Hello, welcome back to Scripture Central. I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson.

I'm Jack Welch, and we're certainly happy to be able to talk today about the first half of the book of Heelman.

Chapters 1 through 6, they cover an enormous amount of time. We're used to Alma going so slowly,

but we've got 29 years to cover in these first 16 years. And we have three wars that correspond

to the time as well. Before we get to the places where the chapters and verses actually start,

people have probably noticed that at the beginning of the books in the Book of Mormon, there's a little

description that is found. And in this case, we have a headnote that has been added.

I used to wonder, before we had all the information that we now have about the original manuscript,

who added it? Was this added by Joseph Smith, by Oliver Cowdery? Was this something that they,

after they'd translated, they said, well, we need a little introduction to the book of Heelman.

But no, in the original manuscripts that we have, this type of introductory material is already there, which means that it was probably added by Mormon.

As he edits each one, he stops and gives a summary.

The thing that's so amazing about these summaries is that the chapter headings are added later but these headnotes

you think are from Mormon. I think when you look at this, Mormon is telling us

what we should get out of the book of Heelman. Oh good. And notice the emphasis

here. It's an account of the Nephites and also the prophecies of many

holy prophets before the coming of Christ, according to the records of Heelman, and also his sons,

down to the coming of Christ. And also many Lamanites who are converted, and you get down to the

bottom, he's going to tell us that there were wickedness

problems and lots of abominations and things as well, even down to the coming of Christ.

So three times in this preface to the book of Heelman, we're told what Mormon wants us to

realize is that everything we're reading here is a prelude to leading up to the coming of Christ.

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