Moroni is speaking to us today. He knew we would have this
record and we would read his words. He knew because he saw us and our day. He
was shown what the world would be like in our day.
“Of course, Mormon and Moroni were writing for a future
time. They had to be. Mormon did most of his writing during the long lull
before what he knew would be an exterminating battle, and Moroni’s writings are
those of the lone wanderer destined to bury his precious work in the earth. From
title page to parting words, father and son make clear that what they are
inspired to include is first to the latter-day Lamanites and then to latter-day
Gentiles and Jews. They speak as though ‘from the dead’ to an audience living
many generations hence (Mormon 9:30). In prophetic collapsed time, Moroni
speaks to this audience ‘as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold,
Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing’ (Mormon 8:35).”[1]
He sees we are a proud people, walking with pride in our
hearts. This will only lead us to walking in darkness. “They know not, neither
will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the
earth are out of course” (Psalms 82:5).
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of
the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life” (John 8:12).
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
Only a few do not lift themselves up in pride. “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).
“And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you:
At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the
fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above
all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled
with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of
hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret
abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the
fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my
gospel from among them” (3 Nephi 16:10).
One sign of their pride is the wearing of “fine apparel.”
This has always been a sign of Nephite wickedness.
“They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they
rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and
the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up” (2 Nephi 28:13).
“And now my beloved brethren, I say unto you, can ye
withstand these sayings; yea, can ye lay aside these things, and trample the
Holy One under your feet; yea, can ye be puffed up in the pride of your hearts;
yea, will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your
hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon your riches” (Alma 5:53).
This has brought “envying, and strifes, and malice, and
persecutions, and all manner of iniquities” upon the people. (Mormon 8:36). This
has lead them to sin and “become polluted.”
“He then proceeds to describe a people immensely pleased
with themselves: ‘There are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up
in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of fine apparel, unto envying,
and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities’—the
high-living, fiercely competitive, crime-ridden world of the 1980s. And then to
the heart of the matter: ‘For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and
your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches [Communists do not adorn
churches], more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the
afflicted.’ Why, he asks, do we allow the underprivileged to ‘pass by you, and
notice them not,’ while placing high value on ‘that which hath no life’ (Mormon
8:36–37, 39).”[2]
He sees we love money as well as other possessions, such as
the “fine apparel.” “And I also saw gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets,
and fine-twined linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many
harlots” (1 Nephi 13:7).
They adorn their churches with all sorts of fine things.
They don’t care about the poor, needy, sick, and afflicted.
“They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they
rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and
the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up.
“They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of
pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone
astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless,
they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the
precepts of men.
“O the wise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed
up in the pride of their hearts, and all those who preach false doctrines, and
all those who commit whoredoms, and pervert the right way of the Lord, wo, wo,
wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to
hell!
“Wo unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught
and revile against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth! For the
day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the
earth; and in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity they shall perish” (2
Nephi 28:13-16).”
“When men use hardware to control the world, its resources,
and other men, the hardware brings about destruction. Mormon 8 seems
appropriate: ‘For behold, ye do love your … substance … more than ye love the
poor’ (Mormon 8:37). We love our expensive hardware, as described by Mormon,
more than we esteem the inexpensive ‘live software.’ With what result? Again,
the old science fiction theme—destruction: ‘Behold, the sword of vengeance
hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh’ (Mormon 8:41)—because you love your
hardware, your substance, more than you love people.”[3]
[1] “To Come
Forth in Due Time” – Introduction, Maxwell Institute website.
[2] The Prophetic
Book of Mormon – Chapter 21: Scriptural Perspectives on How to Survive the
Calamities of the Last Days, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute website.
[3] Temple
and Cosmos, Science Fiction and the Gospel, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute
website.
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