Did the 3 Nephites choose poorly?

[Guest]

They've had to live on this fallen earth for the last 2000 years. I'd rather die and go to spirit paradise. What were they thinking and planning? 

[pam]

Their purpose is to bring souls unto Christ before He returns again.  So I'm sure that's what they are doing.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, pam said:

Their purpose is to bring souls unto Christ before He returns again.  So I'm sure that's what they are doing.

Do they stay the same age or reincarnate? It might get suspicious if 3 people stay the same for 2000 years.

[pam]

58 minutes ago, Zarahemla said:

Do they stay the same age or reincarnate? It might get suspicious if 3 people stay the same for 2000 years.

We don't believe in reincarnation.

[Guest]

I wouldn't question the choices of anyone whose fondest wish is the be in the Lord's service indefinitely. I figure they're way ahead of me in just about every way. 

[pam]

1 hour ago, Zarahemla said:

Do they stay the same age or reincarnate? It might get suspicious if 3 people stay the same for 2000 years.

Why would it matter?  Not like you'd be around for 2000 years.

[Anddenex]

1 hour ago, Zarahemla said:

Do they stay the same age or reincarnate? It might get suspicious if 3 people stay the same for 2000 years.

They remain in a state similar to a translated being. They don't age. They don't feel earthly pain, sickness, no need for earthly food, etc... Nothing suspicious, unless you already know who they are and you have been watching them the whole time. This earth is a big place. Think upon how many people die every day that we never meet. Live in one country. Live in another country. Live in another country, and so on, and by the time you get back to the first country those that you may have met, or revealed yourself too, have been dead for possible two or more generations. 

[Larry Cotrell]

2 hours ago, pam said:

Their purpose is to bring souls unto Christ before He returns again.  So I'm sure that's what they are doing.

I am just wondering how a total apostasy would happen with the three Nephites and John still living and making disciples.

[NeedleinA]

7 hours ago, Larry Cotrell said:

I am just wondering how a total apostasy would happen with the three Nephites and John still living and making disciples.

"It is argued by some that the LDS doctrine of the apostasy is incoherent, since the apostasy teaches that God's authority was lost. Critics then ask about John the Revelator, or the Three Nephites, and ask whether they had the priesthood. However, they fail to distinguish between someone holding the priesthood, and someone being authorized to exercise the priesthood in forming the Church, conferring blessings, ordinations, and spiritual gifts.

The apostasy refers to a lack of the latter, not the former."

Apostasy/Priesthood on earth during the apostasy

Edited September 4, 2016 by NeedleinA

[Anddenex]

2 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

"It is argued by some that the LDS doctrine of the apostasy is incoherent, since the apostasy teaches that God's authority was lost. Critics then ask about John the Revelator, or the Three Nephites, and ask whether they had the priesthood. However, they fail to distinguish between someone holding the priesthood, and someone being authorized to exercise the priesthood in forming the Church, conferring blessings, ordinations, and spiritual gifts.

The apostasy refers to a lack of the latter, not the former."

Apostasy/Priesthood on earth during the apostasy

One would think with how often this has been answered (how often this question is repeated), and how easy the answer is to understand, that specific sites would finally update their records, sadly this is not the case and probably won't be the case. Even the Book of Mormon is clear regarding the Lord's decision in removing his beloved disciples (three Nephites) out from among the Nephites and Lamanites due to wickedness:

Mormon 1:13, "But wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of the people." (emphasis added)

John the Beloved, Revelator, was exiled, and reason he was exiled is because they could not kill him; otherwise, his fate would have been the same as the other apostles. The logical conclusion, "they fail to distinguish between someone holding the priesthood, and someone being authorized to exercise the priesthood in forming the Church, conferring blessings, ordinations, and spiritual gifts." Couldn't have said it better myself. So, as not to create a tangent on this thread...I say no more. 

[Anddenex]

11 hours ago, Zarahemla said:

They've had to live on this fallen earth for the last 2000 years. I'd rather die and go to spirit paradise. What were they thinking and planning? 

The statement and question are intriguing when you take a moment to think upon the work of the Lord, or the glory of the Lord, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." We will live forever, longer than 2000 years (much longer), and the work we will be doing is exactly what the three disciples of the Lord chose to do. Obviously, I don't know their thoughts, but I imagine some of them might have been:

1) Why wait in paradise when I can still live and perform the work we were all called to do.

2) One of the reasons death is at times appealing is the knowledge that we will no longer suffer from headaches, sickness, aging, work to feed ourselves, finding jobs that we don't really like. On a mission, I thought it interesting how many missionaries wanted to extend their missions another month, and some wanted to extend their missions another year. A mission life is easy in comparison to the toll of work. They were free from sickness, aging, headaches (oh how jealous I am, if one thing that could be removed from my life it would be headaches), the toil for food, etc... So instead of waiting for final judgement, they decided to continue to work without any earthly ailments. Not a bad deal, I would say.

3) Doctrine and Covenants 18: 14-16 - The joy of bringing souls to Christ, in this life, and they will have a quiver full of them, which they probably would have understood and been taught also.

As for me, I wouldn't mind experiencing a similar translation that would allow me to just serve the Lord after I have fulfilled my mission on earth. I would be able to watch, and at times converse, with many, many grandchildren and experience both joy and sorrow I would assume. Imagine a 1000 years from now you hold your x20 grandchild as a baby, as you could, and they wouldn't even know, but you would know and you would bless God for the experience. In death, this would not be possible.

[Larry Cotrell]

6 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

"It is argued by some that the LDS doctrine of the apostasy is incoherent, since the apostasy teaches that God's authority was lost. Critics then ask about John the Revelator, or the Three Nephites, and ask whether they had the priesthood. However, they fail to distinguish between someone holding the priesthood, and someone being authorized to exercise the priesthood in forming the Church, conferring blessings, ordinations, and spiritual gifts.

The apostasy refers to a lack of the latter, not the former."

Apostasy/Priesthood on earth during the apostasy

Thanks for explaining

[Blackmarch]

On 9/3/2016 at 9:47 PM, Zarahemla said:

They've had to live on this fallen earth for the last 2000 years. I'd rather die and go to spirit paradise. What were they thinking and planning? 

The same way that Christ chose poorly.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Blackmarch

[FogCity]

I remember when stories and myths about the 3 Nephites was much more common than it is today.  I'm glad we have moved past that and have been counseled not to spread these stories.

_______

The following is from the 2012 LDS seminary manual for youth:

Avoid speculation about the Three Nephites.

Many have heard stories about supposed visits of the Three Nephites. Rather than share these stories, teach what is taught in the scriptures. Remember Mormon's statement that the Three Nephites would be among the Gentiles and Jews, who would "know them not" (3 Nephi 28:27–28). Refrain from discussing stories or other information that is not found in Church-approved sources.

Edited September 6, 2016 by FogCity

[zil]

6 minutes ago, FogCity said:

I'm glad we have moved past that and have been counseled not to spread these stories.

Darn!  Cuz my friend's cousin's parent's knew a guy who's brother's best friend had this experience...

[FogCity]

3 minutes ago, zil said:

Darn!  Cuz my friend's cousin's parent's knew a guy who's brother's best friend had this experience...

I was grocery shopping at Safeway, when I noticed these 3 clean-cut gentleman grabbing some Postum and Jello, when I passed them one of them whispered to me "don't forget your food storage."  I immediately went and bought a case of chili

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, FogCity said:

I was grocery shopping at Safeway, when I noticed these 3 clean-cut gentleman grabbing some Postum and Jello, when I passed them one of them whispered to me "don't forget your food storage."  I immediately went and bought a case of chili

Postum, Jello, and chili...  You've got to improve your diet.

[NeedleinA]

7 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Postum, Jello, and chili...  You've got to improve your diet.

It is Postum flavored Jell-O with suspended chili in it rather than fruit. Yum....said no one ever.

[zil]

The only way to improve on Postum is to bring the original original back.  (The most-recent Postum is awfully close, I think - it's hard to remember.)  Anywho, Postum should indeed be part of everyone's food storage.  And now I think of it, all you need for Jello is sugar and water, so that probably oughta be in there too.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, NeedleinA said:

It is Postum flavored Jell-O with suspended chili in it rather than fruit. Yum....said no one ever.

But if it had kim chee in it...

OHOHO !!! Did you hear that some of the boats that Hagoth built actually went back to mainland Asia?  It's true.  The Nephites were actually part of the bloodlines that make up today's Asian race.  In fact the cabbage species that Koreans use for kim chee is clearly a graft off off the cabbages found in the Americas.  So, no one outside the Church is aware of how a New World vegetable came back to the Old World about 2000 years ago to make another cabbage.

But it is clear that one reason the 3 Nephites lived so long is the pro-biotics found in kim chee.

And that, my friends, is how Book of Mormon Lore gets spread around.

[zil]

4 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

But if it had kim chee in it...

::gag::

[NeedleinA]

4 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

But if it had kim chee in it...

OHOHO !!! Did you hear that some of the boats that Hagoth built actually went back to mainland Asia?  It's true.  The Nephites were actually part of the bloodlines that make up today's Asian race.  In fact the cabbage species that Koreans use for kim chee is clearly a graft off off the cabbages found in the Americas.  So, no one outside the Church is aware of how a New World vegetable came back to the Old World about 2000 years ago to make another cabbage.

But it is clear that one reason the 3 Nephites lived so long is the pro-biotics found in kim chee.

And that, my friends, is how Book of Mormon Lore gets spread around.

Hah! You need to stop the whole engineering thing and start making kim chee full time. This guys l-o-v-e-s kim chee! Oh, and a blog of BOM lore.

[zil]

5 minutes ago, NeedleinA said:

Hah! You need to stop the whole engineering thing and start making kim chee full time. This guys l-o-v-e-s kim chee! Oh, and a blog of BOM lore.

With Sariah's kim chee recipe from the sealed portion of the plates?

[scdoyle]

On 9/3/2016 at 9:16 PM, Zarahemla said:

Do they stay the same age or reincarnate? It might get suspicious if 3 people stay the same for 2000 years.

Haven't you seen Twilight?