The Tree of Life

1
The Tree of Life

• www.kevinhinckley.com

2
Understanding Symbolism

• Layers
• The Lion and the Lamb

3
Egyptian Ished Tree
4
Orthic Gold Tablets600 BC
5
The Hesperides were nymphs who cared for and
guarded the grove of trees that grow golden
apples in the garden of Hesperides. The name
means "Daughter of the Evening Star
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
1 VisionTwo Accounts
1 Nephi 8
1 Nephi 11
1 Nephi 12
1 Nephi 13
1 Nephi 14
1 Nephi 15
Rise of The Church/ Fall of Babylon
Nephi Explains
Lehis Vision
Life of The Savior
Gentile History Americas
History Of the Seed of Joseph
11
Question

• When Father Lehi went to bed the night of the
  Tree of Life Vision,
• What might he have been worried about?

12
The Vision identifies three groups who would
become lost

• 1 The Wanderers
• 1 Nephi 823

13
The Wanderers

• Important Points
• They never did eat the fruit
• (In the church, but having no spiritual
  conviction)
• Mists of darkness are those things that block out
  the clear view of the gospel.

14
Layers
The Culture (People)
The Church
The Gospel
The Atonement
15
Important PointsGroup 2- Star Struck

• 1 Nephi 8 31,32
• Never eats the fruit
• Focus is immediately on the Great and Spacious
  Building
• Awed by the worldly

16
3- The Ashamed

• I Nephi 8 24,25
• They Have eaten the fruit
• At one point theyve had a testimony
• Something has caused them to become ashamed of
  the church and themselves for believing it.
• Then become filled with pride because theyre
  smarter than those who still believe.

17
President Benson

• Not only are there apostates within our
  midst, but there are also apostate
  doctrines that are sometimes taught in our
  classes and from our pulpits and that appear
  in our publications. And these apostate
  precepts of men cause our people to
  stumble...
• "Christ taught that we should be in the world
  but not of it. Yet there are some in our midst
  who are not so much concerned about taking the
  gospel into the world as they are about bringing
  worldliness into the gospel. 
• They want us to be popular with the worldly even
  though a prophet has said that it is impossible,
  for all hell would then want to join us.
• "Through their own reasoning and a few misapplied
  scriptures, they try to sell us the precepts and
  philosophies of men. They do not feel the Church
  is progressive enough." (CR, Apr 1969)

18
Another KeySymbols that are repeated

• I Nephi 13

19
Which Plain and Precious Truths were removed?

• Requirements
• Must be in the Book of Mormon but not in the
  Bible
• Their absence must be a stumbling block for the
  gentiles.

20
Personal Question

• Are there things within the Church that are a
  personal stumbling block?
• What plain and precious truths might we blind to?

21
Are We
The Culture (People)
Cultural Mormons?
The Church
Church Mormons?
The Gospel
Gospel Mormons?
The Atonement
Son or Daughter Of Christ?
22
Finally, what about me?

• 1 Nephi 1120-23
• Alma 32 27, 28, 41