1 Nephi 13:36-37
36 And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation.
37 And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.
These verses contain the promise that the fulness of the gospel will be written on the gold plates and that they will be a keystone in the restoration performed by the Prophet Joseph. The verses are profoundly beautiful and deeply encoded, following the full sequence of the ancient Israelite temple drama. It lasted eight days.
Days 1, 2, and 3 were devoted to the beginning acts of the drama: the Council in Heaven, creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden, receiving priesthood and kinship authority, and finally the symbolic destruction of Jerusalem and death of the king.
During days 4, 5, and 6, while the king remained in the world of the dead, the drama focused on the life and Atonement of the Savior; then on his mission among the dead, and finally on his resurrection.
Day 7, Jehovah (represented by the Ark of the Covenant) and the rescued king, emerged from the Underworld, and joined by the people in a grand procession around the city, then into Solomon’s Temple to celebrate the coronation of the king.
Day 8, the festival concluded with a day of sacrificing, feasting, rejoicing, and celebration, representing the fulfillment of Jehovah’s covenants and his millennial reign.{1}
The central part of that chronology is the three days that celebrated the Savior’s Atonement. That drama is the subject of our book, Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord?
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FOOTNOTE
{1} The sequence suggested here is my own. Others see it differently. A. M. Hocart suggests the sequence was the same as the seven days of creation in Genesis. Kingship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 202.
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