Awakening To Our Awful Situation - Warnings From The Nephite Prophets

by Jack Monnett

With national and international chaos, he also saw the degraded state of the “natural man.” He saw secret combinations; defiled churches lifted up in pride; great pollutions; murder, robbing, lying, deception, whoredoms, and all manner of abominations. To those who would read the Book of Mormon—members of the Church—he was even more definite. He wrote that “there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts.” His allusions to pride are written in general terms so he told us how we would recognize their manifestation in our lives. He said that we, just as in Book of Mormon times, would “wear very fine apparel.” To that he may [p9] have added other identifiers such as driving expensive automobiles, living in large and spacious homes, and other signs of wealth that are prevalent today. He also described character traits of which we are familiar such as being caught up in envy, strife, malice, persecution, and “all manner of iniquities.” He told us that just as in Jacob’s time11 our priorities for wealth would be askew and instead of using our surplus for aid to the poor and those truly in need, we would “love money and [our] substance, and [our] fine apparel.”12 Book of Mormon warnings to latter-day readers are abundant. Those same concerns are shared today by leaders and prophets of this dispensation. Warnings are found throughout general conference addresses, in Church magazines, and in virtually all directives emanating from the Churc...