Today I read 3 Nephi 20 were Jesus prophesies concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. He quotes Isaiah quite a lot in the next few chapters and even directly quotes Malachi for two chapters. As I read these chapters I wonder if they aren't meant more for us than they are for the Nephites of the time.
Have you ever wondered why the Lord destroys peoples, cities and cultures? As I was reading verse 20 which states that unless the Gentiles repent they will be destroyed. And as I was reading it I got to wondering, why does God destroy people anyway? I mean He allows things to happen of their own accord because we have our agency and because people need to make their own choices.
So if that is the case, why do cities like Sodom and Gomorrah get destroyed? Why do peoples like the people of Ammon from the Old Testament get wiped out? Why do the Nephites eventually get destroyed? The only answer I can see is that it is because the people have made their choices and there is no more hope for them. We read in the Book of Mormon that the Nephites were told that if they were ever ripe for destruction then they would be wiped off the face of the earth.
So what does it mean to be "ripe for destruction"? Well if it means that God is going to step in and destroy them, I guess it means that there is no more hope for them. God has spared some pretty savage cultures over the years. The prophet Jonah was called in the Old Testament to go preach to the people of Nineveh, which from what I am told were a very unruly people and killed the prophets and were wicked. The reason Jonah didn't want to go is because he did not believe such a people would ever repent and it was a waste of his time. However, the people of Nineveh DID repent.
So if the Lord will spare people who are blood thirsty and do horrible things, when exactly is a people beyond hope? I do not have the answer to that question. But my thoughts are it comes down to how they treat their own. How do the people treat members of their own society? Well in our examples above, the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah were totally ambivalent to the needs of the poor in their cities and had a total lack of concern for their fellow man. The people of Ammon weren't much better. And we all know how the Nephites were at the end before they were destroyed. In every instance of these cultures the people displayed a contempt for human life that would appall and horrify us if we knew the full extent of it. The Nephites even engaged in cannibalism at the end.
As we have stated in the past, all things are before God. He knows the end from the beginning. Therefore He knows which cultures are going to repent if pressed hard enough and which ones are not. That I think is the true sign of when a culture is going to be destroyed. There are signs we can look for and study if you are so inclined but it is a very depressing and sad area of study. The best way to ensure that the culture you live in is not in danger of destruction is to be the best Latter-day Saint you can be and to lift up those around you. Live the Gospel to it's fullest and you will not be taken before your time. However, I personally choose to not worry about it and to just live my life as the Savior would have me live it. THAT is the way to true happiness. That is the way to really be comfortable in God's presence when we see him again. Until tomorrow.
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