Post by Nephi –
As my vision continued, the angel showed me the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles and there were many. I saw that among them was the formation of a great church, which the angel described to me as being most abominable above all other churches which slays the saints of God. He told me it tortures them and binds them down and yokes them with a yoke of iron and brings them down into captivity.
I saw that the founder of this great church was the devil. I also saw gold and silver, sliks and scarlets and finely woven linen and all sorts of beautiful clothing and there were plenty of harlots.
The angel then told me that all these riches, all these fine things including the harlots, not that the harlots were the fine things, but all of these things are the desires of this great and abominable church. He also said that it was for the praise of the world that they destroyed the saints of God and brought them down into captivity.
As I looked, I saw there were great oceans that divided the Gentiles from my people who were in the land of promise. He didn’t have to say it but the angel pointed out how the wrath of God was upon the remnants my people.
Again, as I was looking, I saw a man among the Gentiles across the oceans from my posterity. The Spirit of God came down upon this man and he went forth across the oceans to the seed of my people in the promised land. I saw the Spirit of God influence many other Gentiles to flee captivity and also sail across the oceans to the promised land.
I saw multitudes of the Gentiles in the land of promise and the wrath of God was upon my people and my people were scattered and driven and smitten by the Gentiles.
This was just as it had been promised to my people. God told us this was a promised land and was to remain ours as long as we remained faithful. Since we had not remained faithful, the Spirit of the Lord was now upon the Gentiles. The Gentiles prospered and received this land of promise for their inheritance. They were a white and exceedingly fair and beautiful people just like my people before we rejected our God.
I noticed the Gentiles that had escaped captivity humbled themselves before God and the power of the Lord with with them.
Then I saw the mother of the Gentiles gather together on the waters and on the land to battle against the Gentiles in the promised land. Because the power of God was with the Gentiles who had fled captivity and had humbled themselves before God, the wrath of God was upon all those that fought against them.
The Gentiles in the promised land were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.
I saw that these Gentiles had a book with them and the angel asked me if knew what this book was. I didn’t and so he continued. He told me that it was a record of the Jews and that it contained the covenants of the Lord which He’d made with the house of Israel. It also contained many of the prophecies of the holy prophets. The angel told me that it was a record just like the record that was contained on the plates of brass except they were not as complete, yet because this book contained the covenants of the Lord which he made with the house of Israel, it was of great worth to the Gentiles.
I understood this completely – I was commanded to take a man’s life to preserve records, I saw perfectly how precious this record was to the gentiles.
The angel told me that when the book came forth from the Jews it contained the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the same Jesus Christ testified of by the twelve apostles. When the pure record went from the twelve apostles of the Lamb to the gentiles, the great and abominable church took many plain and most precious parts out. They also removed many of the covenants from the gospel of the Lamb.
The reason they removed such pure and beautiful things was to pervert the ways of the Lord, so they could blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the people.
Once the great and abominable church got its hands on the book and the plain and precious things were removed, it then went forth unto all nations of the Gentiles, it even made it across the waters with those Gentiles fleeing captivity.
Because so many of the wonderful things that made the gospel of Jesus Christ so plain and understandable were removed, I saw that countless people stumble and Satan has great power over them.
Nevertheless, I saw that the gentiles that fled captivity, were lifted up by the power of God above all other nations on the face of the earth which is choice above all other lands. This is the land that the Lord God had covenanted with my father that his seed should have for the land of our inheritances.
The angel showed me that though my father’s surviving descendants would be scattered and smitten, He would not let the Gentiles utterly destroy the mixture of my seed, which is among my brethren, nor would he let the Gentiles destroy the seed of my brethren. However, nor would He let the Gentiles remain in that awful state of blindness caused by the removal of the plain and precious parts of the Jewish record caused by the great and abominable church.
So as not to confuse you totally let me sum up for a minute.
– My father’s descendants eventually reject the gospel of Jesus Christ.
– They loose the promise to maintain this promised land for their inheritance.
– God brings Gentiles to this promised land and gives it to them as an inheritance with the same requirement to follow Him.
– A beautiful and pure record of God’s dealings with His covenant Israel ended up in the hands of some bad Gentiles.
– An abominable church is created and perverts this pure record.
– Because of that perversion, many are confused and stumble and fall into the influence of Satan.
– The Gentiles that flee captivity and are brought to the promised land bring with them a very precious book.
– This book is however incomplete – having had many plain and precious parts removed.
– My father’s descendants are driven and smitten because they had rejected the Savior.
– God refuses to let the Gentiles totally wipe out my father’s descendants.
– Nor does He allow the Gentiles to remain in their state of blindness.
– In His great mercy and by His own power, He restores much of the plain and precious parts of His gospel to the Gentiles.
– This restoration would include the writings of my posterity. Jesus Christ would minister unto my people and they will write it. After they have written it and after they dwindle in unbelief and are practically destroyed these records will be hid up to come forth to the Gentiles.
– These records will contain the fullness of the gospel of the Lamb.
– The record of the Jews will go forth to my father’s descendants.
– Then other books would come forth by the power of God to testify of the teaching of the Apostles.
This was the hopeful part of this vision. There would now be more than one witness for both my father’s descendants and the Gentiles to establish the truth. Together these records will make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved.
These records will together establish that there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth. And the time will come that He will manifest Himself unto all nations, both unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles; and after He has manifested Himself to the Jews and also to the Gentiles, then he will manifest Himself unto the Gentiles and also unto the Jews, and the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.
(Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 13:1 – 42)
