How to Identify, Resist, and Eliminate Secret Combinations
Book of Mormon Notes - Monday, May 20, 2024, Ether 9 (Part 1)
I’ve noticed two extremes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the way that we discuss secret combinations. On one extreme, there are those who believe that “all is well in Zion,” and that there is no need to be concerned about conspiracies. On this extreme, members of the Church are willfully ignorant and blind, preferring to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that there are no secret combinations or that it is evil to speak evil of evil. On the other extreme, there are those who make everything a conspiracy. On this extreme, members of the Church read everything in the Book of Mormon through the lens of secret combinations, or they go wild in predictions, prepping, speculations, and unhealthy fundamentalism.
Both extremes are unhelpful for discovering and living by truth. We must avoid being lulled into carnal security, but we must also avoid raging in our hearts. The focus of the Book of Mormon is on Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The purpose of Moroni’s warnings concerning secret combinations is not to frighten or alarm his readers, rather, it is to awaken us to repentance and to exercise greater faith in the God of this land, Jesus Christ. Moroni wrote so that we could avoid the fate of the Jaredites and the Lehites by repenting of our sins:
Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be. (Ether 8:23)
In other words, the key to resisting and overcoming secret combinations is our individual and collective efforts to repent and come unto Christ. It is only in the strength of the Lord that we can and will resist and overcome the murderous combinations of the last days. But the Lord also warns us in specific ways in order to help us identify and eliminate the secret combinations that are among us. Moroni does not speculate that there might be conspiracies or secret combinations among us. He tells us plainly that there shall be conspiracies or secret combinations among us:
Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. (Ether 8:24)
Notice Moroni’s repeated use of the word shall.
If we have a testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and if we believe Moroni, then we know that conspiracies and secret combinations shall be and are currently among us. The problem is that conspiracies and secret combinations are usually secret. How, therefore, do we identify them? One of the best ways to identify real conspiracies and secret combinations, in my opinion, is to carefully study how conspiracies and secret combinations began and took root among the Jaredites and the Lehites. There are modern variations on these themes, but the root causes and motivations are the same:
For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning. (Ether 8:25)
Thus we know that secret combinations in our time:
Seek to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries
Bring to pass the destruction of all people
Are built up by the devil, the father of lies
Cause men to commit murder and harden their hearts
The Lord’s warning and principle that we call “the word of wisdom” also helps us to better understand modern secret combinations:
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation (D&C 89:4)
Another reason why it is important to identify, resist, and eliminate secret combinations is because too many people, whether wittingly or not, uphold and support secret combinations. We recall that many Nephites, for example, complacently went along with the secret combination agenda. At one point in Nephite history, while the Lamanites earnestly sought to eliminate secret combinations from among them, the Nephites actually supported the Gadianton robbers:
And it came to pass that the Lamanites did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites.
And it came to pass on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations. (Helaman 6:37-38)
Why did the Lamanites resist and destroy the Gadianton robbers whereas the Nephites joined with them? What are the lessons that Mormon wanted his latter-day audience to glean from this episode in Nephite history?
And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for an everlasting destruction. (Helaman 6:40)
I have a “Lamanite” (Latino) friend (as well as many good gringo friends) who earnestly identifies, resists, and seeks to eliminate secret combinations. She is very alert to what the modern Gadianton robbers are doing. On the other hand, I know many “Nephite” members of the Church who seem determined to build up and support the modern Gadianton robbers, causing secret combinations to overspread the land. There are also internet bullies and trolls who ridicule and slander anyone those with whom they disagree as “conspiracy theorists.” The term “conspiracy theory” is used mostly to shut down discussion and silence people with legitimate questions and concerns.
The Lord commanded Moroni to write these things about the Jaredite secret combinations in order to warn us and persuade us to repent and do good:
Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved. (Ether 8:26)
How are we doing? My honest assessment is that we are not doing much better than the ancient Jaredites and Lehites. As far as I can tell, we moderns, and especially we modern Americans, have built up and supported secret combinations and the modern Gadiantons to such an extent that they have overspread the land, taken control of our government, and seduced the majority of the people. Evil and designs of conspiring men abound, and secret combinations threaten to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries. It seems clear to me, especially after the COVID and vaccination disasters, that we are dangerously close to collapse, and that we are on the verge of destruction.
Fortunately, I also know many people who continue to fight the good fight. They are neither complacently lulled into carnal security or fanatically raging in unhealthy fundamentalism. They are fully awake to our awful situation, but rather than panic, they repent continually and seek to do good and come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved. Because of their repentance and goodness, they are better able to identify, resist, and eliminate secret combinations.
After his warnings to modern Gentiles, Moroni proceeds with his abridgment of the Jaredite record from the twenty-four gold plates. Akish and his evil band successfully overthrew the kingdom of Omer, but the Lord mercifully warned Omer and the good members of his family before Akish, Jared, the daughter of Jared, and their fellow conspirators could chop off any heads. The Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land. Omer obeyed the Lord and departed out of the land with his family. Their journey took them past the hill of Shim, the hill where Ammaron later hid up the Nephite records for Mormon, to the place where the Nephites were destroyed, and then eastward to a place which called Ablom, by the seashore. Omer and his family were refugees from the evil government of Jared who was anointed king over the people by the hand of wickedness.
Jared obtained the kingdom, and he gave his daughter to Akish. But Jared soon became the victim of his own schemes:
And it came to pass that Akish sought the life of his father-in-law; and he applied unto those whom he had sworn by the oath of the ancients, and they obtained the head of his father-in-law, as he sat upon his throne, giving audience to his people.
For so great had been the spreading of this wicked and secret society that it had corrupted the hearts of all the people; therefore Jared was murdered upon his throne, and Akish reigned in his stead. (Ether 9:5-6)
Jared wanted Akish to behead his father Omer, but instead Akish beheaded Jared and usurped the throne that Jared had usurped from his father Omer. By this time the brother of Jared and the original Jared were rolling over in their graves even more. The Lord did not bring the Jaredites into the promised land to spread wicked and secret societies, murder, and corruption. Nevertheless, Akish ruled in wickedness, and murdered his own son out of jealousy. These Jaredites were sick. Naturally Akish’s other son Nimrah was angry because his father murdered his brother by starvation, and therefore Nimrah gathered a small number of men and fled out of the land to join with Omer.
Akish’s reign of evil was highly unstable:
And it came to pass that Akish begat other sons, and they won the hearts of the people, notwithstanding they had sworn unto him to do all manner of iniquity according to that which he desired.
Now the people of Akish were desirous for gain, even as Akish was desirous for power; wherefore, the sons of Akish did offer them money, by which means they drew away the more part of the people after them.
And there began to be a war between the sons of Akish and Akish, which lasted for the space of many years, yea, unto the destruction of nearly all the people of the kingdom, yea, even all, save it were thirty souls, and they who fled with the house of Omer. (Ether 9:12)
The self-destruction of Akish and his people restored Omer to the land of his inheritance, where he begat Emer in his old age, and anointed him to be king. Omer and Emer. Seriously… who could come up with these names? Omer’s life was not easy. He was betrayed by his own son, dethroned, and hunted as a refugee. Moroni informs us that Omer lived a long life that was full of sorrow, but at least he saw peace in the land for two years before he died, and his son Emer was a righteous king. After enduring the treachery of his son Jared, it must have been some consolation to Omer to see Emer reign in righteousness for a couple of years, perhaps not unlike the consolation that Seth must have brought to Adam after Cain murdered Abel.
The reign of Emer was a happy turning point in Jaredite history.