2 Nephi 26:21-25

The day will come when the Gentiles will face challenges and stumbling blocks.  One of these will be the churches.  There will be many churches built, but they will not be built unto the Lord.  In fact, these churches will be responsible for the problems they face.  They will be responsible for envyings, strifes, and malice. 

Paul warned:  “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark [GR watch, beware of] them which cause divisions [GR stumbling blocks, scandals] and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple [GR innocent, guileless]” (Romans 16:17-18).

In addition to the problems that will be caused by the churches, secret combinations will continue to plague society.  The devil the founder of these groups, groups involved in murder and works of darkness.  They devil leads them “by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his stronger cords forever” (2 Nephi 26:22).

Nephi would later write:

For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish;

For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

2 Nephi 28:19-21

Richard Rust discussed secret combinations.

The nature, rise, and effect of secret combinations is a third significant type of narrative that is reinforced and confirmed by repetition. Jacob anticipates the problem of Gadiantonism when he warns the Nephites about the devil's stirring up secret combinations (2 Nephi 9:9). Likewise, Nephi's prophecies of secret combinations among the Gentiles and Alma's testimony that the Jaredites were destroyed because of their secret works (2 Nephi 26:22; Alma 37:30) prefigure the effect such works of darkness will have on the Nephite nation. The character of secret combinations is presented dramatically and frighteningly in the detailed accounts of Kishkumen and Gadianton and their band (Helaman 2–16) and of Akish's machinations (Ether 8). One account confirms the other.[1] 

Secret combinations work in secret.  They hide their membership; the do their works in secret.  Nephi reminds us, unlike the secret combinations, “the Lord God worketh not in darkness” (2 Nephi 26:23).

The Lord has one purposed.  He does nothing unless we benefit this.  Ammon would proclaim, “Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth.  Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever” (Alma 26:37).

Christ made clear that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  He explained “if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).

Jacob taught, “Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him” (2 Nephi 9:5). 

The beauty and power of Christ’s offer is that salvation is an offer, nothing more; nothing less.  Lehi taught, “men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27). 

Christ welcomes all people.  He turns none who come to Him away.

Elder Neal Maxwell told us:

Nephi tells us that God "doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world" (2 Nephi 26:24). The knowledge concerning God's plan of salvation, repeatedly and carefully set forth in the Book of Mormon, can counter the hopelessness and despair of some who lament the human predicament in which they feel mortals are "conceived without consent" and "wrenched whimpering into an alien universe."¹ So many mortals desperately need to know there is divine design. No wonder the Lord told Joseph Smith that the Restoration came to increase faith in the earth! (see Doctrine and Covenants 1:21).[2]

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[1] "To Show unto the Remnant of the House of Israel" - Narrators and Narratives,  Richard Dilworth Rust, Maxwell Institute, accessed November 16, 2013.

[2] By the Gift and Power of God, Neal Maxwell, Maxwell Institute, accessed November 16, 2013.