The More Righteous Part and Temporal Salvation – 3 Nephi 10

​This week in the Book of Mormon we’ll continue with our Endtime theme. To recap, when we look at the Book of Helaman and the first ten chapters of 3 Nephi we see a type of Endtime events. In Helaman, we saw a restoration of the Law, the 144,000 in the character of Nephi and Samuel the Lamanite Prophet as a type of God’s Endtime servant. Then both in the Helaman and 3 Nephi we saw another Endtime type in the secret combination that seeks to destroy freedom, which is anti-God, anti-Torah.  In this week’s analysis, we see another Endtime type of those who survive the destructions prior to the appearance of the resurrected Messiah.  So this week we’ll analyze those who can be expected to survive the Endtime judgements that we see represented in 3 Nephi chapter 10 .

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Introduction
The key scripture that we see in 3 Nephi 10 that applies is found at verse 12.
 
12 And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared –
 
The essential concept in this verse that should catch our attention is that those who “received the prophets” are the ones who were spared.  So let’s see what it means to receive the prophets.
 

True Prophets
One of the teachings that we saw back with Samuel the Lamanite prophet is that true prophets will be calling the people to repentance as opposed to false prophets who will placate and flatter the people so that these false prophets might obtain money and praise.  So the message of true prophets will be a warning that unless the people repent, God’s judgements will come upon them.
 

What Law?
The next question we will need to ask ourselves is what law will these prophets be telling the people to live to receive temporal salvation.  Temporal salvation is to be saved from physical death, which is what we see here in 3 Nephi with all of the destructions occurring before the appearance of the Messiah.
 

Temporal Salvation
By and large Believers who have discarded the Torah won’t understand the doctrine of Temporal Salvation because that concept is primarily set out in the Torah - Deu 28.  Believers here preach a Temporal Salvation based on self-reliance, which is essentially relying on the arm of flesh.  While self-reliance is indeed an important concept, it is not to be segregated off by itself from Spiritual Salvation, which includes God intervention to provide for temporal blessings by living His Law.
 

Choosing Life
Going along with the concept of Temporal Salvation is the idea of “choosing life”, another way of expressing Temporal Salvation.  We saw Samuel at Helaman 14:31 admonish the people to “choose life”, which is a direct reference to Deu 30:15,19 in the Torah.

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Prophets with Power
Another concept that we will see with these Endtime Prophets is that they will come with power.  We see this concept with Moses at Israel’s first restoration. We will see this again at Israel’s second restoration when God’s Servant and the 144,000 will have power to gather the remnant of Israel.