The Records Came Out of Darkness — Are We Living in the Beginning of Tsiahn?
The Records Came Out of Darkness — Are We Living in the Beginning of Tsiahn?
Yesterday afternoon in our Nemenhah Zoom, we studied The Book of Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm, Chapter 14.
I thought we were simply going to study another chapter.
Instead, I came away wondering if I had just read one of the clearest descriptions in the Nemenhah Sacred Records of where we came from, where we are now, what went wrong with the Restoration, and where the Peacemaker is trying to take us.
And right in the middle of it all is something wonderfully simple:
Learn to do good continually.
Maybe that is where Tsiahn really begins.
A People Living in Peace
Chapter 14 begins with the Nemenhah already enjoying something the modern world desperately wants.
Peace.
They are living in Tsiahn.
They aren't perfect people living in some imaginary paradise. But they know the Peacemaker. They wait upon Him. They learn His ways. They walk with Him.
Tsihohnayah tells them:
“There is no peace to be found except where men and women know their Peacemaker and walk uprightly before Him.”
— The Book of Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:25
That stopped me.
We spend an awful lot of time trying to create peace through governments, programs, money, security, laws, institutions, and organizations.
The Nemenhah answer is much simpler:
Know the Peacemaker.
Walk with Him.
Learn His ways.
Everything else grows from there.
But Tsihohnayah Sees Our Day
Then the prophecy moves forward.
He sees a society obsessed with getting gain.
People no longer primarily produce what they need. Instead, they work for money and use that money to purchase necessities produced by a comparatively small number of people, often from far away.
And amazingly, those living this way will consider themselves blessed.
They will even look down upon people who live more simply and produce for themselves.
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:22–23
Does that sound familiar?
Then comes this warning:
“Peace shall be a rare thing in the earth. Behold, they are perilous times in which the Remnant shall begin again the work of the Peacemaker.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:24
Notice what it doesn't say.
It doesn't say the Remnant begins its work after everything gets better.
The work begins during the perilous times.
Maybe we aren't supposed to wait for the world to become peaceful before building Tsiahn.
Maybe the disappearance of peace is precisely when the Peacemaker begins teaching His people how to create it again.
The Physics of Faith
Then our Zoom discussion reached verses 27–33, and something clicked for me.
Tsihohnayah describes what the translators call:
“The physics of faith.”
Faith, in this teaching, isn't merely believing something strongly.
It is intention becoming action.
Good intention followed by good action sends a movement outward through creation.
Bad intention followed by bad action does the same thing.
Tsihohnayah says:
“There is good faith and there is bad faith, or in other words, there is good intention and good action which brings about much good, and there is bad intention and bad action which brings about much evil.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:29
Then comes something beautiful.
When evil encounters a sufficiently powerful movement of good, the good counters it.
The evil is diminished.
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:30–33
And suddenly I thought about Jesus Christ.
He said:
Love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you.
Do good to them that hate you.
— Matthew 5:44
Maybe Christ wasn't merely teaching us to be nice.
Maybe He was teaching us how evil is actually defeated.
Someone gives you hatred.
You can return hatred and magnify it.
Or you can return love.
You stop the ripple.
You refuse to become the next carrier of the evil that reached you.
And then Tsihohnayah asks an extraordinary question:
“Did you think that Tsiahn blesses only those who live in it?”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:34
Apparently not.
A people continually producing goodness can affect a world far beyond their own little community.
Maybe Tsiahn is not merely a refuge from the world.
Maybe Tsiahn is intended to heal the world.
Then We Found the Center
As we worked through the chapter, I started seeing what looks to me like a possible chiastic structure.
I wouldn't insist that every pairing is a formally intended chiasmus, but look at the broad pattern:
A — vv. 1–8 — Nemenhah lost → Remnant promised
B — vv. 9–16 — Tsiahn described
C — vv. 17–24 — Pahbaylohn and getting gain
D — vv. 25–37 — Faith produces good
X — vv. 38–39 — NEW & EVERLASTING COVENANT
“LEARN TO DO GOOD CONTINUALLY”
D′ — vv. 40–44 — Ancient goodness becomes the pattern
C′ — vv. 45–52 — Pahbaylohn corrupts the Restoration
B′ — vv. 53–67 — Remnant rebuilds Tsiahn
A′ — vv. 68–89 — Remnant restored and walks personally with the Peacemaker
And what sits near the center?
“We are placed in this New and everlasting Covenant to learn to do good continually.”
Then:
“The exercise of this faith shall bring about the restoration of all things.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:38–39
That may be one of the simplest explanations of the New and Everlasting Covenant I have ever read.
Learn to do good continually.
Not accumulate titles.
Not declare ourselves chosen.
Not prove we're more righteous than somebody else.
Learn to do good continually.
Then Comes a Difficult Prophecy About the Restoration
This chapter doesn't say the Restoration through the “foreign strangers” was false.
In fact, it says exactly the opposite.
The Peacemaker begins it.
Tsihohnayah says:
“The Peacemaker shall begin again a restoration through the foreign strangers.”
He chooses them partly because they have a remarkable ability to take up a project and pursue it “with great vigor.”
And they succeed in spreading His word throughout the world.
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:72
To me, within the Nemenhah narrative, this sounds very much like the Restoration associated with Joseph Smith and the tremendous missionary work that followed.
But then comes the warning.
The Peacemaker gives them authority—Tiwehkthihmptsah—and keys to accomplish His work.
The authority isn't portrayed as fake.
It came from Him.
But eventually a stewardship to serve becomes something else.
People begin teaching that without their keys, no door to heaven can be opened.
Ordinances become something that supposedly assures salvation.
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:73–74
Earlier the record had already made this remarkable distinction:
“It is not the ordinances of salvation that bring salvation… Rather, the ordinances of salvation are those ceremonies and celebrations that teach salvation.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:48
That's a huge difference.
The ordinance teaches salvation.
The Peacemaker brings salvation.
The ceremony points us toward Him.
It cannot replace Him.
Authority should help bring people to Christ.
It should never stand between people and Christ.
What Happened to the Children of Layi?
During our Zoom I looked around and had a rather obvious question.
Most of us looked like a bunch of white guys.
So where are the Native people in this prophecy?
Cloudpiler made an interesting observation.
The chapter itself says the blood of the descendants would become mingled with the foreign strangers.
It says:
“The spirit of Nemenhah shall cry out within them and their hearts shall swell with a remembrance of things they never saw.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:8
Later it says that even though their blood has become mingled, they begin feeling:
“pullings from their grandfathers.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:53
I don't think any of us ought to use that as a genetic test or make assumptions about someone's ancestry from appearance.
But within the record's own story, something interesting is happening.
The descendants have become scattered and intermixed.
And then something begins awakening.
Diligent Study — And the Spirit
How does the restoration begin?
Verse 54 gives two answers.
First:
Diligent study.
Second:
The Haymehnay brings things to remembrance.
Then, when the time is right, the Peacemaker brings some of them upon the Way and reveals the records that had been preserved for them.
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:54–55
And what do they do with the records?
They don't merely argue about whether they're authentic.
They don't build a religion around possessing a new book.
They use the records:
“quietly to bring again Peace.”
That may be one of the most important statements in the chapter.
The test of these records may ultimately be their fruit.
Do they lead us toward the Peacemaker?
Do they make us kinder?
Do they make us less judgmental?
Do they teach us stewardship?
Do they turn our hearts toward the poor?
Do they produce Peace?
Tsiahn Begins in the Heart
Then comes one of my favorite passages.
The descendants begin rebuilding communities “little by little.”
But they don't need architectural drawings of ancient Nemenhah cities.
Why?
Because the records teach them something much more important:
“An Enduring Peace in their hearts.”
And then:
“It is Tsiahn in their hearts that shall govern all that they build.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:56–57
There it is.
Tsiahn doesn't begin with real estate.
It begins inside people.
You could build the perfect community in the perfect location with perfect gardens and perfect buildings—and still create Pahbaylohn if the hearts of the people remain Babylonian.
But if Tsiahn is established in their hearts, then whatever they build begins reflecting it.
What Does “Collapse” Mean?
The chapter does contain some sobering language.
It describes changing conditions, increasing dependence upon a few producers, people moving toward cities, economic instability, and eventually wealth becoming nearly useless compared with basic necessities.
Then verse 64 says the Remnant won't “be brought to collapse with the rest of the world.”
Why?
Not because they correctly predicted the date.
Not because they accumulated more money.
Not because they had the biggest food-storage warehouse.
They had learned another way to live.
They produced according to their needs “and yet a little more to provide for the beggar.”
That changed the way I read the warning.
Maybe the message isn't:
“Prepare for the collapse.”
Maybe it's:
“Become a people who won't collapse with Pahbaylohn.”
The Records Come Out of Darkness
Verse 62 may tell us something about the timing:
“The Peacemaker shall bring out of darkness your records and your writings, and behold, the Remnant will take them up and shall use them as their standard.”
Then:
“They shall build up Tsiahn in their hearts and establish an Enduring Peace in the land.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:62
If the present Nemenhah Sacred Records are what this passage claims they are, then perhaps their appearance isn't supposed to tell us merely what will happen.
They're supposed to teach us what to become.
The records appear.
People study them.
They apply them.
Tsiahn grows in their hearts.
And then they begin building something different.
What About Wealth and the Poor?
Chapter 14 becomes uncomfortable here.
It describes religious shepherds teaching the getting and laying up of riches while poverty remains around them.
Then it asks:
“Is this the Law of the Tithe? Is this the Law of Consecration?”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:79
The implied answer seems obvious.
Earlier, Tsiahn was defined differently:
“There shall be no poor among them.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:14
That gives me a very different measuring stick for prosperity.
Maybe the question isn't:
How wealthy has God's organization become?
Maybe it's:
How many poor remain among us?
Consecration isn't merely giving something away.
It's becoming a people where nobody is abandoned.
Don't Call Yourself the Elect
Then Tsihohnayah gives us what I think is a wonderful test of the Remnant.
They don't stand before the world and announce:
“We're the chosen people!”
Instead:
“They shall not…declare themselves to be the elect of the Peacemaker, but the Peacemaker shall elect them.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:82
How can we recognize them?
They read the records.
And apply them.
They practice stewardship.
They care for the widow.
They visit the fatherless.
They serve without motive.
That gives me a better question than:
“Am I part of the Remnant?”
The better question is:
“Are these records changing the way I live?”
And Finally — They Walk With Him
The closing verses are beautiful.
There is no division because of color, manner of speaking, beliefs, or lack of riches.
Authority no longer makes someone greater than his neighbor.
Tiwehkthihmptsah becomes a schoolmaster—something used to accomplish good.
The people:
“live from revelation to revelation.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:85
And eventually:
“They shall walk with Him and talk with Him.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:88
Then comes the culmination:
“They shall build and establish Tsiahn again.”
And why?
Because they have the First and the Second Comforter.
Tsihohnayah calls this:
“the best of the blessings and gifts of Heaven.”
— Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:89
And suddenly the whole chapter comes together for me.
Maybe This Is the Journey
The Peacemaker begins a Restoration.
Men receive genuine authority.
Eventually stewardship becomes control.
Ordinances that were intended to teach people how to approach Christ become confused with salvation itself.
Wealth becomes confused with blessing.
Authority becomes confused with election.
Then the records come out of darkness.
And the Peacemaker begins teaching a Remnant again.
Not how to create another powerful institution.
But how to create Peace.
Not first in cities.
In their hearts.
They stop judging each other.
They stop measuring righteousness by wealth.
Authority becomes service.
Ordinances become teachers.
They care for the poor.
They live from revelation to revelation.
And finally they do what perhaps the whole journey was always supposed to teach us to do:
They walk and talk with the Peacemaker.
Maybe that is Tsiahn.
Maybe that is the New and Everlasting Covenant.
Maybe that is why these records matter.
And maybe the question isn't whether we can prove that we are the Remnant.
Maybe the question is much simpler:
Are we learning to do good continually?
Because if we are, perhaps Tsiahn has already begun.
Not somewhere out in the wilderness.
Right here in the heart.
Study These Scriptures Yourself
Nemenhah Sacred Records
The Book of Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:8
14:14
14:22–25
14:27–39
14:45–50
14:53–57
14:60–64
14:72–74
14:78–89
Bible
Matthew 5:43–48 — Love your enemies
Matthew 6:19–21 — Treasure in Heaven
Matthew 7:16–20 — By their fruits
John 14:21–23 — Christ manifests Himself to those who love and follow Him
Romans 12:21 — Overcome evil with good
Book of Mormon
Mosiah 4:16–27 — Caring for the poor
Mosiah 18:21 — Hearts knit together in unity
4 Nephi 1:2–3 — All things common; no rich and poor
4 Nephi 1:15–18 — Love of God and no contention
2 Nephi 31–32 — The Doctrine of Christ and receiving the Holy Ghost
3 Nephi 11 — Come personally unto Jesus Christ
My Personal Reflection
I don't know exactly where we are on Tsihohnayah's prophetic timeline.
And I don't think we need to pretend that we do.
But I know what I can do today.
I can forgive somebody.
I can feed somebody.
I can stop judging somebody.
I can listen for the Spirit.
I can quit worrying about whether I'm more “chosen” than somebody else.
I can use whatever authority, possessions, knowledge, or talents I've been given as a stewardship rather than a status symbol.
And most importantly, I can seek the Peacemaker.
Because after everything in this remarkable chapter—Restoration, authority, ordinances, prophecy, records, wealth, collapse, Remnant and Tsiahn—the destination is wonderfully simple:
Walk with Him.
Talk with Him.
Learn His Way.
And do good continually.
That sounds like a pretty good place to begin.
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