Chapter 20—Modern Gentiles' Final Provocation

     “Great men have gone astray and mighty heroes have stumbled from former times till now because they walked in the stubbornness of their heart . . . [and] did not keep the commandments of God.” Such is the pattern of history, but God does not leave us without hope.
      Speaking of the exodus in the wilderness and the birth of the chosen nation, God gave four promises in His redemptive offer.

(1) “I will take you out” of the world, (2) “I will save you” from oppression, (3) “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great judgments,” and (4) “I will take you to me for a people [‘nation’], and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God . . . I will bring you to the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as an inheritance” (Exodus 6:7–8).

     Each Gentile provocation forfeits a divine promise: (1) Turning to idolatry keeps us in the world, not set apart from it. (2) Keys of knowledge can save us, but we deny their necessity. (3) The power Christ offers is neglected and refused, leaving us vulnerable, devoid of Spirit, and without redemption. (4) He will establish a choice people and land of promise if we recognize Him as our God and serve Him—but we refuse this too. Like ancient Israel, modern Gentiles have provoked God by rejecting His work and His law.

The Final Provocation—Rejecting the God of this Land
     With latter-day Gentiles caught in Satan’s nets of idolatry, love of riches, and profaning the temple, God is greatly provoked. Individuals sin in idolatry, putting their hearts on something besides Him. Priests reject God by neglecting their duty to seek His face and taking away keys of knowledge from people. His restored church rejects God through their reforms and refusing higher priesthood authority and power.
     The fourth and final provocation comes as the nation itself rejects the God of this land and secret combinations rule. The ultimate form of priestcraft, secret combinations existed “from the days of Cain” when “their works were in the dark . . . Their works were abominations and began to spread.” These “works of darkness began to prevail among all the sons of men. And God cursed the earth with a sore curse and was angry with the wicked . . . for they kept not the commandments of God and it displeased God” (Moses 5:51–52, 55–56). Cain and Lamech instituted these evil combinations, as did the Jaredites on this land. In Enoch’s day also “Satan had great dominion among men and raged in their hearts,” encouraging “secret works, seeking for power” (Moses 6:15).
     Founded by Satan but perpetuated by calculating men, secret combinations were made to obtain kingdoms, power, and wealth. These “secret societies . . . reject all the words of the prophets” (Ether 11:22), “combine against all righteousness” (3 Nephi 6:28), exist “to get gain” (Mormon 8:40), and engage in “secret works of darkness” (2 Nephi 10:15) that “effect oppressive measures,” destroy truth, and lead  astray.
     The Book of Mormon warns of secret combinations like Gadianton robbers who, “in not so many years,” came among the covenant Nephites. “To gain power,” they carefully used flattery, gave followers “power and authority,” “altered and trampled” God’s laws, and “set at defiance the law and the rights of their country.” Their “laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted” so much that they “had become a wicked people.” Evil “seduced the more part of the righteous” to join them in seeking power, obtaining wealth, ruling with injustice, and “condemning the righteous.” So strong was the pull that the “more righteous part of the people had nearly all become wicked; yea, there were but few righteous men among them.” This eventually “did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi” (Helaman 2:4–13, 4:22, 5:2, 6:38–39, 7:4–6, 3 Nephi 6:30, 7:7).
     Motivated by power and gain, they encouraged “ways of darkness”—corruption, idolatry, immorality, and injustice. Injustice “hates all the ways of truth.” “Men of injustice have not purified their life by separating themselves from iniquity,” so we must distance ourselves from them.
     A secret “combination is most abominable and wicked above all in the sight of God; for the Lord worketh not in secret combinations . . . but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man . . . Whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations to get power and gain until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed” (Ether 8:18–19, 22). Ancient prophets warned later inhabitants of this land against repeating the same mistakes.

O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain . . . The work of destruction [shall] come upon you . . . to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be. (Ether 8:23)

     “Kept up by the power of the devil” and “had among all people,” (Ether 8:16, 20), secret combinations destroy every nation that employs them. In 1882 Moses Thatcher declared “in the name of the Lord that a secret band will sap the life of this nation.” The U.S. Constitution prohibits such wickedness but if its divine laws are not preserved, cherished, and upheld, the door opens for destructive abominations to rule.
     God cannot tolerate laws that oppress or suppress inalienable rights, neither can He support unrighteous leaders who dictate laws according to their own will. Because the Constitution’s principles are “for the protection of all flesh,” all that opposes or infringes on these God-given rights cannot be justified.
     Joseph Smith prophesied this land could fall if we are not vigilant in upholding righteous principles and preserving the Constitution. “Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground” as “the Constitution is on the brink of ruin.”
     The figure in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream “represents different governments” and “the feet of the image are the government of these United States. Other nations and kingdoms are looking up to her for an example of union, freedom, and equal rights, and therefore worship her as Daniel saw in the vision, although they are beginning to lose confidence in her, seeing the broils and discord that rise on her political and religious horizon.” Once a protected and blessed nation, by forgetting the God of the land and trusting in Babylon, the United States “separate what God has joined together and unite what He has separated which the devil has succeeded in doing to admiration in the present society, which is like unto iron and clay. There is confusion in all things, both political and religious; and notwithstanding all the efforts that are made to bring about a union, society remains disunited, and all attempts to unite it are as fruitless as to attempt to unite iron and clay.”
     The nation’s name says they are “United,” but they are not one. The United States has become the Divided States. Created to be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” the United States is more divided now than at any time since perhaps the Civil War. Instead of uniting with God, corruption rules. Exchanging freedoms, increasing oppression, and holding liberal views are the norm in the very land God reserved for the righteous. Long before, Captain Moroni raised a title of liberty to protect “our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children” (Alma 46:12), but today we give away these things in exchange for convenience or security. Moroni defended the poor, downtrodden, or despised and fought against pride, power, wealth, and ambition. He raised an ensign at a time when the wicked “did obtain the sole management of the government” and “turn[ed] their backs upon the poor” (Helaman 6:39).
     Secret combinations’ encroachment of power permits indoctrination of perverse social justice platforms and propaganda. Socialization begins in a child’s early years as federal overreach has taken control of school curriculum, greatly influencing a child’s beliefs in his most impressionable years. We cannot underestimate the power of social influence and curriculum on future generations. Decades ago LDS president Ezra Benson warned of secularization and historians using humanistic frames of reference. “Today, students are subjected in their textbooks and classroom lectures to a subtle propaganda that there is a ‘natural’ or rational explanation to all causes and events. Such a position removes the need for faith in God, or belief in His interposition in the affairs of men.”
     The Book of Mormon details similar issues. Amulon and his priests offered a curriculum of secular knowledge but failed to “teach them anything concerning the Lord their God,” “the law of Moses,” or “words of” holy prophets (Mosiah 24:1–7). Elsewhere, those who did not believe Korihor’s rational approach to knowledge were considered “deranged” with a “frenzied mind” (Alma 30:16). Nehor’s order also gained power in the educational system. Those who subscribed to and perpetuated his order were wealthy, educated professionals with influence. They sought power, pleasure, possessions, “riches and honors,” and “loved the vain things of the world” (Alma 1:16). It’s no wonder that Alma, who was once in King Noah’s high priest quorum before he realized his error, counsels us to “trust no one to be your teacher . . . except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments” (Mosiah 23:14).
     We must “awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression” (Mosiah 2:40) on this land long before. Previous inhabitants of this land were destroyed by calculating leaders who nationalized thinking and sought to “destroy the liberty of [their] people . . . contrary to the statutes, and judgments, and commandments which [God] has given unto his people” (Alma 8:17). Corruption among lawyers, judges, law enforcement, executives, politicians, and citizens is justified as the way business is done. Even among the Nephites “almost all the lawyers and the high priests” became corrupt and united with the chief rulers of the land, which laid “the foundation of the destruction of this people” (Alma 10:27). Instead of preserving His law,

their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted. (Helaman 5:2)

     A government that demands increasingly more laws or infrastructure to support itself runs contrary to righteousness. In other words, the more righteous we are, the less laws are needed to govern us. Remember, the Pharisees evolved the single and most simple law to love God with all our heart to creating at least 613 more laws and reforms that dictated much of what people could do, but this is not the Lord’s way. “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward” (D&C 58:26).

A member of the Legislature asked Joseph Smith how it was that he was enabled to govern so many people and to preserve such perfect order, remarking at the same time that it was impossible for them to do it anywhere else. Mr. Smith remarked that it was very easy to do . . .‘I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.’

     The Book of Mormon explains how a land of promise falls into ruin: Originally “there could not be a happier people,” but pride, greed, and a desire for gain increase until things are “no more common among them.” Having great prosperity, they “divided into classes,” love money, and are “taught to hate” righteousness. Christ’s doctrine also suffers: “They began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain and began to deny the true church of Chris” and administer ordinances to the unworthy. As increasing capitalism or private ownership keeps minds on individuals instead of the community, secret combinations gain power or influence. Ambitious business people and “robbers . . . did spread all over the face of the land” until everyone was caught up in it except a few disciples of Christ (4 Nephi 1:16, 25–27, 39, 46).

[Nephites] did build them up and support [secret combinations] . . . until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them . . . And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek and the humble followers of God. And thus we see that they were in an awful state and ripening for an everlasting destruction. (Helaman 6:38–40)

     People “add sin to sin” as they “take counsel but not of me” (Isaiah 30:1). They trust alliances, programs, investments, and each other. They turn to wealth for security and armies for protection “but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1). The truth is, “We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance . . . We forget that if we are righteous the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us . . . or He will fight our battles for us.” This will bring “the fall of their leaders” (Alma 56:51) and the nation that trusts in them (Isaiah 30:3). “Wo be unto you because of that great abomination which has come among you; and ye have united yourselves unto it . . . Wo be unto you because of your wickedness and abominations! And except ye repent ye shall perish. Yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth” (Helaman 7:25, 27–28).

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation because of this secret combination which shall be among you. (Ether 8:24)

Tolerance for Sin—The New Morality
     The United States was set up as a government “of the people” so its government reflects the people. The most dangerous threat to this nation is its crumbling moral and spiritual foundation that tolerates, now encourages, the very sins that destroyed others before us.
     Attitudes of disrespect and entitlement are rampant. Less than 20% regularly attend church.19 Frivolous lawsuits show greater love of money than willingness to forgive. Murders and violent crimes occur too often. Homelessness and suicides are increasing. Gambling, drug, alcohol, and sex addictions ruin many. Addictions rule flesh, alter minds, and destroy families. Crippling problems of pornography, child abuse, theft, assault, abortion, adultery, divorce, cloning, organ harvesting, genetic manipulation, greed, immorality, prostitution, human trafficking, gangs, fraud, biological warfare, satanic rituals, pedophilia, cannibalism, murder, and other corruptions are merely symptoms of the greater sin of putting the world before God. We are commanded to love God “more than” all else (Matthew 10:37), but the world retains its strong hold on man’s heart.
     There is no end to the sins that we can commit. King Benjamin said, “I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them” (Mosiah 4:29), but Paul and Barnabas list a few.
     “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22, NKJV). Confusion reigns in almost every facet of life, including gender. Christianity is now seen as a religion of hate, Islam a religion of love. Racial tensions are mounting. Sexuality, not righteousness, is the virtue to be flaunted.
     “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20), abandoning God and His laws. Gentile nations are facing severe mental health crises, with at least 20% of children affected. Depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders have increased over 50% in 2006–2013 alone and substance abuse is rampant. The world’s ways are clearly not making us healthier or happier, but we refuse to give them up. “As they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:28).
     The U.S. has evolved from honoring the sanctity of life to passionately defending the right to kill innocent unborn children, a great evil that strikes at the very center of God’s plan. Abortions are now legal, common, and government-backed in the U.S. Over 59 million abortions were reported between 1973–2014. It is horrifying to consider how many are unreported. Abortion is a modern equivalent of sacrificial offerings on Baal’s altars, a sin that eventually ensnared ancient Israelites.

It is no accident that the first civilization in the modern age to embody a total rejection of God and biblical morality, the Soviet Union, was also the first to legalize the killing of unborn children. It is also no accident that it was at the same time that America began dramatically turning away from God and its biblical foundations, in the mid- and late-twentieth century, that it also embraced the killing of its most innocent. Only then did it legalize abortion.

As in the ancient case, the practice of killing unborn children took place at first in secret and against the law. But as the apostasy continued, the act emerged from the shadows to become public policy. It was now endorsed from the highest echelons of society and culture and legalized by those in power. America and the West turned to the altars of Baal.

     Altars of Baal are affiliated with worship of Molech. “They built high places for Baal in the valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech though I never commanded . . . they do such a detestable thing” (Jeremiah 32:35, NIV). The Mosaic law states, “Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.” He who “giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 18:21, 20:2).
     A penalty of death came “even for the murder of an embryo,” because “to hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing.” Even if legal law permit, those “who conceived and caused abortion” will be tormented “in the place of punishment” hereafter (Apocalypse of Peter 1:20, 25). “All who caused abortions and all who unlawfully cast away their offspring” will receive “the wrath of the heavenly and immortal God” (Sibylline Oracles 2:346–350). “The smiting of the embryo in the womb that it may pass away” is the work of fallen angels (1 Enoch 69:12). Today many willingly sacrifice their own unborn for the sake of convenience, freedom from responsibility, or to advance their interests. Some covenant makers are guilty also.

They claim to follow the Lord but then they worship Molech too. And I will destroy those who used to worship me but now no longer do. They no longer ask for the Lord’s guidance or seek my blessings. (Zephaniah 1:5–6, NLT)

     As this nation descends into ruin, the abhorrent position arises that “murder of the innocent will now be championed as an unquestionable right, a sacred right, even a sacred act—a sacrament.” Many who support these atrocities believe that “abortion is a major blessing and a sacrament in the hands of women.” Activist Ginette Paris, who went so far as to title her book The Sacrament of Abortion, said, “It is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one” that she defines as “a sacrifice to Artemis. Abortion [is] a sacrament for the gift of life to remain pure.” Paris calls on society to support “laws to restore abortion to its sacred dimension.”
     Proponents of this morality of murder “have spoken of abortion as the sending of the slain child to the mother goddess, connecting abortion to the pagan child sacrifices of ancient times—as on the altars of Baal,” but we are warned: “The blood of the innocent [will] lead to the nation’s judgment” as it did anciently. That murder is now a sacred rite shows just how far our society has declined. What truly is sacred (life) is abhorred, and what should be abhorred (murder) is declared sacred.
     Child sacrifice was the work and glory of Jezebel, a notoriously evil but persuasive queen behind Israel’s throne who ensnared many. Cahn notices remarkable parallels between Jezebel and modern woman behind the throne Hillary Clinton. Just as King Ahab “sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel his wife stirred him up” (1 Kings 21:25), Hillary’s husband U.S. President Bill Clinton’s “first executive orders as president empowered the practice of abortion in America and around the world.” He was first “to use American tax dollars to pressure other nations to engage in the practice, and the first to open up America to drugs that would by chemical means kill the unborn child.” Hillary was the chief activist and advocate for killing unborn children so much that the nation’s largest abortion performer, Planned Parenthood, honored her as “Champion of the Century.”
     After Clinton’s Presidential terms ended, Hillary obtained powerful positions as both U.S. Senator then Secretary of State over foreign policy. Hillary and President Obama continued to persuade, even coerce, other nations to adopt liberal abortion laws and used “federal funds to force the nation of Kenya to change its constitution to embrace abortion.” Her agenda to nationalize healthcare was a clever way to use taxpayer money to garner support and fund abortions.
     Once pagan ideals are actively promoted and government sponsored, the cult of Baal with its sexual immorality, confusion of gender, and disregard for life become the nation’s unofficial religion. U.S. culture radically changed under Clinton rule. As modern types of Ahab and Jezebel, the Clintons warred against the nation’s biblical foundation. They aggressively advocated “redefining . . . immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning.” This powerful couple persuaded the masses to not only adopt a new morality, but to celebrate it. Clinton “became the first president in American history to dedicate an entire month to the celebration of homosexuality, calling for all Americans to honor gay pride with ceremonies and activities of celebration.” This agenda gained momentum with successor Barack Obama, who campaigned with the slogan ‘Change’ while pretending to hold conservative views. “When running for the presidency, he stated that as a Christian and with God ‘in the mix’ he could not be in favor of gay marriage but opposed it. He maintained this stand for the first few years of his presidency. But it was later revealed by one of Obama’s close advisors that the president’s words were false and in reality he was not opposed to gay marriage but had been in favor of it from early on.”
     With the help of many powerful cultural and political influencers, the U.S. Supreme Court (tasked to uphold the Constitution and preserve its laws) changed history when they legalized gay marriage in a monumental decision on 26 June 2015. The Court defined it as a Constitutional right, forcing the nation to recognize non-traditional marriages. Such abominations are not new to this generation.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator . . . For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which [‘ought not to be done,’ NIV]. (Romans 1:24–28)

     Homosexuals, or ‘changed ones,’ were permitted to participate in Canaanite temple rites. Baal’s religion involved confusion or alteration of gender and Israel came to tolerate it. “The nation that had once known God was now celebrating transgression, declaring it holy [and] departing from His order.” Decline is inevitable as “carnal and erotic images and objects of sexual desire will multiply and be put on display. The culture will become saturated with them. A civilization founded on a spirit of consecration will increasingly give itself to a spirit of desecration.”
     The law of Moses strictly forbid fornication, adultery, abortion, sexual impurity, incest, and homosexuality. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination . . . Defile not yourselves with any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled.” For when “the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you. Keep My ordinance that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you and do not defile yourselves in them” (Leviticus 18:22, ESV, 24–26, 30).
     In Peter’s vision of “the place of punishment” hereafter, he saw those “who defiled their bodies acting as women, and the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a man” (Apocalypse of Peter 1:31). These sins were prevalent and openly flaunted as a virtue before Sodom’s destruction also.
     “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (Isaiah 3:9). Do “not become as Sodom which changed the order of its nature. In like manner also the Watchers changed the order of their nature, whom the Lord cursed at the Flood” (Testament of Naphtali 3:4–5). The Midrash agrees that transgressing such bounds was a major cause of the flood in Noah’s day.

The generation of Noah was condemned to eradication by the flood because they had sunk so low morally, that, according to Midrashic teaching, they wrote out formal marriage contracts for sodomy and buggery.

     After the great flood, Noah offered sacrifice as a sign of his willingness to establish the covenant. God “set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13). As a symbol of His glory, the rainbow was given for mankind to remember “the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh” (Genesis 9:16). But the sign of the rainbow was usurped in 1978 by the LGBT movement.
     On 26 June 2015, “the day that marriage as defined by God’s word was struck down” in the United States, President “Obama ordered the White House to be illuminated in the colors of the rainbow to celebrate the act . . . The highest house in the land had been turned into a vessel of apostasy.” Many businesses, universities, homes, and churches proudly displayed a rainbow to show their support. Obama promised ‘change,’ and he brought it. The law was seen as a step forward, progress that Obama believed brought the nation ‘closer to perfection.’

There was no other way by which [Noah] could have heard of the coming judgment of the Flood . . . He was Divinely instructed concerning [it]. If he looked on things as they appeared, he would have seen building, and planting, and marriage, and giving in marriage going on, on all hands. He would have seen outward progress and advancement.

Others thought the progress was upward and the advancement was onward, but Noah knew that it was downward to destruction and onward to judgment. ‘As it was in the days of Noah . . . so shall the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matthew 24:39, Luke 17:27).

     Though God promised not to destroy the earth again by water, He “will execute judgment like the judgment of Sodom on places where they act according to the pollution of Sodom.”3 Sodom was destroyed by fire.
     The war against the God of this land is in full swing. Before the world, ‘sons of light’ battled ‘sons of darkness’ in an eternal war of beliefs and ideologies, according to the War Scroll. This war still rages between Christ’s disciples and Babylon today.

The leaders of Babylon offer security for all; Jesus offered no security in this world, only an inward peace won through much travail. Babylon is surrounded by a fortress which assures it an arbitrated peace with the world . . . The Babylonians proudly raise their heads and offer to abolish fear—by emasculating man’s sensitivity to evil. Jesus called the citizens of His city to endure evil, not to submit to it, but to weary it out in all humility, imitating therein God in his patience.

     If man’s law overturns God’s law, immorality becomes the new morality, skewing reality and making what was once wrong right. When God’s foundation is compromised and another morality is embraced, doors to iniquity open wide and abominations accelerate. This rapid descent into wickedness is extremely difficult to slow and reverse. Assimilation to the world leads to annihilation of the world. A century ago it was observed:

Today a flood of iniquity is overwhelming the civilized world. One great reason therefore is the neglect of marriage; it has lost its sanctity in the eyes of the great majority. It is at best a civil contract, but more often an accident or a whim, or a means of gratifying the passions. And when the sacredness of the covenant is ignored or lost sight of, then a disregard of the marriage vows, under the present moral training of the masses, is a mere triviality, a trifling indiscretion . . . We believe in one standard of morality for men and women. If purity of life is neglected, all other dangers set in upon us like the rivers of waters when the flood gates are opened.

     Tolerance for sin defies the true God of this land, who cannot permit immorality, apathy, greed, or liberal ideologies to continue. Satan’s subtle but crafty methods convince many that compromise or tolerance is a noble virtue, even a moral obligation, but this destroys the covenant and sets Christianity up to become persecuted or criminalized. If God cannot tolerate sin, neither can any who desire eternal life.

Cursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do wickedly, when they are fully ripe; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land, for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. (Alma 45:16)

     This nation (prophets, priests, and people) distanced itself from God’s laws. “Thou art the land that is not cleansed . . . [for] there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof . . . They have devoured souls . . . Her priests have violated my law and have profaned mine holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and the profane . . . and have hid their eyes from by sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” They “destroy souls” for the sake of gain, oppress others, and “vex the poor and needy.” Their priests see vanity and “divin[e] lies, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken” (Ezekiel 22:24–31).
     The reality is, we have become “a people of no discernment, it is a nation void of counsel inasmuch as there is no discernment in them.” Apostasy is a process, a gradual wearing down of morality, a destructive phenomena that Satan patiently masterminds to keep us unaware. In fact, “that’s one of the things the word Satan actually means: the one who lies in wait, who lurks in ambush, waiting.”
     Inhabiting a choice land is a tremendous responsibility. The United States will be subject to terrifying events in the last days because they remain unrepentant. Egypt (a religious superpower and type for modern America) was crippled from within, then defeated. Rome, Sodom, and Babylon fell hard without having the covenant, so how much harder will those who have His covenant fall when they refuse it?

Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord . . .

The Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire . . .

The Lord cometh . . . to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 1:3–5, 7, 15, NIV)

     “Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). God “will not spare any that remain in Babylon” (D&C 64:24). “And, in consequence of rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Prophets whom God hath sent, the judgments of God have rested upon people, cities, and nations in various ages of the world, which was the case with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that were destroyed for rejecting the Prophets.” The Lord is concerned for our day:

If the people of this generation harden not their hearts, I will work a reformation among them and . . . establish my church, like unto the church which was taught by my disciples in the days of old.” But, “if this generation do harden their hearts against my word, behold I will deliver them up unto Satan, for he reigneth and hath much power at this time, for he hath got great hold upon the hearts of the people of this generation: and not far from the iniquities of Sodom and Gomorrah do they come at this time: and behold the sword of justice hangeth over their heads, and if they persist in the hardness of their hearts, the time cometh that it must fall upon them. Behold, I tell you these things even as I also told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem, and my word shall be verified. (Book of Commandments 4:5–6)

     As in Noah’s day, “God saw that the wickedness of men had become great in the earth; and every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, being only evil continually” (Moses 8:22). This land must serve Jesus Christ to remain free—“it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land that they are swept off” (Ether 2:10).
     Iniquity is full when we are lifted up in pride “above all nations,” sin against His laws, reject His gospel, lie, deceive, work mischief, are hypocritical, lead people astray, seek gain, tolerate immorality, permit secret abominations to rule (3 Nephi 16:10–12). The final provocation—a fulness of iniquity—brings a fulness of God’s wrath. For 200 years, the warnings were there in the very scriptures they took lightly:

And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ. (Ether 2:11–12)

     It is tragic that in 2006 Barack Obama declared, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation—at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.” Like the Clintons, “Obama’s actions and inactions led the nation in defiance of God . . . Obama would leave America less Christian than he found it—culturally, morally, and statistically.”
    However, the nation’s foundation had been eroding as protest and pressure from a few emerged.  A major cultural shift came in 1962–63 when the Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible reading in schools, although America’s schools were formed primarily to teach scripture and their nation to worship God. Removing God’s Ten Commandments from public courthouses or displays solidified their course.52 Even the inspired U.S. founding fathers have come under attack, with some curriculum minimizing or omitting their contributions. Some want the Washington and Jefferson monuments removed.
     The extent of the nation’s personal rejection of Christ is shown by the extraordinary popularity of the vile, liberal Broadway play The Book of Mormon, which received the nation’s highest honors, including Tony and Grammy awards. Its consistently sold-out crowds across the nation bring more condemnation as the audience joins in, collectively shouting obscenities at God. Instead of being repulsed by blasphemy, this nation, once created with God as its center, enthusiastically embraces the animosity.
     Although ancient Israel was established by God, they too turned to idolatry and delighted in materialism and sensuality. Because holding to truth was not an utmost priority, they were vulnerable to error and corruption. Their ways nullified God’s word and transformed worship into an imitative form. Eventually, their modified gospel was joined by a new morality that denied God His rightful place in their hearts and nation. These destructive works transformed their culture and redefined the way the nation believed.

[Israel] began driving God out of their public squares, out of their government, out of the instruction of their children, out of their culture, and out of their lives. They expunged His word from their public discourse and His law from their collective consciousness. And by driving God out, they created a vacuum. Into that vacuum they brought in still more gods. Their lives were now permeated with idols and increasingly carnal, materialistic, and fragmented. And their civilization was now at war against the foundation on which it [was established].

There had always been those among them who took part in pagan rites and practices and who lived at war with biblical morality. But they did so from the sidelines of their society. Their practices were taboo, prohibited by law or custom, and performed in the shadows. But as the nation’s departure from God continued, such things began emerging from the shadows. In time they would be tolerated and then accepted and then established and then enforced. What the nation had once opposed and shunned, it now had become.

     When ancient Jews provoked God and forsook the covenant, their economy suffered but “the worst ills, however, were social [and spiritual]. Disintegration of Jewish family life was manifest in divorce and adultery. The rich oppressed the poor and victimized the helpless with impunity. Dishonesty was a key to business success, and the sacred principle of covenant, essential to a responsible society, was constantly disregarded . . . The heart of the Jew’s predicament was not hard times as such, but the loss of the presence of God.”
     The Jews eagerly awaited the Messiah but they were not prepared to embrace Him unless their “society underwent a radical change.” Christ offered that transforming change but was refused. As true Christianity dwindled, society’s liberal ways showed “no signs of passing away . . . In the end therefore, it was the Christian doctrine and practice which underwent the change, and society which remained.”

Slippery Riches
     Spending time accumulating riches keeps us ensnared or distracted from what matters most—repenting. The Nephites, who sought Samuel the Lamanite’s life when he urged them to repent, attributed his words and miraculous deliverance to the power of the devil. Samuel’s message applies to all the unrepentant who live on a choice land.

The devil has got so great hold upon your hearts. Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless wo? O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. . . . You have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd. O, how could you have forgotten your God . . . Behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world . . . For this cause wo shall come unto you except ye shall repent.

Yea, wo shall come unto you because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts, which has lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceedingly great riches! Yea, wo be unto you because of your wickedness and abominations! And except ye repent ye shall perish; yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth. (Helaman 7:15–18, 20–22, 26–28)

     Only worshipping God is the first commandment. He also gave “the last commandment” that must be honored to avert destruction. Not teaching or living the true doctrine of Christ will bring our demise.

And of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost. Behold, this is a great and the last commandment which I shall give unto you concerning this matter; for this shall suffice for thy daily walk, even unto the end of thy life. And misery thou shalt receive if thou wilt slight these counsels, yea, even the destruction of thyself and property. (D&C 19:31–33)

     This “nation changed their gods,” exchanging the God of this land for that which “doth not profit” eternally (Jeremiah 2:11). There is “no god but me, for there is no saviour beside me” (Hosea 13:4), but they do not want this God—money is the god they worship, seek, and trust. Ironically, the only mention of God that is still tolerated is printed on U.S. money: ‘In God We Trust.’
     Because the “love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10), a catalyst for envy and strife, the Lord felt “indignation at the growing tendency of the people to the luxury which led to debt, and to the avarice which traded on the debtor’s necessities. Israel, it would seem, was already on the way to become a nation of money lenders.” Modern Gentiles would outdo their greed exponentially.
     Encouraging debt is a clever ploy of the adversary. How quickly men learn that interest and speculation lead to fast riches, sometimes at the expense of bringing others into financial bondage. Ironically, America’s greed brought its own $20+ trillion debt, an astronomical sum that does not include state or local debt, agency debt, and unfunded liabilities of entitlement programs like Medicare or Social Security. Some states are also drowning in “irretrievable debt,” nearing bankruptcy. To put it in perspective, federal debt amounts to $62,000+ per person. Debts for mortgages, autos, and recreational indulgences increase the liability. Individuals average $11,000 per household in credit card debt alone, adding another trillion of debt to the astronomical total. Credit card or loan companies encourage debt then charge high rates of interest.
     We are commanded to not charge interest to those in need and to “be indebted to no one” (Romans 13:8, Berean). “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him” (Exodus 22:25, ESV). The faithful man “does not put out his money at interest” (Psalm 15:5, NASB). Collecting interest, called usury in scripture, derives from nashak (H5391), meaning to sting or bite, as a serpent. Figuratively it is to oppress by charging interest on a loan. When the children of Israel rebelled, God “sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:6, NLT).
     In the last days, a serpent’s bite comes as the hostile serpent-dragon makes war with the Woman and a righteous remnant of her seed (Revelation 12–13). The dragon-serpent gives his agent, the Beast, “his power, and his seat, and great authority” (Revelation 13:2). The Beast’s mark, charagma (G5480), is literally a snake bite. The Beast’s bite marks are seen in the same places where devout Jews wore the Lord’s holy name: on their forehead and right hand. Those ‘bitten’ bought into an economic system that controls the markets but suppresses cooperation, a counterfeit substitute for Zion with its consecrative law and Jubilee.
     “The bite of the serpent” is one of evil’s deadly blows to the soul (1 Enoch 69:12). Charging interest is forbidden by commandment, so the dividing line becomes clear: by their actions, all choose to either serve the dragon who seeks ‘interest,’ greed, and gain (the bite of the serpent), or to serve the Woman wisdom who is more precious than all their riches.

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding, for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her. (Proverbs 3:13–15, Berean)

     The fierce battle for souls rages between the woman Wisdom and the woman who rides the Beast. Wordplay continues with nasak, a pouring out, and nashak, the bite. All who are bitten forsake Wisdom for the world and will lament as “seven bowls of God’s wrath [are] poured out.”
     Destructive sins like greed, idolatry, injustice, and pride are a serpent’s deadly bite. People, like their leaders, ‘stagger’ by quenching their own desires instead of circumcising their hearts. Drunk with error, delusion, and loving money, woe to him “who pours out his venom to make them drunk” which causes “them to stumble . . . Their wine is the venom of serpents.” Jesus repeatedly calls hypocritical religious leaders “serpents” and warns of their venom.
     Venom (rosh, H7219), also translated gall, is the same word God uses to condemn prophets who profane His gospel, “spout empty words and make covenants they don’t intend to keep” (Hosea 10:4, NLT), and turn hearts “away from the Lord” (Deuteronomy 29:18, NIV).
     Venom is deadly. A “taste of the poison of the cruel serpent . . . [was] the cause of the fall of our father Adam.” “You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (Amos 6:12, ESV). They will face “a bitter destruction” as wild beasts devour them “with the poison of serpents of the dust” (Deuteronomy 32:24).
     If a man “lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes profit . . . he shall not live” (Ezekiel 18:12–13, ESV). Like Job, Moses knew that the only cure is to look to Christ—fixed, intently, and faithfully.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. (Numbers 21:8)

     “After they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished” (1 Nephi 17:41). “They look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1).

That moment that men seek to build up themselves . . . and seek to hoard up riches . . . [It] proves that their hearts are weaned from God; and their riches will perish in their fingers, and they with them.

     To help someone in need is of greater eternal worth than hoarding wealth. Only he who “gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing [and] does not lend money on interest or take increase, if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice . . . if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully—he is righteous and will surely live” (Ezekiel 18:7–9, NASB).
     One who loaned money but exists day to day having sufficient for his needs does not really need the money back, although he may desire it. Forgiving debt liberates the captive, a requirement of the Jubilee. We are to observe the Jubilee “for evermore” (2 Kings 17:37) but its requirements have long been forgotten. The Jubilee helps us live the law of consecration. Anciently the Lord delivered the faithful from bondage to sin and returned them to their land. During the Jubilee, Israelites were to free those enslaved by debt. Canceling debts every seven years “is called the Lord’s release” because it releases the world’s hold on us.

It is debt to each other that keeps men from being one. There can be no Zion of rich and poor.

     Forgiving others’ offenses and debts is so important to our spiritual preparation that it is mentioned in the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive our debts as we forgive” others (Matthew 6:12). His prayer is a call to live the law of consecration. We must forgive others’ offenses and debts if we hope to be forgiven of our sins5 because not forgiving others condemns us. The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of an end-time Jubilee when, through the power of Melchizedek, liberty will be proclaimed “for them, to free them from [the debt] of all their iniquities,” something even priests need.

In the first place, He hath created you and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto Him. And secondly, He doth require that ye should do as He hath commanded you; for which if ye do, He doth immediately bless you; and therefore He hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto Him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? . . . Ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to Him all that you have and are. (Mosiah 2:23–24, 34)

     We rarely acknowledge our indebtedness to God but willingly put ourselves in debt to man. We cannot serve God and money so Jesus urges us not to use our energy accumulating things of the world. The resurrected Christ prophesied that later generations “will sell me for silver and for gold, and for that which moth doth corrupt and which thieves can break through and steal. And in that day will I visit them, even in turning their works upon their own heads” (3 Nephi 27:32).

Wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also. (2 Nephi 9:30)

     The ruinous punishment “will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor” (Isaiah 24:2, NIV) because they seek and worship money. “Their wealth cannot save them when iniquity collapses” (1 Enoch 100:6).

What will you do on the day of punishment when devastation comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your wealth? (Isaiah 10:3, HCSB)

     Wealth disappears when iniquity is full. “Wo to ye rich, for you have trusted your riches . . . Your riches shall depart because you have not remembered the Most High in the days of your riches” (1 Enoch 94:8).

Because they have set their hearts upon their riches and . . . because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures; and in that day shall they be smitten, saith the Lord . . . Ye are cursed because of your riches, and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you.

Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord. For this cause hath the Lord God caused that a curse should come upon . . . your riches. (Helaman 13:20–23)

     “It will slip away from you because you . . . have come under a great curse.” Or “your wealth will not remain, but will quickly ascend from you.” Their slippery riches cannot be retained and will cause their fall.
     Their riches disappear in an irreversible economic collapse. “Everything is lost—your riches and wares, your sailors and pilots, your ship builders, merchants, and warriors. On the day of your ruin, everyone on board sinks” and rulers “are filled with horror” because of it (Ezekiel 27:27, 35, NLT).

He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly. (Job 20:15)

     They swallow smooth words and have an insatiable appetite for wealth, but God will take it from them. Many suppose their riches can be acquired again with some work and ingenuity but God forbids it—their wealth is never to be obtained again.

O ye wicked and ye perverse generation . . . the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them . . . Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land. O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them. (Helaman 13:29, 31, 35–36)

     Even the church is damned “because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people” (1 Nephi 21:1). Their priesthood “is like wolves ravening the prey . . . to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain” (Ezekiel 22:27). The Lord will “cut off your prey”—Qumran’s writings explain that “prey is the wealth which the priests of Jerusalem have amassed.” These sins bring the “everlasting destruction of your souls” (Alma 12:36).
     The unrepentant mourn not for their sins, but because “the riches that he hath gotten are perished” (Jeremiah 48:36). It is too much to bear the loss of their treasure that “is their god” in whom they trust, set their heart, and offer days of their life (2 Nephi 9:30). That in which they trusted and served all the days of their life has failed them.

“They Had Become a Wicked People”
     In their probationary period, Gentiles must live up to His covenant or be removed from the land “which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people” (Ether 2:7), but this nation chose another path.

The government of the Almighty has always been very dissimilar to the governments of men, whether we refer to His religious government, or to the government of nations. The government of God has always tended to promote peace, unity, harmony, strength, and happiness; while that of man has been productive of confusion, disorder, weakness, and misery. The greatest acts of the [world’s] mighty men have been to depopulate nations and to overthrow kingdoms; and whilst they have exalted themselves and become glorious, it has been at the expense of the lives of the innocent, the blood of the oppressed, the moans of the widow, and the tears of the orphan . . .

The designs of God, on the other hand, have been to promote the universal good of the universal world; to establish peace and good will among men; to promote the principles of eternal truth; to bring about a state of things that shall unite man to his fellow man . . . make the nations of the earth dwell in peace, and to bring about the millennial glory, when ‘the earth shall yield its increase, resume its paradisean glory, and become as the garden of the Lord.’

     “They have set up kings, but not by me” (Hosea 8:4). On His choice land no ‘king’ can try to be above God’s authority without repercussion. Leaders should implement and protect His law, but men’s aspirations quickly overrule this responsibility and almost all rule according to their own will and way. So it was at the time of Christ. The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal, “Members of the Covenant sinned and were delivered up to the sword because they forsook the Covenant of God . . . and walked in the stubbornness of their hearts, each of them doing his own will.” “Their laws had become corrupted and they had become a wicked people” (Helaman 4:22). They failed to honor the conditions of His land.

This land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land . . . for he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever that hear my words. (2 Nephi 10:11, 14)

     He will “be a light” and king but instead “men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world” as kings (2 Nephi 26:29). Should we dismiss such warning because we have no ‘king’ in America, we must realize that any tyrannical rule or unyielding loyalty to a leader encourages it. When visiting Utah in the 1870s, Mark Twain was shocked to find “governors, and judges, and other officials here maintain a semblance of a republican form of government—but the petrified truth is that Utah is an absolute monarchy and Brigham Young is king!”
     Priests anointed to become kings must be careful, “for even if a man is king, when he acts impurely he goes away stripped of his kingship” (Testament of Judah 15:2). All who “testify that they have heard my voice and know my words” are promised “that in time ye shall have no king nor ruler, for I will be your king and watch over you” (D&C 18:36, 38:21).
     The understanding that our nation was created to be ‘under God’ has eroded. Instead, we set up our own kings and put God under us as we “lay aside these things and trample the Holy One under [our] feet” (Alma 5:53). Through a miraculous victory, the United States was established on divine principles. God “redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (D&C 101:80) to make it a choice land. But if wickedness rules, His laws are rejected, and Christ’s atoning blood is refused, blood must again be shed to redeem the land.

I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be through much contention and the shedding of much blood. For behold, he has his friends in iniquity and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God. (Mosiah 29:21–22)

     God’s servants work tirelessly to preserve His vineyard but the hedge is breached when we do not diligently hearken to the Lord’s voice “to observe and to do all his commandments.”
     Ancient Israel’s walls were breached first by sin then by enemies. The 9th of Tammuz was a terrifying day for Israel—a day when, in 586 b.c., Babylon’s army broke through the walls to enter Jerusalem. Millennia later, the U.S. Supreme Court breached God’s bounds when they redefined traditional marriage on 26 June 2015, the 9th of Tammuz.
     A month after is the 9th of Av, a date that also is significant in Jewish history when Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 587 b.c., a tragedy the Jews still observe as an official day of mourning. Over 100,000 Jews were massacred and their nation was forced into massive exile. Instead of trusting God, they had trusted an alliance with Egypt that never brought the expected protection. Today the United States has made alliances with other nations instead of turning to God for protection.
     Centuries later, on the 9th of Av 70 a.d., Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and its second temple, this time massacring a million Jews and triggering another massive exile. Other significant events occurred on the 9th of Av in Jewish history—the first Crusades began (1096), expulsion from Britain (1290) and Spain (1492), World War 1 erupted (1914), the ‘Final Solution’ for Holocaust was approved (1941), and Warsaw Ghetto exported Jews to extermination camps (1942). By the end of World War 11, about 6 million Jews lost their lives.
     The 9th of Av was the day that ten unbelieving Israelite leaders and their followers forsook the land God promised their forefathers. Like ancient Israelites and American inhabitants of this land before, so too has the United States forsaken the terms required to remain on this land by not serving “the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).
     “Repent ye and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you” (Mormon 5:24). Justice prevails when God raises up another people to humble those who refuse Him. “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).
     “If the Gentiles repent, it shall be well with them” but “whoso repenteth not must perish; therefore, woe be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 14:5–6). It will be a day of darkness and destruction when “the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled” (Ezekiel 30:3, ISV) because they are “filled with all manner of lyings and deceits” (3 Nephi 16:10). They will be trodden. “[I] will take away my [glory] from them and they shall be for a spoil. I will break down their sanctuaries and they shall be for a trampling.”

[God] commanded that whoso should possess the land should possess it unto the Lord, or they should be destroyed when they were ripened in iniquity; for upon such, saith the Lord: I will pour out the fulness of my wrath.

Whatsoever nation shall possess [this land] shall serve God or they shall be swept off . . . when they are ripened in iniquity . . . It is the everlasting decree of God . . . and this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles. (Ether 9:20, 2:10–11)

     This land, promised to Joseph of Egypt’s posterity, was dedicated to God on 30 April 1789 by George Washington, the first President of the United States. Millennia before, King Solomon similarly had dedicated Jerusalem’s temple mount but continued apostasy brought its utter destruction. God allows enemies to overcome His people when iniquity is full. Knowing much was at stake, Washington knew this nation would receive divine protection only if it remained loyal to Jesus Christ.
     Washington dedicated this land to God in his inaugural address at Federal Hall and later at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York, the exact location that 200 years later became known as ‘Ground Zero’ after the U.S.’s greatest terrorist attack occurred on 11 September 2001 (9/11). On that day of death and destruction, among other tragedies two World Trade Center towers, iconic symbols of their economic power and dominance, crumbled to dust in minutes—a type of what is to come if hearts remain hard. For a short time after 9/11, the shaken nation seemed to remember God, but even this terrible tragedy was not enough to return to Him.

For a moment, America appeared to be responding. The rush and clamor of its culture were stilled. Wall Street came to a standstill. Hollywood grew silent. Throughout the nation there was a noticeable and massive turning away from the superficial and to the spiritual. Even the name of God was taken out of the closet and publicly proclaimed from Capitol Hill to New York City. Multitudes sang ‘God Bless America’ and gathered for prayer. America’s houses of worship overflowed with throngs of people seeking to find solace.

In those first few days and weeks after 9/11, it seemed as though there might be a true national turning, a changing of course, an awakening—even a spiritual revival . . . [but] it was a spiritual revival that never came. And even the appearance of turning back was short-lived. It had no real root. There was no real change of heart or course, no searching of ways, no questioning if something could be wrong, no repentance . . . The nation would resume its departure from God and its rejection of His ways, only now with increased speed.

     This attack was a warning—their hedge was breached and their defenses failed—but the nation instead believed that danger had passed, that it was still a time of peace and prosperity. God hoped this tragedy would lead this nation back to Him but instead of a spiritual revolution, Americans were more determined than ever to rebuild their city and redefine their culture. This response was prophesied: “The bricks have fallen down but we will rebuild with hewn stones” (Isaiah 9:10), “the sycamores are cut down but we will change them into cedars” (KJV 2000). Ironically, Democratic party leaders quoted these exact words of scripture in their response to the attack, unknowingly fulfilling prophecy.
     They rebuilt a tower taller and stronger than the fallen towers, saying, “Let this great Freedom Tower show the world that what our enemies sought to destroy . . . stands taller than ever!” What could bring repentance instead increased defiance. Senator Kerry admitted it would “show the world we are not afraid—we are defiant!” The blinded nation did not see it as a warning. Americans would not forget what happened that day, but they would forget God in their efforts to repair and rebuild.
     The biggest change since 9/11 was not softened hearts, but the speed at which the nation accelerated into greater apostasy and more grievous rebellion. The next generation was taught to despise Christianity and its ways. The only acceptable mention of God in public is profaning His name. Bibles have been removed from hotels, schools, and public places. While soldiers in World War I brought a Bible to war, few dare bring one today. The faithful cannot trust the nation to defend their right to believe or worship according to past deference for religious freedom.
     Remember, the LDS church recently built a tower near the Salt Lake Temple, giving it the same name as the towers that fell on 9/11. That their towers fell is significant as their towers represent economic power. However, in scripture a tower can represent a holy place.
     In a modern parable “concerning the redemption of Zion,” God commanded watchmen to build a tower to prevent the enemy from ruining His vineyard. The Lord is a “strong” (Proverbs 18:10), safe “tower of salvation” (2 Samuel 22:51). He swore “by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower” (D&C 97:20), but people built their own. “While they were yet laying the foundation thereof, they began to say among themselves: and what need hath my lord of this tower?” They quit building the high tower before it was finished but still claimed authority and believed they could not fail. “Ought ye not to have done even as I commanded you . . . and built the tower also, and set a watchman upon the tower, and watched for my vineyard, and not have fallen asleep . . . The enemy came by night and broke down the hedge” and “destroyed their works, and broke down the olive-trees,” which is a “great evil” (D&C 101:51–53). It is the pattern of apostasy.

The original tower with its perfectly cut and well-fitted stones is soon to be taken from the earth, and in its place will remain only a second-class tower of defective stones which could not pass the test.

     “The Lord shall deliver up the sheep of his pasture and their fold and the tower thereof to destruction” (Barnabas 16:5)

“The Time Has at Last Arrived”
     Joseph lamented, “Why will not man learn wisdom by precept . . . and not be obliged to learn by sad experience?” They have chosen to learn the hard way. “In every vineyard there shall be lamentation when I reveal myself to perform vengeance and judgment in your midst.” Without His protection, the land will be laid waste (D&C 101:51).
     God’s voice of warning and wrath is heard in floods, earthquakes, fires, cosmic events, and extreme weather. Significantly, four blood moons occurred on four successive holy days in 2014–2015. A total solar eclipse eerily darkened the U.S. as it crossed the whole nation on 21 August 2017. Its ominous nature was confirmed by multiple national disasters that befell the nation immediately following the rare eclipse.
     The Book of Mormon warns of utter destruction when “the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right.” Once the majority and “voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land” (Mosiah 29:26–27). We must not believe that the U.S. must be spared for God repeatedly said all nations who fail to repent will pay for their sins. “The Gentiles should be destroyed also” (JST Matthew 21:56). Ancient nations on this land were warned of calamity if they resisted the call to repent. “Heavy destruction awaiteth this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, and nothing can save this people save it be repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Helaman 13:6).
     God will not deliver the rebellious. When King Nebuchadnezzar’s “heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him . . . till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men” (Daniel 5:20–21). Latter-day Gentiles are also at risk, for God warned, “Mine indignation is soon to be poured out without measure upon all nations and this will I do when the cup of their iniquity is full” (D&C 101:11).

With the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations. (D&C 87:6)

     Those conditionally on a choice land are obliged to honor the laws that made it a promised land to righteous forefathers. We have no claim to God’s land or His promises otherwise. In 1830 Joseph declared,

The time has at last arrived when the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob has set his hand again the second time to recover the remnants of his people . . . and establish that covenant with them, which was promised when their sins should be taken away.

This covenant has never been established with the house of Israel, nor with the house of Judah, for it requires two parties to make a covenant, and those two parties must be agreed or no covenant can be made. Christ, in the days of His flesh, proposed to make a covenant with them, but they rejected Him and His proposals, and in consequence thereof, they were broken off, and no covenant was made with them at that time.

Thus after this chosen [Israelite] family had rejected Christ and His proposals, the heralds of salvation said to them, ‘Lo we turn unto the Gentiles;’ and the Gentiles received the covenant, and were grafted in from whence the chosen family were broken off.

     Two hundred years ago, the Lord offered His covenant to Gentiles who, like Israel of old, have provoked Him by their vanity and unbelief. Nephi tells us exactly who these latter-day Gentiles are. They crossed “many waters” to come to a free land, separated from their progenitors. They smote but did not utterly destroy Lehi’s descendants who were on the land. Because of God’s protection, the Gentiles became exceedingly prosperous and beautiful, not oppressed by other nations. Alterations and misinterpretation of scripture were stumbling blocks to many who became part of the great and abominable church (1 Nephi 13).
     In scripture, a Gentile is one who has not embraced His gospel sufficient to receive its promises and blessings. They are to repent, come to Christ, have their sins remitted, and be numbered among Israel. In other words, a Gentile has not become Israel, which means “one who sees God” and stands on the watch tower: “In that day all who are found upon the watch-tower, or in other words, all mine Israel, shall be saved” (D&C 101:12).
     Latter-day Gentiles have now ‘rejected Him and His proposals’ too. Once they “began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation . . . the judgments of God did stare them in the face.” They were unaware they “had become weak” and “fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness” Because they did not “cleave unto the Lord their God they must unavoidably perish . . . Thus had they become weak because of their transgression, in the space of not many years” (Helaman 4:23–26). The Jews, Nephites, Jaredites, and Lamanites have received God’s wrath for their wickedness in refusing His covenant. Latter-day Gentiles will receive the same. “They keep defying him [as] what they say and do opposes the Lord” (Isaiah 3:8, ISV). Many who profess His name will not receive His promises. The wise know, “Corruptions have been practiced in our midst . . . as corrupt as hell itself.”

In the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord . . . Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities? (Jeremiah 8:12, 19)

     When we provoke Him instead of obey Him, penalties are fixed and sure. Curses will come although most believe they are secure in their standing before God. Penalties are fundamental to His gospel:

We believe that . . . when the gospel shall have been sufficiently proclaimed, if they reject it, they will be overthrown and destroyed; that plagues, pestilence, and famine will be multiplied upon them; that thrones will be cast down, empires overthrown, and nations destroyed; that when the Spirit of God ceases to restrain the people, the world will be full of blood, carnage, and desolation; that peace will be taken from the earth, and from among all people, religions, and irreligions. ‘It shall be as with the people, so with the priest’.

     “We believe the judgments of God, such as war, famine, pestilence, &c. are soon to be poured out upon the nations of the earth. Therefore the Lord is now saying by His Servants, ‘Come out of [Babylon], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not her plagues’.” But instead of heeding His call,

ye have rejected the truth and rebelled against your holy God; and even at this time, instead of laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven where nothing doth corrupt and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment. (Helaman 8:25)

     Disregarding His laws provokes God, who “brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them . . . There they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their sweet savour” to other gods (Ezekiel 20:28). The prosperity and strength of those who serve other gods will perish. Judgment must be unleashed on a rebellious world because God’s glorious kingdom cannot dwell in wickedness or “left to other people” (Daniel 2:44).

Satan has had the dominion over the world for centuries, and no nation or people has acknowledged God or bowed to his scepter. They have anointed their kings, they have hewn down and trampled upon the rights of man, and their hands reek with blood. In this condition they have had priests to come and anoint them kings! . . .

Who has had authority from heaven? Who has acknowledged God in all their ways? Has any kingdom or dominion under heaven? Not one! You go into any kingdom, or let a Prophet of God go into any cabinet, to any governor, or potentate, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord! and they would kick him out. Would they do it in the United States? They would anywhere . . . Has [Christ] had the dominion? If so, when and where has he had it? . . . The nations have ruled without him and taken to themselves the glory. They have assumed to themselves certain positions and powers, and, aided by their peers, lords, governors, and immediate associates, they have oppressed the human family, and brought them into bondage. The nations have forgotten God. They have forsaken God.

     Almost 200 years ago, Joseph mourned the nation’s path. “Oh, that I could snatch them from the vortex of misery into which I behold them plunging themselves by their sins; that I might be enabled by the warning voice to be an instrument of bringing them to unfeigned repentance, that they might have faith to stand in the evil day!”

If ye persist in your wickedness, your days shall not be prolonged in the land . . . If ye repent not they shall come in a time when you know not, and ye shall be visited with utter destruction, and it shall be according to the fierce anger of the Lord. For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities to destroy his people. Yea, after having been such a highly favored people of the Lord; yea, after having been favored above every other nation, kindred, tongue, or people . . . if ye will rebel against him, ye shall utterly be destroyed from off the face of the earth. (Alma 9:18–20, 23)

     If lesser judgments do not evoke the needed change to remain upon this land, greater destruction will follow. Only repentance stays His hand. “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him” (Deuteronomy 28:20, NIV). God “must needs destroy the secret works of darkness” to fulfill “my covenants which I have made” (2 Nephi 10:15).
     “Choose ye this day to serve the Lord God who made you” (Moses 6:33) but many deny He is their Creator. Since 2010, no less than seven times U.S. President Obama removed reference to God as Creator when quoting the Declaration of Independence. Acknowledging the Declaration or Constitution does not mean we uphold and preserve its laws. Founding fathers knew that “our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the governing of any other kind.” In 1838, Joseph Smith’s life was threatened for supporting its principles. How much worse it is today.
     In 2017, President Obama, who radically undermined the Constitution during his 8-year tenure, ironically admitted in his farewell speech that the Constitution is “a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We the People give it power . . . [and] meaning with our participation, with the choices we make, with the alliances we forge, whether or not we stand up for our freedoms, whether or not we stand up and enforce the rule of law.” If a nation recognizes the gift but refuses to honor His laws, God cannot permit them to remain on His land of promise.

National sins bring national judgments. Though sinners escape one judgment, another is waiting for them. When God’s professing people rebel against him, they may justly expect all his judgments . . . A people that had filled the measure of their sins was not to expect to escape.

     Man’s ways cannot bring peace, and ultimately will end in destruction and ruin. Witnessing his own people’s demise, Mormon described “an awful scene of blood and carnage” and knew that “these things must surely be made known” (Mormon 5:8) to warn future inhabitants of this land. “Why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain? . . . the sword of vengeance hangeth over you” (Mormon 8:40–41).
     The solution is simple: “Behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if you would keep his commandments, ye should prosper in the land” (Mosiah 2:22). But “if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land” (Jarom 1:10). “For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted” (Isaiah 60:12). Enemies overcome them when they are “fully ripe” (Alma 37:31). America must “serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether 2:8).

I have sworn, and the decree hath gone forth by a former commandment which I have given unto you, that I would let fall the sword of mine indignation in behalf of my people; and even as I have said, it shall come to pass.

Mine indignation is soon to be poured out without measure upon all nations; and this will I do when the cup of their iniquity is full. (D&C 101:10–11)

     Although a few believe, the majority do not. “They have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, but have walked after the imagination of their own heart” (Jeremiah 9:13–14). “You did not return to my worship, says the Lord.” Their places of worship will be destroyed too. Though given a merciful period to repent, they chose iniquity. “Ye put off the day of repentance until the day of your destruction came.” By failing to build both a nation under God and a house of God, promises of prosperity, peace, posterity, protection, and power must be withdrawn. “I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth” (D&C 19:5).

If the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them. (2 Nephi 1:10)

     Powerful faith and works of righteous forefathers paved the way for the Gentiles to receive His covenant, but wickedness forces God to invoke penalties and offer the covenant to another. Joseph explained,

The Gentiles have not continued in the goodness of God, but (1) have departed from the faith that was once delivered to the Saints, and (2) have broken the covenant in which their fathers were established (see Isaiah 24:5); and (3) have become high-minded, and (4) have not feared; therefore, but few of them will be gathered with the chosen family . . . Have not the pride, high-mindedness, and unbelief of the Gentiles provoked the Holy One of Israel to withdraw His Holy Spirit from them, and send forth His judgments to scourge them for their wickedness? This is certainly the case.

     Having “rejected every word of God, they were ripe in iniquity and the fulness of the wrath of God was upon them” (1 Nephi 17:35). By refusing His mercy, He must come for justice. “Their wickedness and abominations had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction” (Ether 14:25).
     “The God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people and he wept” (Moses 7:28). “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” (Jacob 5:41). “How could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!” (Mormon 6:17). His vineyard cannot remain under their care. They failed to bring forth good fruit so they will be destroyed. His kingdom will be given to another.

He will miserably destroy those wicked husbandmen and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Said the Savior in effect, This is a very righteous judgment; even so shall it be done unto you.

I blessed your fathers and established my covenant with them; sent my prophets and revealed my word unto you, their children, and have called upon you all the day long, but you have not brought forth the fruits of the kingdom; you have rejected and slain my prophets, and lastly, you have rejected the Son, therefore I say unto you, the kingdom shall be rent from your hands, and given to another people, who will bring forth the fruits thereof.

     This nation has repeatedly chosen to remove Jesus Christ from their life and their land. Refusing all that God gave to bring us into His presence is the ultimate provocation, rendering the Atonement of no effect.

The Provocation is anti-Atonement and anti-Christ . . . In various forms, the Provocation continues with us today. We recognize in ourselves the rejection of grace as we keep trying to struggle through life on our own judgment and power, keeping our own personal agenda on the throne.

Struggling alone without calling on God reflects the doctrine of the anti-Christ . . . We see in Israel’s provocations a key to understanding nearly every interaction between God and Israel recorded in the pages of the Bible. On the one hand, God’s whole efforts are bent toward helping the covenant people to prosper through His grace; on the other hand, Israel strives to be self-prospering. In the midst of abundant miracles and divine gifts, the persistent rejection of God’s grace is the [final] Provocation.

     What was to be His holy nation brought “a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day . . . I should remove it from before my face” (Jeremiah 32:31).

Mine eyes see and know all their works, and I have in reserve a swift judgment in the season thereof for them all . . . Their folly and their abominations shall be made manifest in the eyes of all people. (D&C 121:24, 35:7)

     They built a “pit of destruction” (Psalm 55:23) and will not “turn from these vanities unto the living God” (Acts 14:15). So “ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation” (Malachi 3:9). And so, thus saith the Most High:

They first transgress My laws, taking counsel unto themselves and walking in their own crooked paths and ways. And for this, My anger is greatly kindled. Unbelief and vanity hath plagued the souls of men since the very beginning, and it shall be the catalyst by which the final provocation comes. The final provocation is that which severs all ties to Me and My power. This has been seen in the numerous changes to the ordinances, the worship of men and money, and the desire to seek compromise.

Yet the greatest provocation is denying My Son, both in the flesh and in the spirit, for in Him is all power and truth and light. Not only do they refuse to hearken and heed His voice, but all that is His is of no worth to them. Seeking Him not shall bring darkness and despair upon a people and nation such as never has been known before.

For footnotes and references, click HERE.