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.

Mosiah 9-11 - Noah and Abinadi A Contrast of Opposites

Abinadi is one of my favorite prophets in the Book of Mormon. Though he likely never saw the good he did before he was killed by the wicked king, Noah. Next to Nephi, he is one of the most influential prophets in all the history of the Nephites.

I give that honor to him because it was through him that Heavenly Father reached Alma. Though he sealed his testimony to Noah with his life, that one conversion he made led to a dynasty of prophets.

Noah is one of just three wicked government leaders who are treated in more than just passing by Mormon. (The others are Amalikiah, and Zoram.) I’ll talk of the other two later once I get into the Book of Alma, but these three share a common trait, which is why I think Mormon mentioned them. Not only were they wicked, but they led their society into wickedness too.

Noah legitimized debauchery and alcohol for his people. He appointed wicked advisors who judged and ruled the people in accordance with his desires. In this environment, most of the people followed after him into wickedness until Abinadi was called of God to warn them. Noah, like the other two leaders, is an example of what one wicked man, when placed in power, can have over a nation.

Think of that when you vote this year.

The last thing I want to mention is Abinadi’s warning. The first time he comes, he warns the people if they don’t repent, they will be brought into bondage. The people ignore his warnings. Two years later he returns. And that’s my topic for my next entry.

Ether 9-11 - The Age of Kings

These thee chapters in Ether cover hundreds, if not more than a thousand, years of time telling the genealogy of a succession of Jaredite kings. Some were righteous, most were not. The common thread running through it all is the Lord always strives to teach and bring us, His children, back to Him. Most of the time, we’re to busy to bother.

He often has to resort to pain and suffering to get our attention. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.

When a society ignores the Lord, just as certain as gravity pulls us down, it descends into darkness, materialism, anger and war. The headlines of newspapers and the internet show we are well on that path to war. Secret combinations rage. People are focused on ephemeral interests of no lasting value, totally absorbed in the goal, “I’m gonna’ get what’s mine, no matter what it costs anyone else…”

Such are our days. Yet in all that darkness, there were still prophets and enough who listened that the Gospel of Jesus Christ endured. So it is with us, though we live in times of darkness, we can still have a personal relationship with the Savior. It won’t spare us the difficulties of this day, but it gives us hope to endure it well.

Ether 8 - Secret Combinations

If the account the Savior’s visit to the children of Lehi is the apex of the Book of Mormon, Ether 8 is the nadir. In it is the account of the formation of a secret combination that destroys the Jaredites. This practice of conspiring to trade blood for money and fame destroyed the Nephites and Lamanites. It is also destroying us.

Along the way, it is a powerful example that gross wickedness is not only a man’s game. Both sexes are capable of committing horrible sin. In this instance this great evil is inspired by a daughter who’s ambition was to please her father. Talk about twisted values!

The casual nature of marriage and polygamy in the Jaredite culture comes to light in this story. From Akish’ stature and prominence, he surely was already married when he asked for the daughter of Jared. Yet the simple act of dancing… it must have been quite the dance, was enough to inspire him to want her. It says something about him too for I doubt he was thinking, "she will be a great mother for my children," as she gyrated in front of him.

I can’t help but think, Moroni felt passionately about this episode, for it was a secret combination that destroyed his people and took from him everything in this life he valued. He wants us to know just how deadly dangerous these are. He saw our day, he knew from painful, personal experience their true nature. And so, across the centuries he warns us to be more wise than they were.

Will we?

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 7-9 - The Futility of Hiding From God

These three chapters comprise the account of Nephi warning the people of God's judgements that are coming to them because of their rejection of Christ. As proof of the truthfulness of his words, he tells them of the murder of Seezoram the Chief Judge by his brother Seantum. The remainder of the chapters describe the account of the five who are sent to prove what Nephi said, their capture and the eventual exhoneration of both them and Nephi when Seantum is caught and confesses his guilt.

The main story is evidence of God knowing all that happens. My sense from the account is God knows things in real-time, as they happen. Additionally, there are some nuggets on human nature and a peek into things the Nephites knew in their scripture, which we don't have in ours. That's what I want to delve into today...

Human nature: the wicked, in this case, the Gadiantons are cowards. Rather than confront Nephi directly and go head to head against him, they try to incite the people against him so they can use the power of their office to silence him. Their resolve is foiled because Nephi convinces enough that they dare not act out of fear of the political cost such actions would exact. We see this today in our politicians who are on the whole cowards who hide their true selves by the trappings of their office and their "leadership" just rides safely within the swells of public opinion.

Human nature: the wicked seek to control people through anger and fear, while they are controlled by fear of the loss of power. It's true for them and us: what do you see in the news today? Stories that incite fear or anger or both. By doing that, they shape and influence our thoughts and subsequently our actions. Faith in God however, gives us the power to go against this to do what is right.

Human nature: don't underestimate people's ability to forget and ignore the obivous when it doesn't server their selfish ambitions. The Nephites, who less than ten years earlier had lost half their country to the Lamanites were boasting of the might of their cities and how they coulnt' be captured.

The nugget: In the middle of the story, as Nephi testifies of how many witnesses in the scriptures there are of the coming of Christ (a lot more than what we have in our Bible, by the way) there's a comment in Helaman 9:18 where he says, "a great many thousand years before his coming," prophets testified of it. How many years do you think that means? I'd dare say, that in reality, prophets have been testifying of Christ's coming from the beginning of recorded history. While modern Bible scholars say the earliest written text of the Bible probably occurred some 1800 years BCE, about the time of the establishment of the Davidic Kingdom, the scriptures tell us these prophecies were written from the time of Adam.

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.

Helaman 4 - A warning for our day

This is a sad chapter to read that is also a dire warning to us. Dissenters incite the Lamanites again to come to war against the Nephites. While this is nothing new, what is interesting is the first time they try, the Lamanites refuse because they are afraid of the Nephites. It’s not until another group of dissenters come that they finally succeed in getting the Lamanites angry enough to go to war.

I think it interesting that of all the tools Satan uses to control people, the one that is most successful in getting one group to kill another is anger. In our day, agitators use the bromide “we have been oppressed for too long, so let us do what we must to right this wrong." Then, in the name of justice they attack, harm and destroy innocent people. 

Like today, those early agitators were always members of the society they attacked. Rarely did the Lamanites start a war with the Nephites rather it was the Nephite dissenters. Today is no different as most agitators live well while their followers live in squalor or far below them financially. While claiming to help them, they abuse them for their personal political aims all the while inciting them against a group of people they claim are their oppressors.

The other powerful message of Helaman chapter four is a dire warning to the church about pride and wickedness. Unlike earlier wars, this time the Lamanites are successful and take control of more than half the Nephite lands. Mormon observes they did so because the Nephites, especially those who claimed membership in the church had become as wicked as the Lamanites. He also noted the church began to dwindle not only in numbers but personal righteousness. They did so because they quit believing in the revelations and denied the Holy Spirit. 

The Lord quit helping them because of their pride in their wealth, their oppression of the poor and their mocking of their humble, devout brethren. Err we are aware, it will be the same for us.