A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Disciples
DISCIPLES, THE TWELVE. When the risen Redeemer appeared to the Nephites in the land Bountiful (A. C. 34), he chose twelve men as his disciples, to whom he gave authority to perform the rite of baptism and administer in the other ordinances of the Gospel. On these twelve, who are always called Disciples in the Book of Mormon, and never Apostles, was conferred the power to judge the descendants of Lehi at the final judgment day, as they themselves were to be judged by the Twelve Apostles chosen by the Lord from among the Jews. The names of the twelve Nephite disciples were: Nephi, his brother Timothy and his son Jonas, Mathoni, Mathonihah, Kumen, Kumenonhi, Jeremiah, Shemnon, Jonas, Zedekiah and Isaiah. To these twelve our Savior gave many instructions, which he withheld from the multitude.
On one occasion, toward the close of His ministrations, He asked them, one by one: What is it that you desire of me, after I am gone to the Father? Then nine of them said, We desire, after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, may have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom. And he said unto them, Blessed are ye, because ye desire this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old, ye shall come unto me in my kingdom, and with me ye shall find rest.
Then He turned to the three who had not answered, and again asked them what they would have Him do for them. But they faltered in their reply; their wish was such a peculiar one, that they were afraid to express it. Then He told them that He knew their thoughts, that they haddesired that they might bring souls unto Him, while the world stood. And because of the purity and disinterestedness of this desire He promised the three Disciples that they should never taste of death, but when He should come in His glory, they should be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality, and should sit down in the kingdom of the Father, and their joy should be full. And further, that while they dwelt in the flesh, they should not suffer pain, nor experience sorrow, save it were for the sins of the world. Then Jesus with His finger touched the nine who were to die, but the three who were to live He did not touch, and then He departed. Aftefwards the heavens were opened, and the three were caught up into heaven, and a change was there wrought upon their mortal natures. But, Mormon says (III Nephi, 28:39, 40):
"This change was not equal to that which should take place at the last day but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not tempt them, and they were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy, and that the powers of the earth could not hold them; and in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ; and at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the heavens." They also saw unspeakable things, which they were forbidden to utter; in fact, the power to tell these mysteries was withheld from them.
The sacred record gives no information as to who the three were who were not to taste of death. Mormon was about to write their names, but the Lord forbade him.
After the final ascension of the Savior the twelve labored zealously in proclaiming His word. Theirs was a most happy task, for all the people heeded their sayings; and in a short time every soul on both continents had accepted the message they bore. It was now their joy to lead the people upward in all the laws of the everlasting Gospel, bringing them nearer to heaven and to God, each succeeding day. In this glorious ministry, and with these delightful and most peaceful surroundings, nine continued to labor until they passed away to the realms of the blessed. The other three continued their Godlike labors, year after year, until a change began to come over the spirit of the people. Little by little they lost their first love; little by little, but ever at increasing rate, iniquity grew in their midst. By and by, schismatic churches arose, dissenting sects multiplied, infidels abounded. As the decades rolled by, the people waxed greatly in iniquity and in impurity of life. After a time they began to persecute the more faithful and humble, even the three Disciples were not spared from their malignant hate. They were shut up in prison, but the prisons were rent in twain by the power of God; they were cast into fiery furnaces, but the flames burned them not; they were thrown into dens of wild beasts, but they played with the savage inmates as a child does with a lamb, and received no harm. Death had no power over them; swords would not slay them; fire would not burn them; prisons could not hold them; chains could not bind them; the grave could not entomb them; the earth would not conceal them, for they had passed through a glorious change which freed them from earthly pain, suffering and death. The age in which they ministered was a peculiar one. Under ordinary circumstances, the superhuman powers shown by them would have brought the wicked to repentance. But the happy age of peace and innocence that had followed the Savior's ministry was fast passing away; the people were hardening their hearts; they were relapsing into iniquity with their eyes open, and they were sinning knowingly and understandingly. Angels from heaven would not have converted them; they had given themselves up to Satan, and every manifestation of the power of God in behalf of his servants only made them more angry, and more determined upon the destruction of those who sounded in their ears the unwelcome message of Divine wrath. The hurricane might demolish the dungeon; the earthquake overthrow the walls of the prison; the earth refuse to close when the Disciples were cast into it; these protests of nature simply caused their hardened hearts to conjure up fresh methods of torture and devise new means to destroy those whom they so intensely, and yet so unwarrantably hated. But they ever failed; the three Nephites still live. Encountering thus the rage and cruelty of the wicked they gradually withdrew; their ministrations grew more unfrequent; until at last they ceased to visit the haunts of men altogether. Moroni states that he and his father Mormon had seen them and been ministered to by them; and these, the last two prophets of their race, were, in all probability, the last of that dispensation who were favored with a visit from these three Nephites. They have also been seen by numbers of the faithful in this dispensation.