The Thirteenth Year - History and Prophecy Intersect

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Men of faith, more specifically prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ, have long instructed mankind to liken the scriptures unto ourselves. In other words, we should apply the messages in the scriptures as if they were written for us, in our day. The names may be different, but the principles, the concepts, the mindsets and behaviors, and often the geographic locations of the people, are exactly the same now as they were then.

One book of ancient scripture has proven to be more relevant to our times than any other book available to us. That book is an abridgment of countless volumes of records kept by ancient inhabitants of this very land upon which we live, covering a period of history from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421.

Not even an hundredth part of what was recorded then is contained in this book, yet that tiny fraction of a percent that we do have is astonishingly precise and imperatively applicable to you and I right now. And I mean right now.

Allow me to share with you what I found in my personal scripture study this morning. This morning which happens to be the first day of 2013, the first day of the thirteenth year.

Read on, and ponder the state of affairs in America from January of 2009 through 2013, and onward through 2016 and 2018.

What you are about to read was written in the year AD 16 right here in our land. If this is not a prophetic warning, I don't know what is:

3 Nephi 2:7-13 (hyperlinks added)

7 And nine years had passed away from the time when the sign was given, which was spoken of by the prophets, that Christ should come into the world.

8 Now the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ; therefore, nine years had passed away.

9 And Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla, and could nowhere be found in all the land.

10 And it came to pass that the people did still remain in wickedness, notwithstanding the much preaching and prophesying which was sent among them; and thus passed away the tenth year also; and the eleventh year also passed away in iniquity.

11 And it came to pass in the thirteenth year there began to be wars and contentions throughout all the land; for the Gadianton robbers had become so numerous, and did slay so many of the people, and did lay waste so many cities, and did spread so much death and carnage throughout the land, that it became expedient that all the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them.

12 Therefore, all the Lamanites who had become converted unto the Lord did unite with their brethren, the Nephites, and were compelled, for the safety of their lives and their women and their children, to take up arms against those Gadianton robbers, yea, and also to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their church and of their worship, and their freedom and their liberty.

13 And it came to pass that before this thirteenth year had passed away the Nephites were threatened with utter destruction because of this war, which had become exceedingly sore.

Oh, yeah. There's more. If what you just read didn't wake you up, this should:

3 Nephi 2:17-19

17 And it came to pass in the commencement of the fourteenth year, the war between the robbers and the people of Nephi did continue and did become exceedingly sore; nevertheless, the people of Nephi did gain some advantage of the robbers, insomuch that they did drive them back out of their lands into the mountains and into their secret places.

18 And thus ended the fourteenth year. And in the fifteenth year they did come forth against the people of Nephi; and because of the wickedness of the people of Nephi, and their many contentions and dissensions, the Gadianton robbers did gain many advantages over them.

19 And thus ended the fifteenth year, and thus were the people in a state of many afflictions; and the sword of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity.








Like Patriarch Waters said in Stake Conference recently (I'm paraphrasing), we can be strengthened to face the terrible things we will surely have to face, and we can do so with a bright hope in Christ, having nothing to fear. He mentioned that President Hinckley's optimism for the future was optimism for the faithful Saints, not optimism for the world at large. And we have work to do.

I think we should be diligently watching for the signs of the times and learning as much as we are able to learn about the perplexities of nations and the operations going on around us. In Doctrine and Covenants 123:13, Joseph Smith declared, "...we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness..."

All this, of course, while diligently doing our duties of home teaching (visiting and serving the people in our areas), sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, serving in the Temple, praying and studying the scriptures, and all that mortal life entails. We definitely have our work cut out for us. There is surely no idle moment for the anxiously engaged.

I also wonder if Lachoneus, like Moroni, tried to educate those among the church who were blinded and misguided by the flatteries and the craftiness of men in those days, just as so many of us (even in the Church) are today.

To avoid any misunderstanding, I should make it clear that I support and sustain whomever the Lord calls to the various positions in His Church, regardless of how adamantly I may oppose their individual views on certain matters. The Lord knows what he is doing, and he calls us, as Nephi said, in spite of our weakness. In case anyone out there is wondering, I am not trying to steady the ark. The ark is rock solid in the hands of the Lord's anointed. Of that I have no doubt.

I do wonder if ever there will be a day when that half of the Church membership that keeps their lamps filled, regardless of local position or calling, will have their understandings open and see clearly what is really going on in this land that God established to be the seat of his Government and his Gospel on the earth in the last dispensation. At some point, our allegiance to Christ must cause us to evaluate our allegiances to the influences at work upon the face of the land.

If we, even unknowingly or unintentionally, support principalities and powers and individuals who oppose the divinity of our Constitution and key elements of Christ's Gospel, then we must someday see our weakness (and our weaknesses) and acknowledge our errors and change our hearts if we are to remain faithful and endure to the end. Else, if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived.

A unification, as far as I understand, involves individual members discerning the ideologies and practices of society and government for what they are, and then unanimously choosing to embrace only that which most closely supports the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I cannot see how public officials who openly or secretly promote socialism, nationalized mandatory health insurance, abortion, gay rights, same sex marriage, collaboration with our enemies to orchestrate U.S. Embassy attacks, child sacrifices masqueraded as random public shootings, and something-for-nothing entitlement mentalities wherein the idle are rewarded and the laborers are punished and made to "labor exceedingly to support iniquity" have any claim on the loyalties of a faithful Latter-day Saint, especially those of us who hold temple recommends. Sooner or later it's going to come to a head.

I feel strongly to express my thoughts. My intent is not to offend those who do not feel or see as I do, but to educate those who do not perceive the insidious perils and the inherent hypocrisy of their liberal leftist leanings.

Alma said that the preaching of the word of God, and the word of God includes the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States of America, has more power than any other means.

We are taught to liken the scriptures unto ourselves, but we conveniently exempt ourselves when it comes to the issues (and candidates) at hand in the Land of Liberty, the land that is still, though just barely, the veil separating the free world from a one-world government of tyranny and oppression, the likes of which we have merely tasted for the past four years and are about to get force fed for the next four.

It is wonderful that we, as a nation, should show good sportsmanship in congratulating our enemy on a win, no matter how fraudulent that win may have been. We do not, however, have to lay down and take a continual beating by that enemy. Indeed, we have a duty to defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

I feel a sense of duty to express my thoughts, and I believe by doing so I can help to reach out and rescue the blinded and the misguided, and perhaps introduce the Gospel and the Church to a few individuals out there in the mist who may not be reachable by typical avenues of discussion. Or, perhaps the beam is in my own eye, and I might be entertaining vain and foolish imaginations of my heart and wasting the days of my probation until it is everlastingly too late. But, "Bother, I'm committed."