But his trust may have been misplaced, and rather than leading to Lehi to anything good, the man has led Lehi finds into a nightmarish world - a dark and dreary waste, in which he travelled for many hours. It is only after praying to God for mercy that he is released, or at least shown the way that he should take, to be delivered from this misery.
I have read some creative explanations for the man in white to still be a good person in doing this to Lehi, with some writers even suggesting that the man is a very good person. The Mormon apostle James E. Talmage suggested that this man was the Holy Ghost, for example.
It may be so - that this man was good - but my current thoughts are that this man who led Lehi into that terrible state was evil... very evil, both for where he led Lehi to and for the fact that he did it deceitfully, pretending to be something that he was not.
Evil beings have robes of priesthood and power of their own (as Satan explained to a wondering Adam and Eve during the creation allegory performed in LDS temples). They also have great power to deceive and appear as something they are not, as Joseph Smith suggested multiple times in various settings. He went so far as to explain how one ought to engage with an angelic-like being (handshakes, etc.) so as to determine the true nature of just whom one was dealing with... no matter their appearance. Further, we have his letter indicating that the devil appeared as an angel of light before being detected by Michael.
In other words, looks can be deceiving, and there are beings of great power that can cause great deception and harm in appearing as something they are not, as Lehi found out the hard way in his vision.
So who is this mystery man?
Well, in a macro sense, as alluded to above, one could interpret him as being Satan himself, with Lehi standing in for Men in general. In Man's Fall, they were deceived (though perhaps some chose evil willingly, I suppose) by Satan and followed him, inheriting misery as a result. But, as Lehi found out in his vision, all was not lost, and through the Condescension of God (as Nephi later was shown) there was a way out of that misery and darkness to once again taste of God's Love and be redeemed - thus the remaining vision of the Tree of Life that both Lehi and Nephi saw versions of.
And that is a general interpretation I think could be believable, I suppose.
But I would like to get more personal on this one, and take a guess at stripping away the anonymity of this misery-causing being.
My current guess is this man dressed in a white robe is none other than the same individual who would come to be known as Brigham Young in our day and age. I know... I am back grinding an axe on Brigham again after my earlier short post about him (see that post here), but he deserves it and everything that is coming his way.
It would be Brigham Young's role in modern Mormonism to do just as he has done in other settings and ages (and as his dream-vision self in Lehi's dream did), which would be to lead people into a barren wilderness (literally and figuratively) in order to confound and trap them. He was (and is) a being of great power going back to times before the creation of this earth, believe it or not, but the role he was given to play in the drama of this Earth was not the role that he craved.
It is the Holy Spirit that we are to take as our guide. The experience of Nephi juxtaposed with his Father's illustrates why. The 'Spirit of the Lord' (I will write a follow-up post with quick thoughts as to why I think this is the same being as the Holy Ghost) didn't need to lead Nephi into a barren wilderness and leave him there - he answered Nephi's questions in word and in deed, personally ministering to him when able, and ensuring another angelic being was there to guide when duties required that he be elsewhere engaged with the story that was being shown.
But Brigham (or, again, the individual who also was known as Brigham) wanted to be that Guide. And in being frustrated in that ongoing desire, he has committed awful deeds, both against Men in general, as well as against the Holy Ghost, specifically. It is the latter sins that will not be forgiven, and thus my commentary on there being no forgiveness for him.
And so, rather than this man in the white robe being the Holy Ghost, as Talmage assumed, we actually have the anti-Holy Ghost, basically ... everything the Holy Ghost is not. Where the Holy Ghost brings light, answers, and Gifts, this wicked being brings darkness, confusion, and cursings wherever he is found in the story.
The Mormon church still lives under the cursings that Brigham and his helpers brought upon them collectively and individually, having chosen to follow the wrong man as their guide for much of the 19th century, and left wandering far from the Zion they were promised and tried to bring about.
As in Lehi's dream, it will be through praying for mercy, repentance, forgiveness, and deliverance that a way might be found out of this mess.
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