Moroni said he was "commanded to write" the things that he did (Ether 8:265). As Moroni did so, three special warnings to the Gentiles concerning secret combinations emerged:
1. Suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you" (v. 23)
2. If you allow secret combinations, l"the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction" (v. 23).
3. "When ye shall see these things come among you . . . awake to a sense of your awful situation" (v. 24).
Elder Ezra Taft Benson spoke concerning Moroni's warning:
Now undoubtedly Moroni could have pointed out many factors that led to the destruction of the people, but notice how he singled out the secret combinations, just as the Church today could point out many threats to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's work, but it has singled out the greatest threat as the godless conspiracy. There is no conspiracy theory in the Book of Mormon--it is a conspiracy fact.
Now we are assured that the Church will remain on the earth until the Lord comes again--but at what price? . . . President [J. Reuben] Clark [Jr.] warned us that "we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the Church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known." [in Conference Report, April 1944, p. 116] He also stated that if the conspiracy "comes here it will probably come in its full vigor and there will be a lot of vacant places among those who guide and direct, not only this government, but also this Church of ours." [in Conference Report, April 1952, p. 80] (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1972, p. 51; and Ensign, July 1972, pp. 60-61)
[CES, Book of Mormon Student Manual, Religion 121 and 122, 1989, p. 140]