The Book of Enos, A Personal Essay

The Book of Enos, A Personal Essay

Enos is one of the most important of all of 
the books in the scriptures. It is unique. 
But it is seldom understood because readers 
do not appreciate what they are reading. 
Indeed, most readers think it is about 
this very long prayer that resulted in 
the remission of Enos’s sins. Not so. 
It is a personal essay that shows what 
a servant of the Lord did throughout 
his life for the remission of his sins. 

Must be, then, an important paradigm for 
all Melchizedek priesthood holders. Right?

The Book of Enos

A scholar has asked why and posited reasons for this book being so disjunctive.¹ It is only twenty-seven verses, and the only verses that have repeated attention are the first eighteen. So it may seem, as the scholar thinks, like a puzzling book.

It is not puzzling. It is a careful composition that adds to the message of the earlier writings on the small plates. Enos is a doctrinal essay in the modern sense to the extent it begins with a thesis of sorts—the introduction—that Enos explicates by events from his life—the body of the work–is followed by a conclusion or restatement, if one will, of the thesis. But it is not a formal essay. Instead, it is a personal or informal essay because its intimacy speaks into the ear of the friends who read it.²A personal essay, by its nature, is something of an unmasking of the author because of the intimate details shared.

Reading Enos as a personal essay helps appreciate that it is more complex than the one-dimensional flow of a formal essay, so it is a mistake to presume that there is a thesis and conclusion presenting a singular point that is stated as initial matter and restated as a conclusion. After all, the writing style of the day requires viewing the center of the work as the important part, not the beginning and end, which tend to be more like personal confessions. Nor is this book to be viewed as a chronology within which doctrinal points are either scattered or implicit; rather, Enos selects events from his life to establish his central point. This book, therefore, must be considered altogether, giving greatest importance to the central points found in the center of the piece.

The affinity between this book and Paul’s pastoral epistles, those to Timothy and Titus, is remarkable even though they are written from different perspectives. Paul, who gives incidental information about his own ministry, tells Timothy and Titus what they should be doing as bishops of Ephesus and Crete, respectively, while Enos describes his life as a leader of the church. The pastoral epistles and Enos were written at the end, respectively, of Paul’s and Enos’ lives. Enos describes “wrestle . . . before God” that resulted in the remission of his sins,³and he says he expected to enter into his rest with the Savior and the Father after his death.⁴Paul encourages Timothy to “[f]ight [ἀγωνίζομαι or agōnizomai] the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses,”⁵and he says of himself,

I have fought a good fight [ἀγών or agōn], I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love [ἀγαπάο] his appearing.⁶

The Greek words used by Paul to describe the fight he exhorts for Timothy, ἀγωνίζομαι or agōnizomai, and his own struggle, ἀγών or agōn, denote, respectively, to be a competitor for a prize and a contest for a prize; these words were used in conjunction with the public games of the time. Paul’s use is figurative, like Enos’ wrestle before God. The figurative meaning of wrestle is like Paul’s fight, a struggle or contest.⁷Indeed, struggling is used to describe himself pouring out his whole soul, his prayers,⁸for the Nephites.⁹Likewise, Enos uses strugglings to describe his prayers for and work with the Lamanites.¹⁰Enos, then, describes his continual cries to the Lord for the Lamanites.¹¹

Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus enjoin them to keep the gospel to save themselves and, then, preach, exhort, and rebuke to save others. The idea is that at the end of life their lives they may say, as did Paul, that they had fought the good fight or finished the contest/wrestle so that they could enter into the Lord’s rest, meaning obtain the blessings of the atonement. First Timothy, for example, requires prayers for all men,¹²and the main theme of 1 Timothy is following Christ to exaltation by shunning sin and following righteousness. Paul charges Timothy to be strong in Christ,¹³and to

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.¹⁴

The epistle to Titus is much the same, requiring Titus to rebuke those going astray with sharpness,¹⁵and make sure the saints live righteously.¹⁶Indeed, Titus is enjoined to preach Christ and His redemption, “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.”¹⁷He tells Titus, “I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.”¹⁸Moreover, he tells Titus to reject an heretic that does not repent after being warned twice.¹⁹

The injunctions to and hopes for Timothy and Titus parallel what Enos included in his essay about his life. (1) He includes his prayer for his own soul while, strangely, out hunting beasts in the wilderness, an allusion begging for interpretation. His all-day-into-the-night prayer culminates in a voice saying “thy sins are [present tense] forgiven thee, and thou shalt be [future tense] blessed”;²⁰this still future blessing even though Enos\’ guilt was swept away must be tied to the sacrifice yet to come of the Lord.²¹(2) Enos includes his prayer for the welfare of Nephites; he is told the will be blessed in accordance with their diligence in keeping the commandments.²²(3) He includes his prayer that the Nephite record be preserved for the benefit of the Lamanites; he is told that this prayer will be granted because of his faith.²³(4) Enos includes his teaching among the people, “prophesying of things to come” and testifying of the things he had heard and seen.²⁴(5) Enos recounts the efforts made by the Nephites to restore—reactivate or minister to in the colloquialisms of today’s church—the Lamanites to the true faith,²⁵efforts that failed because of the Lamanite lifestyle.²⁶(6) Finally, Enos addresses the lifestyle of the Nephites, who,with many prophets among them, were kept in fear of the Lord by harsh preaching and reminding them of death, eternity, judgment, and the power of God.²⁷

The six points identified in the preceding paragraph are shown in the adjacent text box. These six points are the central part of Enos’ writing, so they show that Enos’ essay is about his life-long wrestle, which is inseparable with keeping and teaching the gospel of Christ. Enos took care of himself, the Nephites, and worked to reclaim the recreant Lamanites; i.e., those who had broken with the faith.

The central points of Enos are three instances of prayer followed by three instances of teaching or, using the religious term, faithfulness.²⁸The bookends of Enos’ writing are rejoicing in (1) the blessings the gospel and the nurture and admonition of the Lord, verse one, and (2) the anticipation of seeing the Savior, verse twenty-seven. The outcome of Enos’ life-long wrestle or life’s work is, of course, addressed at the beginning and end of the book: Enos’ sins were ultimately remitted and he at the end of his life as he looked toward his redemption. Enos’ exaltation, however, is not the central point. The main point is what Enos did to achieve his exaltation.

The book begs for likening because what Enos did is particular to him, but it presents a formula for all in the sense that his human experience is at least analogous to all human experience.²⁹What Enos says, therefore, is pertinent, but it applicability to individuals requires likening. Enos was and what he did in this essay, so what he did is of particular importance to those seeking a remission of their sins. It is a paradigm for salvation.

Not much is known about Enos, but enough can be gathered to make the example of his life germane to his overriding point. He was Jacob’s son,³⁰ so he was Lehi’s grandson and Nephi’s nephew. He probably did not know Nephi, but probably not possible his grandfather.³¹ Enos’ generation, then, was the first to live separated from and at war with the Lamanites. Enos was well educated; indeed, he describes his father as “a just man—for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord . . . .”³² Importantly, Enos succeeded his father as the keeper of the plates,³³ and was, therefore, the head of the church. He was the priesthood leader of the Nephites. He led the people following Sherem’s attempts to discredit the notion of a future Christ who would redeem the world.³⁴

Enos was probably about fifteen when he received the plates from Jacob,³⁵ but he was not alone in his work of the ministry because he records that “there were exceedingly many prophets among us.”³⁶ And he was human to the extent that he could feel frustrated: he described his own people as “stiffnecked . . . hard to understand.”³⁷ Nonetheless, Enos was relentless; he never gave up.

Enos’ life can most easily be likened to the life of one holding the Melchizedek priesthood. The priesthood obligates one to teach and preach the gospel of remission of sins through the blood of Christ. This is a life-long obligation for one with the priesthood.³⁸The priesthood holder must be particularly focused on recreants—the less active and those who have fallen away—and this focus must involve both assiduous prayer, points (1) through (3) in above text box, and struggling through the laborious work abbreviated in points (4) through (6): testifying, teaching, preaching, and prophesying. Sometimes the work has to be done with harshness and “exceeding great plainness of speech.”³⁹ Indifference, lassitude, ennui, unkemptness, diversions, and sloth are antithetical to Enos’ example.⁴⁰ Industry, productivity, mental exertions with resulting acceptance, and faithfulness conform to Enos’ paradigm.⁴¹

A less obvious comparison can be made with those who do not hold the priesthood by ordination. It is less obvious because it does not involve working with individuals outside the family. Women, for example, are not called upon to do church administration and the matter-of-course preaching and teaching incumbent upon a priesthood holder. Those who do not hold  priesthood by ordination, though, must profit from the self-converting and revelatory experience that attends Enos’ day-and-night prayer, an experience that is preparatory for either the ordained priesthood holder or the woman, who holds priesthood in her own right,⁴² rather than an end.

Enos is, perhaps, the most practical of all the books in the Book of Mormon so far as the proper discharge of priesthood responsibilities are concerned because Enos shows what he did; Moroni is another pragmatic book, but it is more procedural, like the church’s General Handbook of Instructions. The examples used by Enos are concrete, not esoteric or philosophic points; Enos shows what he did to magnify his calling.

There is considerable to be drawn from this book that goes beyond the general overview discussed in the foregoing paragraphs. Enos’ all-day-into-the-prayer receives considerable attention in the church; in fact, the account of this prayer gets six verses, the lengthiest example. It is appropriate. Little matters if one does not have their own life in order.

Enos says he is going to tell the reader about his wrestle “before I received a remission of my sins.”⁴³He then says that his sins were forgiven after his prayer.⁴⁴However, it is not until the end of the book that he says:

And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen.⁴⁵

This final statement is by one whose sins had been remitted. The resulting effect: a calling and election that was made sure. This remission happened only after a life of service and work. If, as seems to be the case, the remission about which Enos said he was writing at the beginning of the book did not come with the forgiveness after his prayer, these are different words after all, it is Enos’ entire life, not merely the epiphany of his early years, that worked the remission. There must be a differentiation between “thy sins are forgiven thee,” which happened after his prayer, and the remission of his sins, which happened on his deathbed. Forgiveness cannot be equated with remission.

This distinction merits a digression. Forgiveness, according to the dictionary, “implies the giving up not only of any claim to requital or retribution but also of any resentment or desire for revenge.”⁴⁶Remit means “to release from the guilt or penalty of.”⁴⁷Forgiveness is a term connoting personal feelings and relationships while remit is a legalistic term devoid of personality or feeling: it reflects payment of an obligation by a remittance that is made. The proper and consistent use of these terms allow a forgiveness by someone—even God, as in this instance—without a remission.⁴⁸The remission of which Enos speaks comes at the end of his life and not in answer to the prayer of his youth, an order consistent with the broader view Enos intended that it was the life-long wrestle to obtain a remission of sins rather than the day and night in the wilderness that resulted in a forgiveness of his sins.

Forgiveness, ultimately, is only a stepping stone toward the goal of remission. Remission is the objective of a life-long effort, and it is attained when mortality is finished.⁴⁹Baptism is always associated with remission of sins because baptism is the beginning step for one to participate in the atonement of the Savior, which will pay for or remit the sins of the repentant, but that does not mean that the neophyte is washed clean of his sins by baptism; rather, he has begun the path toward remission of sins, which comes when one keeps the commandments.

The first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins . . . .⁵⁰

Appropriately, the last four substantive verses in the Book of Mormon, just before Moroni bids farewell, are about the necessity of living so that ones sins can be remitted because of the atoning sacrifice of the Savior, which remission is part of the covenant of the Father.

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, not the unclean thing. And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if you shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.⁵¹

Remission of sins is the ultimate goal, but forgiveness gives sustenance and hope. The Savior punctuated the watershed between forgiveness and remission of sins when He refused to condemn but did not remit the sins of the adulterous woman.⁵²The Savior forgave in the sense that he had no desire for revenge or any resentment for the woman, but He did not remit her sins, telling her, instead, to reform her life, an achievement that would work the remission of her sins.⁵³

There are references in the Book of Mormon to a remissions of one’s sins before the atoning blood of Christ had been shed and before, therefore, the sins could have been remitted.⁵⁴There are also scriptures in the Book of Mormon that refer to remission of sins in a very general way, similar to the notion of forgiveness discussed above, but each of these scriptures is in a context that militates in favor of a more general or colloquial rather than parsed meaning.⁵⁵

Enos’ Prayers. Enos’ experience was not something that just happened while Enos was out hunting one day. Enos reports that the things he had heard from his father, which are not shared, sunk deep into his heart.⁵⁶He says his soul hungered. So he prayed. The answer to Enos was a voice in his mind, verse nine, a voice reassuring Enos that he was righteous and his sins were forgiven, not remitted.

There are some who really like this book because Enos is out hunting when he receives his epiphany. It is nice in their minds to think that it is all right for a prophet to go hunting, so it must be all right for them, as well. This may be a myopic and too literal view of the book. The exact phrase used by Enos is, “I went to hunt beasts in the forests.”⁵⁷Trees are the classic symbols for a men, and a forest of trees symbolize a people. The Book of Mormon was written so that it was easy to understand, but there can be no doubt Enos was familiar with the traditional symbols used in the Old Testament; after all, Nephi uses the tree-of-life symbol, which is a pervasive metaphor in the Bible, and Jacob certainly taught his son the nuances of the tree typology. Moreover, Nephi rejoiced in the words of Isaiah even though he characterized these as “hard for many of my people to understand.”⁵⁸Although Nephi says he did not teach his children “the manner of the Jews,”⁵⁹he does say he made mention . . . concerning the judgments of God.”⁶⁰

Would Enos have wasted space and effort in his writing to mention just incidentally that he was hunting for beasts in the forest when he received his epiphany? Or does Enos tell us something about his early predilections to be among the beasts—symbols of non-believers—of the forest, the forest being metaphor for a group of people like a group of non-believers—rather than those safely ensconced within the walls of the city, another metaphor?⁶¹ After All, Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was a cunning hunter while Jacob was a plan man living in tents.⁶²

Enos prays for the Nephites after his epiphany, pouring out his whole soul to God for them. Enos had assuredly been taught by his father that faith—what one does because of one’s belief—is essential to a remission of sins and, what is the same thing, “I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments.”⁶³ This equation of faith with diligence in keeping the commandments is fundamental to the overall theme of Enos. Faith is used colloquially by many as though it is a synonym for belief, but the scriptures make this common use inapt. Faith involves getting some knowledge and reaching an hypothesis that one believes sufficiently to comports one’s life to that hope.

Enos’ third prayer is for the Lamanites. He seems to have despaired of inciting them to repent, so asks that the records be preserved for the purpose of later conversion of the Lamanites. This is not a prayer that just happened to Enos, it was the same prayer “[t]hy fathers have . . . required of me . . .”,⁶⁴ meaning, apparently, that the faith of Enos and his father was such that the Lord was required to do what was asked.

The point of this praying was praying for the right thing, the thing required of the Lord. The account of this prayer was written at the end of Enos’ life. His memory of it or what he chose to say about it was certainly affected by the purpose of his writing, which is remission of sins. Enos’ life-long work as the head of the church and the priesthood leader who, like Melchizedek, magnified his calling, was crying repentance. Hence, the request that the records be preserved for conversion of the Lamanites was an essential part of his unfulfilled ministry of conversion of his recreant relatives.

Preaching. Enos’ three prayers are followed by three examples of his preaching. He preaches to the Nephites, verse nineteen, to the Lamanites, verse twenty, and, again, to the Nephites. verses twenty-one through twenty-three. Verse nineteen refers to Enos’ preaching of things that were to come, an allusion to the advent of Christ and his redeeming sacrifice. The depravity of the Lamanites is highlighted in verse twenty and contrasted with the lifestyle of the Nephites in verse twenty-one. Notwithstanding the different lifestyles and the many prophets that were among the Nephites, though, it was still only the harshness of the teaching the kept the people living the commandments, the message of verses twenty-two and twenty-three. Enos’ preaching was a continual effort throughout his life.

Enos’ Wrestle. The bookends to Enos’ praying and preaching are the references to his wrestle or struggle throughout his life. This is labeled as his contest in text box ?, supra. Verse two and verses twenty-four through twenty-six are cognates and must be considered together to appreciate the nature of the wrestle.

Enos’ Rejoicing. The first and last verses of Enos present En os rejoicing over the gospel of Christ and the remission of sins to which he was entitled because of what he had done during his life.

 

I conclude this blog posting with the following picture I just took of the book of Enos. A friend and professional artist paid me the highest honor and compliment by writing out the book of Enos in 6th Century script on parchment using a quill pen. He gave this to me after asking what my favorite scripture was. I responded instantly, “Enos!”  His work hangs on the wall of my study and is one of my greatest treasures. It reminds me every time I look at it that I need to be like Enos. I want to meet him.

 

1. The scholar is Rosalynde Welch. She was the host of a Sunday School lesson about Enos that was sponsored by Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought on Sunday, March 29, 2020. She presented her overview of this book, an overview that differs substantially from mine. She calls this book “a little bit of a puzzle.” She calls it disjunctive and gives these three reasons for thinking so. (1) The disjunction could be a function of his age and experience as he grew older and worked on this record at different times. (2) It could be a function of genre, meaning Enos was writing in different generic forms in the three disjointed portions of the book she identivies. (3) Perhaps, Enos employed assistants, so there are multiple consciousnesses in this book.

   The portion of her presentation where she makes these statements can be found at

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxGiNBj0jMM

2. “Personal Essay. A kind of informal essay, with an intimate style, autobiographical content or interest, and an urbane conversational manner.” William Harom and Hugh C. C. Hugh, A Handbook to Literature, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996), s.v. personal essay.
3. Enos 1:2.
4. Enos 1:27.
5. 1 Timothy 6:12.
6. 2 Timothy 4:7–8.
7. The Greek words used by Paul ultimately resulted in the modern-day word agony. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the development of the meaning of the word as follows:

   The development of the senses in Gr. was:—1. A struggle for victory in the games; 2. Any struggle; 3. Mental struggle, anguish, e.g. Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane.

   Oxford English Dictionary, second edition on CD-ROM (v.4.0)(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) s.v. agony.

8. Struggling is singular, suggesting just one prayer, but Enos 1:22–23 make it clear that the work with the Nephites was arduous and life-long and involved many prophets. Prayers must have been a continual part of this work, so the plural, prayers, is used here.
9. Enos 1:10.
10. Enos 1:11, 14.
11. Enos 1:15. To cry in the context of his prayers for the Lamanites means to entreat, beg, beseech, implore, an importuning motivated by deep feelings and commitment.
12. 1 Timothy 2:1ff.
13. 2 Timothy 2:1.
14. 2 Timothy 4:2.
15. Titus 1:13.
16. Titus 2.
17. Titus 2:15.
18. Titus 3:8.
19. Titus 3:10.
20. Enos 1:5.
21. Enos 1:3–8.
22. Enos 1:9–10.
23. Enos 1:11–18.
24. Enos 1:19. Prophecies about future events where anathema to the non-believers of the day. E.g., the teachings of Sherem in Jacob 7.
25. Enos uses the words true faith when addressing the Lamanites because, as can be deduced from the writings of Jacob and others in the Book of Mormon, e.g., 3 Nephi 1:9ff, that the Lamanites were anti-Christ, like Sherem, who was bested in debate by Enos’ father.
26. Enos 1:20.
27. Enos 1:20–23.
28. Alma 13 presents a discussion of the purpose of the Melchizedek priesthood, which involves the sort of things Enos did for his entire life. Enos’ faithfulness, what he did, may, therefore, be characterized as fulfilling or magnifying his priesthood.
29. This likening is the essential characteristic of all personal essays. “At the core of the personal essay is the supposition that there is a certain unity to human experience. As Michael de Montaigne [AD 1533–1592], the great innovator and patron saint of the personal essayists, put it, ‘Every man has within himself the entire human condition.’ This meant that when he was telling about himself, he was talking, to some degree about all of us. The personal essay has an implicitly democratic bent, in the value it places on experience rather than status distinctions,. ‘And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump,’ wrote Montaigne.” Lopate, Phillip, ed., The Art of the Personal Essay, An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, (New York: Doubleday, 1994) at xxiii.
30. Jacob 7:27.
31. It was after Lehi’s death that Nephi recounts the escape from Laman and Lemuel by Nephi and his family and the families of Zoram and Sam; Jacob and Joseph are mentioned without families of their own, so they were not yet born. 2 Nephi 5:6.
32. Enos 1:1.
33. Jacob 7:27.
34. See Jacob 7.
35. A time line will be presented in connection with the analysis of Jarom, Omni, and Words of Mormon. 
36. Enos 1:22.
37. Enos 1:22. 
38. Cf. Alma 13. Melchizedek was so great because of his preaching redemption through repentance.
39. Enos 1:23.
40. See Enos 1:20.
41. See Enos 1:21–23.
42. Substantial arguments can be made that a woman holds her own priesthood just like a man holds his own priesthood in addition to being ordained to function as the Lord’s worker because of his ordination to the Melchizedek priesthood. This is the subject, perhaps, of another blog posting in the future.
43. Enos 1:2.
44. Enox 1:5.
45. Enos 1:27.
46. Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, 7th ed., s.v.forgive”
47. Id., s.v. remit.
48. See Mosiah 4:3, 11, 12 (King Benjamin’s people receive a remission of their sins at a Yom-Kippur-like event and are enjoined to live so that they “retain a remission of [their] sins; a ritualistic remission of sins was inherent part of the Feast of the Tabernacles). Alma’s son, also named Alma, addressed the differences between the righteous and wicked, noting that the righteous retained a remission of their sins by the way they lived. Alma 4:14. But see Alma 38:8 (Alma describes his conversion saying it resulted in a remission of his sins).
49. See Mosiah 15:11 (believers look forward to the Lord’s redemption for a remission of their sins); Alma 7:6 (look forward for a remission of sins); Alma 12:34 (repentant shall have claim for mercy and remission); Alma 38:8 (Alma’s death-bed declaration of conversion and remission).
50. Moroni 8:25. This quote is only part of the larger poetic presentation from which this passage has been excerpted. The whole presentation is discussed in conjunction with Moroni 8.
51. Moroni 10:30–33. The “covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins” is a reference to, quoting D&C 84:39, “the oath and covenant that belongeth to the [Melchizedek] priesthood.” The book of Hebrews presents the most complete explication of the relationship between Father’s oath-sealed covenant, έπαγγέλίω or epagelio, and last-will-and-testament-like promise/gift/covenant of the Savior, His διαθηκη or diathk. The significance and meaning of this oath and covenant is dealt with extensively in the Hebrews part of this exegesis, therefore, and not that part dealing with section eight-four of the Doctrine and Covenants.
52. John 8:1–11.
53. Paul explains that he “fought a good fight . . . finished my course . . . kept the faith” so that his exaltation was sure. 2 Timothy 4:7–8.
54. E.g., Mosiah 13:3 (King Benjamin speaks of those believers that “might receive a remission of their sins”), Mosiah 15:11 (Abinidi says the heirs of the king of God are those that have a remission of their sins), Alma 4:14, 7:6, 12:34, 13:16 (Alma the Younger describes what must be done to retain a remission of sins), Alma 30:16 (Alma’s interaction with Korihor and his Sherem-like doctrine that the forward view of a remission of sins is the result of a “frenzied mind” because they believe things in the future that are not so).
55. See, e.g., Alma 38:8, 3 Nephi 1:23, 3 Nephi 7:16, 3 Nephi 7:25.
56. Enos 1:3.
57. Id.
58. 2 Nephi 25:1.
59. 2 Nephi 25:2.
60. Id.
61. One cannot read or understand Isaiah without an appreciation of the symbols he used, which includes trees and beasts. Beasts are commonly used to describe bad people in the Bible. A reader schooled in the symbols found in the scriptures, in other words, must always consider whether a literal or figurative meaning is intended when it comes traditional symbols. Meaning is buried in the way the scriptures are written, the organizational structure of Enos shown in text box, supra, highlights this structural meaning, and meaning is always buried in the symbols or vehicles used to carry the meaning.
62. Genesis 25:27. Nimrod is characterized as a mighty hunter before the Lord in Genesis 10:9 (KJV), but the JST simply says he was mighty hunter in the land. Cf. Proverbs 6:5, “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.” (Italics in KJV.) Proverbs 12:27 characterizes the hunter as a slothful an or lazy, depending on the translation being read.
63. Enos 1:10.
64. Enos 1:18.