Remembering The Covenant: People of the Covenant

The following post has been a labor of love over several years. By the time I finished it was 17 pages in a Google Doc. With no real way to cut it down and an acknowledgement that no one is likely to read a 17 page blog post I'm cutting it up to publish it in several parts (7 in total) in order to make it more likely that you'll reach the end. 😉

Part 5 can be read here: Remembering the Covenant: Personal Apostasy

This is Part 6: People of the Covenant.

The Sum of All Factors

If you’ve made it this far in the post I’m impressed. Even I got exhausted and thought, “No one is going to read this,” about 4 paragraphs ago. I promise though – the pay off is almost here.

Having written all that I have, the point I am trying to come to is this: The United States of America as a nation is very clearly in danger of being at the state which the Savior prophesied in verse 10 – if it isn’t already. Between the slowing of Church growth, the rate of personal apostasy of Church members, the general moral decline of the nation, and the rise of false religions in the US, based on the Savior’s statements in that verse we should be concerned that the Lord will “soon” (relatively speaking) remove His revealed truth from among us.

If you feel a bit skeptical about these assertions I totally understand. It is a largely unfathomable thought that the Lord would take His revealed truth from a people that has been so long with it and has been the means of bringing it to the rest of the world. But He has done it before – as with the flood in the days of Noah and the Jews when they were conquered by Babylon and at the dawn of Christianity – and He will do it again.

If you require further evidence that this is happening, need I remind you of King Mosiah’s words from the start of this post and what their implication is? In a nation whose leaders and public policy are chosen by the voice of the people one can often gauge the moral standing of that nation, how much of God’s light it has abandoned, and its readiness for destruction by the caliber of people chosen to lead and the kinds of policies they are ushering in. In the case of the US all you need do is look at the number of prominent political figures in the past decade or so alone – and in particular the president who was in office from Jan 2017 to Jan 2021 – who have been found guilty of and/or ousted for moral misconduct of some kind or another to see just how corrupt we as a people in general have become and how close we really are to abandoning the light He gave us to live by. We chose those leaders, and that choice is often as much a reflection of where our own personal moral compasses are pointing as it is choosing from the limited options we are most often presented with (though to be fair sometimes we are left with no better choice). We should therefore be concerned that we as a nation are closer to the state King Mosiah identifies as being ready for destruction than one might otherwise consider. Based on that insight, unless we as a nation now begin a serious effort to repent and return to the Lord’s standards for living we too will suffer the same fate as all who have fallen before us.

If this seems to be a little far-fetched, let’s continue investigating the Lord’s prophecy just to see how closely aligned King Mosiah’s assertion is with the promises of the Lord.

A Covenant, A Plea, and a Promise

And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.

3 Nephi 16:11-12

We need no more evidence of the existence of God and the reality of His covenants than the fact that the Jews still exist and are scattered among all nations. If there were no God that nation and people would have been annihilated centuries ago (if not millennia) by either the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, or the Romans – or any of the other nations which once ruled them which are themselves now in fact extinct. Because they are still here and scattered among us, we know the promises and covenants of God are real and that He lives. We also know that because of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, the truths He gave them were taken and given to the Gentiles for a time. But when the time comes (as we have been discussing) that the Gentiles reject that truth He will remove it from them too.

Once the Lord removes His revealed truth from among the Gentiles who brought it to the rest of the world (assuming they don’t repent that is) then He will remember His covenant to Israel; then He will begin to fulfill that covenant completely; and then He will give His newly revealed truth to the descendent house of Israel who will then have complete stewardship over it. This process will not be a clean break between the two groups, but will be a gradual transfer of light from the “last” group (the Gentiles) to the “first” group (the house of Israel).

This transfer is not some future event. We see it happening now as many, many people of Jewish descent begin more and more to accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah and the Savior of mankind in fulfillment of Jesus’ statement in verse 4. Recent years have shown many organizations founded by Jews themselves (Jews For Jesus and One For Isreal among others) popping up to preach to and invite the rest of modern day Judaism to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. On a weekly basis I have advertisements pop up on YouTube inviting Jews all over the world to join this ministry or that of Messianic Jews who accept Jesus Christ as the true and living Messiah of the house of Israel. It is only a matter of time – perhaps less time than we might think or hope – before the house of Israel in lineage is truly restored in faith with all the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and ready to tread down those who have rejected the revealed light of Jesus Christ as prophesied by the Lord in the passage we’ve been considering.

I have lived now in two different places with high concentrations of Jewish populations and I recognize that there are many other such locations in the world. They are among us everywhere and because of this it is clear to me that the Lord has been doing His work to prepare for the fulfillment of all His covenants. The Jews are placed perfectly (as I am certain the rest of the house of Israel is as well) “to [tread] down and [tear] in pieces” all those who have rejected the revelations of God (3 Nephi 21:12) once this transition of gospel stewardship is complete and they have completely embraced the Savior Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And when that day comes I think the US – along with all other nations of the world who are impacted by it – will be unbelievably surprised at their inability to have power over the situation. They will lose if they don’t repent. And they will lose because they rejected God’s light and truth when they once had it. They will lose because in their state of corruption they began choosing people to lead their nation and establish their laws who are not moral people interested in establishing and maintaining the purity of the law and righteousness of the people, but instead are individuals seeking their own self interests and establishing the law to allow more “flexibility” in it. And in that day the Lord will no longer support or spare them.

But to those of us who are descendants of the Gentiles to whom the truth was revealed in the latter days and who are still holding true to our faith, this placement of the house of Israel to tread down the unbelievers along with the transition of gospel stewardship from the Gentiles to the house of Israel shouldn’t be alarming. God has made us promises as well:

But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.

And I will not suffer my people, who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father.

3 Nephi 16:13-14

This means the outcome isn’t certain. We still have the option to avoid destruction. The Lord pleads with us – the Gentiles – to repent and return to Him. And the promise is that if we do so and return whole heartedly back to adhering to Heavenly Father’s revealed truth we will have place as members of the house of Israel to inherit the promised blessings of the covenant. We will then not be run asunder by the newly returned house of Israel when the prophecies of Isaiah are fulfilled, but instead be numbered with those doing the running.

But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel.

3 Nephi 16:15

It is clear to me now more than ever that if the people of the United States of America do not repent as the Savior says here and work to rid ourselves of all the troubling things he mentions in verse 10, then the US as a nation will be brought to its knees by virtue of its own wickedness, just as the Roman empire fell by its own making. As certain a thing as the United States may be in the world today it is not the stone cut out of the mountain without hands (see Daniel 2:31-45) and without repentance it will end up just like the great image – broken in pieces and completely replaced by the kingdom of God.

This will not be the first time God has brought a nation to its knees because of its own wicked, unrepentant state. The first example I can think of are the inhabitants of the land God had promised to give to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Another example is the Jaredites in the Book of Mormon. We read of Ether’s work among his people:

For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed, saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled-

Ether 12:3

But in spite of his warnings the people did not repent, and they were subsequently destroyed. We learn from the Jaredites . . . and from the Nephites . . . and from the people who inhabited the land of God’s promise to Israel in the first place, that God has power to wipe out a nation which has come to the point of no return. He has done it several times before and He will do it again when necessary.

So it will be with the United States of America. If we as a people do not repent our pride will be our undoing and God will empower His people of the house of Israel who are turning back to Him to tear us down and destroy us. And this time He has given us more than enough prior warning to be prepared for it and plenty of instruction for how to avoid it.

Lehi sums it up this way:

Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

2 Nephi 1:7

The land on which we now live is a land of covenant to those who are here. All whom He has brought here have been given the land for their blessing and prosperity if they will serve God. But if not we will not prosper, not by any means. This is God’s covenant, plea, and promise to us the descendants of the Gentiles.

To be continued in Part 7: Back to the Start . . .

This is the end of Part 6: People of the Covenant.