The Book of Mormon as an End-time Prophecy

[liberty]

When we consider the prophetic aspect of the Book of Mormon, one key to remember is to apply the cycles of history to what we are reading. The past and future are a repeating sequence of events. Isaiah knew this (Isaiah 46:9,10), M. Russell Ballard spoke of a reoccurring pattern of wickedness and righteousness (April 4, 2009). Sandwiched amongst Nephi’s treatment of Lehi’s dream in the Book of Mormon is Nephi’s narrative of two cycles of apostasy and restoration. The first cycle is a restoration of truth (Joseph Smith’s 1830 translation of the Book of Mormon) for the gathering of spiritual Israel amongst the Gentiles - 1 Nephi 13:34-37. The second cycle is a restoration of truth (coming forth of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon) for the gathering of ethnic Israel – 1 Nephi 14:7,8,17. Between these two cycles is a period of apostasy if the Gentiles harden their hearts and suffer a covenant curse of bondage and captivity – 1 Nephi 14:1-6.

At present, it appears the Gentiles are entering into a period of bondage and captivity signaling an end to the fullness of the Gentiles and progression toward the second restoration.

HofL

[kathyn]

The Book of Mormon is "as current as today's newspaper." It really points up the issues and dangers we face today, doesn't it? And we can get a pretty good idea of where we stand today. It's not looking good for us.

[liberty]

We are in the Endtimes. In my opinion, they started in 2008. We are rapidly approaching a time of judgment in America. Once the righteous and wicked are separated, and the wicked destroyed. God will cause a marvelous work and a wonder to happen - a second restoration of truth to gather the literal house of Isreal. This will be accomplished with the translation of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon and the calling of 144,000 missionaries to gather God's Elect. These 144,000 missionaries are nursing Father's and Mother's of the Gentiles who have have not been deceived. This new scripture will be the tool used to gather the jews and the other tribes.

HofL

[Franktalk]

The wars that existed between the groups in the Book of Mormon were all fought as a civil war. They were all basically the same people. If indeed the Book is a type then it had a little blip about the Civil war but most of the bloodshed is yet to come. You must look at the percentage of population killed in the waring actions. It is possible but not yet. If something like a global solar storm hits then expect roaming gangs killing for food. The cities will be killing zones and the rural areas will fence themselves off. I know that some rural areas already have plans to isolate themselves. But in the Book of Mormon the hatred was at a level I have not seen in the US. But many outcomes are possible.

[Franktalk]

We are in the Endtimes. In my opinion, they started in 2008. We are rapidly approaching a time of judgment in America. Once the righteous and wicked are separated, and the wicked destroyed. God will cause a marvelous work and a wonder to happen - a second restoration of truth to gather the literal house of Isreal. This will be accomplished with the translation of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon and the calling of 144,000 missionaries to gather God's Elect. These 144,000 missionaries are nursing Father's and Mother's of the Gentiles who have have not been deceived. This new scripture will be the tool used to gather the jews and the other tribes.

HofL

I don't think so. The two two great men of God are Daniel and John the apostle. Both are loved by God. Those two describe the end times. I believe that we are in the latter days and it started in 1830, January. Not by the publishing of the Book of Mormon but because of the book "Principles of Geology" by lyell. A long story. The end times period will start when the signs show up. This is described in Matthew. That will trigger a 38 year period where the last seven years is the tribulation period and the last 3 1/2 years the great tribulation period. The signs have not happened yet. But I do expect them soon. A world wide monetary collapse is probably the trigger. Time will tell.

[davedan]

We know that certain themes are likely to play themselves out again in the Last Days. The question is, how exactly will the Book of Mormon match up? Here are some interesting Book of Mormon events and possible types and shadows.

1. Abinadi burned with fire (could this be a type of some fire event that begins the Tribulation?)
2. Fire event is a "type of things to come" (Alma 25:10)
3. Priests of Noah hunted to extinction
4. Alma in Helam vs . Limhi in Nephi Martial Law
5. Kingmen attempt to overthrow Nephite government by applying
pressure from within (Kingmen faction) and from outside
(Conspiracy-controlled Lamanites) .
6. Gadiantons infiltrate all levels of Nephite Government
7. Gadiantons reveal themselves
8. Nephites lose faith in government and separate into tribes
9. Nephites gather together in center of land
10. Brutal, savage, desolating wars
11. Great Distruction
12. Can't light fire
13. Mission of 3 Nephites = Mission of 144,000.
14. Coming of Christ

[BroJones]

" I know that some rural areas already have plans to isolate themselves. ""

Can you tell us more? how to do this? would like to know if this is possible (drones, etc)

[BroJones]

In the Book of Mormon during the period when the Gadiantons had
"sole management of the government," (Hel 6)
then we see that Nephi son of Helaman spoke out. He decried the Gadiantons and told the people how the Gads had power over the government. He was in turn decried by many. Yet many believed him until they did something about it (Helaman 11).

The Gadiantons were ousted at that time from government, because of the outspokenness of Nephi, but they became a power again as they assembled in the hills/mountains.

The people gathered their supplies together and STARVED OUT the Gadianton robbers (3 Nephi). The robbers were parasites and could not live without taking from the masses.

So it is today. Many, like Nephi (and one should add, Jesus) speak out against the evil schemers today. Even Pres. Hinckley did so -- Aug 2005 Ensign. But many would rather "partake of the spoils" of the gadiantons (Hel 6).

We decide.
I think we would do well to follow the example of the people in 3 Nephi and seek to STARVE OUT the latter-day gadiantons (LDG's). WE can do this by:

1. Avoiding debt as the Prophets have counseled; the gadiantons thrive on interest from debts like fungus thrives on sugar (Big Banks). Pay off any debts quickly.

2. Lessen payments for gasoline (Big Oil) and medications (Big Pharma) as much as possible.

3. Reduce tax payments as much as legally possible (Big Government).

4. Don't work for globalist corporations such as Monsanto that seek to alter/GMO food (Big Ag) and avoid going to war as a pawn for Gadiantons in management of the government.

5. Have a supply of food (grow food) and ammo, but perhaps in an unusual place if Big Gov comes to confiscate it...

Other ideas?

[Franktalk]

" I know that some rural areas already have plans to isolate themselves. ""

Can you tell us more? how to do this? would like to know if this is possible (drones, etc)

I can not. But it is an easy thing to isolate a section of the country. Just make it very hard to go there. We take for granted all of the roads and structures we have. Take them out and travel can indeed become almost impossible. And if people don't concentrate they become a fog. You reach out but can't touch it.

[davedan]

The Prepper Movement teaches to isolate yourself. This may not be the best strategy.

1. We are preparing for a nuclear first strike.
2. Don't live next to a nuclear target
3. For 3 months during fallout people will need to shelter in place.
4. Initially, there will be virtually no raiding due to fear of fallout.
5. When it is safe to emerge, the best thing to do is band together at a stake center with surviving members.
6. consecrate remaing resources, convert meeting house into a shelter.
7. If you remain isolated, raiders will eventually find you.
8. Living in isolation is okay for the initial fallout period, but then you will want to seek the saftey in the stakes of Zion.

[Franktalk]

Davedan,

Why do you assume that the LDS will not be raiders? They have the same murder rate as everyone else. They have the same divorce rate. They have the same prison rate. You assume too much.

[speakeasy]

I make a reply to the first post made by libery in this thread.

"To apply the cycles of history to what we are reading. The past and future are a repeating sequence of events"

There is a common mistake when applying a time period to prophecy. And that is, that history some how repeats itself. This so called repeating of history has been referred to as layering.

When we follow the history of man from Adam until the present we find that all the events have been necessary to bring us to this moment. They are not layered, they are continuous. Moving toward toward a specific purpose.

Is there a reoccurring cycle of "sin" and "wickedness?" There is no evidence of this in Jewish or Gentile Histories. Only in the Book of Mormon as presented by Mormon and Moroni.

"Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?" (Genesis 18:18).

The reference to a "great and mighty nation" is the remnants of the house of Israel are yet to be gathered. The relationship to "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" is a reference to the Gentile nations of the earth after receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is a last day prophecy about the blessings given to Abraham.

To Abraham was born Isaac. To Isaac was born Jacob. To Jacob, given the name Israel, was born The twelve sons (known as the house of Israel). The last of which was Joseph. To Joseph is born two sons, Manasseh (the eldest), and Ephraim (the youngest).

Jacob gives the two sons of Joseph blessings. To Ephraim the blessings of the first born, at the protest of Joseph.

When you read beyond the Book of Geneses in the Bible, you will note that the tribe of Joseph is not the focus of the story in the Bible. The tribes are separated into two bodies. The two bodies are given the names of Ephraim, largest of the two bodies, and Juda.

There is no evidence in the bible that these to two groups were ever righteous. Nor is there evidence that they received their blessing from God because of righteous behavior. Yes, they were told to be a righteous people. However, they do not appear any where to have practiced righteousness. Not in the Bible we have, God simply blessed them toward his own end.

The forty years in the desert a punishment for misbehavior. However, at the end of forty years they where brought into the land of Israel without fully acting upon the Law of Moses.

There is no evidence that the Jews who taken into captivity by the Babylonians repent of their misconduct of the rules relating to the Law of Moses before being released from there captivity.

There is no evidence that the Jews repented at the preaching of Jesus Christ. In fact, the stories tell us that they rejected him and His gospel message.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was rejected by the tribe of Juda, a member of the house of Israel during the life of Jesus he is there for put to death. Juda is one of the recipients of the blessings given through Abraham. The gospel of Jesus Christ was symbolically spread among the Gentiles after the resurrection of the Christ by his Apostles (all whom were descendants of the tribe of Juda) in the Mediterranean region. This fulfills another prophecy, another subject for another time. The Gentiles were never to be "converted" to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore they could never reject the Gospel they never received by the hand of God. The story of Lehi descendants would be completely valueless if the Gentiles the Mediterranean region had been given the Gospel of Jesus Christ after his resurrection and were converted to the "Christian" belief.

Why is it that we believe that the blessings through Abraham to the twelve sons of Jacob (and two sons of Joseph) all the sudden come to a conclusion at the death of Jesus "the Christ." What evidence do we have that God gave up, or changed his mind, and gave those blessing to people other than the house of Israel?

The story in the "Book of Mormon" or rather the Mormon abridgment of the history of the descendants of Lehi and Ishmael that traveled to the "promised land" from Jerusalem some 500 years before the birth of Jesus should be applied to human history as a necessary event.

The Melchizedek Priesthood and Gospel of Jesus Christ can only be held by a "righteous" people and righteousness can only be determined by God, not man. The people written about after the book of Geneses were blessed by God to his end. They did receive prophets (righteous individuals) to warn them of events that would transpire if they continued their sinful practices. There is no evidence that their punishment brought them to a level of repentance that God would have wanted from them as a whole.

The event that brought Lehi's descendants to the promised land opened a means for the true Melchizedek Priesthood and Gospel of Jesus Christ to be given to the house of Israel in the people of Manasseh (Alma 10:3). We are told in the Book of Mormon that Lehi and company were separated from the rest of the house of Israel a specific purpose:

"Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph" (Jacob 2:25).

Mormon relates to us why remnant of the Nephites were survivors of the destruction before Jesus Christ appeared unto them after the resurrection:

"And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared" (3 Nephi 10:12).

When did Jesus proclaim the Gentiles at the time of the twelve Apostles in the Mediterranean to be "the more righteous part" of the people?

Where is the evidence that they were the people to receive the Gospel by the hand of God? When God directly proclaims it to the remnant of the Nephites that they are the righteous and they receive Jesus Christ in their presents. Jesus blesses twelve others to spread his word through out the land of promise. Where is the parallel when the gospel in the New Testament was being created among the Gentiles of the Mediterranean region?

The house of Israel received the Melchizedek Priesthood and Gospel of Jesus Christ in the people of Manasseh after Jesus Christ was resurrected.

The fact that the Book of Mormon was purposefully written and then abridged for the purpose of bringing forth the gospel to the Gentiles becomes self-evident. The book of Mormon is a history of the people, who are of the house of Israel in the people of Manasseh. It was given them that they should write (note the time period):

32 Neither will the Lord God suffer that the Gentiles (the American Europeans) shall forever remain in that awful state of blindness, which thou beholdest they are in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church [of sin], whose formation thou hast seen.
33 Wherefore saith the Lamb of God: I will be merciful unto the Gentiles (the American Europeans), unto the visiting of the remnant of the house of Israel (the American Indians) in great judgment.
34 And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord spake unto me, saying: Behold, saith the Lamb of God, after I have visited the remnant of the house of Israel (the American Indians)-and this remnant of whom I speak is the seed of thy father (the people of Manasseh)-wherefore, after I have visited them in judgment, and smitten them by the hand of the Gentiles (the American Europeans), and after the Gentiles (the American Europeans) do stumble exceedingly, because of the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church [of sin], which is the mother of harlots, saith the Lamb-I will be merciful unto the Gentiles (the American Europeans) in that day, insomuch that I will bring forth unto them [in the United States of America], in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious, saith the Lamb.
35 For, behold, saith the Lamb: I will manifest myself unto thy seed (the house of Israel in the people of Manasseh), that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them (the people of Manasseh), which shall be plain and precious; and after thy seed (the American Indians) shall be destroyed, and dwindle in unbelief, and also the seed of thy brethren (the American Indians), behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles (the American Europeans), by the gift and power of the Lamb.
36 And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation. (1 Nephi 13:32-36) (Note that everything in parenthesis and brackets are mine. And Note that the American Indians are descendants of Manasseh. I separated them to show two different time periods.)

And this why "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 18:18).

Are the Gentiles after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Mediterranean region (Europeans) the group spoken of that do stumble because of "because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that "abominable church" of sin? How then did the Gentiles of the Mediterranean region after the resurrection of Jesus Christ receive the Book of Mormon? And in doing so received the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In fact, it is the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith received at the hand Moroni in the United States of America that brings the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

"And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years, and many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed" (1 Nephi 15:13).

The purpose of the Book of Mormon is so that:

"I (God) will be merciful unto the Gentiles in that day, insomuch that I will bring forth unto them (the American Europeans), in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious, saith the Lamb (1 Nephi 13:34).

Note that the Gentiles in the Americas did not have an understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before the Book of Mormon was to be brought forth. And it was brought forth to help the Gentiles better understand the Gospel, its purpose.

The prophecy of Nephi in the book of first Nephi does not show that the Book of Mormon is brought forth to begin the gathering of the house of Israel. Nor does the rest of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is brought forth as a precursor to the gathering of the house of Israel. The Book of Mormon must be sent through out the Gentile nations as the fullness of the gospel and the Gentiles in the United States of America must reject the fullness of the gospel before the house of Israel can be gathered.

Why must the Gentiles of the United States reject the fullness of the Gospel? Because they are the people who received it in the promised land of the Book of Mormon.

Therefore the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not "gathering of spiritual Israel amongst the Gentiles." The blessings of nations is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been doing all these years. The gathering of the house of Israel will occur at a time appointed by God (yet future). Not at the time that Gentiles are given the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the hand of Joseph Smith, Jr. in filling a blessing given to father Abraham "that all nations will be blessed."

The Book of Mormon is its own testimony of this.

"At present, it appears the Gentiles are entering into a period of bondage and captivity signaling an end to the fullness of the Gentiles and progression toward the second restoration." However, we can say these things and not have a glue as to the order of events by which they will occur.

When following the prophetic story we find that it has already occurred. This is such long story I not willing to get into it here. The events are calculated in a specific order for a specific purpose.

God is a God of order. He tells us things for our understanding. However, we tend miss the mark by becoming attached to things that others have said wanting to believe that somehow they know more then God or get something from God that we cannot have. Prophets of the Old Testament (the Book of Mormon is set in the Old Testament time period) were sent forth to explain that people needed to be obedient to the word God and repent. Why is it that we believe that they were somehow more knowledgeable about Gods dealing man than other men. What would have happen if all the people or another individual were righteous, would they then receive the revelation from God that the prophets did? Why look to others when we can be that receptacle of Gods word as well?

Now do not get caught up in aspects of that last paragraph, You will again miss the mark.

I am not saying that there is not an order of things. Someone makes decisions and takes responsibility for them. However, this does not imply that everyone cannot have a common knowledge about whats going on in the world that God has created. If the idea that there was a council in heaven has any credibility, and I think it does. And all us agreed to the events that were to transpire after the creation of the earth. Why is it that we do not see ourselves privy to that information while here on earth? It affects your life as well as mine.