Hugh Nibley
"Q. But what can anyone do about combinations as secret and as powerful as those mentioned? Who can oppose them?
"A. First of all, we are told, we can cease to build them up, for ’whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, … and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people’ (Ether 8:25).
"Q. How can you build up a combination if you don’t know where it is or even what it is?
"A. You can do that by playing the game its way. Once you have been warned, as we have been here, that things are being run by such elements, then you know very well that if you aspire to power and gain, influence, status, and prestige; in other words, if you aspire to success by present-day standards, you can only achieve it by doing everything their way. One ceases to uphold those elements only by rejecting a whole way of life, regardless of the risk or inconvenience involved.
"Q. So you don’t uphold them; but they are still there. How can you get at them?
"A. As Alma and Ammon did in their day. They went forth ‘bearing down in pure testimony’ to whoever would hear them, suffering the worst the opposition had to offer, ’not with the intent to destroy our brethren [who were very wicked and depraved, you will recall], but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls’ (Alma 26:26). Admittedly it was a risky and dangerous business, but it was all they could do. We are not called upon to seize and occupy enemy territory, for the evil we are combatting is everywhere (D&C 1), and the only place we can confront it and overcome it is in our own hearts. I cannot make a bad person good by pulling a trigger, yet conversion of sinners to saints is exactly what the Lord requires: to persuade the children of men to do good continually, so that Satan may have no more power over their hearts (Ether 8:26). If men are to overcome Satan in this world, they must be alive to do it—shooting them solves nothing.
"Q. But we must overcome the hosts of evil.
“A. Where are they? ’This is my doctrine, … that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent’ (3 Nephi 11:32). Will you ask God which people you are to love and which you are to hate? Which to deal fairly with and which to cheat? Which to speak the truth to and which to lie to? Which to be kind to and which to be cruel to? The word of God answers all such questions with the greatest clarity; we have only one game-plan, and that is the call to faith, repentance, and charity with which Moroni sums up the Book of Mormon.” (The Prophetic Book of Mormon, p. 368-9)