Lehi's Dream: An American Apocalypse
A paper presented at the Fourth
Annual Symposium of
The Association for Mormon Letters,
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, October 13, 1979
Writings that proclaim a cataclysmic end of the world are called
apocalyptic. Apocalyptic writings and imagery have been a constant
source of inspiration for the arts and the beginnings of religious
movements, including Christianity and Mormonism. Their doctrines
continue to the present in literal and metaphorical form in various
theologies and political ideologies. They have influenced us all.
As we examine Lehi's dream and Nephi's vision (I Ne. 8-]6:6), we
see that it is written in the form of an ancient Judeo-Christian
apocalypse. The Book of Mormon claims to be an ancient document.
However, in order to speak to the widest possible audience, this paper
will suspend the important question of when it was written. Regardless
of when it was written, we need to recognize the ancient biblical form
it employs, if we wish to interpret Lehi's dream correctly. Jewish and
Christian apocalyptic was a literary-prophetic movement that had its
roots in Jewish prophecy -- but it was "prophecy in a new idiom." The
books of Revelation and Daniel are the only full-blooded apocalyptic
works in the canon, but there are many others outside of the canon.
The form of these works is quite flexible. Yet they contain certain
characteristic features in common with 1 Nephi 8-]6:6. Let us examine
Apocalyptic authors claim God has revealed to them the secrets of
the imminent end of the world. This revelation is in the form of
dreams or visions containing unnatural and bizarre, often archetypal,
symbols. For example, in one apocalypse we read of rocks bleeding. In
the book of Revelation there is a red dragon with seven heads, seven
crowns, and ten horns. The vision is often followed by a prayer or
request for interpretation.2 An angel then appears to interpret. This
angel interprets the symbols as allegorical representations of a
series of historical events. This historical panorama is either from
creation to the end of the world, or from the time of the supposed
author to the end.(2)
In the vision, the last days are filled with decadence,
persecution of the righteous, and the rise of the Evil One (in
Christian terms, the Antichrist). Near the end, there are also awesome
occurrences in nature and a final universal war between the powers of
good and evil. In apocalyptic we have a fully developed moral and
cosmic dualism. All creation is involved in the struggle between good
and evil. Finally, God or his superhuman representative destroys evil.
At this point, a new age begins. So apocalyptic authors believed in
two distinct ages. They saw themselves in the last days of the first
age which was totally controlled by evil. These authors viewed their
times with utter despair and pessimism. The second age became known
among Christians as the millennium.
It is important to understand that apocalyptic was written during
times of extreme difficulty and persecution. It could be when the Syrian overlord, Antiochus Epiphanes, killed Jews who practiced their
religion. Or it could be during the Roman persecution of early
Christians. In any case, evil prospered and the righteous were
powerless and persecuted. But more severe than the terrors of
persecution were the threats of meaninglessness. How could God permit
these terrors? Aren't we supposed to prosper when we keep God's
commandments? Why do evil men prosper? What is the meaning of this
unbearable chaos? Apocalyptic sought hope and courage for those in
hopeless desperation, and meaning when the old answers did not
We shall now examine how 1 Nephi 8-16:6 expresses its content
through its apocalyptic form. It begins with Lehi's tree of life dream
and prophecy. Then Nephi asks the Lord's Spirit to see and understand
his father's dream. An angel then descends and interprets the dream to
signify events from Lehi's time down to the end (all of this according
to form). Nephi sees a series of visions which the angel introduces
with the command, "Look." He responds, "And I beheld," or "I saw," or
some such statement. Apocalyptic often contains such sequential
visions. And as introduction to each vision we find commands by the
angel to look and the response from the seer in precisely the same
words Nephi uses ("I looked," or "I saw" or "I looked and beheld").4
In line with its apocalyptic tradition, Nephi's vision portrays
the last days as times of decadence because of the world-wide dominion
of the great and abominable church (the Evil One). There is the
mention of universal war and a final showdown between good and evil,
at which time God destroys the Evil One. The details of the end itself
are left to the Apocalypse, the Revelation of John (1 Nephi 14: 18-27).
Throughout the visions we see the recurrent apocalyptic symbols:
the Lamb and the symbolic use of the colors white and scarlet.5 We
find whole phrases borrowed from biblical apocalyptic, such as: The
whore upon many waters,.the mother of harlots, the garments made white
in the blood of the Lamb.6 And there are many others. We also find the
apocalyptic hermeneutic used to understand scripture. Unfortunately,
we do not have time to discuss any of these here. Rather, I wish to
discuss one aspect of the apocalyptic use of symbols in Lehi's dream.
As I stated previously, apocalyptic dreams and visions are an
allegorical representation of a series of historical events down to
the end of the present age. A familiar example to Latter-day Saints is
the image in the book of Daniel. Each part of the body of this image
is made of a different substance. The head of gold is Babylon. As we
move down the body each part, made of a different metal, represents
the succeeding world power. The feet of iron mixed with clay represent
the ruling powers in the last days during the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes. Then the stone cut without hands rolls on to consume all of
Now the symbols in Lehi's dream itself differ from apocalyptic symbols in one important respect: they are not a historical allegory. As Nephi recognizes (1 Ne. 15:31-32), they cannot be equated with only one series of historical events. Rather, they represent a metahistorical summary of spiritual realities, a spiritual map. The angel applies this
map to certain historical events from Nephi's time to the end. The
angel's interpretation gives this section of the Book of Mormon all of
the apocalyptic elements mentioned above. It is the angel's
interpretation that transforms it from a dream with apocalyptic
overtones into a full apocalypse.
Despite some differences, the symbols in Lehi's dream have
important affinities with apocalyptic symbols. As we would expect in
apocalyptic, its symbols are unnatural. Interpreters have frequently
tried to make apocalyptic symbols literal. But the power of the
symbols lies in their unrealistic strangeness.7 Nibley has tried to
demonstrate that the symbols in Lehi's dream are authentic reflections
of Arabian life.8 For example, he says that the building floating in
the air is a real building whose foundation we cannot see. Reducing
the symbols to realistic images destroys their power. I can think of
no more provoking image for evil and pride than a spacious building
actually floating in the air.
Symbols in Lehi's dream, like apocalyptic symbols, are archetypal.
That is, they express a bundle of meanings that have deep roots in the
consciousness of man as man. Let us now see how the archetypal symbols
Ln Lehi's world view or spiritual map express themselves individually
and as a group. Both the tree of life and the difficult path are
widely used mythic symbols that express the passage from one mode of
being to another.9 In Lehi's dream, the tree represents salvation,
fulfillment, true humanity. These can only be attained by traveling
the dark narrow path. The fruit is the phenomenal description of that
fulfillment: white, delicious, and joyous beyond description. But
because of the attraction and temptation of evil, few try and fewer
make it. Evil is an obstacle in reaching the tree; it is the source of
the universal lim-itations of man. Evil is a power that binds the
saints and blinds the seekers.10 It is personified as a mist and an
institution. For most of us, every institution has its evil, but for
the Book of Mormon, evil has its institutions. Hence, evil has its
social element, its traditions, its history, and all the other
dynamics of an institution. Here we see the whole of reality divided
into a cosmic dualism. The plot is a struggle between good and evil.
There are only two churches, only two types of characters, and only
two paths.11 The river of God's justice immutably separates them; we
cannot dabble in both.
No one is born in the building. No one begins at the tree. Characters start at the crossroads of choice. Life is seen as a moral choice
and a journey. Human life is only half full and we must choose to fill
it. True life is only a potential of life, reached by traveling the
difficult path. This is the journey each one must make: to find his
true nature and fulfill it.
Because of the overwhelming control of evil, the seer is not at
home in this world with its worldly wisdom, wealth and pride. Life is
symbolically described by Lehi as wandering in "a dark and dreary
wilderness."12 The apocalyptic hope lies in God's future deliverance in
the end. But the despair in Lehi's dream is not so final as in many
apocalyptic works. The hope is deflected into the present by the
present experience of the tree. The whiteness of the tree and fruit
stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the dark imagery in the dream.
The represents the longing for objective certainty, an infallible
guide in a confused and lost state, the answer to the limits of the
In summary, these archetypal symbols express the consciousness of
evil and the longing for its destruction. (In the end, the building
falls.) They express the spiritual limitedness of man and the joy of
overcoming -- the joy of the fulfilled life. This dream represents the
vindication of the righteous who are persecuted and powerless. It is a
summons to give heed to God's word and to obey his commands. But
more, it is the longing of the human heart in the face of overwhelming
evil. It longs to break the power of binding and blinding.
Now we must clearly face the consequences of recognizing 1 Nephi
8-16:6 as a Judeo-Christian apocalypse. Jewish oracles were added to
the prophetic writings down to about 200 B.C. After that, prophecy was
believed to have ceased.13 Apocalyptic began in this intertestamental
period and lasted for several hundred years. But in order to get a
hearing they had to use the pseudonyms of former prophets and wise
men. They claimed to be ancient texts that were sealed up to come
forth in the last days when the real author lived.14 Since Lehi lived
400 years before the first apocalypse was believed written, it is the
task of Mormons to demonstrate the authentic antiquity of this
tradition, as Nibley has recently attempted with the books of Enoch.
The non-Mormon must explain the incredible ability of Joseph Smith to
place ancient forms in a modern context and to explain his affinity to
apocalyptic. The only full apocalyptic works available to Joseph Smith
were Daniel, 2 Esdras and the book of Revelation. However, almost
every New Testament book contains apocalyptic influence.
The central rhetorical claim of apocalyptic is the claim to be an
ancient text that addresses a latter-day audience. This is true of the
Book of .Mormon as a whole. Lehi prophesied that the Book of Mormon
and the Bible "shall grow together unto the confounding of false
doctrines laying down of contentions and establishing peace in the
What is the significance of this apocalypse for its latter-day
audience? Most of its prophecies were fulfilled prior to 1830.
Therefore, the prophecies function more to interpret history and
establish the prophetic authority of the book than to predict future
events. It involves the audience by placing them at the apex of an
apocalyptic drama -- we live the apocalypse. So not only does the
restoration include priesthood and knowledge but also a restoration of
mythic time and sacred history. Christians no longer need rely on an
ancient sacred history alone. Sacred history includes the present,
especially the present. Apocalyptic is an appropriate restoration
form. It is all the more appropriate considering the apocalyptic
rhetoric of the primitivist and nativist movements when it was first
published. But that is another paper. We also see the theme we might
expect in apocalyptic. Both in Lehi's dream and Nephi's vision we see
the wicked killing and persecuting the righteous. It functions as
consolation and meaning during the early nineteenth century ridicule
and persecution. It provides certainty in the dark confusion of
religious pluralism and comfort to those who are religiously and
socially disinherited. But it serves another important function for
its latter-day audience. This one is not so typical of apocalyptic. We
read through this lengthy Book of Mormon apocalypse of dreams and
history. Finally we read, near the end, the crux of the latter-day
Wo be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts
against the Lamb of God. For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of
God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the
children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the
one hand or the other -- either to the convincing of them unto
peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the
hardness of their minds unto their being brought down into
captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and
So the critical decision of the last days is the decision to
accept the "marvelous work" or the anticipated restoration just prior
to the end. The imminent end makes that decision all the more urgent
We have been examining some of the obvious ways in which the text
wishes to address its latter-day audience. But this Nephite apocalypse
can speak to our present circumstance in ways not anticipated by the
text itself. What does it mean for us today? Apocalyptic is written
when the traditional symbols lose their power and when psychic and
cultural structures erode. We live in such times. Our age is an age of
secular skepticism in which the mythic quality of the American saga
and the American dream have eroded. This new present requires a usable
interpretation of history and a meaningful world view. Regardless of
whether we believe in Nephi's vision as literal prophecy or as a symbolic representation of our situation, in the face of our atomic and
environmental Armageddon, who can listen with anything less than
solemnity? Who can doubt that we live at the crossroads of Lehi's
apocalyptic choice? So both in its universal archetypal symbols and
its world view, the Nephite apocalypse speaks -- even to a secular
Lehi's dream can speak to us not only through what we have in
common with it, but also by how we differ. Its world view in certain
ways is so fundamentally different from our own today, that it
provides for us a true insight into our own unnoticed assumptions
about the world. I will end this paper with a brief view of one such
doctrine -- namely, one aspect of its moral dualism. Lehi's dream
contains what I call "apocalyptic primitivism.# This is a belief that
all the churches except the one true church are abominable apostasies
from ancient Christianity and constitute the apocalyptic whore in the
last days. The Nephite apocalypse anticipates the restoration of
ancient religious truths. This is only one small part of the moral
dualism within the entire Book of Mormon. Everything is either black
or white. But for most of us, nothing is black or white. We value
ambiguity too highly; we are too cosmopolitan to accept such a moral
dualism. The claim to he the only true church seems to many people
today a provincial form of pride and exceedingly egocentric. Today's
most common world view is entirely different from that in the Book of
Mormon. I do not experience its despair of the world. When I eat the
fruit of the tree, the world is as likely to applaud as point its
finger. Because of my absolute commitment to the ecumenical spirit, I
struggle with Lehi. And yet I learn from Lehi. The claim to be the
only source of religious truth and the depreciation of all other
churches is not spoken out of pride but out of despair. It denies the
world, in order to rise above it. It challenges us to rise above
moral circumstance, to be something higher than the mere products of a
morally corrupt environment. It is an affirmation of life that has
passed through a negation of life.
But Lehi's dream wishes to rise above the world by stereotyping
it. Its virtue is its vice. It (like every sect) has its unique moral
accomplishment, but it shuns the world's goodness as well as its evil.
In the church today, we see an increasing desire to isolate ourselves
from the world and deny it any significant religious statement.
But if we wish to be more than an isolationist group, if we wish
to exercise a prophetic spirit within the world, we must learn the
language of the world -- and yet never be one with it. We must also
take seriously the truth claims of all religions and science. This
tension must remain. We must stand on the border. We must learn to
shake hands with the world without becoming lovers. Then we will
combine the moral genous of apocalyptic and the cosmopolitan spirit of
our own time. We then can honor the zeal of our religious heritage and
the tolerance of our age.
In summary, our Nephite apocalypse does not teach us to calculate
the day and hour of the end and await its coming on hilltops. It does
not require us to fatalistically ignore duty or science. Rather, it
restores high moral vision when meaning loses its sight. And its
enduring element is to pour hope and courage into the midst of
For short summaries of apocalyptic form and doctrine see Peake's Commentary on the Bible, pp. 484-88; Jerome Biblical Commentary,
pp. 336-43; Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 1:157-61;
Norman Perrin, The New Testament: An Introduction (New
York/Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974), pp. 65-87;
C. K. Barrett, The New Testament Background: Selected Documents
(New York: Harper and Row, 1961), pp. 227-55.
E. Henneck, and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 2, trans.
R. McL. Wilson, (London: Lutterworth Press, 1965), p. 587. Specific examples
of visions, prayers and interpretations can be seen throughout 2 Esdras and
3. Ibid., p. 585.
Rev. 14:1; 15:1; 18:1; 17:1-3; Dan. 8:1-7; 12:5; 2 Esd. 11:1, 36,
37. I chose a few examples from 2 Esdras, Revelation, and Daniel
because of ease of access. I could have included many others from
these and other apocalyptic works.
5. On symbolic use of colors in apocalyptic: William A. Beadslee,
Literary Criticism of the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1970), pp. 59-60; Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 343; D. S.
Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1964), p. 126 ff.
6. Rev. 7:14; I Ne. 12:10-11; Rev. 17:1; I Ne. 14:11; Rev. 17:5; I Ne.
For a discussion of apocalyptic symbols: Perrin, New Testament,
pp. 69, 83-85; Amos Wilder, Early Christian Rhetoric: The Language
of the Gospel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp. 118-28. Wilder, "Eschatological Imagery and Earthly Circumstance: New
Testament Studies 5 (1958/9), pp. 229-45; Wilder, "The Rhetoric of
Ancient and Modern Apocalyptic," Interpretation 25 (1971), 436-53.
8. Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), pp. 217-28. Like apocalyptic in general, we recognize allegorical elements in Lehi's dream; each element in the dream has its own interpretation. The oneiric and
allegorical elements make the symbols unnatural.
Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism
trans. Philip Mairet (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961) esp. pp. 50-51.
10. The power of blinding and persecution is emphasized in Lehi's
dream. The power of binding and persecution is emphasized in
Nephi's vision. So it is a malicious power as well as the source
of limitedness (e.g. limited in meaning, knowing, living righteously, etc.).
We must avoid the temptation to interpret Book of Mormon
characters as we would characters in a modern novel. They are
rather the agents of good and evil powers.
I Ne. 8:4-7 (see also Jac. 7:26). The angel in Joseph Smith Sr.'s
tree of life vision interprets this not as the religious
experience of the seer, but of the world: "This is the desolate
world." Describing life as a journey in a wilderness is a common
Christian analogy. (See Oxford English Dictionary for examples.)
A famous example from Pilgrim'S Progress is, "As I walked through
the wilderness of this world .... "
Russell, Method and Message, p. 73 ff. Ibid., pp. 282-83.
14. Ibid., pp. 282-83.
2 Ne. 3: 12.
16. I Ne. 14:6-7.