Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. The resurrection was the crowning element of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and is an essential and centric feature of the Gospel.

The people of the Book of Mormon, although far removed from the Holy land, were well aware of the promise of the Resurrection. Alma taught the Zoramites:

“…Begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead…” (Alma 33:22)

In addition to demonstrating understanding of the physical and eternal nature of the resurrection, the Book of Mormon also uses the resurrection in symbolic terms to illustrate the more abstract concepts of redemption and rebirth that are otherwise more difficult to grasp.

A generally well known yet little explored detail about the Book of Mormon is that it contained a sealed portion. It is conventionally understood that the Book of Mormon came packaged with some material that the Saints were obviously not prepared to receive, and as such, we can only patiently wait for it to one day be revealed, but until then, we should leave the matter alone, and not speculate idly.

Idle speculation can indeed be counterproductive, but it might come as a surprise that the Book of Mormon actually contains a considerable amount of information regarding the contents, origin, and purpose of the sealed portion. The pedigree of what became the sealed portion can roughly be characterized as follows:

As we continue reading through Nephi’s quotations of Isaiah, we reach a point in 2 Nephi 19 where we see a common refrain:

“For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”

These words come in the context of the Lord ’s anger at Israel’s arrogance, and often comes at the tail end of a stanza that describes the plagues, calamities and judgments that will befall an unrepentant Israel. Yet the words are often interpreted as “even though God is angry, his hand of mercy is still extended to Israel.” We see this interpretation in the CES Book of Mormon student manual:

“Isaiah prophesied that Israel would refuse to heed the Lord. Yet, in spite of Israel’s rejection of the Lord, ‘his hand is stretched out still’” (Link)

While the scriptures make amply clear that God’s mercy is accessible to even the vilest of sinners, there is substantial reason to doubt that this is the message of this “hand is stretched out still” chorus.

In Nephi’s quotation of Isaiah’s writings, we come across a passage that is often understood in terms of the pre-existence and the war in heaven:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!” (2 Nephi 24:12)

This does indeed bear striking resemblance to the apocalyptic account of the fall and exile of the dragon:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9)

But is the connection between these two passages as clear cut as we might like to think? Let’s examine the context that Isaiah gives to his passage as we search for increased understanding.

One of the most common scriptures used by antagonists to support the idea of a closed scriptural cannon is from the final chapter of the New Testament, Revelation 22, where in verse 18, John the Revelator warns that “if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.”

This argument has proven to hold no verifiable ground, and even the staunchest informed evangelists will concede that “these things” and “this book” refer to the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelation) specifically, not the entire Bible as a whole.

That said, it should be noted that this warning is indeed valid within the scope of Apocalypse. The conclusion of our account of Nephi’s vision explains that Nephi sees John the Revelator, presumably exiled on the island of Patmos, and then sees John’s entire vision. It is interesting to see that the instructions that Nephi subsequently receives regarding what he sees are notably harmonious with John’s warning not to add to his account of it.