Book of Mormon Study Guide, Pt. 1: 1 Nephi to Mosiah

Making Precious Things Plain #1

by Randal S. Chase

1 Nephi through Mosiah. This volume is the first of three on the Book of Mormon. It covers 1st Nephi through the Book of Mosiah. This includes the journey of Lehi and his family across the Arabian Peninsula to Bountiful. It follows them on to the promised land, where the Nephites and Lamanites separated. It contains the marvelous prophesies of Lehi, Nephi, and Jacob. We then read remarks from the book’s editor in the words of Mormon, and follow the Nephites until their establishment in the land of Zarahemla under King Mosiah. In all, it covers 508 years of Nephite history up until about 92 BC when the book of Alma began. The cover features a beautiful photograph of the Land Bountiful taken by Scot Facer Proctor.

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Randal S. Chase spent his childhood years in Nephi, Utah, where his father was a dry land wheat farmer and a businessman. In 1959 their family moved to Salt Lake City and settled in the Holladay area. He served a full-time mission in the Central British (England Central) Mission from 1968 to 1970. He returned home and married Deborah Johnsen in 1971. They are the parents of six children—two daughters and four sons—and an ever-expanding number of grandchildren.

He was called to serve as a bishop at the age of twenty-seven in the Sandy Crescent South Stake area of the Salt Lake Valley. He served six years in that capacity and has since served as a high councilor, a stake executive secretary and clerk, and in many other stake and ward callings. Regardless of whatever other callings he has received over the years, one was nearly constant: he has taught Gospel Doctrine classes in every ward he has ever lived in as an adult—for a total of thirty-five years.

Dr. Chase was a well-known media personality on Salt Lake City radio stations in the 1970s. He left on-air broadcasting in 1978 to develop and market computer-based management, sales, and music programming systems to radio and television stations in the United States, Canada, South America, and Australia. After the business was sold in 1984, he supported his family as a media and business consultant in the Salt Lake City area.

Having a great desire to teach young people of college age, he determined in the late 1980s to pursue his doctorate, and he received his PhD in communication from the University of Utah in 1997. He has taught communication courses at that institution as well as at Salt Lake Community College and Dixie State College of Utah for twenty-one years. He is currently a full-time tenured faculty member in the Communication Department at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah.

Concurrently with his academic career, Dr. Chase has served as a volunteer LDS Institute and Adult Education instructor in the CES system since 1994, both in Salt Lake City and St. George, where he currently teaches a weekly Adult Education class for three stakes in the Washington, Utah area. He has also conducted multiple Church history tours and seminars. During these years of gospel teaching, he has developed an extensive library of lesson plans and handouts that are the predecessors to his many gospel study guides.

Reviews

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have tried before to read this book and didn't get very far. At this point in my life it made so much more sence for me. It is a bit more dense than some of the other book of mormon commentaries, but definately has some great insights in it if you can follow along. Why i chose this book. The book of mormonin is all about deliverence. it has many stories fo people starting their lives over. Sometimes even to leaving everything behind and literally starting a new life with next to nothing. I used the 2024 booklist queen prompt read a book about starting over.

[Janet K. Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough, but not amazing

Thorough, but not amazing

This is good and is helping me and to my knowledge and understanding of the Book of Mormon, but it is not the best. I like the different sources he adds, but sometimes he gets more off-topic than I prefer. While I always read the actual scriptures before his commentary, I appreciate him quoting the reference for my remembrance, too. He also includes words of the prophets and General Conference talks to supplement and support the commentary.

[Sandy T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful... lots of good quotes and explanations. My only criticism would be that he quoted too much from the Book of Mormon itself. If it is to be a study guide for the Book of Mormon, you're reading it alongside it, and his repeating it all is redundant... I would have like it better to just have the quotes & explanations. Even so, I have already started the second volume, because I got a lot out of the first one.

[Sandy T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt much the same way about this second volume as I did the first, except this one seemed even more redundant. Some of the quotes he uses say exactly the same thing and so many are unnecessary. I also think his quoting from the Book of Mormon all the time is unnecessary because presumably you've just read it in the Book of Mormon itself. That being said, I still marked lots of good quotes got some new insights.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book along with the Book of Mormon. I wish there was more commentary on what things meant or quotes from general authorities and less direct quotes from the Book of Mormon.