1 Nephi Chapter 16 Overview

The wicked take the truth to be hard—Lehi’s sons marry the daughters of Ishmael—The Liahona guides their course in the wilderness—Messages from the Lord are written on the Liahona from time to time—Ishmael dies; his family murmurs because of afflictions. About 600–592 B.C.

This chapter seems to be about faith, faithfulness, and how it helps you deal with adversity. Nephi talks about how the guilty can’t handle criticism, then tells a couple of their experiences, possibly to illustrate his point. Chapter nine says that this is a spiritual record, so as I study this chapter I will consider it from the standpoint of what spiritual lesson can be learned. After all, of all the hardships they experienced during eight years in the wilderness, why choose these particular ones to tell about? It’s possible that they were just the most extreme examples of their sufferings, but I want to try a different approach to their significance.

1 Nephi 15:36

36 Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And thus I spake unto my brethren. Amen.

I’m sure that if Heavenly Father could have all His children return to Him, he would be most happy. In Moses 7:32–40 the Father tells Enoch that the heavens weep because of the sins of mankind and the suffering it causes and will continue to cause. That statement is more evidence that the law of justice is one that God must keep. He would love to have us choose the right, but agency means that He can’t force us to. And justice says that sin must be paid for. He would spare us from that agony, but He can’t force us to avoid it. He provided a Savior, but He can’t force us to repent and accept the atonement. He provides prophets and scriptures to teach and warn us to repent, but He won’t force us to heed their warnings. He provides the Light of Christ (conscience) to everyone, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost to teach us and help us make correct choices, but He can’t force us to follow that inspiration. He provides mercy to those who will accept it, and can do nothing for those who won’t. Yet He loves all, and wants all to accept. Those who won’t, separate themselves from the righteous. That’s what Nephi is trying to teach his brothers.

• D&C 14:7

1 Nephi 15:35

35 And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.

After telling his brothers that there needs to be a place prepared for commandment breakers, Nephi follows up with the next logical statement, that there is a place prepared; a filthy place where filthy people would be more at home.

Nephi calls this place “hell.” Modern revelation tells us that there are actually two uses for that term. One is a kind of holding place for spirits, a spirit prison, where those who are filthy wait for the last resurrection. I’m sure this is where the unrepentant go to pay for their sins by themselves, without claiming the mercy extended to them through the atonement. But this is not the final state of those souls. In the end, they will inherit a kingdom of glory, such as the Telestial Kingdom.

The second use of the word “hell” is much more final. It is a place reserved for Satan and his followers. Another term for this place is “outer darkness.” Once you end up there you can’t come back. There is no glory attached to this place, just eternal damnation. There can be no progress. There is misery, and it is awful.

This seems to be what Nephi is referring to here. He calls it the “final state.” This is actually a good scripture showing that we do believe man will go to either heaven or hell after this life. In its simplest explanation, that is what happens. So in a sense, the rest of the Christian world has it right, they just don’t have all the details that we have through modern revelation. They over-simplify it because they don’t know any better.

1 Nephi 15:34

34 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.

One interesting thing about the Book of Mormon is that it often appeals to logic to state spiritual or eternal truths. This is on example of that. Nephi simply states the obvious that if no unclean thing can dwell in the kingdom of God because that would make it filthy, then there has to be a place for the filthy people to go. The kingdom of God cannot become filthy or its very nature changes. And people can’t just disappear; we are eternal beings just as much as anything else in the universe. Therefore, there has to be a place prepared to accept filthiness, a place where it is not so critical that we are absolutely clean, or free of guilt. It only makes sense.

1 Nephi 15:33

33 Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also.

Nephi is talking to everyone here, not just Laman and Lemuel, when he warns about dying in their sins. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), and so we are all filthy. Nephi himself later laments that, “my heart groaneth because of my sins” (2 Nephi 4:19). So we all “come short of the glory of God, and so we are all filthy. And no filthy or unclean thing can dwell with God. Thank goodness for the second half of Nephi’s verse (2 Nephi 4:19), and the next verse in Romans (Romans 3:24). If it were not for the Savior, I wouldn’t be better off than Laman and Lemuel when I died. I would die in my wickedness as well, and be cast off, just like Nephi warns his brothers.

That being said, I think the reason no unclean thing can dwell with God could have more to do with another natural law that He can’t break than with a lack of desire to have His children all dwell with Him. I think our Heavenly Father would love to have all His children dwell with him, but, like the law of Justice, there must be some law that says you have to earn that right, and He can’t break that law for the same reasons He can’t break the law of justice. My task is to retain a remission of my sins through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Thank God for that Atonement; it is the only way back to Him.

• Psalm 24:3 (3–4)
• Ezekiel 18:26
• Romans 3:23–24
• 2 Nephi 9:16
• Mosiah 15:26
• Alma 11:37
• Alma 12:16
• Alma 20:17
• Alma 40:26
• Alma 41:3–8
• Moroni 10:26
• D&C 76:62 (50–70)
• Moses 6:57 (55–59)

1 Nephi 15:32

32 And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.

Nephi’s answer to their question refers to the relationship between works (temporal) and eternal reward. We often talk about how we can choose our actions but not our consequences. My contention is that we can choose our consequences. We just need to choose them first, and then fit our actions to the desired outcome. Alma explains that to his son, Corianton (Alma 41:3–6). Incidentally, this principle is true in other areas of our life. It has broad application, just as a sound principle should.

• Alma 41:3–6

1 Nephi 15:31

31 And they said unto me: Doth this thing mean the torment of the body in the days of probation, or doth it mean the final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body, or doth it speak of the things which are temporal?

This is another interesting question, coming from Nephi’s brothers, who I always thought just didn’t believe in the Gospel. This question tells me that they at least understood the doctrine of eternal life, whether they believed it or not. They refer to this life as “the days of probation,” which tells me they had some understanding of the purpose of this life. They separated the final judgment from “the things which are temporal.” Of course, the answer they will get from Nephi is that the torment refers to both temporal and eternal. Alma explains the eternal part at least partially to his son, Corianton, when he explains that “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). The two states, eternal and temporal, are connected. The temporal is part of the eternal, and it determines the state of the eternal. In other words, we have a time of probation, which Laman and Lemuel acknowledge, and how we use that time determines in large measure the “final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body.” In crying repentance to the Nephites, Samuel the Lamanite told them they had “procrastinated the day of [their] salvation until it [was] everlastingly too late…” They had “sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Helaman 13:38). Sin may give momentary pleasure, but it also puts us on the other side of the gulf of justice, both in this life and in the next.

• Alma 40:11 (6–26)
• Alma 41:10
• Helaman 13:38