The angel asks Nephi if he remembers the covenants God made
with Israel. He was told to look and he
saw the great and abominable church. Its
founder is the devil. It becomes clear
there are only two churches. One is
Christ’s church and the other is the devils.
If you don’t belong to Christ’s church, you belong to the church of the devil.
For
the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain,
and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are
built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the
lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of
iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are
they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought
low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is
according to the words of the prophet.
1 Nephi 22:23
And
the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled,
because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many
churches; nevertheless, they put down the power and miracles of God, and preach
up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get
gain and grind upon the face of the poor.
2 Nephi 26:20
Yea,
it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches
become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a
day when leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their
hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches.
Mormon 8:28
Wherefore,
he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both
male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the
earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.
2 Nephi 10:16
The church of the devil is the “mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth” (1
Nephi 14:10).
With
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of
the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit
upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns.
And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of
abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
And
upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Revelation 17:2 - 5
Mack Stirling writes:
Nephi describes the division of
mankind into two churches: the church of the Lamb of God, composed of the
saints of God, and the great and abominable church of the devil, composed of
everyone else (see 1 Nephi 14:10–12). The church of the devil is an enemy to
the church of the Lamb (see 1 Nephi 13:4–9, 26–28; 14:3, 12–14). Its members
are undoubtedly the natural men described by King Benjamin as enemies to God
and, by extension, to the church of the Lamb … It follows that the church of
Christ consists of those who hearken to the voice of Christ and the church of
the devil consists of the natural men who hearken to the voice of the devil.[1]
[1] The
Way of Life and the Way of Death in the Book of Mormon, Mack C. Stirling,
Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed March 7, 2013.
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