Pharazon as the Man among the Gentiles? I think so

In a post from this past December, I suggested or explored the notion of Brigham Young being the Man among the Gentiles that Nephi saw who would sail back to Eressea.

At the time, the notion that Eressea was another world separated from this one was fairly new, or at least I was really considering it seriously for the first time, and I needed some way in order to get Gentiles, and the Being who would lead them, to that world per Nephi's prophecy

Brigham was my best option based on who was available, and some of the story elements seemed to make sense as to why he might be the one.

I kind of let the matter drop, though, and I had the thought today that I don't think it is tenable to have Brigham be this person.

The Man and the Gentiles that follow him will have an opportunity to repent.  Brigham isn't going to be here to repent, so I don't think he is going anywhere.  He is going to stay on this world until it burns, I think.  In other words, I believe that whoever God brings over to Eressea #2 is going to be given an honest chance to leave dark deeds behind them, repent, and be numbered among Israel.  It isn't going to be a setup or a gotcha, but a legitimate opportunity for Gentiles who in times past have done bad things to make those things right again.

So, I am leaving Brigham on this earth in my story.  He doesn't leave.  Then who goes?

Well, Pharazon seems like a good option here.  He has come on charging in my story as of late, and this seems like a good redemptive role for him.  The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me.

Ages ago, Pharazon led a host of men who plundered Eressea and killed Elves.  To stop their actions, Eressea was split in half, and then the various pieces that comprised "Earth" were separated;  Valinor, Eressea #1 and 2, Numenor, and Middle-earth (our world) were severed.

Eressea #2 was then home to two different primary populations of "Israel":  first the Jaredites and then the Lehites.  It is now still populated by a remnant of those Lehites, who remain a warring and lost people.

This remnant is still comprised of souls who are Israel, however.  Mormon makes this clear in his very last words before he is killed and Moroni takes over the record.  And again, Israel to me is something different than just physical lineage.  As such, they need to be redeemed, and that redemption will happen or commence with the arrival of this Man and the host of Gentiles who follow him over to Eressea.

I have mentioned that Pharazon will have opportunity to repent, at least that is how I imagine it.  What better way than through the restoration of both Israel and Eressea?  Eressea was split as a result of his actions, and he can now have a chance to make it whole.  It would make for a good story.

Thus, I picture these Gentiles as Numenoreans.  They will once again follow Pharazon across Many Waters - the Many Waters that per William Tychonievich's cryptic excel words used to provide everything for them on Numenor - and come to Eressea.

Per Nephi's prophecy, it seems that maybe the first part of this arrival mirrors in some way the original assault on Eressea, in that this remnant of souls who can also likely trace their own lives to having been on Eressea back when it was broken will once again be scattered by Men invading their land.  In this case, the remnant remains a war-like people, so perhaps it is out of necessity that the Gentiles scatter them.  In another post on William's blog, he had an interesting sync involving 1 Nephi 17 in the Book of Mormon.  In his post titled Behold , the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one, he recounted some connections between Meat and Flesh.  He focused on those words, but did not spend too much time on the context in which the phrase he used for his post title came from.   In the verses immediately preceding that phrase, Nephi says this relative to the rules of how the Promised Land is governed:

And after they [Israel] had crossed the river Jordan he did make them mighty unto the driving out of the children of the land, yea, unto the scattering them to destruction.

And now, do ye suppose that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise, who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

Do ye suppose that our fathers would have been more choice than they if they had been righteous? I say unto you, Nay.

In other words, because the Lord esteems Flesh in the way that he does, the righteous are favored of God, and the wicked, after have rejected God, incur his wrath.  Indeed, the next verse which has William's phrase in it, says exactly this:

Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God. But behold, this people had rejected every word of God, and they were ripe in iniquity; and the fulness of the wrath of God was upon them; and the Lord did curse the land against them, and bless it unto our fathers; yea, he did curse it against them unto their destruction, and he did bless it unto our fathers unto their obtaining power over it.

 

Applying this to our case, the remnant on Eressea #2 is in need of repentance and are not currently righteous, which both Mormon and Moroni write about, and which Nephi foresees.  Pharazon and the Numenoreans may already be well along on their path to restoration, particularly if it does actually hold that we see the character of Pharazon in Boromir and perhaps Captain Moroni (still thinking through that a bit).  Nephi states that when it comes to the Promised Land, the more righteous and favored of God scatter and replace those who are less righteous.  That seems to be how it works.  The Numenoreans who go to Eressea will be more righteous than that remnant, being even made White, as seen in Nephi's vision.

But at some point an interesting thing happens, and both this remnant of the House of Israel (the Beings who are lost, and perhaps have been in some way since the days following Eressea's destruction) and the Numenoreans (the Gentiles who cross the Many Waters) are restored in their own respective ways.  Israel remembers who they are and repents, and the Gentiles remember what they have done, specifically to the land they have arrived on and the Beings they are among, also repent (hopefully), and now assist Israel in repairing what was broken, which will include a physical reuniting with Eressea #1.

This story seems to work much better than the one that has Brigham Young getting set up on Eressea.  Again, I now don't think he gets to go anywhere, though at some point he might wish he could.  He is stuck here.

Pharazon and the Numenoreans who choose to, however, can potentially find their way over to Eressea and complete the process of repentance, restoration, and redemption for not only themselves but for the current inhabitants of Eressea.

In Nephi's vision, it is said the "Spirit of God" will work on both Pharazon and those that follow him in bringing them over to Eressea.  This may be the same thing as the Holy Ghost (though I guess there is wiggle room to refer to something else), and if so, then would be some influence from Asenath-Nimloth, Faramir-Eonwe, and the 7 Daughters even.

So that is a high level draft of the concept.  I will let that one also sit just a bit and see how it works.  I like it - quite a lot at the moment, actually - but we'll see how it goes.