For his diligence in carrying out the Lord's errand, Nephi, son of Helaman, was blessed with great power.

"Behold," the Lord said, "I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people."And thus, if ye shall say unto this temple it shall be rent in twain, it shall be done.

"And if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou cast down and become smooth, it shall be done.

"And behold, if ye shall say that God shall smite this people, it shall come to pass." (Hel. 10:7-10.)

The power given to Nephi, in essence, is the power by which priesthood ordinances are performed to this day.

In his epistle to the Church, recorded as D&C 128, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote: "It may seem to some to be a very bold doctrine that we talk of - a power which records or binds on earth and binds in heaven. Nevertheless, in all ages of the world, whenever the Lord has given a dispensation of the priesthood to any man by actual revelation, or any set of men, this power has always been given. Hence, whatsoever those men did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same, it became a law on earth and in heaven, and could not be annulled, according to the decrees of the great Jehovah." (Verse 9.)

"I have found," wrote Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve, "that many members of the Church have a very limited view of what the sealing power is. Since it is used most frequently in connection with temple marriages, the word seal has come to mean, in the minds of many Church members, simply that - sealing two people in the eternal marriage bond. It is also used to designate the ordinance by which children who have not been born in the covenant are "sealed" to their parents. Other members of the Church have the idea that the sealing authority that Elijah brought had to do solely with baptism for the dead.

"The authority is much more inclusive than that. The keys of the sealing power are synonymous with the keys of the everlasting priesthood." (The Holy Temple, p. 84.)

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Humility made Nephi great in the eyes of God and men

Because of his actions, Nephi, son of Helaman, came to be regarded by the people as a great man, according to the account in Helaman 11:

"And behold, the people did rejoice and glorify God, and the whole face of the land was filled with rejoicing; and they did no more seek to destroy Nephi, but they did esteem him as a great prophet, and a man of God, having great power and authority given unto him from God.

"And behold, Lehi, his brother was not a whit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness." (Hel. 11:18-19.)

In an address at the Sidney B. Sperry Symposium on the Book of Mormon at BYU Oct. 26, 1991, Byron R. Merrill of the religion faculty said Nephi was among the great Book of Mormon figures who exhibited the humble, childlike characteristics King Benjamin listed in Mosiah 3:19.

"Being childlike is doing the Lord's will on His timetable and in His way, however inconvenient it may seem. How rarely in the Book of Mormon do the great individuals we read about get to do what `natural' or worldly people might desire. . . .

" . . . Nephi, the son of Helaman, preached against the wickedness of his own community, for which he was bound and questioned. Upon his release, as he wandered to his home, much cast down, a voice came blessing him because of his unwearyingness. The voice commanded him to go again to the people and declare repentance. Rather than go home for even a short respite before undertaking his assignment, he returned immediately to preach as commanded. (Hel. 9:19; 10:3, 12.)

" . . . Who then are those who have acquired the childlike qualities we have collectively entitled `humility?' Those who become as a little child, like Jesus.

"We must discard all of the unfortunate trappings of adulthood that encumber our ability to receive and follow the promptings of the Spirit. We must remember to cultivate the childlike attributes that permit us to draw close to the Lord. Perhaps if we unclutter our lives and take a long, loving look at little children, we will stop trying so hard to have them be like us and learn instead to be more like them and, in the end more like Him. By so doing, we may qualify for inclusion in the group to whom the Lord referred when he said, `Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me; And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost. (D&C 50:41-42.)"

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Account of the brazen serpent typified Christ's crucifixion

The Book of Mormon, in its current edition, bears the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." That implies that the Book of Mormon supports and complements the Bible in bearing witness of the Savior. A clear example of this is found in Nephi's reference to the incident of Moses and the brass serpent. (See Hel. 8:12.)

Daniel H. Ludlow in A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon wrote:

"According to the Bible, when the people of Israel were being bitten by serpents and some of the people were dying, the Lord commanded Moses to make a serpent and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' (Num. 21:8-9.) That is the end of the account in the Bible. However, the account in the Book of Mormon indicates that when Moses lifted up the brazen serpent he didbear record that the Son of God should come. And as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.' (Hel. 8:14-15.)

"The Savior also indicated that the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses' was a type (shadow, or example) of His own crucifixion when He said:And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' (John 3:14-15.)

"Some scholars of the Book of Mormon have wondered if this story of the serpent as given in the book of Helaman did not account for the `serpent motif' in the art and architecture of some of the American Indian cultures. Also, it is of interest to note that one of the names given by some of the American Indians to the great white God who appeared out of the eastern sky was the name of Quetzalcoatl, which literally means the bird-serpent, or the serpent of precious plumage.' "

All conjecture aside, the Book of Mormon and the New Testament stand together in clarifying the parallel between the brass serpent incident and the mission of Christ.

Articles on this page may be used in conjunction with the Gospel Doctrine course of study.

Information compiled by R. Scott Lloyd

Sources: Doctrines of the Book of Mormon: The 1991 Sperry Symposium, edited by Bruce A. Van Orden and Brent L. Top; A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon by Daniel H. Ludlow; The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer.

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