The Nephites must have had some questions about this sequence of events. Why must the Gentiles, who would scatter the Nephite remnant (v. 2), be established in the land? Here, the Savior explains that they must become a “free people by the power of the Father” or the events Jesus has predicted would not occur. His listeners could not have understood the complex interrelationships of freedom, politics, and religion that provided the setting of the Restoration, and Jesus simply tells them that it was necessary. From a modern perspective, the necessity of a government that guaranteed religious freedom is obvious. Elder Mark E. Petersen taught:
And why was freedom so necessary in connection with the restoration of the gospel and its promulgation among the children of men? In order that those to whom the gospel would be restored might have the freedom of speech to preach the gospel; the freedom of the press to publish the gospel; freedom of assembly so they could gather together in congregations and worship the Lord; and religious freedom so that they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.
President Joseph F. Smith discussed this subject in this way:
This great American nation the Almighty raised up by the power of his omnipotent hand, that it might be possible in the latter day for the kingdom of God to be established in the earth. If the Lord had not prepared the way by laying the foundations of this glorious nation, it would have been impossible (under the stringent laws and bigotry of the monarchical governments of the world) to have laid the foundations for the coming of his great kingdom.
And along the same line, President Brigham Young said:
We believe that the Lord has been preparing that when he should bring forth his work, that, when the set time should fully come, there might be a place upon his footstool where sufficient liberty of conscience should exist, that his Saints might dwell in peace under the broad panoply of constitutional law and equal rights. In this view we consider that the men in the Revolution were inspired by the Almighty to throw off the shackles of the mother government, with her established religion. For this cause were Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and a host of others inspired to deeds of resistance to the acts of the King of Great Britain.