In spite of the wicked’s best efforts, the Book of Mormon
will be made available to all. The “blood” of the righteous will cry to the
Lord.
The blood of the saints crying to the Lord will most
certainly be heard. “And [the Lord] said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy
brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held:
“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord,
holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on
the earth” (Revelation 6:9-10).
“Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this
manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their
hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their
works shall be in the dark.
“And the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground
against them” (2 Nephi 28:9-10).
“And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret
combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation,
behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of
his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the
ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not” (Ether 8:22).
The Book of Mormon will come forth in the day God’s power
will be denied. The Savior discussed the prophecies of Isaiah.
“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which
saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall
see, and shall not perceive:
“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:14-15).
“For the Gentiles, a purpose of the Book of Mormon is to
convince ‘that Jesus is the CHRIST’ (title page). The Book of Mormon would come
forth, Moroni declares prophetically, ‘in a day when it shall be said that
miracles are done away’ (Mormon 8:26). For Gentiles who profess a belief in
Jesus but deny his power (see Mormon 8:28), the Book of Mormon convincingly
testifies of a ‘God of miracles’ (Mormon 9:11). In addition to a spiritual
witness, various elements of design confirm Christ's divinity and power.
“The book itself is a miracle, coming, Moroni says, ‘even as
if one should speak from the dead’ (Mormon 8:26). Its most prominent parts
affirm the miraculous: the repeated exodus theme, including the escape by day
of Alma and his people from their taskmasters (Mosiah 24:19-21); the freeing of
prophets from prison; angelic visitations to Nephi, Alma, Amulek, and others;
and, the most miraculous event of all, the personal visit of the resurrected
Christ to the people.”[1]
Churches, as well as their leaders and teaches will be built
upon pride.
“And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold
that great and abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose
founder is the devil.
“And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches
only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of
the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God
belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is
the whore of all the earth” (1 Nephi 14:9-10).
“For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches
which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the
other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the
Lord’s; and thus shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto
the Lord” (2 Nephi 28:3).
“And my vineyard has become corrupted every whit; and there
is none which doeth good save it be a few; and they err in many instances
because of priestcrafts, all having corrupt minds” (D&C 33:4).
“And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most
pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have
obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the
pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the
costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that
ye are better than they” (Jacob 2:13).
“The secondary audiences of the Book of Mormon are the Jews
and the Gentiles. To the first of these, the book testifies that ‘Jesus is the
very Christ’; to the second, that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God’ (2
Nephi 26:12). As the Savior said to the Nephites regarding the Jews, ‘The time
cometh, when the fulness of my gospel shall be preached unto them; and they shall
believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall pray unto the
Father in my name’ (3 Nephi 20:30–31). For Gentiles who profess a belief in
Jesus but deny his power (Mormon 8:28), the Book of Mormon testifies of a “God
of miracles” (Mormon 9:11).”[2]
There will also be fires ant tempests. “And I will shew
wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke”
(Joel 2:30). Vapor of smoke will be seen in foreign lands. “For thus spake the
prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day,
some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and
salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by
tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of
the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up” (1 Nephi 19:11).
“And they shall see signs and wonders, for they shall be
shown forth in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath.
“And they shall behold blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke”
(D&C 45:40-41).
There will wars, rumors of wars, as well as earthquakes in
that day.
“Frye defines apocalypse, the Greek word for revelation, as ‘the
vision of staggering marvels placed in a near future and just before the end of
time.’ It ‘ends with the restoration of the tree and water of life.’ The last
three books of the Book of Mormon—those of Mormon, Ether, and Moroni—contain
both of these aspects of the apocalyptic vision. The marvels are the
destructions of two great civilizations presented first by Mormon and ended by
his son. These destructions are types of the end-time ‘wars, rumors of wars,
and earthquakes in divers places’ before ‘that great day when the earth shall
be rolled together as a scroll, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat’
(Mormon 8:30; 9:2).”[4]
[3] Chapter 22:
Last Call: An Apocalyptic Warning from the Book of Mormon, The Prophetic
Book of Mormon, Hugh Nibley.
[4] “At the Judgment-Seat of Christ” – Larger Perspectives, Feasting on
the Word, Maxwell Institute website.
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