-some think the signs of the times are dangerous and fanatical, but the Lord said in the D&C that the righteous will seek to know the signs.
-Both America and Book of Mormon societies were founded on scripture. Pilgrims’ religion is what brought them to America, like Nephi’s religion is what him and his family to America.
-Laws of Mosiah and the laws of the Constitution were both from righteous men of God.
-Nephites found the Jaredite record, a warning for them. Americans found the Book of Mormon, a warning for them. Both records show what happens to a people who live in America who reject God and their destruction.
-Alma establishing God’s church among the Nephites is parallel to Joseph Smith establishing God’s church among the Americans.
-Abinadi’s martyrdom and the martyrdom of Joseph Smith are very similar. Both these prophets are types of Christ. They voluntarily laid down their lives. Joseph Smith was in prison for 3 days before the mob shot him.
-Darwin, Dewey, Keynes, Marx, and Sigmund Freud are all anti-Christ’s who rose up in our time. President Benson named these names as anti-Christs. Book of Mormon figures are Sherem, Korihor, Nehor. Mormon warns against whole groups of people being led astray by the false teachings of these anti-Christ’s false teachings.
-Dr. William Provine at Purnell a professor of biology is teaching these same ideas as Korihor, of no God meaning no morals.
-Missionaries among Nephites and Lamanites are parallel to missionaries now going to all the world. They teach the 3 pillars of creation, fall, atonement.
-see book “The Book of Mormon and the Constitution” by H Verlan Anderson.
-Vladimir, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, etc. are secret combinations seeking to overthrow the government.
-socialism is soul destroying -Ezra Benson
-atheistic communism or socialism we learn of Machiavelli’s “The Prince” about how to gain and abuse power; we hear the same thing in the book of Mormon.
-Alma said we go to war so we can continue to worship God and keep our liberty for our families.
-in the Book of Mormon when the church grew greatly, it started to be very proud and put God aside not listening to the prophets.
-Benson said we have strayed from moral and constitutional principles and its getting us into a quagmire.
-see book “From Darwin to Hitler”
-free travel and trade lead to increased prosperity we see this in the Book of Mormon; we also see today many walls coming down to open the way for prosperity and the spread of missionary work, like the Berlin Wall coming down. When the Lamanites get converted they prosper.
-Many scholars have agreed that the books of Helaman and 3 Nephi parallel our day. The Lord gives the Nephites physical signs of the times to give them one last chance to repent. Some of these signs are earthquakes, waves heaving themselves beyond their bounds, fire, darkness, etc.
-Just before the Savior comes in the Book of Mormon, the words of the prophets are heavily rejected, the more righteous are gathered in and the more wicked are destroyed.
-In the Book of Mormon the 200 years of peace following the coming of Christ is like the forthcoming Millennium, and there are no more tribal divisions, but everyone joins Christ.
-at the end of the Book of Mormon period of peace, the people rebel outright, so will they people at the end of the Millennium.
Part 2, about America’s founding:
-Benson: we should review the religious history of the US lest we forget.
-The Nephites came to America from Jerusalem with the brass plates which is the Old Testament, similarly the pilgrims came to America with the bible.
-The tool the Lord used persecution to drive the Mulekites to America, the pilgrims, etc.
-in schools they don’t teach that the pilgrims came to America for religion. They describe the first Thanksgiving etc. without mentioning God. This is an attack on Christianity, trying to revise history.
-all the colonists believed that they were completing the journey which Moses started.
-see Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, the primary source
-Jeremiah said that the day would come that the people would not look to the time of Moses as when they were delivered, but that there would be a gathering of the tribes from the north, which would be the great gathering and salvation of Israel. North and West Europe have many Ephriamites.
-Puritans named their first township “Salem” after Jerusalem. They named their children Hebrew names.
-The New Jerusalem is America. Just as the Nephites governed themselves by what was written in the brass plates (a more complete version of the Old Testament), that the Pilgrims considered the bible to be the law. They modeled their feast days after the feasts of the Old Testament; these holidays were very different than our holidays, they involved much prayer. The pilgrims repeatedly referred to Moses leading an Exodus to the promised land being akin to themselves being led to a promised land.
-there are many parallels of Puritan churches and the restored gospel. Bearing testimony, being born under the covenant, sealings, sanctification, a sacred Sabbath, worthiness interviews, accepting new members by vote, sustaining leaders with the uplifted hand, church courts, disfellowship, excommunication, renewing covenants, prophecy, prayer lists, fasting for a purpose, bread and water in the sacrament, schools of the prophets, etc. Some say Joseph Smith stole these ideas but it’s just the true pattern restored
-the founder of Rhode Island taught that the authority had not been restored yet to perform the church ordinances. John Westley also understood that shortly after the deaths of the apostles that the authority was gone. They understood a restoration of the ancient truth was needed and did what they could to move toward that direction. Asel Smith and Joseph Smith Sr. awaited the restoration of the gospel, and it came from Joseph Smith Jr.
-The founder of Harvard believed in God creating and against Darwinism, but secular leaders replaced that. The motto for Harvard was originally “truth for Christ and the Church” was changed to “truth”. On the motto one of the books depicted was shown as inverted, meaning that reason alone can’t lead to man finding all truth, but the later secular leaders put that book not inverted anymore to suggest man was independent of God. This secular shift flew in the face of everything the founders of Harvard stood for.
-Yale originally had a seal with the Hebrew Words on their logo “Urim and Thumim” meaning light and truth.
-all the Ivy Leagues were originally founded as Christian Schools.
-Columbia University seal had Psalm 36:9 in thy light shall we see
-the Princeton motto was “under God’s power she flourishes”
-University of Pennsylvania’s motto was “laws without morals are in vain”
-Dartmouth College’s motto was “a voice crying in the wilderness”
-Rutgers state university motto was “Sun of Righteousness”
-Pilgrims were saved miraculously at sea much like Lehi’s company on their way to America. They couldn’t see anything for 7 days, and said they had never seen such a storm. The people greeting them on shore were amazed that anyone could survive such a storm.
-Squanto walked into the Pilgrim camp and saved their lives, he spoke perfect English. William Bradford pilgrim leader was amazed; they needed help to farm which Squanto brought. He came out of nowhere to their aid.
-the pilgrims had a large drought, they prayed 8 hours, and then clouds came and it rained for 14 days
-we wonder how it is possible that the Nephites forgot after 1 generation the great miracles of God; but we also have forgotten the miracles associated with the settlement of the US.
-modern history portrays pilgrims as killers, hypocrites. It was the wicked among the colonists that did the bad things, the Lamans and Lemuels among Nephi’s people did bad things in the new land. They traveled side by side with the righteous Nephi Sam and Lehi. Not everyone came to America for the right reasons, and they make the good guys look bad.
-some of the greatest peace makers came in the time of the pilgrims, like Thomas Mayhew, who was not fighting Indians, but living among them, knowing their language, teaching them the gospel. He was one of the nursing fathers prophesied of by Isaiah.
-The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne rewrote the history of the pilgrims as being wicked people. This was not a historically accurate book. He made them become associated with snobbery, self-righteousness, rudeness. The red capital A is used by atheists from Scarlet Letter, they use it as a symbol of rebellion against Christianity.
-Miller’s “The Crucible” was comparing anti-communists to witch hunters. He was a procommunist adulterer teaching us about the puritans. This is like going to Hitler to learn about the Jews.
-just like how people think of the Puritans as too strict, people are seeing Nephi and Lehi as being too strict about keeping the commandments. The book of Mormon says the Nephite law was “exceedingly strict” dealing with the commandments.
-Winthrop and other early leaders made an official covenant to be accountable to God and his angels to obey the commandments of God.
-one man stole wood from Winthrop, Winthrop instructed him to use his wood until the cold season was over. Winthrop was strict in the law, but to punish lawbreakers, he taught them, and the stricter punishments were given to the more knowledgeable trespassers.
-Sir Thomas Dale a leader of the Jamestown plantation saw
-Rog Cragg “Forged in Faith” book. Calls America the New Jerusalem because of that strong theme.
-Sowell in his book wrote of his belief that the heart of America is where the new Jerusalem would be. Joseph Smith confirmed this doctrine.
-The Lord called Far West “most holy”, unlike any other place
-Sowell said the native Americans were Israelites unawares
-The colonists considered themselves literal Israelites by blood.
-John Winthrop’s words to place the people under covenant on the new land seem like Lehi’s words. He said we will know God is with us when 10 of us can resist 1000 of our enemies, for we will be as a city on a hill. He said if they turn away from God they will be cut off from the presence of God and be cursed.
-1 Ne. 13 Nephi saw thousands of years before the pilgrims and said the pilgrims would carry the bible with them to the promised land which he was on namely America, which they did.
-generations ago when the bible was the essence of education and government, there was little to no delinquency.