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Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol 1
Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon Vol 1 Author:Joseph Fielding McConkie, Robert L. Millet This fourth and final volume of commentary encompasses the last four hundred years of Nephite history. It starts with the cataclysmic destruction of the wicked and the sublime occurrences that follow when the risen Lord personally ministers among those who are spared. At the end, Moroni, the solitary survivor of the Nephite-Lamanite ... more »carnage, makes an abridgement of the Jaredite record (which also ends in national self-destruction), and then pens his provocative and uplifting message for our day and age.
In the spiritual climax of the entire thousand-year Nephite story, twenty-five hundred people witness the Savior's descent from heaven and, at his invitation, feel the places in his body where "he was wounded for our transgressions." He instructs his rapt and adoring audience in gospel principles and practices, heals the sick, introduces the sacrament, organizes his Church, and empowers its newly selected leaders. In dramatically spiritual scenes Jesus blesses the little children one by one and brings down angels to minister to them.
For many years after these moving experiences the people live in a celestial society--no wickedness, only love and peace prevailing. Then gradually apostasy sets in. All too soon the bitterness of war is unleashed. Mormon, prophet and military leader, vainly protests at his people's vicious wickedness and at the consequent horrors perpretrated by both "Nephites" and "Lamanites." He lives only long enough to witness the extinction of his nation, record his heart-rending cry at the devastating waste and loss, and pass the sacred records to his son Moroni.
In the pattern of the previous volumes, theme by theme the enormous contrasts--from the transcendent blessing of the divine Savior's appearances all the way down to the depths of human evil and depravity--are here the subjects of the authors' informed and insightful commentary and of the prophetic sources they quote. Thus this series, covering the entire Book of Mormon, will assist the reader's understanding in the recommended daily reading of that great Restoration scripture.« less