Nephi emphasizes that, when Moses prophesied the day would
come when there would be a prophet like him, he was speaking of Christ.
The
LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
According
to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the
assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither
let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
And
the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
I
will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and
will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him.
And
it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he
shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Deuteronomy 18:15 - 19
After healing the lame man, Peter would testify to the
crowd:
And
he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: [JST Acts 3:20
... whom ye have crucified.]
Whom
the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
For
Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you.
And
it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall
be destroyed from among the people.
Acts 3:20 - 23
The final word comes from Christ when He was teaching the
Nephites:
“Behold, I am he of whom Moses spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in
all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet
shall be cut off from among the people” (3 Nephi 20:23).
The righteous will not be confounded. It will be the kingdom of the devil that will
be confounded along with those that follow him. In his vision, Nephi was shown
the great and abominable church
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
Churches will be built for the purpose to get gain as well
as to get power in the world and become popular among men. Christ warned, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false
prophets” (Luke 6:26). Five hundred
years later, Nehor would establish this this philosophy as a church that would
appear throughout the remainder of Nephite history. “And he
had gone about among the people, preaching to them that which he termed to be
the word of God, bearing down against the church; declaring unto the people
that every priest and teacher ought to become popular; and they ought not to
labor with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the people” (Alma
1:3).
Hugh Nibley explains:
So everyone must pass the wealth
test, and it's the hardest of all. Remember, Satan trys men and tempts them.
How does he do it? You can have anything in this world for money. That's the
way he is going to tempt you, of course. We are to be tested to see if we will
be faithful and true in all things whatsoever the Lord commands. He is very
experienced in this, and he knows what the number one temptation is. In 1 Nephi
22:23 he tells us the four things, and repeats them again in 3 Nephi 6:15. The
things we can't resist are, in this order: power, gain, popularity, and lusts
of the flesh. And they are all interrelated; they are all built around
ego, pride, etc.[1]
(Emphasis mine)
Those who are a part of the church of the devil will
eventually “be brought low in the dust” (1
Nephi 22:23). Richard Rust writes about
the image of dust.
The extreme opposite of water and
fruitfulness is dust. This image is associated in the Book of Mormon with
mortality, humiliation, captivity, obscurity, destruction, and death. The wicked,
Nephi prophesied, would be "brought low in the dust," and the
Jaredites, unless they repented, would be destroyed and their bones should
become "as heaps of earth upon the face of the land" (1 Nephi 22:23;
Ether 11:6).[2]
Hug Nibley wrote about thee four tests we face in this life.
As Brigham Young often repeats,
"God has given us the things of this world to see what we will do with
them." The test will be whether we will set our hearts on the four things
that lead to destruction. Whoever seeks for (1) wealth, (2) power, (3)
popularity, and (4) the pleasures of the flesh—anyone who seeks those will be
destroyed, says the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 22:23; 3 Nephi 6:15). Need we point
out that those four things compose the whole substance of success in the
present-day world. They are the things that money will get you.[3]
[1] Lecture
43: Alma 1-2, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed May 13, 2013.
[2] Book
of Mormon Imagery, Richard Dilworth Rust, Provo, Utah:
Maxwell Institute, accessed May 13, 2013.
[3] Law
of Consecration, Hugh Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed May 13, 2013.
