The time came when the Nephites began to repent. They filled
the prophecies of Samuel the prophet. Possessions were lost and never found.
Samuel had prophesied the day would come where “if a man
hide up a treasure in the earth, and the Lord shall say—Let it be accursed,
because of the iniquity of him who hath hid it up—behold, it shall be accursed”
(Helaman 12:18).
“And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Hosts, yea,
our great and true God, that whoso shall hide up treasures in the earth shall
find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land …
“And the day shall come that they shall hide up their
treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; and because they
have set their hearts upon their riches, and will hide up their treasures when
they shall flee before their enemies; because they will not hide them up unto
me, cursed be they and also their treasures; and in that day shall they be
smitten, saith the Lord” (Helaman 13:18, 20).
Mormon referred to these events earlier in his book. “And
these Gadianton robbers, who were among the Lamanites, did infest the land,
insomuch that the inhabitants thereof began to hide up their treasures in the
earth; and they became slippery, because the Lord had cursed the land, that
they could not hold them, nor retain them again” (Mormon 1:18).
The Jaredites also experienced the same events. “And now
there began to be a great curse upon all the land because of the iniquity of
the people, in which, if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his shelf,
or upon the place whither he would keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could
not find it, so great was the curse upon the land” (Ether 14:1).
Because of these events, the people were saddened because
they lost their possessions.
Mormon was pleased to see the people’s response to these
events. He assumed the Lord would show His mercies to the Nephites as they were
becoming a righteous people.
Mormon soon realized their repentance was not sincere. They did not desire God’s forgiveness. They were saddened because they were not able
to have happiness in their sin. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2
Corinthians 7:10).
“And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they
howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they
rebel against me” (Hosea 7:14).
“Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning
restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say
unto you, wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10).
“[T]heir sorrow sprang from not being able to reorder the
universe to suit themselves. They felt the full depth of anguish, but it was
because God and his justice proved supreme.”[1]
The refused to come to Jesus with a broken heart and
contrite spirit. They cursed God and continued their wars.
Mormon realized “the day of grace was passed with them”
(Mormon 2:15). Samuel the Lamanite spoke
of this day. “But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have
procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late,
and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your
lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in
doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which
is in our great and Eternal Head” (Helaman 15:38).
“The Nephites had reached the point of no return, and Mormon
simply wished they’d get wiped out. There is nothing more terrifying than that,
nor more vivid or to the point.”[2]
Thousands died in open rebellion against God.
“There comes a time when the general defilement of a society
becomes so great that the rising generation is put under undue pressure and
cannot be said to have a fair choice between the way of light and the way of
darkness. When such a point is reached the cup of iniquity is full, and the
established order that has passed the point of no return and neither can nor
will change its ways must be removed physically and forcibly if necessary from
the earth, whether by war, plague, famine, or upheavals of nature (Mormon
2:13—15).”[3]
[1] Hubris
and Atē: A Latter-day Warning from the Book of Mormon, Richard D. Draper,
Maxwell Institute website.
[2] Warfare and the Book
of Mormon, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute website.
[3] An
Approach to the Book of Mormon – The Flight into the Wilderness, Hugh
Nibley, Maxwell Institute website.
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