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Steven,
You make a good case that the Book of Mormon will be taught in Hell and that the authors of it knew that.
“Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets” (D&C 138:32). This means that all of those who had died in their sins will have the gospel preached to them. Later in that revelation we read that it is the formerly faithful elders that will teach them, including the prophets who were among the Nephites (D&C 138:49, 57). These Nephite prophets will undoubtedly teach the things they wrote while in mortality.
I will challenge one point you repeated several times, that all there were no Nephite survivors whose descendants would be taught the gospel in our day. You wrote, “There may not be any surviving group today that identifies as or can be identified as Nephites, Jacobites, [Page 112] Josephites, etc.”
In Lehi’s final blessing to his youngest son, Joseph, he prophesied, “For thy seed shall not be destroyed, for they shall hearken unto the words of the book” (2 Nephi 3:23). The descendants of Joseph Son of Lehi would read and accept the words of the Book of Mormon. “And there shall rise up one mighty among them [among the seed of Joseph Son of Lehi], who shall do much good, both in word and in deed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that thing which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren.” (2 Nephi 3:23)
The scripture is clear that the choice seer of the restoration would be a descendant of Joseph, son of Lehi. That is what the message of the dying Lehi to his son Joseph was all about. The reason that Lehi’s son, Joseph, was so blessed is because this choice seer, Joseph of the restoration, would be of his seed. The Prophet Joseph Smith, and many others, were to be descendants of Joseph Son of Lehi. There is no Native American blood in Joseph Smith’s ancestry. They all came out of Northern England. It must be that a group of the descendants of Joseph Son of Lehi, were led away from America to Europe prior to the Nephite destruction. It is probable that most early Latter-Day Saints were Nephites, as are their descendants, who would include many of us reading this.
“And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews” (2 Nephi 29:13).
If the Nephites are to have the words of the Jews, which would be all of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and also the words of the Lost Tribes, that would indicate that Nephites have survived as a people into the Latter Days. It also supports your thesis that those in the Spirit World will have all of the scriptures taught to them.
Thank you for your kind response. My impression has always been Nephi’s, Jacob’s, Sam’s seed do indeed survive by virtue of their mingling in 4th Nephi. When the Lord in D&C 3 says the Nephites were destroyed, I think we just have no identifiable group.
I’ve never heard that Joseph Smith being among them required he be of Lehi’s seed. It is an interesting thought worth pursuing.
The concept of Joseph Smith being a descendent of Joseph Son of Lehi comes from a careful reading of 2 Nephi 3:14-16, 22-24. It appears to be the obvious explanation. I have researched considerable circumstantial evidence supporting this, but that is beyond these comments.
You only need to read 2 Nephi 3:5 and 2 Nephi 3:22 to know and understand that the writer of this book is teaching that Joseph Smith would be a descendant of Joseph in Egypt. Everything in between these two verses is his prophecy and not that of Lehi’s son.