In other words, after the gospel is restored there will be brilliant new window of opportunity for the Gentiles. All they have to do is embrace the message from the servants of God and turn back from their wicked ways so they can receive the blessings God has in store for them. One of their greatest blessings is to be adopted into the ranks of the children of Israel. This will entitled them to all of the blessings promised to Father Abraham. It will also allow them to receive a permanent inheritance in the promised land of America.
Now we cannot proceed further without asking ourselves a compelling question. Is the second scenario or the conversion of the Gentiles in modern America a practical possibility? To realize how serious the sins of America have become, the great scholar and notable judge, Robert H. Bork, undertook to examine more than two dozen dimensions of our modern American society to see how far we have drifted from God's commandments. He called his book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. His final chapter contains some jolting conclusions, and he raises the fatal question, "Can America Avoid Gomorrah?" In other words. "Can the wealthy, powerful wicked Gentile America avoid the threat of another dark ages?"
Dr. Bork says that politically the vast majority of the American leaders have abandoned the Constitution and smashed the chains of restricted power set up by the Founding Fathers. Spiritually, he says, the Gentile culture has repudiated the teachings of Jesus Christ and torn from the walls of the courts and the schools the plaques honoring the Ten Commandments. Economically, the politicians and master money makers have burdened Americans with a five trillion dollar national debt which requires 300 billion dollars in taxes every year just to pay the interest.
Dr. Bork's harshest condemnation against American society is the flood of immorality which has engulfed the nation. Never in its history has the moral decadence of the American culture insulted the essential commandments of God as it flagrantly does today.
So the monumental question that remains to be addressed is simply this: Is there any hope that the modern American Gentile society can be rescued and rehabilitated? To answer that question we turn to one of the highlights of the Book of Mormon. We find that while the catalog of the sins of the American Gentiles are atrocious, they are no worse than the sins of the Nephites and Lamanites at the close of 33 A.D.What the Nephites and Lamanites didn't realize was that God had a plan to rescue them from their gross corruption. Here is how he did it.
First of all, God suddenly put the entire western hemisphere through a great shock treatment that lasted three days and three nights. When it was over the people were so shattered and terrified that they were pleading with God for help. The Lord immediately responded with an aggressive missionary campaign among the survivors. In a very short time, here is what the Book of Mormon tells us in 4 Nephi, chapter 1:
"And it came to pass, in the sixth year the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites."
And after the survivors had been taught the gospel and joined the Church what was it like in America for the next hundred years. The record says:
"And every man did deal justly one with another.... And there was no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumult, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness, and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God."1
Now all of that really happened. It is actually part of history. And the Church of Jesus Christ among the Nephites and Lamanites lasted in all of its perfection for over a hundred years. So we are led to wonder if the same formula that exonerated the Nephites and Lamanites could also rescue the modern element of wicked Gentiles in America. What kind of a shock treatment would be required to initiate a major reform in America today? The Lord has not disclosed the details of his entire plan for the latter days but he has told us there is a pending judgment hovering over America and he has described it in such vivid terms that we know when it strikes millions of wicked Gentiles will be on their knees pleading to God for relief in order to survive. This prophecy is set forth the Doctrine and Covenants 29:17-19.
In another place the Lord refers to this time of future affliction and promises to protect his faithful Saints, nevertheless, he says the indolent members of the Church have no promise. This prophecy and the Lord's insurance policy for the faithful Saints is set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants 97:25-26. Of course God's plan is to save as many as possible from their own wicked self destruction. And if our modern shock treatment has as great an impact on the wicked in our day as God's plan did among the Nephite and Lamanites, no doubt we would have a similar result.
For example, among the Nephites and Lamanites, only the grossly wicked were destroyed. Jesus said: "Where there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them."2 And to the remainder who survived Jesus said: "All ye that are spared [it is] because ye were more righteous than they. Will ye not now return unto me and repent?"3 In other words they were wicked but not grossly wicked. Therefore they were spared.
No doubt the survivors among the Nephites and Lamanites eagerly welcomed the missionaries because we are told that every single one of them was converted. Now, if something like this happened in our own day, how could the Church deal with such a vast multitude of humbled survivors who had repented and longed to be taught the gospel? We are probably talking about a vast multitude of millions of survivors just as it was in the days of the Nephites and Lamanites.
Today, the Church has mobilized five full quorums of the seventies to manage the orderly affairs of over ten million Latter-day Saints. Supposing there were a hundred quorums of Seventies, or even two hundred? Supposing there were so many temples serving the people that you could stand near the steeple of one and see the steeple of another in the distance. Suppose we had 50 assembly halls as big as the one recently completed in Salt Lake City and all 50 were strategically located up and down this continent; and suppose we had the largest assembly hall in the world erected next to the temple in New Jerusalem.
All of these things could happen and perhaps Jesus had this -- and much more -- in his mind when he spoke of the modern Gentiles and said: "If ye will repent, I will establish my church among you." This would mean that the Church would need to launch a missionary campaign equal to that which unfolded among the Nephites and Lamanites nearly 2,000 years ago. Reflect for a moment on the number of recent developments which suggest that something like this might happen.
For example, in 1988 President Ezra Taft Benson stated in the October conference: "I testify that wickedness is ... more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before." Then he quickly added, "And I testify that the Church and kingdom of God ... has never been better organized or equipped to perform its divine mission."4 The prophet was announcing that a sort of David and Goliath encounter is taking shape.
The Church -- in the role of David -- launched its first smooth stone from the Lord's sling on June l, 1978 when it was announced that the holy priesthood would now be made available to worthy men of every race and nationality. The second smooth stone came a year after Ezra Taft Benson's conference talk. Suddenly in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact collapsed and the cold war was over. Soon whole vast regions were opened for the preaching of the gospel.
By the time Gordon B. Hinckley became president of the Church in 1995, nearly 60,000 missionaries were moving out across the world and many nations were hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. President Hinckley announced that a 100 beautiful temples would be completed and operating in the very near future and a new chapel would be completed somewhere in the world about every three or four days. The Saints were getting a chance to see what President Benson meant when he said "the Church and kingdom God ... has never been better organized or equipped to perform its divine mission."
Recently all of us have seen the work of the Church greatly accelerated. A private plane was donated to President Hinckley and before long he had visited nations on nearly every continent of this planet. People poured out by the thousands to hear the President of the Church. Before long the gospel story of the Restoration was being heard worldwide on television and radio. No doubt, it was the beginning of the latter-day flooding of the earth with the gospel as predicted by Enoch.
In a couple of years the President of the Church appeared on several world-wide television programs. The first was 60 Minutes, then two world-wide shows on Larry King Live. Interest in the message of the prophet resulted in a packed audience at the U.S. Press Club in Washington, D.C. Then he came out with a new book entitled Stand For Something and it soon reached the national best seller list in its class. As a jewel in the crown of this flurry of accomplishments, President Hinckley dedicated the largest religious assembly hall in the entire United States during the October conference of 2000 A.D.
And among the many temples dedicated that year, three were dedicated in two days -- two in Mexico, and one in Nashville, Tennessee. Another highlight was the dedication of the temple in Palmyra, New York. That temple stands very near the spot where Joseph Smith received the First Vision and shortly afterwards -- just a short distance away -- where Joseph received from the hands of the angel Moroni the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated.
In the midst of all these wonderful developments there has to be a shock treatment before the wicked realize how much the Lord abhors their abominations. At least he has made a marvelous promise to the survivors. He has said that all of those ominous prophecies of Micah, which we discussed earlier in this chapter, will not have to be fulfilled. Here is what he said:
"But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. And I will not suffer my people who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father."5
In addition to reversing the prophecy of Micah, the Lord confirms in verse 22 of this present chapter that he will adopt the repentant Gentiles into the house of Israel. This means they will inherit all the blessings of Abraham and they will have a permanent inheritance in America.