On our way back to Chico from Sacramento last night, Corrina and I were discussing many things and Corrina had an epiphany that we were then able to elaborate. She said something along the lines that we can see parrallels between events in the Book of Mormon and what is happening to the USA today, specifically regarding Heavenly Father's promise regarding the land. IT was an amazing moment of clarity and understanding that I thus expanded on it with regards to the Nephite pride cycle. What we came up with follows:
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In innumerable places within the Book of Mormon, the Lord promises the prophet at the time "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land, but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence." (cf. 2Ne. 1:20) That promise isn't exclusive of the Nephites or even of antiquity. The Book of Mormon, remember, was written for OUR day.
Additionally, the term "Nephite Pride Cycle" is a misnomer. There is nothing uniquely Nephite about it. What it should be called is "The Curse of the Promised Land". Just as it says in the Book of Mormon:
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things (emphasis added). If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
15 And to bring about his eternal purpose in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.
Any time a people is given the blessing of receiving a promised land, the curse that follows inevitably with is is the pride cycle. You are given a land just for you, you get prideful about it, you get slothful, you get destroyed, you repent, it starts all over. The Nephites weren't the only ones that this happened to. It happened to the Jaredites thousands of years before Lehi. It may have even happened to the Mulekites, although they kept no records so we're not really sure. It happened to the Israelites when they were given their Promised Land. The author of the Proverbs said it succinctly:
18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
And we would all be very naive if we thought that we, as citizens of the United States, are immune from this curse. Nephi saw our day and received a revelation of the colonizing and founding of this country. Could we not then say that we were given this as a promised land?
12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.
13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.
14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.
15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.
16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
We have become prideful and slothful and are letting the central government take more and more power away from the citizenry. And what has the government been doing with this power? sowing the seeds of destruction: spending money it doesn't have, bowing down to dictators, refusing to admit that we have enemies, shirking its responsibility to be a force to be reckoned with on the global stage. The list goes on and on. Let me know what you think. Am I right? Am I off base? Let me know
Missionary Call
12 years ago
3 comments:
Very Eye opening you two. I don't think people in the church who are democratic look at it this way...hope I don't offend with that one. Oh well.
Atta-Boy Dave. I couldn't agree more with you. I, too, have had some very similar thoughts on the current situation we find ourselves in.
It is perfectly captured in Helaman and personified in the movie "The Testaments." I used to wonder how the Nephites felt shortly before the Lord returned. I thiink I am starting to get a glimpse.
Once I read through the Book of Mormon, reading the Book of Ether near the end of the Mosiah where the account of the plates of Ether coming to the people in Zerahemla is given. Adding this account to the account of King Noah gave more meaning to the last chapter of Mosiah where Mosiah ends the kingdom of Nephi and sets up the "Reign of the Judges" - a free government by law instead of by monarch, with checks and balances. Mosiah 29:26-27 my favorite verse in the Book of Mormon relating to our duty as saints and citizens.
26 Now it is not common that the aoice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
27 And aif the time comes that the 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.
I often pair this with a favorite quote often attributed to Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (From wikipedia I learned that this phrase might not originate with Burke at all, but expresses a similar statement as Burke said in, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.")
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