John Quincy Adams, 6th
President of the United States, said this regarding the bible: “In what light
soever we regard it, whether with reference to revelation, to history, to
morality, or to literature, it is an inexhaustible mine of knowledge and
virtue.” I have the same sentiments about the Book of Mormon and think
that even the reader who doesn’t believe as I do that the Book of Mormon is of
divine origin, especially the reader who loves liberty, will find my references
to it below intriguing and thought provoking, if not illuminating.
The Book of Mormon details the rise
and fall of two ancient civilizations on the American continent, the Nephites
and Jaredites. It highlights in
particular the righteous and productive forces that enabled their growth and
prosperity as well as the evil and destructive forces that resulted in their downfall. Critical analysis of the accounts will reveal
obvious parallels that our nation is following, offer explanations for why
things have happened or are happening as they are and more alarmingly
foreshadow bleak and terrible days ahead if our people do not make the
necessary course corrections.
The Nephite civilization was delivered
from destruction and led to a land of promise, and after becoming a free
people, like the children of Israel, they began to serve other gods besides the
God of their fathers, “walking in their own way”, setting their bounds not
according to God’s will, but according to their own carnal desires. The
Jaredites civilization followed a nearly identical path. The prosperity and peace originally obtained
as a blessing from God through obedience to Him had become a stumbling block
and their hearts turned more and more to things of the world, to instant
gratification of the flesh rather than eternal reward and happiness. Thus
in turning from God they began to forfeit his blessings and mercy and reap the
demands of justice as prophets had warned over and over would happen:
“But if they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.” (Job 36:11-12)
“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the lord hath spoken it.” (Isaiah1:19-20)
“Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they serve him…it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.” (2 Nephi 1:7)See also Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, 1 Samuel 12:14-15, Matthew 7:24-27, Romans 2:2-11, Alma9:13, Ether 2:12.
Eventually, the Nephites were
annihilated in war, but not before their society descended into decadence and
their free government collapsed.
The initial crack in the dam leading
to eventual destruction was individual wickedness and apostasy from true
principles of their religion. A minority
condition at first, eventually it grew to the point that the vast majority of
citizens accepted or embraced the ever increasing iniquitous behavior in society. From the beginning, evil men worked to hasten
the elimination of virtue in society and set the conditions required for them
to achieve their satanic goal of gaining power and control over the people and
the fruits of their labors. To this end they
deliberately attacked faith in the existence of God, sought to silence any
public advocate of righteousness and virtue, and sought power and influence in
government by whatever means necessary including seduction of the people by
allowing them to share in their spoils.
The center of gravity in this political
struggle was belief in God. In attacking
this faith, the enemies of liberty denied His existence or twisted the truth of
His nature. They taught that belief in God was foolish and man must not
believe in anything he cannot verify or witness with his own senses. There was
no proof of God’s existence, they claimed, nor was there a transcendent
standard of good and evil, right and wrong. They re-framed the right to free exercise of
conscience to be only a right to free exercise of worship, and that in private,
outlawing any public intimation of religion due to the feigned offense it gave to
non-believers. They pretended that people
purporting to believe in a non-existent God did so in order to exercise control
and dominion over others through their churches and the morality that they
legislated. They denied faith; they denied the Holy Ghost; they denied
the Savior; they denied sin and convinced people it did not exist and there was
no reason to restrict it or seek forgiveness for it.
Because the truth had a tendency to
resonate with people and encourage belief in God, which resulted in public
virtue, they sought to silence the voice of believers through a court system
infested with unrighteous lawyers and judges. Motivated not by truth and
justice, but by prestige in skill of winning arguments and associated monetary
gain, unrighteous lawyers sought high profile cases in which to demonstrate
their skill and cunning devices in court, to get rulings tantamount to good
being evil and evil being good, which would swell their fame and increase their
earnings. Without conscience they applied their art to make people cross
their words or contradict themselves, fabricating evidence to make the innocent
appear guilty, or the guilty go free. Unrighteous judges rendered
judgment not according to the laws and justice, but according to their own
whims or interests, inventing authority and setting the law at naught for
personal gain, fame and power. Evil men thereby
eliminated enemies and stole property in collusion with these judges under the
guise of the law and justice.
Conspiring men did whatever was
necessary to gain access or placement in government in order to turn it to
their uses in plundering more and more property and wealth from others. These means frequently included murder as was
the tradition of such men from the time of Cain to present. Even as their actions and designs became more
apparent, they enjoyed swelling popular support as policies of redistribution
of wealth gave promise to the indolent and covetous among them that they could
reap without sewing, get something for nothing, and have perpetual entitlement to
eat the bread of another man’s labor.
In this environment of greed and
wickedness, the would-be tyrants corrupted the laws and government, despoiled the
industrious in society, criminalized opposition and ultimately brought upon the
nation the judgments of God. The people
suffered judgment in loss of liberty and subjection to an unrighteous ruling class. They suffered judgment in drought, famine and
wrecked economy. There was no peace
among them within or without. War
continually afflicted them until ultimately the sword devoured them,
eliminating their wickedness from the face of the earth.
He who hath ears, let him hear; who
hath eyes, let him see.
Have the forces of political
correctness in our day silenced objection to vice and wickedness in our society? Has the Christian virtue of tolerance been redefined
to mean “acceptance”, further minimizing opposition to the evil trends in our
society? Are basically good people
hamstrung by the fallacy that to discriminate between good and bad, a
requirement of choosing the right, is contrary to the teaching of Christ to “not
judge”, and therefore stand silent so as not to be condemned publicly for “discrimination”
and “intolerance”? Are we complacent in
our defense of liberty, and the public virtue required for its preservation?
I conclude with the following
warning and admonition from two inspired and righteous men.
“We are too “broad minded” to challenge what we do not believe in. We are afraid of being thought intolerant – uncouth – ungentlemanly. We have become lukewarm in our beliefs. And for that we perhaps merit the bitter condemnation stated in the Book of Revelations 3:16: ‘So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.’” (Ezra Taft Benson)
“Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well.” (Thomas S. Monson)
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