“Judged of the World”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet
What a bitter irony this was! He to whom all judgment has been committed (John 5:28), the “keeper of the gate” (2 Nephi 9:41), would be judged and condemned by a wicked people devoid of the spirit of wise judgment. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that our Lord “descended in suffering below that which man can suffer; or, in other words, suffered greater suffering, and was exposed to more powerful contradictions than any man can be” (Lectures on Faith 5:2). What greater contradiction could there be than for the sinless Son of Man, he who came to save the world from judgment, to be judged guilty by man’s meager and myopic standards?

“God Sitting Upon His Throne”

This is a heavenly council scene. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon recorded a similar experience in the vision of the degrees of glory.

“We beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness; and saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshipping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever”

(D&C 76:20-21).

John the Revelator describes a similar experience thus:

“I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.... And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.”

(Revelation 4:1-4.)

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

References