Chapter 13—Polluted with Wickedness
Scripture reveals these sins again “shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the earth . . . [Many] will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the Lord will uphold such at the last day. But wo unto such, for they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity” (Mormon 8:31). Moroni warns that, in the latter-days, the restored church will again be corrupted. He asks his readers, “Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God . . . Your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted” (Mormon 8:33, 36). Not only are doctrines and churches polluted, but so are the people and their land. When the LDS settled the Salt Lake Valley in mid-19th century, they were warned to take great care to preserve what the Lord had given them—spiritually and temporally.
In 2013, the Salt Lake region was “singled out” by the Environmental Protection Agency “as having the nation’s worst air.” Over 100 doctors petitioned authorities to help with this “public health emergency.” To put it in perspective, “Utah’s pollution index is off the charts with readings routinely exceeding a scale that tops out at 70 micrograms a cubic meter. The EPA sets a standard for clean air at no more than 35 micrograms . . . The greater Salt Lake region had up to 130 micrograms of soot per cubic meter . . . more than three times the federal clean-air limit.”
In 2018, an estimated 93% of children worldwide lived in areas with air pollution greater than World Health Organization guidelines. Lest we think pollution is no large matter, research shows that “air pollution causes a ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence . . . equivalent to having lost a year of education.”
Nibley tells of “an early Christian tradition that the evil spirits which constantly seek to defile and corrupt human society ‘move about in thick polluted air’ as a most fitting environment for their work.” The Bible “calls Satan the Prince of the Air, but also the Prince of Darkness—that kind of air.” To expound, Paul’s full title for Satan is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Disobedience gives Satan power so he works hard to make us succumb to temptation. Pollution is so prevalent that Christ calls him “the prince of this world,” but warns he “hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). Polluted air causes us to not see clearly and not seeing clearly pollutes our spirits. One minister wisely observed,
Any modification to His gospel is a form of pollution. Priests have a solemn responsibility to preserve sacred ordinances and doctrines. Instead, those charged “to teach the sons of man and perform judgment and uprightness on the earth . . . began to mingle themselves with the daughters of men,” which “corrupted their way and their ordinances.” No amount of criticism or opposition can alter His gospel if the priesthood preserves its purity. The world has no power to corrupt, modify, or transgress ordinances unless the priesthood lets the world in.
Priests “say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us” (Micah 3:11) but they “have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law” (Zephaniah 3:4) which, according to the targum, means they “misinterpret” it. Having “jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them . . . by these things they polluted their inheritances. They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, and to answer them in the day of their trouble . . . They esteemed lightly my counsel” (D&C 101:6–8).
They turned from His worship, “polluted My name,” and “set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it” (Jeremiah 34:16, 7:30). “Them that forsake the holy covenant . . . pollute the sanctuary of strength” (Daniel 11:30–31). James wept for the holy city and temple, knowing that
Jubilees prophesied of an “evil generation” that comes to reign, “forsaking the covenant . . . All of their deeds are polluted and abominable. All of their ways are contamination and pollution and corruption.” They “lift themselves up for deceit and wealth” and “pronounce the great name but not in truth or righteousness.” They “pollute the holy of holies with their pollution and with the corruption of their contamination.”
“This house shall be a healthful habitation if it be built unto my name, and if [they] shall not suffer any pollution to come upon it. It shall be holy, or the Lord your God will not dwell therein” (D&C 124:24). He promises that “I will appear unto my servants and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments and do not pollute this holy house” (D&C 110:8). But priests “brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house . . . [You] have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. Ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things; but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves” (Ezekiel 44:7–8).
Polluting the earth and its people cannot continue forever. After the Restoration, God declared, “Not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my Saints” (D&C 105:15).
It is a solemn warning and a serious matter: He is talking to “the children of the kingdom.” If their condemnation is not lifted, “there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion. For shall the children of the kingdom pollute my holy land? Verily, I say unto you, Nay” (D&C 84:58–59).
Unclean people cannot perform works “in the name of the Lord,” although they may hope or profess to. “I, the Lord, have looked upon you and have seen abominations in the church that professes my name” (D&C 50:4). LDS Seventy H. Verlan Anderson understood and publicly warned that much is at stake.
In times of ruin, restoration is needed. “Sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place” (2 Chronicles 29:5). When the ancient Israelite sanctuary was desecrated and defiled, faithful Maccabees said, “Let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it . . . When the trumpets gave the signal . . . priests who were blameless and zealous for the Law [were] to purify the sanctuary and remove the stones of the ‘Pollution’.” The question was, what to do with a sanctuary that had been defiled? It was “very properly decided to pull it down.” They “built a new altar on the lines of the old one. They restored the Holy Place” (1 Maccabees 4:36–51).
In 1836 Joseph fervently prayed that God’s house would not be defiled, but ‘filled with His glory’ as covenant makers are transformed with power to do works in His name, as “on the day of Pentecost.”
Those aware of the temple’s defilement long for restoration and a place worthy of His divine presence.
You are here commencing anew. The soil, the air, the water are all pure and healthy. Do not suffer them to become polluted with wickedness. Strive to preserve the elements from being contaminated by the filthy wicked conduct and sayings of those who pervert the intelligence God has bestowed upon the human family.A century later, LDS president Spencer Kimball declared, “When I review the performance of this people in comparison with what is expected, I am appalled and frightened. Iniquity seems to abound. The Destroyer seems to be taking full advantage of the time remaining to him in this, the great day of his power . . . I have the feeling that the good earth can hardly bear our presence upon it . . . Pollution of mind, body, and our surroundings . . . is intolerable in the sight of the Lord.”
In 2013, the Salt Lake region was “singled out” by the Environmental Protection Agency “as having the nation’s worst air.” Over 100 doctors petitioned authorities to help with this “public health emergency.” To put it in perspective, “Utah’s pollution index is off the charts with readings routinely exceeding a scale that tops out at 70 micrograms a cubic meter. The EPA sets a standard for clean air at no more than 35 micrograms . . . The greater Salt Lake region had up to 130 micrograms of soot per cubic meter . . . more than three times the federal clean-air limit.”
In 2018, an estimated 93% of children worldwide lived in areas with air pollution greater than World Health Organization guidelines. Lest we think pollution is no large matter, research shows that “air pollution causes a ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence . . . equivalent to having lost a year of education.”
Nibley tells of “an early Christian tradition that the evil spirits which constantly seek to defile and corrupt human society ‘move about in thick polluted air’ as a most fitting environment for their work.” The Bible “calls Satan the Prince of the Air, but also the Prince of Darkness—that kind of air.” To expound, Paul’s full title for Satan is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Disobedience gives Satan power so he works hard to make us succumb to temptation. Pollution is so prevalent that Christ calls him “the prince of this world,” but warns he “hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). Polluted air causes us to not see clearly and not seeing clearly pollutes our spirits. One minister wisely observed,
We often refer to an environmental crisis, but the real crisis lies not in the environment, but in the human heart. The fundamental problem is to be found not outside but inside ourselves, not in the ecosystem, but in the way we think . . . What is required is an act of repentance on our part and a renewed attempt to view ourselves, one another, and the world around us within the perspective of the divine design for creation.Earth’s overflowing landfills and refuse parallel the spiritual pollution of its inhabitants. The same sins that ensnare every generation pollute us today: unfaithfulness and idolatry, love of riches while forsaking the poor, and profaning what is holy. Unclean hearts and hands make both people and their offerings unacceptable. “Wo, wo unto you that are not pure in heart, that are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes” (Jacob 3:3).
Any modification to His gospel is a form of pollution. Priests have a solemn responsibility to preserve sacred ordinances and doctrines. Instead, those charged “to teach the sons of man and perform judgment and uprightness on the earth . . . began to mingle themselves with the daughters of men,” which “corrupted their way and their ordinances.” No amount of criticism or opposition can alter His gospel if the priesthood preserves its purity. The world has no power to corrupt, modify, or transgress ordinances unless the priesthood lets the world in.
If they pollute their inheritances, they shall be thrown down; for I will not spare them if they pollute their inheritances. (D&C 103:14)Reforming ordinances or altering doctrine tempts every generation. A fourth-century Syriac hymn says “the priests had become defiled, that the religious leaders had become unclean” so “they were not sufficient.” Mosheim’s candid history of the Christian church’s apostasy reveals, “There is no institution so pure and excellent which the corruption and folly of man will not in time alter for the worse and load with additions foreign to its nature and original design.” It creeps in with subtlety.
Most change in Christian practices and understanding is so gradual as to be invisible. Each generation tries to preserve the past, but makes tiny incremental changes, once here and another time there, so that the final state may have the same name as the first, but be different . . . in every other respect!Two main groups existed near Jerusalem before Jesus was born: Qumran’s people of the desert and the Israelites. “They both claim[ed] to represent the true Israel . . . Both insist[ed] on a wholehearted return to the Mosaic Law in accordance with their own particular interpretation of it. They [were] both governed by priests . . . In both cases, initiation into the sect [was] preceded by entry into the Covenant, sworn by oath. Both groups convene[d] yearly to review the order of precedence of their members after an inquiry into the conduct of each man during the previous twelve months.” Both embraced the same liturgical calendar. Their difference? Jerusalem’s ruling priesthood believed they retained power in their corrupted rites of worship, while the desert community withdrew from Jerusalem’s church and temple, recognized their divergence, and awaited a restoration of the true order. Qumran’s community left Jerusalem to relocate in the desert where they practiced what they believed was the pure, ancient religion. Jerusalem’s corruption caused them to reject the current temple, and they instead emphasized effective prayer, righteous works, knowledge of His law, and perfection through the right way to God. They eagerly prepared for a restoration and were
intimately familiar with Jerusalem . . . For these writers, the city was polluted and profane. It was a place from which they had spiritually and physically withdrawn because of its religious corruption, ‘the city in which the evil priest has undertaken abominable actions so as to render the Temple impure.’
The Temple was the seat of an illegitimate priesthood, which would be delivered into the hands of the Kittim, probably the Romans. At the same time, the scrolls speak of Jerusalem’s future restoration, [when] it would again be worthy of the divine presence at the end of days when God would build a perfect Temple there.Qumran’s highest leader was entrusted with “the ultimate responsibility for decisions on matters of doctrine, discipline, purity, and impurity and in particular everything pertaining to justice and property.” He was to guard against encroachments in doctrine, ritual, and all things holy and sacred, including ordinances, knowledge, and the Sabbath. Forsaking our obligation to preserve all God reveals is a serious offense. His laws must be upheld to maintain order and the covenant.
Priests “say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us” (Micah 3:11) but they “have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law” (Zephaniah 3:4) which, according to the targum, means they “misinterpret” it. Having “jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them . . . by these things they polluted their inheritances. They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, and to answer them in the day of their trouble . . . They esteemed lightly my counsel” (D&C 101:6–8).
They turned from His worship, “polluted My name,” and “set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it” (Jeremiah 34:16, 7:30). “Them that forsake the holy covenant . . . pollute the sanctuary of strength” (Daniel 11:30–31). James wept for the holy city and temple, knowing that
it shall be perturbed and shall become a place of pollution; and it shall be delivered up to a people that knoweth not God and doth not understand the truth because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein; in that they have blasphemed the name of our Lord Jesus.‘Wicked,’ a strong accusation against covenant makers, means not repenting. Qumran defines the wicked as those who fail to inquire of the Lord and do not seek Him or the truth. The wicked “receiveth not my voice, is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me” (D&C 84:52). A targum says a wicked person “has not made repentance but prays in a state of transgression.” God asks, “‘What right have you to recite my statutes and swear in my name and recall my covenant with your mouth? You . . . have cast my words behind you.” “I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another” (1 Nephi 20:11).
Jubilees prophesied of an “evil generation” that comes to reign, “forsaking the covenant . . . All of their deeds are polluted and abominable. All of their ways are contamination and pollution and corruption.” They “lift themselves up for deceit and wealth” and “pronounce the great name but not in truth or righteousness.” They “pollute the holy of holies with their pollution and with the corruption of their contamination.”
“This house shall be a healthful habitation if it be built unto my name, and if [they] shall not suffer any pollution to come upon it. It shall be holy, or the Lord your God will not dwell therein” (D&C 124:24). He promises that “I will appear unto my servants and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments and do not pollute this holy house” (D&C 110:8). But priests “brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house . . . [You] have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. Ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things; but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves” (Ezekiel 44:7–8).
Polluting the earth and its people cannot continue forever. After the Restoration, God declared, “Not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my Saints” (D&C 105:15).
It is a solemn warning and a serious matter: He is talking to “the children of the kingdom.” If their condemnation is not lifted, “there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion. For shall the children of the kingdom pollute my holy land? Verily, I say unto you, Nay” (D&C 84:58–59).
They shall not be blest because they pollute mine holy grounds, and mine holy ordinances, and charters, and my holy words which I give unto them. (D&C 124:4)The LDS church is no exception. In 1830, the Lord said the Church of Christ (when it taught the doctrine of Christ) was “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased” (D&C 1:30). A few years later, they changed the name of His church, believed men over God, became proud, took His name in vain, and “treated lightly” His gospel, which “brought the whole church under condemnation.” Warning came again a century later:
I tell you, we are beginning to follow along the course of the early Christian church. So long as that church was persecuted from without, it prospered, but when it began to be polluted from within, the church began to wither. There is creeping into our midst, and I warn you brethren about it, and I urge you to meet it, a great host of sectarian doctrines that have no place amongst us. The gospel in its simplicity is to be found in the revelations, the teachings of the Prophet [Joseph Smith] and the early leaders of the Church.What is the difference between sectarian priests and a man of God? Joseph explained, “A man of God should be endowed with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in order to teach and lead the people of God. The sectarian priests are blind, and they lead the blind, and they will all fall into the [pit] together.” So warning comes, “Let not that which I have appointed be polluted . . . by the consent of those who call themselves after my name.” A church that “calls themselves after my name” is not His unless it is “willing to hearken to my voice” and “the precepts and commandments which I gave unto them” (D&C 101:97, 75, 103:4).
Unclean people cannot perform works “in the name of the Lord,” although they may hope or profess to. “I, the Lord, have looked upon you and have seen abominations in the church that professes my name” (D&C 50:4). LDS Seventy H. Verlan Anderson understood and publicly warned that much is at stake.
Religious history testifies that, with the single exception of the inhabitants of the City of Enoch, no people to whom the gospel has been given have remained faithful to their covenants for more than a few generations. Time after time the Lord has established his Church among a group who have lived his commandments for a few years and then fallen away, thus bringing upon themselves his judgments. This cycle of human folly which so many prophets have noted has repeated itself with such consistent regularity that any group which finds itself to be the favored recipients of the gospel would do well to assume that their own apostasy is certain and the only question about it is how long it will take . . . The fact that the Lord has found it necessary to restore his gospel so many times is in itself evidence of the regularity with which apostasy has occurred because the only thing which will cause the destruction of his Church is the wickedness of its members.It is a point worth repeating. Like many scriptural records, the Book of Mormon and Bible repeatedly show that whenever people receive His gospel, they quickly forsake truth and slide into apostasy. It was prophesied that heirs of priesthood and temple duties
will go astray and profane the priesthood and pollute the sacrifices; and you will make void the law and set at naught the words of [true] prophets, in perverseness persecute righteous men and hate godly men, loathe the words of faithful men; and a man who renews the law in the power of the Most High you will call a deceiver . . . Your holy place will be desolate, polluted to the ground, and your place will not be clean. (Testament of Levi 16:1–5)Moroni warns of the same in latter days: “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me and I know your doing.” They have his record but still became “wicked and perverse and stiffnecked” (Mormon 8:35, 33).
O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ . . . because of the praise of the world? (Mormon 8:38)Theirs is a “city of confusion” that will be “broken down . . . left desolate, smitten with destruction” (Isaiah 24:10, 12). “Defilement brings destruction” (Micah 2:10, CSB). Levi prophesied that in the last days, “there shall be such pollution as I am not able to express . . . Their land and their substance shall be destroyed” (Testament of Levi 1:17). “The way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6). By failing to come to Him, the wicked are cursed “to die in a polluted land” (Amos 7:17).
In times of ruin, restoration is needed. “Sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place” (2 Chronicles 29:5). When the ancient Israelite sanctuary was desecrated and defiled, faithful Maccabees said, “Let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it . . . When the trumpets gave the signal . . . priests who were blameless and zealous for the Law [were] to purify the sanctuary and remove the stones of the ‘Pollution’.” The question was, what to do with a sanctuary that had been defiled? It was “very properly decided to pull it down.” They “built a new altar on the lines of the old one. They restored the Holy Place” (1 Maccabees 4:36–51).
In 1836 Joseph fervently prayed that God’s house would not be defiled, but ‘filled with His glory’ as covenant makers are transformed with power to do works in His name, as “on the day of Pentecost.”
That they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing; and that this house may be a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of glory and of God, even thy house . . .
That no unclean thing shall be permitted to come into thy house to pollute it; and when thy people transgress, any of them, they may speedily repent and return unto thee, and find favor in thy sight, and be restored to the blessings which thou hast ordained to be poured out upon those who shall reverence thee in thy house. (D&C 109:15–16, 20–21)If we are divinely transformed, then “my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people . . . I will appear unto my servants and speak unto them with mine own voice if my people will keep my commandments and do not pollute this holy house” (D&C 110:7–8). This implies that a temple is polluted if He does not appear there. If we are disobedient, impure, or not sanctified, then a temple is not a house of God. “If it be defiled I will not come into it and my glory shall not be there, for I will not come into unholy temples” (D&C 97:17). God’s kingdom cannot exist in unholy conditions so He will “pass by and bestow these blessings upon another people.” Time is short, so “arise ye and depart; for this is not your rest. Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction” (Micah 2:10).
Those aware of the temple’s defilement long for restoration and a place worthy of His divine presence.
Those that were clean escaped from them who live in error . . . [They] escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 2:18, 20)
For footnotes and references, click HERE.