3 Nephi 15

[He paused a long time for dramatic effect, then continued:]

What you just heard are excerpts from my ministry in Palestine before they assassinated me. They are some of the jangling keys to the door of eternal life. Use them wisely and you’ll get in. A mixed conglomerate foundation tends to crumble. You get one good storm blast and the structure slides off its perch.

[He noticed some people having sidebars about how this fit with Moses’ laws. So he spoke directly to them the following:]

Please don’t come unglued about the revolution I’m leading. Old things are over, new things take over. Moses meant nothing but a ladder leaning toward me.

Here’s what might still seem too twisty: I gave Moses the law he gave you. So it’s a circle. Or a triangle, at least. I gave to him, he gave to you, you come to me.

There’s still lots left to do, of course. The prophets aren’t null just because I showed up. But you need to always remember: I am the law now. I am also the light by which you read the law. Stay in that light, don’t slip off into the darkness for breathers, and you’ll end up in my house. A really, really big house.

If I’m the law now, note what I say and act on it.

All your brass plates are to me what brass is to gold.

[He turned back to the twelve and said:]

You are my people of discipline. Fastidious for all the right things in all the right ways. If I’m the light of the world, you’ll have to be the light of these people.

This land is your land; this land is my land. Joint owners so long as you don’t default. But I hope you won’t feel bad if I didn’t tell the folks in Palestine about you. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t tell them about other pockets of Israelites around the world. It’s really none of their business.

The only thing I said—a teaser, really—was that,

as a shepherd, I have other sheep not of this fold and they will also hear my voice and act upon it.

It was opaque, but I thought most of them or at least some of them would get my drift. But they’re as dumb as old planks sometimes. Unbelief apparently leads to stupidity. If they weren’t so mired in misbehavior—pride, mostly—they’d understand at least the plainer things I say.

I could go on and on about my other tribes hidden away, tucked into the nether corners of the world. But just like you’re not the Jews’ business, my other “sheep” aren’t yours. But you’ll be surprised one day when it all comes out. I’ve got followers or chosen people-sheep corralled in various ways, here and there. But it’s all just one flock, in my mind. So no one should get uppity about their place in the demographics or geography. Spirit is like wind: you can never say “here it is” because it’s always moving. Tribes are like that. Nomads with a purpose, rebels with a constant cause.

Wherever, whenever, people will hear my voice in their minds, if not in their ears. So no one should take pride in spatial proximity to me.