Living Righteously in a Wicked World

While reading Moroni 7 this morning it occurred to me, Mormon, whom Moroni is quoting, is speaking in “Sacrament Meeting.” Moroni was old enough to take notes and remember this talk his father gave. I’ve written in previous times of the great lessons in the talk so I won’t restate them today. If you’d like to read them, here are links: Judging, and Faith, Hope and Charity.

What’s significant, is this is the time when Mormon wrote the Nephites were given over to awful depravity and wickedness. Mormon never mentions these good people and only hints at them when he recounts the awful losses at the Cumorah Massacre. So how could he speak in church in such a wicked society?

Mormon was the military commander of a nation at war. As such, he was exposed to the whole horror of a fallen people in a conflict which brought out their most wicked and vile aspects. Moroni was still at home and it's him who’s speaking now. His subjective experience of the Nephites was different. He saw and lived things which his father didn’t see. Moroni saw the righteous saints who lived in this world gone crazy with wickedness. That was the difference he needed to see this talk as important.

Because Moroni saw our day too, he felt impressed to use a lot of his precious remaining plate space to tell this story. Why? Because we would find ourselves living in a similar time. Think about it. We live in a world gone crazy where as Isaiah prophesied, “good would be called evil and evil good.” Just as those righteous few struggled to determine what was good and what wasn’t, we do too. Which is why this sermon, which touches on how to judge between good and evil, is so important.

The Paths We Choose

If you were to plot the righteousness of the Nephites and Lamanites as a line graph, you’d get something like a sine-wave drawn over time with increasing amplitudes. We can see this in the cyclic nature of the Nephite society.

Leading up to the Savior’s appearance, which ushers in a great high point, you have the low point of the Gadiantons destroying the government. You have the righteousness following the Sign of His birth. Before that the imminent massacre of the righteous. And so it goes. I’ve wondered what the lesson there are for us in that.

One the one hand, I think we’re in that descent into wickedness which parallels the Nephites' path before the destruction immediately preceding the Savior’s appearance. We need to be mentally ready for the long haul. Several years ago, Elder Packer said in a conference talk we live in times where our children and theirs can experience joy, but in a wicked world.

One the other hand our lives I think are like the sine wave too. As we mature, so does our understanding and the consequences of our choices for good or bad increase over time. Mistakes as a child don’t carry the consequences of mistakes as a teenage youth. And those mistakes don’t carry the consequences of those of an adult.

The Prophet Joseph once made the observation about people’s life choices. He said most are content to live in the valleys where the path undulates. It never gets bad, but neither do they ascend the spiritual heights to see the true grandeur and majesty of God. But for those hardy souls who choose to ascend the heights, they will see great things — at the cost of great risk and severe trials. Nephi saw the Lord. Yet he also dealt with his brothers, Laban, the Arabian peninsula and an ocean. Alma had a war, Ammonihah, and the Zoramites. Mormon and Moroni both had a war and Cumorah. Abinadi, Noah’s court. Even the Savior had Gethsemane and Golgotha. Should we expect less?

Put another way, any athlete will tell you, you pay a price to become great. Spiritual growth is no different -- especially today.

Samuel the Lamanite

The role reversal of the Nephites and Lamanites is on its greatest display with Samuel the Lamanite. During this time, the Lamanites repeatedly sent missionaries to the wayward Nephites. Samuel was one of them. Yet his prophecies have the singular distinction of being the only ones the Savior insisted on being added to the Nephite record. I’m certain this endorsement is why his words also made it into the Book of Mormon.

It makes me wonder why. One of the reasons why it’s there is a bitter pill, but I’m grateful for it just the same. Samuel tells the people the Lord loves the Nephites. Because of that love and their wickedness, He chastens them to get them back in line. I don’t know about you, but living so I don’t get chastened seems a lot smarter thing to do than living so I need it.

I hadn’t noticed until reading through this, but an observation on what the unbelievers were saying about Samuel’s prophecies shows unbelievers tactics haven’t changed. What they complained about then, they complain about today. To borrow from Ecclesiastes, “there’s nothing new under the sun.” What do I mean by this? Critics today dismiss the archeological bullseyes scored by the Book of Mormon. An example is their dismissal of Nahom, saying, “out of so many guesses, mere chance says he’d get one right. It’s still a work of fiction.” Mormon tells it this way: “Some things they may have guessed right, among so many; but behold, we know that these great and marvelous works cannot come to pass…”

One of the things which occurs to me as I read through this is virtually all the people, Nephite and Lamanite, are or were members of the church. Any who are not now are not by choice. Makes me think of something President Benson said in General Conference in April 1987 about the passage in the Book of Mormon leading up to 3 Nephi 11. He said, “The record of the Nephite history just prior to the Savior’s visit reveals many parallels to our own day as we anticipate the Savior’s second coming.” How true.

2 Nephi 19-23 - The Lesson Continues

In these chapters Isaiah hammers home the point that we need to trust God, to have faith in Him rather than in the wisdom of men and our pride. There is too much going on in these chapters to review them in any comprehensive way. Doing so requires books worth of ink and paper and a lifetime of pondering.

There’s a lot about the last days here. There’s the destruction of “Babylon” which is a type of the wicked and oppressive governments that exist in our day. There’s also mention of the purging wars waged by the wicked which hearken to Jacob 5’s references of the pruning of the orchard to clear out the evil branches to make room for the righteous. Revelations references to the dragon making war against the woman and the great destructions caused by the evil beasts also speak to this.

In the end, God delivers His people and they experience great peace.

On a personal level, which for me is where all this matters, is the lesson that all will go through adversity and faith challenging trials. The righteous will humble themselves and turn to God. Then, in the midst of great adversity, they will experience a peace which will cary them through these times. The wicked will turn to their own wisdom and suffer a different fate.

There repeats a series of punishments which end with the warning, “for this his hand is stretched out still.” I used to think this meant that despite these punishments, God’s hand of mercy was still extended if the people would repent. I can see how this is a correct interpretation. But I’ve also come to believe this interpretation, that despite all He’s done to get them to repent, He’s prepared to smite them again because they won’t.

The bottom line: everyone is going to experience trials. The great question is: how will we handle it? Will we take faith, turn to God for help and in the end enjoy great peace? Or will we ignore God and follow our own reason to spiritual death and destruction?

3 Nephi 6 - Our Day

In the keynote address of the April 1987 General Conference, President Benson said, "The record of the Nephite history just prior to the Savior's visit reveals many parallels to our own day." This chapter is the meat of that statement. As such it contains material that is cause for great concern with just a dash of hope.

The hope comes from showing what we must to do to remain faithful in such a wicked environment. In verse 13, he observes only charity: not returning railing for railing, being kind in the face of persecution is the only way the righteous remained so.

The rest of the chapter tells of wickedness being so prevalent and Satan's power over the people so great, the church is broken up. Eventually, it exists only among a few of the Lamanites. Later, when God wants to warn the people, He must choose righteous men since the church no longer has an effective voice.

We live in such days: we have many businesses, lawyers and a level of material wealth the world has not seen. Wickedness abounds and as Isaiah wrote, today that which God says is good is now considered evil. Debauchery and lasciviousness is considered acceptable entertainment. (50 Shades of Gray, anyone?)

Our government is disconnected from reality... many of us are. In my previous post, I commented on Giddianhi's letter. It's an outrageous declaration of beliefs not grounded in reality or sound thinking. But how different is it from what comes out of Washington DC?

The only safe path forward, is courageous, yet humble and committed adherence to Jesus Christ and His teachings.

Helaman 11-12 - The unsteadiness of man

In Chapter 12, Mormon decries the fallibity and wickedness of man, lamenting that even the dust of the Earth is greater than man because it obeys the voice of God. In chapter 11, Mormon recounts two complete cycles of wickedness/punishment/repentance and righteousness with a return to wickednes. It starts with the remarkable demonstration of the power God granted to Nephi over the elements when Nephi prays that God send a famine to end the bloodshed then occuring amongst the Nephites.

God hears Nephi and shuts the heavens causing a famine that last for several years leading to the deaths of thousands by starvation and the re-awakening in the people that they really are dependent upon God. They repent, both the Lamanites and the Nephites, resulting in a period where both nations are converted to the Lord, but then in a matter of a few years they slide back to where, at the end of the chapter they are waxing stronger in their pride and wickedness.

This is a sobering section to read since the applicability to our day is obvious: in our prosperity, how often and how quickly do we ever turn to God? While it's convenient and easy to say this is a societal problem, the truth is society is a collection of individuals including me. My behavior contributes to the behavior of the whole. Am I listening to God as I should? (No. Not nearly as much as I should.) Am I living the Gospel consistent with what I know? (Obviously No.) Am I at least trying to? (Not nearly as often as I should.) Alas, I fit Mormon's description when he says, "How quick to be lifted up in pride... how quick to boast... how slow to remember God and give ear unto His counsels."

Fortunately, God is merciful and very kind. While I'm grateful for that truth, that's a bank account I don't want to overdraw.

Helaman - 10: With Great Power

Imagine yourself walking along a street somewhere and God begins speaking to you and tells you, "I'm giving you my power over this people: to do whatever you want to them. Because," here's the catch, "I know you wont do anything I wouldn't approve of."

Now the back story: you've just finished a mission that has taken you throughout the entire nation and to cap the mission, you were arraigned in court for the murder of the Chief Judge of the land, think the President of the US for a comparison, and miraculously exhonerated. What do you do? Go home and catch your breath first then go out?

This happens to Nephi in Chapter 10, and what he did was head right back out on the road to tell the people what the Lord had told him to say. He never made it home. Talk about being a super hero!

When I casually read this, I get caught up in thinking how "cool" it would be to have that kind of power given to me by God. Fortunately for us all, that's never happened and not likely either, but it did for Nephi. It's instructive to see what he did with that and why he was given the power... God trusted him.

That's a high bar! But living so God trusts me enough that if it were ever necessary, He could give me that kind of power is something I aspire to. Said another way, I want to live so God holds me in the same esteem he had for Nephi. All I have to do is be righteous and tireless in doing only those things He approves of. Not. Sigh.

Helaman 6 - Willfull Disobedience

When we hear the truism about the Book of Mormon, that is was "written for our day," I wonder how much credence we give to it? As I look  back on what I've read, I see a symmetry between the events in the book and the history of our country. It's not exact by any means, but it's close enough and follows a pattern that has repeated throughout history.

It goes something like this: a nation is founded as a conglomerate of people who share a common set of beliefs join together. At first, idealism and a strong adherence to the founding principles knits the country together through a turbulent but mostly prosperous growth period. Then as the culture matures, a rot of first pride, then greed and corruption follow. It spreads from the cities out into the general populace. As it spreads, the original principles are abandoned for "new" and "enlightened" way of thinking, then the nation fails from the inside out leading to a period of anarchy and chaos until a new society springs up in its place.

As far as I can tell this happened at least four times in the Book of Mormon, first with the Jaredites, although if I spent more time thinking about it, I could identify several more of these cycles in their history. Then with the Nephites, you have the first reign of the Nephite Kings in the Land of Nephi. Then, after the Nephites flee the Land of Nephi before it is overrun by the Lamanites, they join to form the second reign of Kings and Judges with the Mulekites. The fourth starts when Jesus Himself comes after His ascension into Heaven to visit and teach the Nephites and Lamanites who survive the great destruction. At the end of this last cycle, the Nephites cease to exist as a society and the Lamanites degenerate to what was found when Columbus came.

In Helaman chapter six, the Nephites culture is degenerate and Nephi warns them of what is about to happen to them because they have deliberately turned away from God and what they know to be true. (v24 is particularly scathing.) I see this in our own country today. How many are abandoning their morals and values for money and the "nice things" of life? How many are ignoring their family for pornography and online gambling? How many are turning from the Gospel because they think they know better? I could go on, but this is enough to make the point: we are on the same trajectory.

The aim point identified by the Book of Mormon is not comforting.

Helaman 6 - Role Reversal

Helaman chapter six is extraordinary in the Book of Mormon because this is the first time in the history of the Lehites the Lamanites as a whole are more righteous than the Nephites. It's a powerful lesson on God's impartiality in that He blesses the righteous and witholds those blessings from the wicked.

The difference between the two is demonstrated throughout the chapter in how they individually respond to the secret combination, the Gadiantons. The now righteous Lamanites, when they discover them in their midst, do everything they can to eradicate them while the Nephites embrace them.

A geography note: before the ascendance of the Gadiantons, the Lamanites and Nephites experience several years of extraordinary prosperity because they are able to travel freely between both "nations." Here the land northward is named, the Land of Mulek and the land southward is named, the Land of Lehi.