Pay Attention to the Prophets
The first ten chapters of 1 Nephi describe what happens when righteous people heed the warnings of living prophets. Nephi describes the effect of failing to listen to those who speak by the spirit of God. The problems came when the people of Jerusalem rejected the prophets, which caused the Spirit of the Lord to cease striving with them.
Jewish society at the time was heading in a direction that diverged from the intention of the Law of Moses. They had lost sight of the purpose of principles and practice meant to point them to the coming of the Messiah. It reached the point that speaking the truth meant imprisonment or death for those bold enough to talk about it. Reading between the lines reveals a society that has made the world their god. Just before the Babylonian invasion, Israel had experienced both prosperity and social upheaval that caused a division of the kingdom. There was also an underlying pride that permeated the people who thought that Jerusalem could not be conquered. The people had lost sight of the source of their greatest strength, the God who had delivered them in times past.
This is the beginning of the grand narrative of the Book of Mormon. One man, Lehi, listened to the prophets of his time and acted on their warnings. However, it was not that he simply heard the warnings and got his family out of town. Lehi did what we all must do when confronted with the truth and the consequences of a society gone out of control; he went to the source of the warnings, God. However, Lehi was not considering only his well-being and his family. He did not want to abandon his people; instead, he prayed with all of his heart on their behalf. The result was a vision that was obviously the same as that of the prophets who were being rejected.
After Lehi’s existence was threatened he was told that he had to give up his entire way of life and flee into the unknown with his family. He was instructed to gather together everything that would allow him and the others who came with him to form the foundation of a great nation. He gathered together seeds of all kinds, including another family that would allow them to propagate future generations.
None of these events would have happened had Lehi not listened to the prophets of his time and prayed to the Lord to have the warnings revealed to him directly. All of this leads to how we can apply the same patterns of listening and acting on the instruction we hear now. Whenever the Lord has important things to communicate to his children, he uses prophets. Following the pattern of righteous people like Lehi, we can have our own vision or gain our own testimony of what the prophets tell us. Once we have been warned, it is incumbent on us to warn our neighbors.
The nation of Israel in Lehi’s time had become corrupted by prosperity that led to pride, which led to division that ultimately ended in captivity. They had gotten to the point that they could not handle the truth when it was spoken, so they sought to imprison or destroy those who dared speak it. Does any of this sound familiar? Are there truths we dare not speak without the threat of retaliation and personal ruination? The obvious answer is yes. If a person with substantial influence dares to talk about the truth, they are immediately attacked. We see large business entities embracing the lies. We see bureaucratic agencies enforcing conformity to nonsensical ideologies and so-called scientific consensus.
How have we gotten here? The short answer is Satan. But simply saying it that way is insufficient to prepare a mindset that can combat it. We need to know the details and methods Satan uses and recognize the sophistry surrounding them. The corruption of influential people is the cause of most of the trouble in the world today. We need to be aware of those who wield economic power.
The reason Satan was banished from heaven was that he sought to destroy the agency that God had given to us. We can distinguish evil intention in those in power when they seek to limit or destroy our moral agency or compel us to say or do certain things to conform to an ideology. That does not mean anyone who tries to stop us from doing whatever we please is terrible. Having moral agency requires us to place many safeguards and restrictions on our behavior. It also requires us to speak the truth, not as we see it, but the kind of truth that sets us free.
So, can the prophets of our day speak the truth without consequences that could destroy the church and cut off the means of the church to administer the gospel in a practical way? The answer is no. It has always been that way, which is why God implements his plan differently at different times. It is also why we must pay careful attention to what they say and how and when they say it. We must know the context provided in scripture and follow the promptings we feel in our hearts as spoken by the Holy Spirit.
It is not enough for most of us to be casually involved in world events or ignorant of errant ideologies. We have to see the writing on the wall, so to speak. The words of the prophets concerning world events are indispensable. Our interpretations and actions resulting from their messages can range from rebellion to an overzealous response. We can’t afford to do nothing either.
Returning to Lehi’s story, we have to determine who we are in the narrative. Our choices are the people who rejected the prophets, those who went into the wilderness reluctantly, or those who followed in faith. Nephi’s actions are the pattern we should emulate. Nephi asked for personal confirmation of all that his father saw and heard. Because he acted in faith, he suffered at the hands of his adversaries but also triumphed over them.
Our journey into the wilderness means we must listen to our prophets, receive our own witness of their message by praying with genuine intention, and then act in faith. Our adventure will not be without difficulty and suffering, but at least we won’t perish with those who refuse to listen.