Seeing Through The Atonement's Lens: A Fresh Look At First Nephi
Since the time that the Book of Mormon was translated and brought forth by Joseph Smith, we the membership of the church have been exhorted to read it and gain spiritual strength through its messages. However, many times we fail to take the full spiritual journey and end up reading the book of First Nephi again and again. My purpose in writing this paper is to show that when we read the Book of First Nephi through the lens of the Atonement, we can discover a trove of doctrine about Christ's mission and His character. I will do this by showing how specific stories including Getting the Brass Plates forshadow Nephi's revelatory vision of Christ. Then after Nephi has had his witness, I will show how he is called to emulate certain characteristics of the Savior's through trials such as The Broken Bow, the Murmering of Lamen and Lemuel, and being Bound on the Ship. I will use quotes from prophets and apostles to supplement the doctrine that is found in the text of First Nephi. My hope is that this paper will testify that the message of the Savior can be manifest and rediscovered in any book of scripture, regardless of length or how many times it has been read before.
In 4 sentences:
We have been called as members to read the Book of Mormon, but often we end up reading First Nephi over and over again until we think we have it practically memorized. My goal is to show how new lessons can be learned from First Nephi when we read it through the lens of the Atonement. I will do this by showing symbolism in the familiar stories in First Nephi and also using supporting doctrine and quotes from church leaders. I hope that this message will encourage others to look at scripture, familiar and unknown, and see how the Savior can always be manifested and testified of therein.
3 comments:
CONTEST: BYU Religious Education Student Symposium
Great job Ashley. Both versions are well done, but I think I like your 4 sentence version better. It was more concise but still portrayed the important information and purpose of your writing. I know I've reread 1 Nephi many, many times. I look forward to your insight.
To make sure that your presentation is chosen for the conference, you may wish to add a brief list of the kind of applications of the Atonement that you mean. Or give one brief concrete example of the kind of insight we can gain.
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