Vocation analysis by Hugh Nibley from BofM/PoGP Lectures
compiled by Nate Richardson
richardsonstudies.com
rrnmailbox@gmail.com
These are some of my notes from Nibley’s Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price classes taught at BYU.
Not all of these ideas are specifically about vocation, but allude to such.
For my document with more notes on those lectures on other subjects, see my document “Book of Mormon & Pearl of Great Price Lectures by Hugh Nibley, notes” by clicking here or by using this URL: http://richardsonstudies.com/2018/01/22/book-mormon-pearl-great-price-lectures-hugh-nibley-notes/
-Science does not explain, it only describes.
-Intelligence is problem solving ability.
-Moroni broke an oath out of charity for his people to alleviate their suffering.
-A true scientist or artist does what he does for love.
-In the book of Moroni, the best gifts are listed first, those of intelligence. We need a clear mind in order to do all. Today, we are going brain dead.
-What is the filthy gift spoken of in the New Testament and the book of Moroni? Money.
-The three greatest gifts God has given man are life itself, progeny, and time to repent.
-Brigham Young said there is no place in the kingdom of God for worldly ambition.
-Brigham Young said many of the Saints are glued to material things. They say “this is mine.” Mankind hold to the earth as if it was their all. God is who gives all sustainment. No power for the Saints until they are prepared to wield it.
– Brigham Young said If Saints rely on the world they’ll work wearily to death, and a future generation will forsake what was in store for them.
-Brigham Young said Lust after the world has destroyed the greatest nations ever. Oft Saints want to get very rich before helping the church instead of helping now.
-Brigham Young said some Saints magnify one scripture and leave others excusing themselves, especially as they acquire land.
-Brigham Young said just like Babylon, some Saints trade and traffic with each other, and like the people in the world who are in a sea of confusion. Trying to take advantage of the Gentiles.
-If you are a Saint, you know this world is a wicked one.
-All holy men must be alien to this world.
-Joseph Smith said a righteous man back in the day had better chance at being righteous than a righteous man of today does.
-Adam’s real career didn’t begin until he was married in the covenant.
-1st thing Moses taught the children of Israel was the free will offering, totally required, to see if they would pass like Abraham, giving the amount they chose.
-To receive a new name is to receive a new persona or role or societal role. There may be a name only a parent knows a child by.
-Brigham Young said The Law of Consecration is the most easy to understand, so when the Saints ignore it, they do it consciously.
-Joseph Smith used word endow (get a gift) and endew (put on robe or a calling) interchangeably.
-Joseph Smith said Secretarian religion is the apostate religion. Masonry was Priesthood, but now is apostate all though much of what they do is perfect.
-Joseph Smith said never aspire, accuse, contend, or coerce.
-Brigham Young said the only real world is Zion.
-May our anxiety be upon our purification. At a casino a Saint is out of place.
-Nixon wrote faith without strength is nothing, but really faith is strength. Nixon said sword is best defense, but Ammon knew gospel preaching was.
-What I like most about The Law of Consecration is that there is no economics.
-Brigham Young said competitiveness halts us from bettering our minds, which is why we are here (on earth).
-Abraham never drove a hard bargain.
-At war time don’t turn to military but to God.
-Adam’s post-Eden mission in life was 1. search the scriptures 2. the work of the kingdom 3. till the land.
-Employer God pays for our food etc and says take no thought for it, you’re here to learn. Satan wants our employ, and wants us to study only how to get bigger and better lunches. “Sufficient for our needs” is nothing to him (Satan), he wants us to milk our employer or employee for all they are worth. Brigham Young started BYU to get people to not be obsessed with “lunch”, to negate or put down the philosophy that we are here to take advantage of each other and that such is our right. Brigham Young said theres plenty of schools who teach what scientists say but don’t dare preach the gospel, and BYU is to not be that way.
-Law of Moses forbid not letting oxen eat corn while they plow; Moses cursed people who covered their trees forbidding the birds their lunch. Passing by beggars was also forbidden.
-Brigham Young said Joseph Smith not as good at management and economics, but the wisdom of God is greater than that of men.
-How tell if something is of this world? The test is weather you can have it for money. If not, it does not belong to this world.
-Einstein said in his book “The world as I see it” that daily he considered 100 times how he depended on the world of others on his outside and inside, them that went before him game him so much he has to work always to give back and contribute similarly in his day, yet Einstein was one of the most aloof or reclusive people you would know, and here he says he depended totally on his society (Nibley speaks of Einstein in positive light referring to him as exemplary).
-Brigham Young said no two worlds are alike, similarly to how he (BY) never built two houses to look exactly alike.
-When we seek to expand our property, we take one step further from Zion.
-Brigham Young said we must not wait for Enoch or angels to bring Zion but need build Zion so we are ready (for when Enoch and his city come to us).
-Brigham Young said who think “how can I get richer or get this or that?” Can’t make it into the Celestial Kingdom and isn’t magnifying his Priesthood.
-Respectability is a mask of Babylon.
-Idoler in Zion not eat means the big whig capitalists should not be able to live better than others. We oft interpret it to mean that lazy people don’t deserve bread, but neither do those who sit around in big corporate chairs taking advantage of their constituents!
-“These are mine for I earned them” is getting into anti-Christ.
-To take more than we need is to take what does not belong to us (BY or Nibley said this).
-Legality is excuse for immorality people say.
-People call institutions “Zion’s bank, Zion’s cars sales, etc” and it’s Babylon in Zion’s name.
-The Lord’s people are ever referred to as the poor; this some 30 times in the Book of Mormon.
-Brigham Young said someone is out to destroy our minds by having us think of what we ought not.
-when the Apostles failed to cast out devils in an instance in the New Testament, the Lord lost his patience with them because he knew they could do better than that.
-Joseph Smith said learning of eternity makes the most zeal in a person.
-Count cost to build tower Jesus said we all do this. Jesus is saying why can’t we take our eternity more seriously? You count the cost of a tower before you build it lest you fail, then why can’t you do something similar for you spiritual welfare? We are too economical.
-Brigham Young said I don’t like the world at all and don’t like being associated with them of the world (referring to the wickedness/ungodly).
-Brigham Young said if Gods liked knowledge for power they would cease to be Gods.
-Joseph Smith said Hebrew learn; we need scripture original languages because can’t get it all by revelation.
-Psychologists teach that the mind without knowledge will make things up because the mind craves knowledge like the body does food.
-Fasting isn’t something to do once a month but daily, an attitude of not taking more than you need and living in the service of God.
-The Pearl is an ancient account of a man who is in heaven, and is sent off by his heavenly parents to go to earth to find a pearl. This is not LDS or Christian mind you, this is way before Christ. The man’s mother (in heaven) is the last to bid him goodbye as he goes. He goes and on earth is met by a serpent at a type of hotel. He thinks he will get the best of that serpent, but he should just stay away from the serpent. The serpent tricks him. Angels (messengers) are sent to tell the man that he needs to stay focused and get the pearl so he will not loose his inheritance. He finds the pearl and returns to heaven where his heavenly parents greet him and he gets the family robe and ring, showing family membership and inheritance.
-He reads the newspaper regularly, most every day.
-He has a Dr. degree in world history, though he started out in sociology.
-The Hopi Indians are a good example of how a people can refuse to take up arms and yet survive longer than other peoples. They are wonderful people.
-Among the Hopi Indians, if one has corn, they all have corn. They share with each other.
-The Hopi Indians have been offered their children to go off to live in a nice home with all you could ever want, but that to them is Babylon; all that is being offered them is money. They rather carryout their lives and teach their children in their own homes.
-When you know of the hereafter, nothing can discourage the righteous.
-Adam was a great man. He first man on the earth, like how you start a university with great men and hope it stays that way not start one with stupid men and hope it becomes great. The current status in society is not always the best! Just because we live later than people before us does not mean we are better than they were!
-Cain’s offering to the Lord was not acceptable for Satan said to do it to him; Cain was acting out of love for Lucifer.
-Lucifer asks people to make offering to the Lord; for example Adam and Cain. He wants to be leader and wanted to save souls, but not in God’s way. Now he seeks our misery.
-Brigham Young says how he could weep like a whipped child when he thinks of how far the saints fell short of their possibilities and opportunities.
-There is no end to what we can and will receive so long as we don’t reject it.
