We read that all of the Nephites were hunted and killed. That is Moroni's testimony at the end of the book. Nephi, near the beginning of the book has a powerful vision, in which he sees the destruction of his seed. He reiterates how distraught he was after he saw those scenes.
Members of the Church have been laboring under a false assumption for far too long.
The indigenous people on these continents, if they are descended from Lehi, as many surely are, are a mixture of the seed of all of the sons of Lehi that had children.
It is a shallow reading and narrow assumption which concludes that only genetic Lamanites were left after the destruction in 389 AD.
The history shows how the descendants of Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob and Joseph were grouped into two tribes: Lamanites and Nephites.
About 90 years before the coming of Christ groups from these two tribes began to inter mingle. After the Savior's death and resurrection he visited the inhabitants of the land who had not been destroyed. After his visit all the people lived together and "there were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, no any manner of ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God."
This situation remained for almost two hundred years, where all the people were of one tribe and belief. Only after the second century had passed did the civilization begin to separate into classes again. One of the divisions of the people was whether they believed in the gospel of Christ or some other doctrine:
And now it came to pass in this year, yea, in the two hundred and thirty and first year, there was a great division among the people. And it came to pass that in this year there arose a people who were called the Nephites, and they were true believers in Christ; and among them there were those who were called by the Lamanites, Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites...And itcame to pass that they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites; and they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did willfully rebel against the gospel of Christ.We see that the division from 230 AD until the destruction in 389 AD was a division along lines of belief, not genealogy. Even Moroni states in 421 AD that the Lamanites, "because of their hatred, they put to death every Nephite who will not deny the Christ." Suggesting that those who did deny the Christ were allowed to live.
This reading of the book can stand on it's own, but a closer reading of Nephi's record also shows that he and his father knew that a remnant of Nephi's seed would remain until the days of the Gentiles (i.e. the coming of the European nations to the Americas...).
When Nephi was explaining to his brethren the meaning of their father's vision, shortly after Nephi had had a similar vision of his own, he told his brethren "at that day shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the house of Israel." When saying "our seed" he includes his seed with the seed of his brethren.
A closer reading of Nephi's vision shows that he saw their destruction and that they would then dwindle in unbelief. This is the greater reason for his grief and distress, that his children would dwindle in unbelief.
Even father Lehi, who saw the same things, knew that all his sons would have descendants who live into the latter-days. He states to his son Joseph: "Joseph, my last born, whom I have brought out of the wilderness of mine afflictions, may the Lord bless thee for ever, for thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed." Joseph's descendants were numbered historically with the descendants of Nephi.
"Lehites" doesn't roll as easily as Lamanites. Neither does "Children of Lehi". I have no belief that the recording of these thoughts will do much to change the overall practices of church members, by and large. It suffices for me that the idea has been expressed.
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