A pervasive theme of the Book of Mormon is that the promised land will remain a haven of peace and liberty for the righteous who keep the commandments of the Lord. On the other hand, those who turn their backs on the Lord after all He has done to gather them to such a choice land will be swept away if they fail to heed His call for repentance (see 1 Nephi 2:20; Jarom 1:9; Omni 1:6; Ether 2:8–10). The Jaredites are about to serve as the fulfillment of sacred prophecy—just as the Nephites in the distant future. Lest we rationalize the demise of these once great nations as something that pertains to the irrelevant past, consider the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie concerning the application of these events to our own time:
Wickedness begets wickedness just as righteousness leads to an increase in righteousness. When men rebel, the spirit ceases to strive with them; finally they are left entirely to their own devices and to the influence of the devil, and then they are ripe for destruction. This is the course that worldly people are now following; the day of destruction will come at the Second Coming, for then the cup of iniquity of the wicked will be full.
Righteous nations of the past, turning from the Lord to iniquity, have followed this same course. Of the Jaredites it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed.” (Ether 15:19.) A similar condition came upon the Nephites. (Moro. 8:28; 9:4.) In this day the spirit will continue to be withdrawn until the whole vineyard will be burned, and the righteous only will escape destruction. (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966], 727)