Ether 6-11: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon With Sam

 Welcome to come follow me with Sam! In six chapters, we are going to go through the good the bad and the ugly of the Jaredite civilization. Hold on to your hats.

They did not cease to praise the Lord

I mentioned this scene in the last blog post. When Lehi was lost in the darkness, when Nephi was bound and finally untied, when The Anti-Nephi-Lehies were deciding how to escape their enemies, when Moroni asks us in just a few chapters to ask if these things are true, the common denominator is that they all thank the Lord according to His mercies. This is the way.

The Problem with kings

The Nephites and Jaredites both struggle with kings. The Nephites develop a way to rule without kings. The success of this system was certainly superior when contrasted with what happened with King Noah, but also had its challenges, or rather, the people still ended up in wickedness despite the advantages of this system.

It looks like the Jaredites ran into the same problem, but they couldn't come up with a better way than kings. They could tell there was a problem, and that was shy so many of the sons refused to be a king. But eventually, they just ended up with one anyway. Within 4 generations of kings, they had an overthrow. The entire civilization lasted longer, but with many afflictions, challenges, wars, overthrows, wipe-outs, and eventual destruction. The society lasted for possibly 2000 years, but under terrible duress and upheaval. Prophets would come from time to time and sometimes the government would allow them their mission and other times, the government challenged them.

Today in the United states we have a fairly robust 3-part system checked by the federalist states. That being said, we have already weathered one war, and the system is seriously challenged by the centralization and expansion of power that corrodes all those safeguards. We are still only in this some 250 years. I wonder what the next systems of government will be. Will they be an improvement on the past? will they last longer? will they be better? Will they simply be iterations of the same mistakes of the past? Is there anyway to create a government that can prolong a people's prosperity, or is it up the to religious arm of the society to guarantee the people don't commit societal suicide, with no solution from the government beyond what we have today?

My suspicion is that the United states government's foundational architecture is the best we still have today, that there has been no serious improvement in the foundation since its founding, but that there are iterations in the future we will find to further separate the powers of petty men and women, and prolong the prosperity of the people. My feeling is that the religious arm of society still does bear the vast power to keep the society from actually degrading and collapsing, and the only thing the government can do is buy the people time to course correct, not actually preserve the nation itself.

The deeply badness shizam strikes again

Speculation warning. I have been trying to piece together the puzzle for years, so these are seriously my non-final, not-completely-thought-out musings trying to understand this terrible threat. 

As bad as the deeply badness shizam as the Nephites? Hopefully not. Worse than the Nephites? Possibly.

Jared (new guy) takes the kingdom from his father, and his brothers are not happy with this so they destroy his army, and He says he's sorry so they spare him. But he can't let go of the glory of the world. So he and his daughter kick off the deeply badness shizam among the Jaredites. Civilization ender. Utter destruction type stuff. really bad. Secret combinations.

It seems that the secret combinations started with Cain and some very old lies. It seems that they come from the bitterness of life. Cain was bitter that he was not accepted like his brother Abel. Laman and Lemuel were bitter that their brother was recognized as a guide and a prophet. Gadianton was bitter against the people in power Jacob was bitter against the governor. The final secret combination was bitter against something in the church (what was it??) and willfully rebelled. The Lamanites and Nephites were filled with bitterness and they cursed God and died.

Earlier when we talked about this happening among the Nephites, I asked you to read some Marxist poetry to get you in the right mood. I find someone so frightfully bitter at life itself that they wish their ghost to languish in eternal agony rather than accept the world. Reading communist and ex-communist writings, it was explained to me that the communists saw the world as so sick and awful that there was nothing good left to preserve and that if it could be purified by blood, there was not enough blood that would not make that purification a mercy. And that is exactly how their little fiefdoms played out except there was no purification, just misery and death.

The anti-communists on the other hand, saw the world as a sick and awful place, but, acknowledging how awful it was, still saw it as worth fighting for and preserving.

I believe this is eerily similar to the battle of the council in heaven. God says he has a plan, Satan says its too awful, no one can be allowed to make it that bad, God says a world without consequence would destroy creation (my guess), Christ says that despite the indescribable suffering that is required to be like God, He would gladly suffer it for us, we said that if He was willing to take this on, we were willing to shoulder our own burdens here on earth. Thus the plan rolled out.

Plese don't feel that I am making light of the pre-mortal council. But I don't want to give the impression that I know exactly what went on either. So apologies if this makes it sound light, but I'm just summarizing the best understanding I have, which I know will be expanded in the future.

I think secret combinations are a challenge and redo of that council in heaven. It seems as though Satan turns peoples hearts from heaven to the material world, and then without heaven, they slowly realize there is no point to their bitter existence. There is but they shut the door on that. In the tortured prisons of their own minds, they lose all hope for humanity, and they lose hope for themselves, and they wish to wipe it all out by blood and by fire and by intrigue and by greed. It doesn't start that way. It just ends that way. Every time. It consumes itself. Hitler (Godwin's law!) purified the party at Stadelheim. Stalin purged the Trotskyites, and Lenin before him let loose the Cheka. Akish murdered Jared by the same order with which Jared seized power.

Time to review those lovely Marx poems again? Do they have more perspective? I hope so. This is what I believe we are fighting against. If you still aren't following, try getting through this video by my good friend Darren (we barely know each other. But I think he's cool) and see if it doesn't open your eyes a little.

Moroni, as we discussed, and like his father, just watched his entire people get decimated by these things. He acts like he really doesn't care about your excuses. Its like he's saying 'look, its your civilization at stake, not mine. Mine's gone. You can choose to go down this route if you want or choose not to. But it doesn't really matter what you have to say about it because its going to happen. And it did. For me. And it will for you unless you shape up'.

He closes saying that we need to understand these things that evil may be done away. You need to realize that Secret combinations never solve evil, or suffering, they maximize it. It is all a giant lie that destroys everything. Moroni says we need to understand these things that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come to the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.

I think there is a way to purge this from our own hearts and our own society. I think that Moroni teaches the first steps in Moroni 7 so you can skip ahead but  I will write about them then. I will leave you with this last verse to ponder. And if you want the full experience, pick up The Man who was Thursday, and finish it just before we hit Moroni 7 on December 7.

9 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ;

10 For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 For they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; for they loved not their own lives, but kept the testimony even unto death. Therefore, rejoice O heavens, and ye that dwell in them.