The Book of Mormon prophesies itself (2 Nephi 27-30)

Episode 10: The Book of Mormon prophesies itself

2 Nephi 27-33

The Book of Mormon prophesies itself

27 ¹ In the last days, Gentiles and Jews will be drunk with abominations. ² And God will visit them with thunder, earthquakes, noise, storms, and fire.

^6-11 God will bring forth a book that will be sealed and delivered to a man. ¹² The book will be hidden from everyone except for three witnesses who will testify to the truth of the book. ¹⁴ And woe to anyone who rejects the word of God!

¹⁵ God will tell the man to whom he revealed the book to show it to the learned, and say, “Read this.” ¹⁸ But the learned will say, “I can’t read it.” ¹⁹ God will then give it to a man who is not learned, who will say “I’m not learned.”

²⁰ Then God will say, “The learned won’t read it, so I’m giving it to you to read. ²² When you finish reading it, show it to the witnesses, seal the book again, and hide it. I’ll reveal it in my own time. ²⁶ It will be a marvelous work and a wonder. “

Some more comments and prophecies

28 ² The book will be of great worth.

³ Many churches will claim to belong to the Lord, but they won’t. ⁴ They’ll fight each other and deny the Holy Ghost. ⁹ They'll teach false, vain, and foolish doctrines, and do evil things in the dark. ¹⁰ They'll murder the saints. ¹¹ They are all corrupt. ¹⁵ They'll be cast down to hell. ¹⁸ The great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, will be destroyed.

²² Some will say there is no hell and there is no devil. ²³ They’ll be tormented forever in the lake of fire and brimstone. ²⁹ Woe be to those who say, "We have the word of God, we don't need another."

A Bible! We have a Bible. We don’t need another Bible!

29 ^1-2 I’ll do a marvelous work, and I’ll remember your seed. The words of your seed will come out of my mouth unto your seed. And my words will hiss forth to the ends of the earth.

³ And because my words will hiss forth, many Gentiles will say, “A Bible! A Bible! We have a Bible. We don’t need another Bible!” ⁴ What fools! Their Bible was written by Jews. ⁸ Why do you complain about getting more of my words? ⁹ I say whatever I want to say. ¹⁰ Do you think the Bible contains all of my words?

¹¹ I command all men everywhere on earth to write the words that I speak to them. ¹² I’ll speak to the Jews, and they’ll write it. I’ll speak to the Nephites, and they’ll write it. I’ll speak to everyone else, and they’ll write it. ¹³ The Jews will have the words of the Nephites, the Nephites and the Jews will have the words of the lost tribes of Israel, etc. Everyone will have the words of everyone else.

A delightsome people

30 ¹ If you don’t obey all of God’s commandments, you’ll die. ² The Jews who won’t repent and believe in his Son will be cast out. ³ Then the new book that I mentioned will be released, after being sealed for a while.

⁶ Those who believe in it will become a white, pure, and delightsome people (after a few generations or so). ⁷ Someday the Jews will believe in Christ. Then they will become a delightsome people.

^9-10 Then God will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of his lips and with fire. ¹¹ Righteousness will be the girdle of God’s loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his kidneys. ¹⁴ And the young child will put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.

¹⁸ I’m going to stop talking now.

Nephi makes an end of his prophesying

31 ¹ And now I, Nephi, make an end of my prophesying. ² It suffices for me that I’ve spoken plainly according to the plainness of my prophesying. ³ Because my soul delights in plainness.

The spirit stops Nephi’s utterance

32 ² 1If you don't understand my words, it's because you don't ask or knock.

⁷ The spirit has stopped me from saying anything more.

I, Nephi, have written what I have written

33¹ I, Nephi, have written what I've written. ³ It is of great worth. My eyes water my pillow at night. ⁵ No one will be angry with my words except those who have the spirit of the devil. ¹⁰ If you believe in Christ, you’ll believe my words. ¹⁴ These words will condemn you on the last day. ¹⁵ Amen.

A few more words about this episode

God will visit them with thunder, earthquakes, noise, storms, and fire.(27:2): Nephi got tired of his own tiresome words, so he went back to quoting Isaiah again.; (See Isaiah 29:6-24, which are quoted with considerable changes and embellishment to make it appear to refer to the Book of Mormon.); But this time, it's not just filler. Isaiah 29 is selected because it refers to a special book, sealed by God, that the wise and learned cannot understand. Only one very special person will be able to read it. The book is the Book of Mormon, "a marvelous work and a wonder," and the very special person is Joseph Smith. The book of Mormon prophesies itself -- 2400 years before it was found and translated by Joseph Smith!; It's all there in Isaiah 29, as quoted by Nephi (with a a few extra "and it came to passes" and "beholds" thrown in to make it sound even more biblical than the Bible).
God will bring forth a book that will be sealed and delivered to a man. (27:6-11): Gosh, could that man be Joseph Smith?
The book will be hidden from everyone except for three witnesses who will testify to the truth of the book. (27:12): Joseph Smith added this bit to the verses he copied from Isaiah 29, which said nothing about three witnesses.; The three witnesses refer to the three men who swore that an angel showed them Joseph Smith's golden plates. ((Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris.); See Wikipedia: Three Witnesses
Woe to anyone who rejects the word of God! (27:14): By "word of God", Joseph Smith means the Book of Mormon.
It will be a marvelous work and a wonder. (27:26): The Book of Mormon is "a marvelous work and an wonder."
The book will be of great worth. (28:2): The Book of Mormon will be of great worth to everyone, but especially "our seed" (Mormons).
They'll be cast down to hell. (28:15): This is how God views non-Mormon Christians: They teach false and foolish doctrines; they do their works in the dark; they murder saints; they are proud, wicked, and their churches are corrupt; they wear stiff neck and high heads; they commit abominations and whoredoms; God will send them all to hell.
The great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, will be destroyed. (28:18): But it's the Catholics that God really hates. They belong to the great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth. They have been grasped by the devil, death, and hell. They will be tormented forever after they die in a lake of fire.
Woe be to those who say, "We have the word of God, we don't need another." (28:29): Woe to the Christians who say, "We have the Bible. We don't need the Book of Mormon."
I’ll do a marvelous work (29:1): God will proceed to do "a marvelous work" (the Book of Mormon) and remember Nephi's seed (the Mormons), and the words of Nephi's seed will proceed out of God's mouth. They will hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, so to speak.
A Bible! A Bible! We have a Bible. We don’t need another Bible! (29:3): When God's words hiss forth in the Book of Mormon, many of the WASPs will say, "A Bible! A Bible! We don't need another Bible!"; This is an especially amazing prophecy since it was allegedly made around 550 BCE, 1000 years before the biblical canon was established.; LDS apologists use this verse to justify the plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon. Both were inspired by God, why shouldn't they use the same words?; Wikipedia: Linguistics and the Book of Mormon
I’ll speak to the Jews, and they’ll write it. I’ll speak to the Nephites, and they’ll write it. I’ll speak to everyone else, and they’ll write it. (23:12): God made the Jews write a Bible; he made the Nephites write a Bible; he'll make the Lost Tribes of Israel write a Bible; everyone on earth will write a Bible. God likes Bibles. The more the merrier, he always says.
Those who believe in it will become a white, pure, and delightsome people. (30:6): If you believe in the Book of Mormon, your skin will turn white! (Well, it might take a few generations.); In 1981 the Mormon church changed "white" to "pure" to soften the obvious racism in this verse.; Original version: "They shall be a white and delightsome people."; And here's the same verse after the 1981 change: "They shall be a pure and delightsome people."
And the young child will put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. (30:14): A cockatrice is a serpent, hatched from a cock's egg, that can kill with a glance. They are rare nowadays.
And now I, Nephi, make an end of my prophesying. (31:1): Well, we've finally (almost) made it to the end of 2 Nephi, where Nephi makes an end of his prophesying.; And Nephi is quite proud of what he's written; it suffices him, since he has spoken plainly according to the plainness of his prophesying. For his soul delights in plainness.
If you believe in Christ, you’ll believe my words. (33:10): If you believe in Christ, you'll believe in Nephi's words, because they are the words of Christ and Christ gave them to Nephi (550 years before Jesus was born).

Episode 10: The Book of Mormon prophesies itself

2 Nephi 27-33