After warning that the fate of the wicked is destruction,
Nephi writes, “if the inhabitants of the
earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations they shall not be
destroyed” (2 Nephi 28:17). Here, again,
we see that the destruction promised by the Lord for the wicked will not occur
if they wicked simply repent!
Ultimately, the great and abominable church of the devil
must be destroyed. It is referred to as “the whore of all the earth” (2 Nephi 28:18). John wrote, “For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great
whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the
blood of his servants at her hand” (Revelation 19:2).
Nephi was told by the angel guiding him through his great
vision:
And
that great pit, which hath been digged for them by that great and abominable
church, which was founded by the devil and his children, that he might lead
away the souls of men down to hell—yea, that great pit which hath been digged
for the destruction of men shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their
utter destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the soul, save
it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end…
And
when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of
harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose
founder is the devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence,
in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to
his people who are of the house of Israel.
1 Nephi 14:3, 17
It has always seemed appropriate that the church of the
devil would be referred to as a whore. As
we’ve been studying Nephi’s words in Chapter 28, we learn that the wicked will
do what they do for power and gain. There’s
something in it for them. They sell
their souls to devil. A very appropriate
analogy.
The day will come when the devil’s kingdom will shake,
attempting to stir up his follower to repentance. Nephi told his brethren:
And
the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be
confounded. But it is the kingdom of the
devil, which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is
established among them which are in the flesh—
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 22:22-23
Following Alma2, Amulek taught the people, “For behold, if ye have procrastinated the
day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to
the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the
Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all
power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked” (Alma 34:35).
If those following the devil refuse to repent, they will
become wrapped in his chains forever. When
offered the kingship by his people, Alma1 refused and told them, “And now I say unto you, ye have been oppressed
by king Noah, and have been in bondage to him and his priests, and have been brought
into iniquity by them; therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity” (Mosiah
23:12).
Confronting Zeezrom, Alma2 explained what is
meant by the chains of hell. “And they that will harden their hearts, to
them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning
his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his
will down to destruction. Now this is
what is meant by the chains of hell” (Alma 12:11).
Elder Neal Maxwell explained how to avoid these “stumbling
blocks.”
Earlier, Nephi wrote of how the
Lord would, "in word, and also in power," remove stumbling blocks in
order to help some people believe (1 Nephi 14:1). In our time, the prevailing
intellectual pattern is secular, and an "exceedingly great many do
stumble" over and experience difficulty in accrediting and taking
seriously revelations and sacred records (1 Nephi 13:29). Nephi also advised
that the Lord will stir, even "shake," the kingdom of the devil in
order to help bring some therein to repentance, which is a topic for another
time (2 Nephi 28:19). For the meek, however, the Book of Mormon removes some
very large stumbling blocks…”[1]
[1] King
Benjamin's Sermon: A Manual for Discipleship, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Maxwell Institute,
accessed December 2, 2013.
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