SILENCE, Ye Fiends of the Infernal Pit
Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, May 19, 2024, Ether 8 (Part 3)
Who informed Moroni that secret combinations were among all people, including the Lamanites and the Nephites? (see Ether 8:20) Like his father Mormon, Moroni communed with the Lord and also interacted with the Three Beloved Nephite Disciples. Imagine the stories that the Three Nephites could tell about their journeys and work among all nations. Imagine the stories that they can now tell.
Those who create and work by secret combinations think that they are getting away with it. They’re not. Obviously the Lord knows what conspirators are up to, and the Lord also reveals things in various ways to His servants. I’m sure that the Three Nephites know exactly what is going on, as do many others, including the angels who are ready to come down and reap the earth, separating the wheat from the tares. Akish and his clan probably thought that they were very clever. But long ago Isaiah warned:
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? (Isaiah 29:15)
Who sees and who knows? God sees and knows. He sees and knows everything that the deep state devises, every machination of the CIA, NSA, FBI, Mossad, and every other nefarious organization. He sees the modern Jareds and daughters of Jared and Akishes as they create secret combinations to gain power and wealth by murder. The Lord sees and knows what is on every hard drive and screen of every computer, phone, and television. Nothing escapes His notice:
O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, that the God of Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood. (2 Nephi 9:44)
But, notwithstanding the greatness of the task, I must do according to the strict commands of God, and tell you concerning your wickedness and abominations, in the presence of the pure in heart, and the broken heart, and under the glance of the piercing eye of the Almighty God. (Jacob 2:10)
O that he would show you that he can pierce you, and with one glance of his eye he can smite you to the dust! (Jacob 2:15)
There is a stark contrast between the way in which the Lord works, in the light, and the way in which the devil works, in secret and in the dark. As we repent and exercise faith in Jesus Christ, we draw nearer to God in His light:
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:18-21)
Secret combinations, or conspiracies, are formed by those who love darkness rather than light, and whose deeds are evil. Evildoers hate the light, because in the light, their deeds are reproved. When Joseph Smith was a prisoner in Liberty Jail, he wrote of the duty of the Saints in relation to their persecutors. Joseph Smith’s counsel to the Saints is also good counsel for those who suffer injustices, abuse, and real oppression (not the fake oppression of the “woke”). Joseph Smith rebuked the “whole concatenation of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions” that his people experienced, and his counsel is helpful to those of us to endeavor to expose modern concatenations of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions:
It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and children, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under the most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity.
It is an iron yoke, it is a strong band; they are the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of hell.
Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the widows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand;
Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy.
And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart
For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it-
Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven-
These should then be attended to with great earnestness. (D&C 123:7-14)
Are there modern conspirators whose dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder? Yes. Are there modern conspirators whose dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell stand aghast and pale? Yes. Are there modern conspirators whose dark and blackening deeds are enough to make the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy? Yes. Joseph Smith’s poetic descriptions of the persecutions that he and his people endured remind me of his legendary rebuke of the prison guards in Richmond Jail, as recorded by his friend and fellow prisoner Parley P. Pratt:
In one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards. …
I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, … although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:
‘SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!’
He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.
I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, … while life was suspended on a breath, in the Courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of Missouri (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. [1938], 210–11).
To all modern conspirators whose dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy, and to all who engage in concatenations of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions (such as those recorded in these brave blogs: Unlimited Hangout, The Vigilant Citizen, Concrete Conspiracy, and Go El - reader discretion advised), I echo Joseph Smith’s rebuke:
‘SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!’
I recently completed a rough draft of my first autobiography entitled Bringing to Light All the Hidden Things of Darkness - The Narrative of the Early Life of John C. Hancock. It is the narrative of my early life, from my ancestors and my birth to the present, and I plan to continue to waste and wear out my life in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein I know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven. As great guardians of America, Moroni and Joseph Smith inspire my efforts.
Moroni warns that secret combinations such as those administered by Akish to his crew caused the destruction of both the Jaredite and the Lehite civilizations. He warns us specifically regarding secret combinations in the last days, and he shows us how to identify them and what must be done to eliminate them.
The United States currently upholds such secret combinations. Moroni clearly warned that whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, shall be destroyed. Why will such nations, even our own, be destroyed? Because 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.
Listen closely. Can you hear the blood of the Lord’s saints, the blood of the innocent crying unto the Lord from the ground? I can. My question and petition is the same as that of the Prophet Joseph Smith from Liberty Jail:
O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?
How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?
Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?
O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol—stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.
Let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs.
Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever. (D&C 121:1-6)
Mormon and Moroni warned that these things - particularly the accounts of the destruction of the Jaredites and the Lehites by secret combinations - should be shown unto us, in the wisdom of God, in order for us to repent of our sins and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above us. Mormon and Moroni warn that if we allow these evil conspiracies to spread among us, then the work of destruction and the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon us, to our overthrow and destruction.
In fact, it is not merely the warning of Mormon and Moroni. It is the warning and commandment of the Lord:
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.
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.
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 8:24-26)
Evil must be done away. Nephi also prophesied the same:
And the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded. But it is the kingdom of the devil, which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh
For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet.
And the time cometh speedily that the righteous must be led up as calves of the stall, and the Holy One of Israel must reign in dominion, and might, and power, and great glory.
And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture.
And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth. (1 Nephi 22:22-26)