Again we have a comparison with the Nephites. However, we must be reminded that it happened with the Jardites first. The brother of Jared was told that those who possessed this choice land must serve the Lord or be swept off when the fullness of the Lord God’s wrath would come upon them (v. 8). Nephi was told that when his seed would “rebel against [the Lord], they [the seed of his brethren] would be a scourge unto [Nephi’s] seed to stir them up in the ways of remembrance” (1 Nephi 2:24). Mormon was later told that the scourge would come from “the Gentiles who shall possess the land” after the Nephites were destroyed as a nation (Mormon 5:19–20). Regardless of which people occupy the land, the commandments of God must be kept in order to receive the promised blessings of the Lord.
Moroni stopped abridging to insert one of his major precepts into the record (Ether 2:9–12). His first statement is a summary or repeat of what he had been recording upon the plates. He qualifies that the wrath of God will come when the nation that possesses the land is ripened in iniquity (v. 9). This is an eternal principle extended to other lands of the earth (see 1 Nephi 17:25–38; Genesis 15:16). The way the Lord cleanses that land or nation may vary. He had cleansed the whole earth by the flood (see Genesis 7:11–24; Moses 8:28–30). The Jaredites were warned of being swept off (Ether 2:10). This sweeping came from an internal sweeping (see Ether 13–15). The Nephites were destroyed by their Lamanite brothers who were wicked, but not ripe in iniquity as were their Nephite brothers (see Alma 45:10–14). The Gentiles, those who now occupy the land of promise, will not be destroyed if they repent and do not bring the fullness of God’s wrath upon them (Ether 2:11). They will be free from bondage and captivity if they will serve the God of this land who is Jesus Christ (v. 12). When the freedoms of this great land (America) are taken away, and the inhabitants are taken into captivity when the Gentile culture is scourged, the Lord will save those who will follow him and establish a Zion society, as will be discussed later. The Prophet Joseph Smith said:
“The time is soon coming, when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes.
I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said that the mother shall be against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They shall follow the saints of God from city to city. Satan shall rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things shall take place; but with a view of them shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand.” [TPJS, 161]
The Prophet made this statement in July 1839. Is the fig tree leafing?