I’ve been thinking a bit lately about this statement.

“The Book of Mormon is more prophecy than history. Before the Lord’s appearance to the Nephites, society broke down into tribes consisting of family and friends. Immediately before the Lord’s return we should expect something similar. Therefore, part of the preparation by God’s house for coming social chaos is likely to include some preliminary preparations by families and friends to fellowship with one another in local gatherings”, (Preserving the Restoration,p. 6)

In the Nephites time there was a group who had committed to usurp the government and destroy all that which had been established for societal stability and the rule of law“ Therefore they conspired against the Lord’s people and made a covenant to kill them and to free the guilty murderers from the justice to be imposed under the law. They defied the law and the rights of their country. And they covenanted with one another to kill the governor and set up a king over the land, to destroy liberty and establish control by kings.

Now you should know they didn’t establish a king, but in that 30th year they murdered the chief judge while on the judgment seat.” (3 Nephi 3:6-7 CoC)

After they had accomplished their evil designs, society collapsed. “2Then the people divided against each other. They separated into tribes, everyone gathering with family, relatives, and friends. And the government was destroyed. 3Each tribe had a ruler or leader over them, resulting in tribes forming around tribal leaders. 4Now every man had many family members and many relatives and friends; therefore the resulting tribes were quite large” and “they remained divided into tribes, every one according to their family, relatives, and friends.” (3 Nephi 3:7-8 CoC)

This is a pattern that has been repeated in other places. 

When the western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD; what was left of the empire gradually descended into disparate Kingdoms, City states and Papal states, each one governed by whomever had a monopoly of violence over a specified territory.  Kingdoms such as the Franks in France, Visigoths in Spain, Ostrogoths in Italy, Vandals in N. Africa and Anglo Saxons in the British Isles. The Papal States were run by religious monarchies and the city states and countryside by whomever exercised the most vicious and sophisticated form of subjugation of the population. 

We see that this is a pattern that repeats. When it repeats here what should we expect? I’d expect to see what has happened in the past and in accordance with the opening statement of this post. “society broke down into tribes consisting of family and friends”.

What have we done to form these groups bonded in righteousness?

What preparations have we undertaken to ensure that we have the proper relationships, love for one another and humility to ensure that God can work with us. Have we given Him a broken heart and a contrite spirit. These aren’t just words we hear all the time; they mean something profound and deeply connected to an unseen but connected plane of existence. 

Have we sought to exercise compulsion over others or to set ourselves up for a light or get gain in the vacuum of religious or moral authority? Have we sought the Lord and His will in the execution of our daily life and sought for His guidance in meekness? 

Patterns exist in all things. What we do as a group now knowing what is coming matters immensely. Are we practicing and modeling what we must do and become in order to accomplish the tasks the Lord sets before us? Great Wo and suffering linger and overshadow our actions, words and thoughts. There are angels anxiously waiting to reap the harvest of the wicked. (In this respect I can’t think of anything more wicked than for him to whom the law is given and understands it to turn from it to wreak havoc and cause mischief)

What will be your lot? Will you have the support of family, friends and acquaintances with whom you have close relationships and have labored together to develop the kind of intimacy and ability to truly care for the welfare of each others souls required for the troubled times quickly approaching?

For those of us who have made covenants, have we kept them?

It is my hope that we are being the salt that has savor, the leaven that helps everything around Him rise and  grow in all of our several commitments in the world and among believers. 

Marcus Aurelius said “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself “I have to go to work-as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for-the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was creared for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

-Don’t you see the plants, the birds the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your best as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

-We have to sleep sometime….

Agreed. But nature set a limit on that-as it did on eating and drinking.” “People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.

Is helping others less valuable to vou? Not worth your effort?”

Those who have heard and responded to the message of our time were born unto that which is at hand. They were born for this moment in eternity to respond to obligations made before they arrived here. In order to comply with those obligations we must necessarily learn how to behave and obey the Lord. That is done through humility and subjecting ourselves to him and being harmless, not imposing your own will but by being long suffering. We have been goiven simple instructions but many times we make it too hard on ourselves. The Lord needs to be a constant focus and the desire of our hearts. His labor, our labor. 

A new dawn is on the horizon. We can let Him lead us and walk towards the light. His burden is light.