1 Nephi 10

Christlike Attributes

verse 3:

"they should be destroyed, even that great city, Jerusalem, and many be carried away captive into Babylon" Red

"they should return again, yea, even be brought back out of captivity" Blue

"they should possess again the land of their inheritance." Blue

verse 4:

"a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world." Blue

verse 6:

"all mankind were in a lost and in a fallen state, and ever would be" Red

"save they should rely on this Redeemer." Blue

verse 8:

"he is mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose" Green

verse 10:

"the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of the world. Blue

verse 11:

"should make himself manifest, by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles" Blue

"rise from the dead" Green

verse 13:

"unto the fulfilling of the word of the Lord, that we should be scattered upon all the face of the earth." Red

verse 14:

"they should be gathered together again" Blue

verse 18:

"For he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world." Blue

verse 19:

"the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost" Blue

"the course of the Lord is one eternal round" Blue

verse 21:

"Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever." Red

Commentary
This chapter is almost a rainbow in my Book of Mormon. It probably would be closer to one if I had chosen more than three colors. :D It was hard to decide upon some things, like verse 8. Is being mightier than John the Baptist an attribute? It seems like it's something… so it went green.

So, it's quite possible I broke my rule of not marking the same things twice in the same chapter here. There was just so many destructions and gatherings that I just kept marking. So, uh… sorry. Never said I was perfect. :)

Verse 18. Blue? Green? Being the same forever, is that "Christlike"? Or just a neutral attribute? I'll be honest, I have no clue. But since it's a very common verse that we all associate with Christ, I made it blue. Ironic that the verse that I struggle choosing a color also happens to be pretty much the thesis of this project…

Second half of verse 19… perhaps should be green?

The more I mark red things in the Book of Mormon, which are mainly, "I will destroy the wicked," the more I think that all the destruction in the OT probably follows the same pattern and will make more sense. The difference, I hypothesize, is that we won't necessarily see the wickedness nor the warnings for every single person/city. And we'll see the destruction firsthand instead of just reading that God will destroy it.

1 Nephi 9

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak… and also a great many more things." Blue

verse 3:

"I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should, make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people." Blue

verse 5:

"the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for aw use purpose in him, which purpose I know not." Green

verse 6:

"he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men" Blue

"he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words." Green

Commentary


A short chapter, but one chock full of Christ. I was interested in all the green. It's the first time I've had so much. (Only two sections, sure. But two out of six is a full third of this chapter!)

1 Nephi 8

Christlike Attributes

verse 2:

"Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or, in other words, I have seen a vision." Blue

Commentary
I was really very surprised at this one. This chapter is the vision of the Tree of Life. I expected it to be colored brightly in my scriptures. And trust me, I sure tried to make it so. But as it's written, it's all prose. It's all a story. Where I'm looking for direct references to the attributes of Christ, marking, "And it came to pass that I beheld a tree" didn't actually make any sense at all. Sure, as a good, Sunday School attending girl, I know what that tree means and that it should be marked since it represents the love of God, but it doesn't say that. In good news, I know it will say that in a few chapters when Laman and Lemuel say, "Huh?!" (And really, thank goodness they did.) So it turns out, this is a rather colorless chapter in my Book of Mormon.

And because this entry is so short, I thought I'd share a discovery I made. In general, I am the kind of reader who can easily focus on the story, or rather, the prose, of scriptures. Whenever we're in story-mode, I'm right on board and reading the scriptures is easy. On the other hand, when it starts talking about more abstract concepts (or the poetry, for lack of a better term), my mind starts to wander and I have a really hard time focusing. This has always been the case. I've been struggling my whole life to figure out how to better pay attention to probably the most critical passages of scripture.

This project, however, has made me do a complete 180. Because I know the stories of the scriptures so well, and I know that what I'm looking for for this project generally isn't in the prose sections, I find myself skimming over the stories and instead focusing on the poetry passages—because I know it's in the poetry passages that I find who Christ really is and what I should be emulating. This is a huge accomplishment for me. It was rather startling when I first realized I was skimming stories and slowing down and focusing more on poetry.

Now I know for a certainty that I really was inspired to do this project. And I know it was for multiple reasons. I am so grateful to a Savior who loves me so much and knows me so well as to inspire a project that will help me grow and learn in the many different facets of life that I need so much.

1 Nephi 7

Christlike Attributes

verse 1:

"the Lord spake unto him again" Blue

"it was not meet for him, Lehi, that he should take his family into the wilderness alone; but that his sons should take daughters to wife" Blue

verse 5:

"the Lord did soften the heart of Ishmael, and also his household" Blue

verse 11:

"what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record?" Blue

verse 12:

"the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men" Blue

verse 14:

"the Spirit of the Lord ceaseth soon to strive with them." Red

verse 18:

"the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet" Blue

Commentary

I debated making verse 1 two separate entries. But I thought it was important a) that the Lord spoke to Lehi and b) that He thought it was important that Lehi's sons had families. The second entry in verse one seemed a little bit like inferring the attributes of Christ instead of looking at blatant ones, but I'm going to count it anyway.

1 Nephi 6

Christlike Attributes






Commentary

Well, here's something I didn't expect.  A chapter with no references to Christlike attributes.  I'm sure that I could imply some, but that's not the purpose of this blog.  I want the blatant references. It's already a big enough project with just those.  I am a little sad, though, that I won't be able to say, "There is a reference to Christlike Attributes in every single chapter in the Standard Works."  Oh well.

But I'm curious, did any of you see one that I missed?