![]() One reason for Christ and Mormon’s emphasis on children was likely a very practical one, signaled to the reader by the allusion to King Benjamin’s speech earlier. The WhyĪs Mormon connected and compared King Benjamin’s speech with Christ’s visit to the Nephites, he emphasized the significance of children and of becoming childlike. Perhaps the people and their children had glimpsed the eternal nature of the family and received the sealing ordinances to bind them and their children together both on earth and in heaven. 7 Such holy revelations must have related to the temple. The result of this hallowed moment is that both parents and children had experienced things that were too sacred to record. Finally, the people had become like their little children, as King Benjamin had said so many years earlier, and what Christ had reiterated only days earlier: “ye must repent, and become as a little child” ( 3 Nephi 11:37). Shortly after this, the disciples of Jesus began to baptize people, and they also experienced things “which are not lawful to be written” ( 3 Nephi 26:17–18), just as the children had before. The experience not only transformed how the parents saw the children, but it also changed the way they saw themselves. Would that not forever change the way the parents saw and treated their children? 6 Those parents had been granted the extraordinary gift of a glimpse into eternity and of beholding the true identity and premortal stature of their children. ![]() Perhaps more than opening the mouths of babes, the Lord was opening the eyes and ears of their astonished parents. This is exactly what happens in 3 Nephi 26:16, as the children of the multitude said “marvelous things and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any man write them.” Regarding this event, Elder Lynn G. To become like little children, they had to see their children for who they really were. 4 He also said that people needed to become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” ( Mosiah 3:19). Shortly after the passage Mormon alluded to above, King Benjamin stated that the people needed to “humble themselves and become as little children” ( Mosiah 3:18). In classic ancient Israelite fashion, Mormon appears to have used this description as a literary “red flag,” to signal to the reader that they should read the passage with King Benjamin’s speech in mind. This comment is remarkably similar to King Benjamin’s prophecy that the Messiah would be “ healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases” ( Mosiah 3:5, emphasis added). When Mormon summarized what Jesus did while he was with the Nephites, he recorded that Jesus “ healed all their sick, and their lame, and opened the eyes of their blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and even had done all manner of cures among them, and raised a man from the dead” ( 3 Nephi 26:15, emphasis added). In classic Ancient Near Easter fashion, Mormon makes this point by referring to King Benjamin’s speech on becoming as a child. One reason why children appear so often in 3 Nephi may be that Mormon felt the people had become pure like children. 2 He quoted passages from Isaiah ( 3 Nephi 22:13 Isaiah 54:13) and Malachi ( 3 Nephi 25:6 Malachi 4:6) referring to children, and He caused angels to encircle and minister unto them ( 3 Nephi 17:22–24). ![]() He talked about the importance of children in the Plan of Salvation ( 3 Nephi 26:2–5). 1 He blessed them individually ( 3 Nephi 17:21). In 3 Nephi, Christ often focused on children, just as He did in His mortal ministry.
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