How, he asks, could they have forgotten the Lord on the day
they were delivered? Isaiah warned the Israelites the consequences of
forgetting the Lord. “Because thou [IE Israel] hast forgotten the God of thy
salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore
shalt thou plant pleasant plants [HEB thou dost plant ... i.e., practice
idolatrous things], and shalt set it with strange slips” (Isaiah 17:10).
They are more interested in the praise of men and obtaining
gold and silver. “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on
him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42-43).
“For do I now persuade [GR appease, aspire to the favor of]
men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not
be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).[1]
“And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed,
because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden
paths and were lost” (1 Nephi 8:28).
“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).
They are more interested in the riches and vain things. To get
these, they murder, plunder, steal, lie and do all manner of sin.
Because of their wickedness, they will experience great
sorrow unless they repent. “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the
midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of
the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,
which are yet to sound” (Revelation 8:13).
“Verily, I say unto you, that woe shall come unto the
inhabitants of the earth if they will not hearken unto my words” (D&C 5:5).
Their great cities throughout the land will be lost. “Therefore
they did cry unto the people, saying: Why do you suffer [Nephi2] to
revile against us? For behold he doth condemn all this people, even unto
destruction; yea, and also that these our great cities shall be taken from us,
that we shall have no place in them” (Helaman 8:5).
The Lord will not give them the strength he has in the past.
They will not be able to defeat their enemy. “For behold, the Lord hath said: I
will not succor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge
up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a stumbling
block before them” (Mosiah 7:29).
The Lord will only strengthen those who repent and listen to
His words. Again, we see the Lord holding up the Lamanites as an example. The
Lamanites will better off than the Nephites unless they repent. Samuel the
Lamanite will give the Nephites the same message. “Therefore I say unto you, it
shall be better for them than for you except ye repent” (Helaman 15:14).
Unlike the Nephites, the Lamanites did not against the
knowledge the Lord has given them. “For there are many promises which are
extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the traditions of their fathers
that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance; therefore the Lord will
be merciful unto them and prolong their existence in the land” (Alma 9:16).
When the Lamanites increase because of their righteousness
while the Nephites will be destroyed unless they repent. “For he will not
suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say
unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his
people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could
fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much
knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God” (Alma 9:19).
Nephi referred to the secret band led by Gadianton as a
great abomination. As far back as during the beginning of the Nephite
society. “Wherefore, for this cause,
that my covenants may be fulfilled which I have made unto the children of men,
that I will do unto them while they are in the flesh, I must needs destroy the
secret works of darkness, and of murders, and of abominations” (2 Nephi 10:15).
“And it came to pass in the forty and ninth year of the
reign of the judges, there was continual peace established in the land, all
save it were the secret combinations which Gadianton the robber had established
in the more settled parts of the land, which at that time were not known unto
those who were at the head of government; therefore they were not destroyed out
of the land” (Helaman 3:23).
They will suffer because of their wickedness and
abominations.
Unless they repent, they will be destroyed. Their lands will be taken from them.
Nephi makes the source of his knowledge. His words “are true because the Lord God has
made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be” (Helaman
7:29).
[1] For
do I now please men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet
pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Joseph Smith Translation,
Galatians 1:10).
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