First Nephi — Chapter 15
1 After I, Nephi, was taken away in the spirit and saw all these things, I went back to my father’s tent.
2 I saw my brothers arguing with each other about the things my father had told them.
3 He had told them many great things which were hard to understand unless a person asks God. They did not ask God as they should because their hearts were hard.
4 I, Nephi, was very sad because of their hard hearts, and because of the things I had seen happen because of people’s great wickedness.
5 I was overcome by my troubles, and I thought my troubles were bigger than everyone else’s because I had seen my people destroyed.
6 After I felt strong again, I asked my brothers why they were arguing.
7 They said: “We don’t understand what our father said about the olive tree branches, and about the Gentiles.”
8 I said to them: “Have you asked God?”
9 They said: “We have not asked him, because he will not tell us.”
10 Then I said to them: “Why don’t you keep God’s commandments? Why do you want to be destroyed because of your hard hearts?
11 “Don’t you remember what the Lord said? — ‘If you will not harden your hearts, and if you ask me with faith, and if you keep my commandments, you will learn about these things.’
12 “The Spirit of the Lord, working in our ancestors, said the House of Israel was like an olive tree. Do you understand that we are like a branch broken off from the House of Israel?
13 “This is what our father means when he talks about grafting in the natural branches through the Gentiles during the last days, after our descendants have not believed in these things for many years. Many generations after the Messiah lives among people, his full gospel will come to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will bring it to our descendants.
14 “Then our descendants will know they are part of the House of Israel, and that they are the Lord’s promised people. Then they will know who their ancestors are, and they will know about them, and they will also know about the gospel the Savior taught their ancestors. They will learn about their Savior and all his teachings, so they will know how to come to him and be saved.
15 “Then won’t they be happy and praise their God, their Rock and their Savior? Then won’t they be made strong and be fed [wisdom] from the true vine? Yes, won’t they be part of the true flock of God?
16 “I tell you, Yes. The House of Israel will remember them again, and they will be grafted into the true olive tree, since they are a natural branch of it.
17 “This is what our father means. This will not happen until after the Gentiles scatter them. The Lord wants the Gentiles to do this so he can show his power to them, because the Jews, or the House of Israel, will not believe in him.
18 “Our father was not only talking about our descendants, but about all the House of Israel, when he talked about the promise which would be kept in the last days. This is the same promise the Lord made to our father Abraham, saying: ‘All the families of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants.’”
19 I talked to them a lot about these things and told them about the restoration of the Jews in the last days.
20 I told them what Isaiah had said about the restoration of the Jews and the House of Israel. After the Jews were restored, they would not fall nor be scattered again. I told my brothers many things, so they stopped arguing and humbled themselves before the Lord.
21 Then they asked me: “What does our father’s dream mean? What does the tree he saw stand for?”
22 I told them: “It stands for the tree of life.”
23 Then they asked me: “What does the iron rod leading to the tree stand for?”
24 I told them it stood for God’s word, and that whoever listened to God’s word and obeyed it would never be destroyed — that all the devil’s power and temptations could not destroy them.
25 Then I, Nephi, told them with all my soul and power to listen to God’s word, and to remember to always keep his commandments.
26 Then they asked me: “What does the river our father saw stand for?”
27 I told them that the river water was filthy, but our father had not seen that because he had been thinking so hard about other things.
28 I told them that the river stood for an awful pit keeping wicked people away from the tree of life and from God’s people.
29 I also told them that it stood for hell, where the angel told me wicked people would go.
30 I told them that our father also saw that God’s justice kept wicked people away from good people, and that God’s justice was as bright as a burning fire forever.
31 Then they asked me: “Does this mean people will be punished in this life, or will this happen after they die?”
32 I told them that it stood for things which would happen both on earth and in heaven, because someday people would be judged by the things they had done while living in their bodies on earth.
33 If they die while they are still wicked, they will be kept away from spiritual and righteous things, and they will stand before God to be judged by what they have done. If what they do is filthy, then they will be filthy. If they are filthy, they cannot live in God’s kingdom, or else God’s kingdom would be filthy.
34 But God’s kingdom is not filthy, and no filthy thing can come into God’s kingdom, so there has to be an awful place prepared where filthy things go.
35 There is an awful place prepared called hell, which I talked about. The devil made this place. At the end, people’s spirits will either live in God’s kingdom, or be kept out of it because God’s justice, as I said before.
36 So the wicked are divided from the righteous and kept away from the tree of life, whose fruit is more important than any other fruit. It is God’s greatest gift. This is what I said to my brothers. Amen.
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