Carefully down to Hell

Today I read 3 Nephi 6, which is in my opinion a very sad chapter. In this chapter we see the fall of what were once very good men. The war with the Gadianton Robbers is now over and the people have left and gone back to their homes. The Lord begins to bless them for their righteousness. And thus begins again the pride cycle.

It is sad to me that in the space of only 4 years some of the Nephites would become the very thing that they had nearly died repelling. I have never understood why someone who thinks they are better than someone else just because they have a lot of money. I mean, really what in the world does having money have to do with what your eternal worth is? We are all equal in the sight of God. So what is it about having more than enough for your needs that suddenly people begin to think that they are better than others.

Nevertheless, it is a fact of life, just like we read in the Doctrine and Covenants that most people cannot handle having power, it corrupts them. I have seen good men do terrible things once they are given a little power. I can never understand it. Friends that just a few short weeks before would never do the things they do once they get a little authority. It is quite sad.

I know we have talked several times in the past of how amazing it is that a people can go from extremely righteous to ripe for destruction in just a few years, but this to me is simply amazing. In this chapter, you have good, righteous men who acknowledged the hand of God in their salvation and fought a 7 year war against the Gadianton Robbers, and then 4 years later they have killed the prophets and in order to not be punished for the 2nd worst sin anyone can commit, they have become the very thing they hated most. They are now Gadianton Robbers, or organized crime.

This I believe is what is truly known as the devil leading men carefully down to hell. These men were "poisoned by degrees" as we talked about a few months ago and slowly over the course of 4 years have been led to a place of horror that they never meant to go. After the war with the Robbers, if these men had been asked to join them it would have been anathema to them. But you make them rich, give them a little power and suddenly they quite literally are a different person.

This is exactly why the prophets throughout ALL dispensations have cautioned us to avoid even the appearance of evil. Because even a small misstep if not immediately corrected can have dastardly consequences. Because once you take that first step into the darkness it is so incredibly easy to take the next one, and the one after that and so one until you can't even begin to understand how you got there, if you even care anymore.

I do not need to expound on this as countless prophets of ancient and modern dispensations have already spoken on this subject countless times. As Alma said before me, the scriptures are before you and if you will wrest them you will do so to your own destruction. These ARE the lessons we are meant to learn from the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon teaches us many things not the least of which is giving us examples of what not to do. May we heed those lessons and not have to go through them ourselves. Until tomorrow.