“We live in dangerously troubled times. The values that steadied mankind in earlier times are being tossed away. We must not ignore Moroni’s words when he saw our day and said, ‘Ye [must] awake to a sense of your awful situation’ (Ether 8:24). We cannot take lightly this warning from the Book of Mormon” (Packer, “Do Not Fear,” 77–78).
1. Founded on ancient and secret plans (Ether 8:9).
2. Join with a secret oath (v. 14).
3. Maintain loyalty and secrecy by threats of violence (v. 14).
4. Kept up by the devil (v. 16).
5. Established to “obtain kingdoms and great glory” (v. 9), “to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms” (v. 16).
6. Forbidden by the Lord as wicked (vv. 18–19).
7. Had “among all people” (v. 20).
8. “Caused the destruction” of both the Jaredite and Nephite nations (v. 21).
9. Promise destruction for whatever nation upholds secret combinations (v. 22).