Nephi & Peter
1 Nephi 22:20; “And the Lord will surely prepare a way for his people, unto the fulfilling of the words of Moses, which he spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that all those who will not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people.”
Acts 3:22-23; “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”
Deut. 18:15-18; “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; 16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”
Let’s review. Nephi supposedly said this in 588 BC – 588! Peter’s paraphrase of Moses’ words was written circa 65 AD.
This means 653 years before Luke wrote the book of Acts, Nephi just so happened to have a revelation from God to write an identical passage from when Moses was alive. Really?
When did God get into the recycling business? I don’t know about you, but the God I worship is brilliant and I’m confident He can come up with new words to inspire His prophets with when He needs to.
Nephi is plagiarizing Peter’s paraphrase of Moses when Peter declared to those in attendance there was no need to look for another prophet because the One that God promised has come.
The passages from Deuteronomy and Acts are two of the most important passages in all of the Bible! Through Moses the Lord God Almighty told His people to watch for the Messiah and until then they must listen to His prophets in order to be saved. In Acts we see and hear God through the Apostle Peter’s inspired words and Luke’s inspired writing that promise is fulfilled.
How could the promise of God be fulfilled in 588 BC? The words of Nephi contradict themselves. He said the Lord will surely prepare a way, but then uses the words of someone else declaring the way has been fulfilled…
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