Noah and the Flood

Today I read Moses 8, which talks about the birth of Enoch's sons, grandsons and so on. Enoch's son Methuselah stayed behind when Zion was taken up into God's bosom because Enoch had been promised by the Lord that Noah was of his line. Methuselah's son was Lamech and Lamech's son was Noah.

This account of the days before the flood give a bit more detail and is a lot more clear than the one in the Old Testament. Part of the problem was that Noah's granddaughters were marrying men who were not part of the covenant and did not have the priesthood. Which of course, in those days, means that they and their seed lost the privilege of having the Priesthood. I have often wondered why so many people choose to date and/or marry someone outside of the church. I have dated one girl that was not a member of the church who always told me that if we did get married she would get baptized. I never knew what to make of that. People always say you cannot choose who you fall in love with but I say that's a load of bologna! You cannot help who you are attracted to, but love takes work, it takes effort. The girl I dated who was not a member I recognized exactly what was happening and knew that I could stop it, but that would mean cutting her off and losing her as a friend, and I wasn't willing to do that. I caused myself a lot of heartache, but I knew exactly what I was doing, and so does everyone else. Love takes time and input. You can only love someone that you know. That's why love at first sight is a myth. Lust at first sight happens everyday. But love requires time and knowledge.

The other reason the Lord decided to destroy mankind is a reason we should all be familiar with from the book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon. The earth was filled with violence and mankind's thoughts were evil continually. This is the same language Mormon used to describe the people in his time before the Lord destroyed them through warfare. The reason this sounds familiar is because mankind, and subsequently, the Lord, follow a pattern. The farther mankind travels from the Spirit of the Lord and the things of the Spirit they start to exhibit certain traits. These are in no particular order but every culture who has lost or is losing the Spirit exhibits these signs. Their language becomes coarser, morality leaves, music and other forms of entertainment such as books and plays or in our case TV and movies, become more irreverent. They also become more violent. This is painfully evident in our own time among all cultures here in the United States and is not limited to just one type of people.

Just like with Mormon, but on a much grander scale, the people were ripe with iniquity and ready for destruction because the only people who were righteous were Noah and his family. But unlike just a single society like with the Nephites, or a singly city like with Lot and his family in Sodom and Gomorrah, this was the entire earth. Noah, and his family were the only ones on the entire planet who were righteous. Now, Noah and his sons were preaching the entire time they were building the ark and a few of the people did believe and were converted, but it is my understanding that when such was the case they were brought up to the city of Zion, which was no long on the earth by that point. So that when the flood happened the only righteous people on the planet were Noah and his sons and their wives. Everyone else, even their grandchildren, were destroyed in the purifying waters of the flood.

And sadly, it will happen again. We are already moving in that direction. Fortunately in this case though, there will be more than just 8 people on the earth who are doing good, it will still be several million, but they will be the minority. And this time it will not be water, but a burning fire when the Savior comes again and purifies the earth. Part of me wishes it could be during my lifetime because I am saddened and sickened when I see the evil around me, but the other part of me pales at the knowledge that things have to get a lot worse before the Savior comes again and I'm not sure my heart and Spirit can take much more widespread evil. As Alma before me has said, I am content just to know that it will happen and if it is not in my lifetime, so be it. He will come an that is enough. I hope you are preparing yourself as we all should be. Until tomorrow.