A capsule look at the 'Three Nephites'

 

                       Moroni was the last known mortal Nephite to live on the American Continent.

Elder Orson Pratt was the first leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call attention to the famed “Three Nephites” to the general church.

He did so on April 7, 1855 in a sermon at the new bowery in Salt Lake City.

(The “Three Nephites” are translated beings, like John the Revelator from the New Testament. They cannot die and are beyond the powers of earth. They will remain on earth until Jesus Christ returns.)

Elder Pratt’s sermon said these heavenly beings can show themselves unto whomever they choose to. Otherwise, they remain unseen. They do come among us openly because the time is not right and there is work for humans to do to prepare to Christ’s return. They work in secret to promote righteousness.

Elder Erastus Snow and Brigham Young also gave sermons later that alluded to the existence of these Three Nephites.

However, Elder James E. Talmage, an LDS Apostle in the early 20^th Century stated the church members in his era were too eager to attribute any unusual happening to the Three Nephites. As such, he said they must be the most overworked of all individuals.

Later, it has been assumed that since physical struggles are so easy for us in modern times, that we don’t have the need to these individuals, at least for physical matters.

Notwithstanding, in many of the tales of visits by these beings, they are described as old men with white hair and beards.

From ghostly hitchhikers who appear, offer some spiritual advice and eventually just disappear from a back car seat, to beggars who ask for food to test our generosity, there are various such stories from Utah over the decades.

In others, someone is saved from death. For example, in the 1950s, a young boy fell into deep water at the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge, located west of Hooper. He might have drowned had not an older man appeared out of nowhere to save him. Then, the man vanished.

In another tale, two young girls were hiking in the mountains around Richfield in the early 20^th Century. They became lost and then a man appeared and led them back to the trail, before disappearing.

-Some of these stories are contained in a 1947 book by Hector Lee, “The Three Nephites: The Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore,” (1947), a Ph.D. dissertation for the University of New Mexico.