Chapter 15—Ripe for Destruction
Previous dispensations began with revelation and restoration but ended in ruin because of prosperity, pride, and complacency. Continuing to sin brings curses. “He hath cursed the land because of your iniquity” (Helaman 13:30). Only after a devastating “day of rebuke” will many come to know Jesus as the Christ, the true and rightful Lord of this world. Until then, He “hath withdrawn himself from them” (Hosea 5:6). Isaiah foretold “a day of trouble and of treading down” (Isaiah 22:5). We are commanded to study Isaiah: “Search these things diligently . . . [for] all things that he spake have been and shall be” (3 Nephi 23:1, 3).
Although He calls to all, God cannot elect those who refuse to repent. “Be wise in the days of your probation. Strip yourselves of all uncleanness . . . Serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:28). The time to repent is while His “arm is lengthened out all the day long”—but day does not last forever. When “shadows of the evening are stretched out,” darkness rules. God “will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day” (Amos 8:9). “They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day” (D&C 95:6) but they do not realize it.
Making covenants is no guarantee that truth will penetrate our heart. Those who covenant in vain are often the most aggressive in silencing truth and its proclaimers. Samuel the Lamanite rebuked the Nephites for this: “For as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him. Yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil” (Helaman 13:26).
Such abominations existed in the days of Lehi, Enoch, Noah, Moroni, and Enos. Apostasy that corrupted early Christianity has timely parallels today. The few who “accepted the teachings” of Christ’s doctrine were
“It is gross hypocrisy for men to magnify the servants of God in former ages, and in the meantime to malign and persecute the servants of the same God in a present age.” Through ridicule, scorn, or hostility, they reject true “prophets and remove those who are sent,” leaving a church filled only with those who have not known the Lord.
“John saw the angel deliver the Gospel in the last days. The small lights that God has given are sufficient to lead us out of Babylon. If we chose to “get out, we shall have the greater light,” but we must first leave Babylon. The restored gospel “call[s] the honest in heart out of Babylon, ‘that they partake not of her sins, nor receive of her plagues’,” but there is no guarantee that what He restored will withstand the temptations and pressures of the world.
The night before his martyrdom, Joseph Smith was given a significant dream of apostasy in the church God just restored. He was shown a farm “grown up with weeds and brambles and altogether bearing evidence of neglect and want of culture.” He “found [the barn] without floors or doors.” Joseph said he “viewed the desolation around me, and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it.” As he considered this, a group of men rushed into the barn and demanded Joseph leave the farm and “give up all hope of ever possessing it.” While Joseph admitted he “had not had any use of it for some time back, still I had not sold it, and according to righteous principles it belonged to me or the Church. I then told him that I did not think it worth contending about, that I had no desire to live upon it in its present state.” They “began to quarrel among themselves for the premises” at which time he seized “the opportunity to walk out of the barn about up to my ankles in mud.”
Joseph walked away from a cursed place that became undesirable and corrupt. “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people” (Isaiah 28:14). “Ye believed not my servants and when they were sent unto you ye received them not” (D&C 133:71).
Wandering Israelites also refused the power of godliness, as did the Jews at the time of Christ. “They turn, but not to what is above” (Hosea 7:16, HCSB). “They look everywhere except to the Most High” (NLT). If real worship, pure truth, divine miracles, direct revelation, and His priesthood power are done away, “wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief and all is vain” (Moroni 7:37).
When bold warnings are not effective, the Lord’s servants petition Him for judgment. “You forsook my service . . . you put off a day of repentance.” So “my heart cries, Wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face!” (Moroni 9:15). Each woe or warning that is dismissed incites God until their iniquity, and His wrath, are full.
Although He calls to all, God cannot elect those who refuse to repent. “Be wise in the days of your probation. Strip yourselves of all uncleanness . . . Serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:28). The time to repent is while His “arm is lengthened out all the day long”—but day does not last forever. When “shadows of the evening are stretched out,” darkness rules. God “will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day” (Amos 8:9). “They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day” (D&C 95:6) but they do not realize it.
The God of heaven shall be wroth with them; and the eyes of their hearts shall be darkened.Believing that darkness is light reduces discernment until we despise true messengers but revere those in error. The Dead Sea Scrolls recognize the critical importance of choosing the right path, teachers, and interpretation of scripture.
Making covenants is no guarantee that truth will penetrate our heart. Those who covenant in vain are often the most aggressive in silencing truth and its proclaimers. Samuel the Lamanite rebuked the Nephites for this: “For as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him. Yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil” (Helaman 13:26).
Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they have sinned when they have not sinned before me . . . but have done that which was meet in mine eyes, and which I commanded them. But those who cry transgression do it because they are the servants of sin and are the children of disobedience themselves . . . They shall be severed from the ordinances of mine house . . . They shall not have right to the priesthood, nor their posterity after them from generation to generation. (D&C 121:16–17, 19, 21)Many who claim to honor the prophets persecute the true and holy among them. If one so much as declares, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ they are cast out by their own, or at least put to a social death. The faithful are comforted. Cursed is “that house or that village or city that rejecteth you, or your words, or your testimony of me” (D&C 84:95).
Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord . . . and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? . . . Fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper. (2 Chronicles 13:9, 12)While “patience and much forgiveness are with Him towards those who turn from transgression, power, might, and great flaming wrath by the hand of all the Angels of Destruction [are] towards those who depart from the way and abhor” His gospel and His servants who proclaim it.
Such abominations existed in the days of Lehi, Enoch, Noah, Moroni, and Enos. Apostasy that corrupted early Christianity has timely parallels today. The few who “accepted the teachings” of Christ’s doctrine were
to suffer exactly the same fate as the Lord and the apostles . . . They openly disavowed any expectation of success, individual or collective, in this world. As for the doctrine, it was to receive the same rough treatment, soon falling into the hands of worldly men who would pervert the gospel of Christ from a thing the world found highly obnoxious to something it was willing to embrace, for such has always been the fate of God’s revelations to men.“The end of the church was to come” first through “the extermination of those who stood fast” to truth. “The great danger comes from betrayal—the pagans can neither betray nor corrupt nor pervert the gospel—only members can do that. It was the Jews who betrayed and murdered the prophets who later adorned their tombs.” Unbelief caused ‘believers’ to want to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb. Having endured similar rejection, Jeremiah and Lehi were threatened and cast out of their land as were Samuel the Lamanite and Jaredite prophets. Abinadi and Isaiah were killed. Mormon too was silenced.
“It is gross hypocrisy for men to magnify the servants of God in former ages, and in the meantime to malign and persecute the servants of the same God in a present age.” Through ridicule, scorn, or hostility, they reject true “prophets and remove those who are sent,” leaving a church filled only with those who have not known the Lord.
Wo be unto him that will not hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and sent among them; for whoso receiveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent receiveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day. (3 Nephi 28:34)The Lord will not spare the guilty. “Wo unto this people because of this time which has arrived that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time” (Helaman 13:24).
“John saw the angel deliver the Gospel in the last days. The small lights that God has given are sufficient to lead us out of Babylon. If we chose to “get out, we shall have the greater light,” but we must first leave Babylon. The restored gospel “call[s] the honest in heart out of Babylon, ‘that they partake not of her sins, nor receive of her plagues’,” but there is no guarantee that what He restored will withstand the temptations and pressures of the world.
The night before his martyrdom, Joseph Smith was given a significant dream of apostasy in the church God just restored. He was shown a farm “grown up with weeds and brambles and altogether bearing evidence of neglect and want of culture.” He “found [the barn] without floors or doors.” Joseph said he “viewed the desolation around me, and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it.” As he considered this, a group of men rushed into the barn and demanded Joseph leave the farm and “give up all hope of ever possessing it.” While Joseph admitted he “had not had any use of it for some time back, still I had not sold it, and according to righteous principles it belonged to me or the Church. I then told him that I did not think it worth contending about, that I had no desire to live upon it in its present state.” They “began to quarrel among themselves for the premises” at which time he seized “the opportunity to walk out of the barn about up to my ankles in mud.”
Joseph walked away from a cursed place that became undesirable and corrupt. “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people” (Isaiah 28:14). “Ye believed not my servants and when they were sent unto you ye received them not” (D&C 133:71).
Wandering Israelites also refused the power of godliness, as did the Jews at the time of Christ. “They turn, but not to what is above” (Hosea 7:16, HCSB). “They look everywhere except to the Most High” (NLT). If real worship, pure truth, divine miracles, direct revelation, and His priesthood power are done away, “wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief and all is vain” (Moroni 7:37).
There was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and power of God, and all these things—stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction. (Enos 1:23)Faithful repentance divides heirs of salvation from recipients of destruction. His message is simple: “Repent ye, and come unto me . . . Build up again my church and ye shall be spared” (Mormon 3:2). But “wo be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 14:6). If we think these ancient words no longer apply, Jesus confirmed that Gentiles in this day, on this land, will refuse godliness, to their demise.
Wo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me. (2 Nephi 28:32)“If they will not turn unto me and hearken unto my voice . . . [they are] good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot” (3 Nephi 16:15). “All ye who persist in your wickedness . . . shall be hewn down and cast into the fire except [ye] speedily repent” (Alma 5:56). “If ye will not repent, behold, this great city, and also all those great cities which are round about which are in the land of our possession, shall be taken away that ye shall have no place in them. For behold, the Lord will not grant unto you strength, as he has hitherto done, to withstand against your enemies.” It is only “for the righteous’ sake” that they have been spared thus far, but when “ye shall cast out the righteous from among you, then ye shall be ripe for destruction . . . and a curse shall come upon the land” (Helaman 7:22, 13:14, 17).
When bold warnings are not effective, the Lord’s servants petition Him for judgment. “You forsook my service . . . you put off a day of repentance.” So “my heart cries, Wo unto this people. Come out in judgment, O God, and hide their sins, and wickedness, and abominations from before thy face!” (Moroni 9:15). Each woe or warning that is dismissed incites God until their iniquity, and His wrath, are full.
Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off . . . [and] destroy thy cities. And it shall come to pass that all lyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away. For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel; and I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. (3 Nephi 21:14–21)
For footnotes and references, click HERE.