1 Nephi 11

I believed that God could show me what he’d shown my father. As I sat pondering all that I had heard from Lehi, I was swept away by the Spirit of God to a high mountaintop. The Spirit asked me, “What do you want?”

“I wish to see the things my father saw,” I replied.

“Do you believe in the tree of which your father has spoken?” asked the Spirit.

“Yes. I believe everything my father has said,” I answered.

“Praise to God,” cried out the Spirit, “for he is God over the Earth, and God over all else. You are blessed, Nephi, because you believe in the Son of God and will be shown that which you desire to see. After I’ve shown you the tree whose fruit your father tasted, I will give you a sign. You will see a man descending from heaven. Afterwards, you will bear testimony that it was the Son of God whom you saw.”

I looked, and saw the tree that Lehi had spoken of. It was whiter than freshly fallen snow. “I have seen the tree that you have shown me, and it is precious above all else,” I said to the Spirit.

The Spirit of God now asked, “What else do you wish for Nephi?”

“I want to know the meaning of this,” I replied, as I would to any other man — all the while knowing that while he appeared as a man, he was nonetheless the Spirit of God.

“Look,” he replied, but the Spirit had vanished, and I was shown the city of Jerusalem and other cities including Nazareth in which I beheld a beautiful white virgin.

The heavens opened and an angel descended to come stand by me saying,

“Nephi, what do you see?”

“A virgin,” I replied, “who is more beautiful than all other virgins.”

“Do you know the meaning of God’s condescension?” he asked.

“I know that God loves his children,” I said, “but I don’t pretend to know the meaning of all things.”

“The virgin you see is the mother of God in flesh,” the angel stated. And then she was carried away in Spirit.

“Look,” said the angel. And again the beautiful virgin appeared before me, this time holding a child in her arms. “Look, Nephi, and see the Son of God, the Eternal Father. Now do you understand the meaning of the tree that you and your father have seen?”

“Yes,” I replied, “the tree is the love of God, which is the most desirable thing in the world.”

“That’s right,” said the angel, “and the love of God is also the thing most joyous to the soul.”

“Look,” said the angel. When I looked, I saw the Son of God walking amongst the people, who fell down at his feet to worship him. I saw the iron handrail that my father had spoken of. I came to understand that it was the word of God which led to the tree of God’s love, and to the fountain of God’s waters beside it.

“Look and see the condescension of God,” the angel commanded. I looked again and saw the Son of God being baptized by the prophet my father had spoken of, and acknowledged before God. And then I saw the Son of God walking and preaching amongst multitudes of people, who then rejected his messages and sent him away. I also saw that there were twelve who followed him and believed in his messages. Then I was shown angels descending from heaven to help the people with understanding.

“Look,” said the angel. I looked again and now saw the Son of God healing the sick and the dispirited. Then the Son of God, the Everlasting God, was taken prisoner, judged, and killed on a cross. And the people rallied to oppose the Son of God’s twelve apostles who had believed in him.

Now, I saw the large building that Lehi had spoken of from his vision. The people inside included many people of Israel, and they were gathered to fight against the word of God. The building then collapsed on all those inside. “This will be the destruction of all nations and peoples that oppose the twelve apostles of the Son of God,” the angel said to me.