“Taking Away of Their Stumbling Blocks”
Nephi described the latter days as a critical time of decision for the Gentiles, a time wherein they may be blessed or cursed, depending upon their disposition to receive the Lord and his anointed. In that day when the Deliverer would take away the “stumbling blocks” of ignorance and superstition caused by the removal of the plain and precious parts of scripture, the Gentiles would witness a “marvelous work,” the restoration of the everlasting gospel.
This everlasting gospel is that system of salvation which has sealing power-power to seal the obedient unto eternal life and to seal the disobedient and rebellious “unto the day when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon the wicked without measure” (D&C 1:8-9), the dreadful day of the second coming of the Son of Man.
Those who receive the new covenant will become people of the covenant and come to know their true identity as members of the royal lineage. On the other hand, those who turn a deaf ear to the words of life will polarize themselves against the faith of their fathers and align themselves with the father of lies; they become a part of that “church of the devil,” an element of “Babylon the great, which shall fall” (D&C 1:16).