? What is to be done? Consider a few of Alma’s timely questions and invitations in the fifth chapter of his book.
As Mormon frequently observed throughout his abridgment and narration, he could not write even a ahundredth part of what there was to write. Nevertheless, Mormon created his portion of the record for a specific purpose:
And these things have I written, which are a alesser part of the things which he taught the people; and I have written them to the intent that they may be brought again unto this people, bfrom the Gentiles, according to the words which Jesus hath spoken.
And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the agreater things be made manifest unto them.
And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the agreater things be bwithheld from them, unto their condemnation. (3 Nephi 26:8-10)
This is a great promise. If I understand these verses correctly, the “this” in the phrase “when they shall have received this” and the “these things” in the phrase “if it shall so be that they shall believe these things” refer specifically to the things that Jesus taught the Nephites in Bountiful, and that Mormon included in the book of Third Nephi. What, then, are the greater things? The greater things must include those things that Jesus taught the Nephites in Bountiful, but that Lord prohibited Mormon to write:
Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord aforbade it, saying: I will btry the faith of my people. (3 Nephi 26:11)
Nephi was also constrained to stop writing at certain points in his record, as was Moroni after Mormon. The greater portion of the Book of Mormon, and of all the records, has yet to be revealed. (See e.g. 2 Nephi 27:7–11, 21, Mormon 8:12, and Ether 4:4–10) The Lord directed Mormon to withhold the greater portion of His teachings, and then to proceed with the record of those things that the Lord commanded him to write. Then Mormon summarized the miraculous ministry of Jesus Christ in Bountiful as follows:
Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did ashow himself unto them oft, and did break bbread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them.
And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the achildren of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did bloose their ctongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter.
And it came to pass that after he had ascended into heaven—the second time that he showed himself unto them, and had gone unto the Father, after having ahealed all their sick, and their lame, and opened the eyes of their blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and even had done all manner of cures among them, and raised a man from the bdead, and had shown forth his power unto them, and had ascended unto the Father—
Behold, it came to pass on the morrow that the multitude gathered themselves together, and they both saw and heard these children; yea, even ababes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were bforbidden that there should not any man write them. (3 Nephi 26:13-16)
Again, Mormon reminds us that the record that we have, however great it is, contains the lesser portion of the word. The Nephites and Mormon himself received the greater portion of the word. But that greater portion has been reserved for those who have faith in and put into practice the lesser portion that has already been given.
After Jesus did all of these things, His chosen adisciples began to cbaptize and to teach. Those who were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost, and many of them saw and heard unspeakable things… more of the greater portion that has been withheld. These Nephites taught and aministered to each other, and they formed a Zion society: They had ball things ccommon among them, and every man dealt justly with his neighbor. They obeyed Jesus Christ in all things, and they formed the achurch of Christ.
It would be unfair to compare the success of the Lord’s establishment of a Zion society to the efforts of Enoch in more ancient times, or the efforts of Joseph Smith in modern times, not only because the Lord is greater than Enoch or Joseph Smith, but also because many prophets had prepared the Nephites for many generations in order to receive the Lord and His teachings.
There is a parallel in modern times to the preparation of the Nephites. Prophets have been preparing the covenant people of the Lord for many generations in order to receive the Lord and His teachings again. Furthermore, this new Zion society that will emerge has the advantage of learning from the successes and failures of previous Zion societies. This new Zion society, the New Jerusalem, will not only endure for a short time like the Zion society that the Lord established among the Nephites or the Zion society that Joseph Smith began to establish. This new Zion society will prevail forever and join with Enoch’s city. It is something to which we look forward with joyful anticipation:
The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests, and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we lived; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung, and wrote, and prophesied of this our day;—but they died without the sight; we are the favored people that God has made choice of to bring about the Latter Day glory; it is left for us to see, participate in, and help to roll forward the Latter Day glory; “the dispensation of the fulness of times, when God will gather together all things that are in heaven, and all things that are upon the earth, even in one,” when the saints of God will be gathered in one from every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, when the Jews will be gathered together into one, the wicked will also be gathered together to be destroyed, as spoken of by the prophets; the spirit of God will also dwell with his people, and be withdrawn from the rest of the nations, and all things whether in heaven or on earth will be in one, even in Christ. The heavenly priesthood will unite with the earthly, to bring about those great purposes; and whilst we are thus united in the one common cause to roll forth the kingdom of God, the Heavenly Priesthood are not idle spectators; the spirit of God will be showered down from above, it will dwell in our midst. The blessings of the Most High will rest upon our tabernacles, and our name will be handed down to future ages; our children will rise up and call us blessed; and generations yet unborn will dwell with peculiar delight upon the scenes that we have passed through, the privations that we have endured; the untirtng [untiring] zeal that we have manifested; the insurmountable difficulties that we have overcome in laying the foundation of a work that brought about the glory and blessings which they will realize; a work that God and angels have contemplated with delight, for generations past; that fired the souls of the ancient patriarchs and prophets—a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the powers of darkness, the renovation of the earth, the glory of God, and the salvation of the human family.—