Post by Amulek –
I must repeat, that the term ‘kingdom of heaven’ is at hand doesn’t seem the right words. It’s not heaven that awaits these people. God is saying He will come down with equity and justice in His hands. That is not good news to those choosing iniquity.
With Alma’s continued mentoring, my inquiry about the qualifications required to be considered “ripe for destruction” led him to the writings of Nephi. Nephi’s brothers constantly murmured against him and his father Lehi, and thus they murmured against God. In one of the many rebuttals to their complaints about his command to build a ship, Nephi launched into a discourse that led to an interesting revelation that Alma shared with me.
Nephi walked his brothers through the great miracles performed by God through Moses when he led them from captivity in Egypt. Nephi told his brothers how when the people finally crossed the River Jordan, God made His people mighty unto the driving out of the people of the land, even scattering them to destruction.
That would seem quite extreme and cruel. The children of the land who possessed that land before the children of Israel were led across the river, were there first. They had settled the land, raised families, had cities and businesses. Who were the children of Israel to have the right to destroy them? You would ask, “how could God command one group of His children to destroy another?”
Does God esteem one people over another? Alma answers with a stern NO! Yet, the righteous are favored of God.
Alma went on to tell me how Nephi taught his brothers about the people beyond Jordan and why God could justify their destruction. Nephi said this people had rejected every word of God, and they were ripe in iniquity, and the wrath of God was upon them; and the Lord cursed the land against them and blessed it for the children of Israel. He cursed it against those who’d rejected Him and blessed it to our fathers for them to obtain power over it.
Those who were destroyed and scattered were not innocent people. God had sent messengers, prophets, missionaries, teachers just like Alma and me to call the people to repentance. They rejected every word of God. They experienced the very ‘fullness of the wrath of God.’
Alma and I are here with the exact mission as were those sent to the people beyond Jordan. I am calling with all the power of my spirit, my own people to avoid the fullness of the wrath of God. I don’t have much hope.
I told my fellow citizens that if it weren’t for the prayers of the few righteous who are still in the land, that even now they would have been visited with utter destruction, but it wouldn’t be by flood like in Noah’s time, but it would be by famine, pestilence and the sword.
The righteous here are persecuted and tread upon. Should the wicked cast the righteous out, the Lord will not stay His hand. Two more examples illustrate the influence of even a small band of righteous. At the time of Noah, with only eight righteous souls, the Lord chose to cleanse the entire world. In both Sodom and Gomorrah, God promised to hold back His final judgement if they could find but ten righteous. Both cities were destroyed.
Why?
Why does God, a loving merciful God choose to destroy entire civilizations, cities or even the earth? Does He have such a fierce anger, He just can’t help Himself?
Mercy and love. Yes.
Alma illustrated this point teaching the object of God’s plan for us, each of us. God created this world for us, His children, to be born, grow up, develop into beings like Him. As our father Lehi said, there must be opposition in all things so that we may learn to choose. The choosing is the important word here. If we cannot choose between good and evil, we will not become. We will not learn from making both good and poor choices. Therefore, God refuses to send His children to earth where there is no choice. If there is no good in opposition to evil, the plan is frustrated and the object of God’s purposes is void.
Simply said, when there is a people where there is no good to choose, why leave them on earth. At that point, it would violate His love to send new children into such a society where there is no good and no chance for choice. So it is not anger, but love.
This principle however, will not be taken well. My people have given their hearts to Satan, who now has great hold and power over them.
