Repent and Hearken, or Else Kablooey
Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, March 3, 2024, 3 Nephi 21, continued...
I enjoyed President Nelson’s commentary on the gathering of Israel, and I think that it would be a worthwhile project to study all of President Nelson’s teachings. He is, after all, the Lord’s prophet and the current president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He probably won’t be around for much longer because he is almost 100 years-old. But I imagine that there is a lot that we can learn from him:
I recently celebrated my 99th birthday and thus commenced my 100th year of living. I am often asked the secret to living so long. A better question would be “What have I learned in nearly a century of living?”
In response to his own question, President Nelson mentioned that he did not have time to answer it fully. But I recently discovered that President Nelson addresses this topic in a new book called Heart of the Matter.
Returning to the topic of the purpose of the gathering of Israel, Elder Christofferson recently taught that:
There is another vital purpose in the gathering of Israel that has special meaning when we talk about sealing on earth and in heaven—that is the building and operation of temples. As the Prophet Joseph Smith explained: “What was the object of gathering the … people of God in any age of the world? … The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.”18
And drawing closer to the very heart of the matter, Elder Christofferson continues:
The highest and holiest manifestation of the sealing power is in the eternal union of a man and a woman in marriage and the linking of humankind through all their generations. Because the authority to officiate in these ordinances is so sacred, the President of the Church personally oversees its delegation to others. President Gordon B. Hinckley said on one occasion, “I have said many times that if nothing else came out of all of the sorrow and travail and pain of the restoration than the sealing power of the holy priesthood to bind together families forever, it would have been worth all that it has cost.”21
Thus the most important gathering in the gathering of Israel is the gathering and sealing of a man and his wife together in eternal marriage, and the gathering and sealing of ancestors and posterity in that same family. The simplicity of Elder Christofferson’s lucid explanation of this truth belies its profundity:
Without the sealings that create eternal families and link generations here and hereafter, we would be left in eternity with neither roots nor branches—that is, neither ancestry nor posterity. It is this free-floating, disconnected state of individuals, on the one hand, or connections that defy the marriage and family relations God has appointed,22 on the other hand, that would frustrate the very purpose of the earth’s creation. Were that to become the norm, it would be tantamount to the earth being smitten with a curse or “utterly wasted” at the Lord’s coming.23
This is the true doctrine. Thankfully, Elder Christofferson acknowledges the harsh realities that so many in our confused, modern world now face:
We can see why “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”24 At the same time, we recognize that in the imperfect present, this is not the reality or even a realistic possibility for some. But we have hope in Christ. While we wait upon the Lord, President M. Russell Ballard reminds us that “scriptures and latter-day prophets confirm that everyone who is faithful in keeping gospel covenants will have the opportunity for exaltation.”25
Some have experienced unhappy and unhealthy family circumstances and feel little desire for an eternal family association. Elder David A. Bednar made this observation: “To you who have experienced the heartache of a divorce in your family or felt the agony of violated trust, please remember [that God’s pattern for families] begins again with you! One link in the chain of your generations may have been broken, but the other righteous links and what remains of the chain are nonetheless eternally important. You can add strength to your chain and perhaps even help to restore the broken links. That work will be accomplished one by one.”26
This brings us back to God’s purpose for creating the earth and all things, and His purpose for gathering Israel:
Because the very reason the earth was created was so families could be formed and sealed to each other. Salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter. No one can be exalted alone.
Forming families and sealing them to each other is central to God’s purpose: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
What does all of this have to do with 3 Nephi 21? Everything.
Think of it. God has a plan. Jesus Christ and marriage between a man and a woman are central to that plan. Therefore, if the Gentiles reject God’s plan - whether by immorality, homosexuality, abortion, excessive individualism, feminism, or any other kind of rebellion - and do not repent, then the Lord’s wrath will be poured out. Jesus gives us a very clear and vivid picture of what that wrath will look like:
Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they arepent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy bchariots;
And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy astrongholds;
And I will cut off awitchcrafts out of thy land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers;
Thy agraven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands;
And I will pluck up thy agroves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities.
And it shall come to pass that all alyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away.
For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that aday whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I bcut off from among my people, O house of Israel;
And I will execute avengeance and bfury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. (3 Nephi 21:14-21)
I don’t know about you, but when I read these verses, this is my thought-process:
I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy bchariots = your cars, trucks, buses, trains, and other kinds of vehicles, even your Teslas, will be destroyed or your transportation system will be severely damaged or altered
And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy astrongholds = New York, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, D.C., Houston, Seattle, and other thriving metropolises, and all your military bases will be destroyed
And I will cut off awitchcrafts out of thy land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers = Big Pharma and the modern sorcery from which it springs will be destroyed, and all the demonic secret combinations and ritual abuse, and the witches, warlocks, sorcerers, wicked fortune-tellers, and workers of black magic will be utterly destroyed
Thy agraven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands = all the idols of the world, of Babylon, including Hollywood idols, pornography, and all the garbage and cesspool of television, the internet, and our phones will be destroyed, and all the idols that we have invented and created and put before God will be utterly abolished
And I will pluck up thy agroves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities = more destruction of cities and places, and particularly those places that have been set up for the worship of the idols and false gods of perverse sexuality and gross immorality (again Hollywood and pornography come to mind)
And it shall come to pass that all alyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away = in other words, all the too commonly accepted practices of modern academia, business, health care, government, the deep state, corrupt churches, and other corrupt organizations and people will be destroyed
Along with the warning, the Lord always offers the merciful path forward through repentance and the invitation to come unto Christ. Those who choose to repent and come unto Christ will be numbered with the Lord’s covenant people, the House of Israel. Those who reject this invitation will experience the avengeance and bfury of Almighty God in ways heretofore unheard of. Yikes. Repentance sounds great to me, especially considering the alternatives.
Even more mercifully, the Lord shows us, as He showed His faithful Nephite followers at the Temple in Bountiful, that we ought not merely to fear the awful punishments and consequences of sin, transgression, abominations, and iniquity, but that more importantly we ought to rejoice in the blessings that flow from repentance and faith in Him:
But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and aharden not their hearts, I will bestablish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be cnumbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their dinheritance;
And they shall assist my apeople, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the bNew Jerusalem.
And then shall athey assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem.
And then shall the apower of heaven come down among them; and bI also will be in the midst. (3 Nephi 21:22-25)
What are the blessings available to all those who repent?
The Lord’s Church established among us
Connection to the covenant and inclusion among the remnant of Jacob
Inheritance in the Promised Land
The opportunity to help gather the Lord’s covenant people and to help them build up the New Jerusalem
Greater access to the powers of heaven
The presence and personal ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ in our midst
For most of us, I don’t think that it is much of a toss-up whether we should work witchcraft or listen to the Lord instead. However, I think that too many of us are painfully naïve in terms of our awareness of the very real evils that are deeply entrenched in our society. The Lord would not warn of the destruction of all witchcraft, soothsaying, idolatry, lies, deceptions, whoredoms, envy, strife, and priestcraft unless those terrible things were already all to common in our communities. Mormon would not reiterate this warning later in this same book of scripture (see 3 Nephi 30) if he had not seen that such awful evils would be prevalent among us. Mormon’s son Moroni also knew (see Mormon 8):
Behold, I speak unto you 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)
But I digress, and I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s accentuate the positive.
Those of us who choose to repent and come unto Christ (and there are so many good reasons for such a choice) may live to see the work of the Father commence, awhen this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of the House of Israel, when the House of Israel, including the lost tribes, shall be gathered and restored - with the way prepared in order that they may come unto Christ and call upon the Father in His name - and when the Father shall gather His people home to the land of their inheritance. If we repent and come unto Christ, we may live to be a part of this gathering for the aforementioned purposes of the Lord. Otherwise, kablooey…
