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17

The Destruction of Babylon is Sure

32 And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say:

33 O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would not have become slippery that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us.

37 Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls. Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us? And this shall be your language in those days.

38 But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head. (Helaman 13:32-33, 37-38.)

Babylon, the church of the devil has existed a number of times upon the earth, and each time the great and abominable church was exterminated by natural disasters, wars and bloodshed as the wickedness became so great that it destroyed itself. In the days of Enoch, the earth was rampant with the evil that Satan had set up at the time of Cain, with the murder of Abel his brother. This murder was done under the direction of Satan and in conspiracy with the "brethren" of Cain, as they made secret oaths and covenants that they might murder and get gain (Helaman 6:17, 21-31; Moses 5:29-33; Ether 8:14-22).

Enoch declared repentance to the people of his day, and established a city of Zion as a refuge from the wickedness that was growing more uncontrollable and widespread. This great day of Satan's power is recorded in the book of Enoch found in Moses 7:26, as the prophet beheld a vision that Satan held a "great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced." The wickedness was so destructive that Enoch and his city were taken off the earth because the fall of Babylon was imminent, and the destruction of the earth and the inhabitants thereof was made sure. To preserve the righteous after Zion was taken into heaven, Enoch beheld that angels visited the earth, "bearing testimony of the Father and son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion" (Moses 7:27). This "shuttle service" preserved the righteous from the flood waters that were to come upon them, as the wicked were prepared for complete and total destruction. The one righteous family that remained on the earth were the eight souls of Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. The family of Noah witnessed the first destruction of Babylon, as the earth was washed and pronounced clean from the wickedness and pride of mankind who were held bound in the Satanic chains of his powers and priesthoods.

Zion, as Enoch established it, is an organization, a state of mind and heart, and is comprised of individuals who are pure in heart, an organization and home where love abounds where there is one heart, one mind, and no poor. A place where the pure love of Christ exists in the heart of every individual as they love God with all their heart, might, mind and strength, loving and serving their fellowmen as themselves. Zion is an individual, a people, and a congregation full of the "charity" as described by Moroni. This charity, "suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (Moroni 7:45). Charity, the pure love of Christ that the pure in heart have, is attained by taking the oaths and covenants of the Temple seriously, internalizing them into attitudes and character traits by faithful obedience to the laws and covenants made at the altars of God. This mighty change of heart and character as we "engrave His image upon our countenances" (Alma 5:14,19) can only be accomplished outside of the temple in our every day life and activities as we live the laws of sacrifice, the gospel, chastity and consecration. The salvation and exaltation of the pure in heart will come by righteous obedience to the covenants entered into, coupled with the ordinances of exaltation.

The opposite of Zion is Babylon, and both exist as an organization and frame of mind, which are the desires of the heart. Just as Zion is built upon the principles of "charity," the pure love of Christ, Babylon is founded upon the principles of "enmity," a hatred of God and man. President Benson has described this "enmity" which is the opposite of charity.

"In the premortal council, it was pride that felled Lucifer, 'a son of the morning.' (2 Ne. 24:12-15; see also D&C 76:25-27; Moses 4:3.) At the end of this world, when God cleanses the earth by fire, the proud will be burned as stubble and the meek shall inherit the earth. . . ."

"The central feature of pride is enmity - enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means 'hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.' It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us. . . ."

"Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren't interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's. . . ."

"The antidote for pride is humility - meekness, submissiveness. (See Alma 7:23.) It is the broken heart and the contrite spirit. . . ." (CR, April 1989, p. 5).

The goal of every dispensation is to establish Zion. Zion has fled, or failed to succeed in every age of the world because of Babylon. Zion is founded upon the "love" of God and our fellowmen, while Babylon is founded upon the pride of man, which inspires "enmity," a hatred of God and our fellowmen. The destruction that comes upon the earth in every age, and every dispensation, is because of the influences of enmity and pride, in the organization of the great and abominable church of the devil.

The Flood at the time of Noah came upon the inhabitants of the earth because of Babylon, and this "church of the devil" was destroyed with the pride of mankind in the waters of the flood. The next great destruction of Babylon came at the Tower of Babel. The Brother of Jared and their families are saved by the great winds, and like Noah, escaped by water and ship, the destruction of Babylon as the confusion of tongues devastated the communication and centralized organization of Nimrod and Satan. The great earthquakes at the time of Abraham, the lack of water, and the famines that followed for generations saw the third demise of Babylon. The famines turned the hearts of the people toward God and yielded the great conversions at the time of Abraham, as the Father of the Faithful leaves the center of idolatry and wickedness, being led to a "land of inheritance" as promised by God. The famines send the posterity of Abraham into the arms of safety provided by the flood waters of the Nile, and the patriarch Joseph, who was the vizier of a world power. With the rise of a "pharaoh that knew not Joseph," the great and abominable rears it's ugly head again in form and symbol of all worldliness and wealth, Egypt. This time, however, the children of Israel leave the worldliness behind as they are saved by the waters of the Red Sea, viewing the destruction of Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt. They spend the next forty years trying to cleanse themselves of pride and enmity as they progress toward the "promise land" and cross the waters of the Jordan, where they may serve and worship the God of Israel. The fight of Zion against Babylon continues for the next 600 years as the "Temple of the Lord" often becomes the "Great and Spacious Building" (Jeremiah 7:1-16). Finally in 600 B.C.E. the real Babylon destroys the Temple of the Lord whose foundation is anchored in the bedrock of the "Mountain of God" in Jerusalem, and take all that is holy and sanctified from the Temple to the great and spacious palaces of Babylon. However, there is another small "family" that leaves the pride and enmity of Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem as the power of the Babylonian nation falls upon the "promise land" and "chosen people." Again, by water and by ship, Lehi and the righteous few are spared, leaving Babylon behind, taking with them the gospel, the priesthood, and plain and precious truths that are required to establish Zion anew. (Babylon is destroyed by the Persians because of the waters of the Euphrates) The great failure of the Nephite nation was the establishment of Zion (4 Nephi) and its fall because of "Babylon," the pride and enmity in the hearts and minds of mankind. The Book of Mormon is a record of a fallen people, and a pattern of the last days.

As the great and abominable church of the devil, raged in the known world with blood and horror seeking to control the religions and religiosity of man, a small group of Gentiles leave Babylon behind again and cross the separating waters to the new world. Seeking freedom from the church of the devil, the waters offered a temporal salvation from the control and bloodbath that governed the Babylonian world. This new nation, on a promised land, made laws to protect the freedom of religion, capable of holding Babylon at bay until the restoration of the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ. Once again the waters save the saints as they cross the frozen Missouri River leaving behind the worldliness, war, and persecutions of Satan that raged again against the righteous few.

The pattern of Babylon and water exists in our personal lives as we are commanded to "come out of Babylon" (D&C 133:5, 7, 14; Jer. 50:8). We must choose to leave Babylon (wickedness) behind and enter the waters of baptism, putting off the natural man, becoming a saint, washed and pronounced clean and free from the world and the sins of our generation.

Without going on and on, the history of the world, and all of scripture, is a record of the war that rages between Zion and Babylon, between the righteous and wicked, between love and enmity, between the sons of God and the sons of men and perdition, between humility and pride. This war is fought on the battlefield of the hearts and minds of mankind, and the flag and standard for which we fight, is predicated upon "whom we list to obey." As Isaiah said. "He [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: (Isaiah 59:15). We cannot serve "God and mammon" and live in this world having one foot in Zion and the other in Babylon. Life eternal, requires a choice between good and evil, between the principles of the "pure in heart" or the perilous pride of the world. Because of this 'history of scripture,' the "key" to understanding the prophets, ancient and modern, and the "key" to the Book of Revelation is understanding the fight between Zion and Babylon. The great and terrible day of the Lord is viewed by John as he gives a descriptive account of the devastations and desolations in the "apocalypse," and only the destructions described in Revelation can cause the fall of Babylon, and the exaltation and triumph of Zion.

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