Book of Mormon Reading: 2 Nephi 28

I think I've discovered a new favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I was reading last night and thinking more about some conversations I have had recently with friends and with myself (yes, I have conversations with myself).

THE SECOND BOOK OF NEPHI

CHAPTER 28

Many false churches shall be built up in the last days—They shall teach false and vain and foolish doctrines—Apostasy shall abound because of false teachers—The devil shall rage in the hearts of men—He shall teach all manner of false doctrines. Between 559 and 545 B.C.

  1 And now, behold, my brethren, I have spoken unto you, according as the Spirit hath constrained me; wherefore, I know that they must surely come to pass.

  2 And the things which shall be written out of the ^abook shall be of great ^bworth unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a ^cremnant of the house of Israel.

  3 For it shall come to pass in that day that the ^achurches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord’s; and thus shall every one say that hath built up ^bchurches, and not unto the Lord—

  4 And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their ^alearning, and deny the ^bHoly Ghost, which giveth utterance.

  5 And they ^adeny the ^bpower of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is ^cno God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men;

  6 Behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of ^amiracles; he hath done his work.

  7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.

  8 And there shall also be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be ^bmerry; nevertheless, fear God—he will ^cjustify in committing a little ^dsin; yea, ^elie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a ^fpit for thy neighbor; there is ^gno harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

  9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, ^afalse and vain and ^bfoolish ^cdoctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.

  10 And the ^ablood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.

  11 Yea, they have all gone out of the ^away; they have become ^bcorrupted.

  12 Because of ^apride, and because of ^bfalse teachers, and ^cfalse doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up.

  13 They ^arob the ^bpoor 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 ^cpride they are puffed up.

  14 They wear ^astiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and ^bwhoredoms, they have all ^cgone astray save it be a ^dfew, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are ^eled, that in many instances they do ^ferr because they are taught by the precepts of men.

  15 O the ^awise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the ^bpride of their ^chearts, and all those who preach ^dfalse doctrines, and all those who commit ^ewhoredoms, and pervert the right way of the Lord, ^fwo, wo, wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell!

  16 Wo unto them that ^aturn aside the just for a thing of naught and ^brevile 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 ^cfully ripe in iniquity they shall perish.

  17 But behold, if the inhabitants of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts.

  18 But behold, that great and ^aabominable church, the ^bwhore of all the earth, must ^ctumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof.

  19 For the kingdom of the devil must ^ashake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the ^bdevil will grasp them with his everlasting ^cchains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish;

  20 For behold, at that day shall he ^arage in the ^bhearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

  21 And others will he ^apacify, and lull them away into carnal ^bsecurity, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the ^cdevil ^dcheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

  22 And behold, others he ^aflattereth away, and telleth them there is no ^bhell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful ^cchains, from whence there is no deliverance.

  23 Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be ^ajudged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a ^blake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.

  24 Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ^aease in Zion!

  25 Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!

  26 Yea, wo be unto him that ^ahearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost!

  27 Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we ^aneed no more!

  28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are ^aangry because of ^bthe truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the ^crock ^dreceiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.

  29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we ^aneed ^bno more of the word of God, for we have enough!

  30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon ^aprecept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn ^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

  31 Cursed is he that putteth his ^atrust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the ^bprecepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost.

  32 ^aWo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and ^bcome unto me; for mine ^carm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts.

I didn't want to post the whole chapter, but I didn't know which parts to pick and choose from because I really think that this chapter proves that the Book of Mormon was meant for our days. I read through it and see the influences Satan is having on the world - not using just one tactic, but many in order to get us to fall into his snares. We had a high priest or someone come and speak in Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago and he mentioned how Satan will try and pacify us into doing things that aren't good. And he likened that to the pacifier we give infants, it is meant as a tool to soothe and comfort, a replica of the same thing that provides nourishment, but that will never yield no matter how hard the baby tries. That's why it is called a pacifier (I swear, I never thought of it in those terms before). Just like the baby, we will never receive the spiritual comfort or nourishment when we are seeking among the things meant to pacify us, instead of the righteous places where we should be searching. Go back and read the verses I've marked in red. The words that are used are no accident: The devil stirs up, lulls, pacifies, flatters, cheats, whispers in our ears, and leads us away from where we want to be until we our bound in the chains of hell. He is subtle and he is tricky. And it is no wonder that the things that the world tells us is OK sounds OK to us. Of course it does, because that is how it works.

The other verses I've marked are ones that I encounter all the time. Those that have taken the education they've received and turned and twisted until the gospel no longer makes sense. They seek logic where faith is necessary and they allow pride to take over completely to where they no longer understand the gospel and the way the Lord works in our lives.

And finally, the verses that talk about how "God has given us all we need." That we don't need more. I think that these verses are talking mostly about the Book of Mormon as a companion to the Bible, but I also think that it can mean the Prophet and other modern day scripture. I've had this conversation with non-member friends who say that the Bible is enough. But the Bible is 2000 years old. Yes, it has very key concepts. It allows us to see the type of man Jesus Christ was as He walked this earth and taught his disciples. It teaches us the Mosaic law. But the Mosaic law is now fulfilled, and still the New Testament was deemed necessary. 

After reading last night, I wrote in my journal something along the effects that: I'm grateful that I've grown up with the truth and with the whole and complete gospel. I have access to anything and everything that God wants me to know on how to live my life and what goals I should be seeking and most importantly, what to do when I fall off that path. Which is often.