Byzantine Civilizations and Zion
[Iniquity in the Church
[Corrupt Judges]
[Divided into Tribes]
[Sudden Physical Changes]
306 3 Nephi 6:3-7 Well, we’re in the sixth chapter of 3 Nephi, and everybody says at this point, “Well, this is where I came in. You mean we’ve got to go through this again?” As it starts out, you notice everything is lovely at the beginning. The Nephites all returned to their own lands, a happy ending. They still had plenty of provisions left. It wasn’t seven years—it wasn’t even six years—and they returned to their own lands, and everything was lovely. And they rehabilitated the robbers. Verse 3: “And they granted unto those robbers who had entered into a covenant . . . land [they even granted them lands to settle] ... wherewith to subsist upon; and thus they did establish peace in all the land.” They not only rehabilitated the robbers, they gave them land. That was their trouble—there was no way to make a living otherwise. “And they began again to prosper and wax great.” Now this is a postwar boom that is a beauty. They really flourished because everything had to be built up again. There was a great demand for everything, and everything started to flourish magnificently—a boom, you see. Verse 7: ‘There were many cities built anew [all this reconstruction to be done] and there were many old cities repaired.” The inner structures were restored. What we call the infrastructures had broken down, and they were repaired. Notice the Book of Mormon is right up to times in these things. You not only build new cities, you have to repair the old ones, and that’s where the big expense goes.
306 3 Nephi 6:8 “And there were many highways cast up, and many roads made”—great road building. “many highways were cast up, and many roads made, which led from city to city.” And this is a very vivid picture of the culture as we actually know it was. But then “there began to be some disputings among the people; and some were lifted up unto pride and boastings because of their exceedingly great riches.” Do we have to go through this again? you say. It had only been three years, and this was beginning to happen.
306 Notice they have a very efficient Byzantine civilization. Almost all ancient civilizations were formed like this. By byzantine, we mean you have various classes with various uniforms and insignias, various preparations, educations, etc. In Rome if you were a member of the conscript patris you wore a toga. You didn’t, if you were not. If you were a member of the plebs, you didn’t. And if you were a workman, you had to wear a russet brown garment. If you were a little higher up in business, you added a purple tinge to it. If you were an official, you wore the toga clavata with a rim around the border or a red fringe. And so it goes. If you were the “big cheese,” then you’d wear a toga picta. These things were to distinguish them all. You had to wear the sign of your profession at all times. And they’re talking about workmen and being mechanical. If you were a workman, you had to have a sign of your profession. It was so here, too, notice.
307 3 Nephi 6:12,13 “And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning [as I said, this is the byzantine—an efficient, over organized type of civilization, as the yuppie world is]; some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.” Verse 13: “Some were lifted up in pride, and others were exceedingly humble [and then this happens very rapidly]. . .. There became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up.” Broken up how? Well, in verses 12-13, into the rich and the poor, of course. They were redistributing the wealth, all right—the rich get more, and the poor get less.
307 3 Nephi 6:15 The church began to be broken up; the church couldn’t take that, you see. There were a few among the Lamanites who survived. The church can’t survive inequality. You’ll notice this is a very interesting thing. In ancient times it was the same way. A few among the Lamanites stuck to the true faith; “they were firm, and steadfast.” What can this refer to? It can only refer to the law of consecration as far as I can see—the doctrine. They were “immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.” See, that’s what they did; they kept the commandments. It was not doctrine. They gave a different interpretation to doctrine, but they kept the commandments and the others didn’t. Now here it sums it all up. Here’s the whole thing, and these are the four things we’ve talked about before. Notice verse 15 if you want to know what caused all this. “Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this [it lays it right down on the line here]—Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.” Again, this is your prime time. Power is what they all want. That’s the big game today, but they go with riches. Of course, you have to have the means, and the two go together.
309 3 Nephi 6:16, 17; 3 Nephi 7:8 So here we have it in the Book of Mormon which really pours it on here and makes it very clear what these things were. Because of their riches, what’s going to happen? Verse 16: “And thus Satan did lead away the hearts of the people to do all manner of iniquity; therefore they had enjoyed peace but a few years.” Notice he keeps commenting on how this could this happen so fast, the pace of it. In verse 8 of the next chapter, it says, “And thus six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from their righteousness, like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow to her wallowing in the mire. “ How can it happen? Well, it does. These things hit us fast. And it says it became the “me first” philosophy—I want it now, and I want it all. 3 Nephi 6:17: “the people having been delivered up for the space of a long time to be carried about by the temptations of the devil whithersoever he desired to carry them, and to do whatsoever iniquity he desired they should—and thus in the commencement of this, the thirtieth year, they were in a state of awful wickedness”—after just those few years.
309,310 3 Nephi 5:1 It began by telling us at the beginning of chapter 5: “There was not a living soul among all the Nephites [five years before that] who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken. ... And they knew that it must be expedient that Christ had come [already]; ... therefore they did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms.” And now they’re already back in a state of awful wickedness. Now that is a real flip-flop. But you can do those things. It’s amazing how fast they can take place.
310 3 Nephi 6:18 And then what happens? Of course something has to happen now. Verse 18: “Now they did not sin ignorantly. .... They did wilfully rebel against God.” But we’ve seen that. They had just been righteous people; they knew what they were doing. How can that happen? These things happen after sinning once. One good sin and you say, what the hell. So I might as well go on, and people do that. They did not sin ignorantly.
310 3 Nephi 6:19-21 Lachoneus filled the seat of his father at that time [verse 19]. So there had to be a reaction here, not just objection, but something had to cut in. God couldn’t just leave things [as they were] here, and so “there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, .. . preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people.” When it goes too far, this happens. These men got in real trouble, you see. They couldn’t just laugh at them. Notice verse 21: “Now there were many of the people who were exceedingly angry because of those who testified of these things [the important ones, the chief judges and others in high places] ... the chief judges and they who had been high priests and lawyers; yea, all those who were lawyers were angry with those who testified of these things.” Notice he keeps hammering away at the lawyers. They’re the ones who take over when a society reaches this stage of depravity—it becomes a world of lawyers. They were the lawyers, and they didn’t like this kind of talk at all.
310,311 3 Nephi 6:23,26 Then, what’s going to happen? Now, there was a law—it was part of the constitution here—that nobody could be put to death unless there was a warrant signed by the governor. Of course if there’s a death warrant, you have to go to the top. He had the power to reprieve and he had to sign the death warrant. But the judges and the lawyers didn’t like these people who were preaching, so they put them out of the way anyway. They had ways of getting around that; this was their business. Verse 23: “Now there were many of those who testified of the things pertaining to Christ... were taken and put to death secretly by the judges”—legally but secretly, you see, because they were the judges and made it legal. And then no knowledge [of this] was known until after their death. It was a fait accompli—too bad, there’s nothing we can do about it now.. Well now, this was very serious, and people started noting this and started declaring that this was unconstitutional. A complaint came to the governor against these judges. They were going to be indicted. The complaint was made officially to the governor, so these judges and lawyers were going to be indicted for what they’d been up to. They weren’t going to put up with that, you see. Notice in verse 26, they were not only indicted; they were tried and [almost] convicted. They were “brought up before the judge, to be judged of the crime which they were done.” But they weren’t going to be convicted, because they had a position of strength.
311 3 Nephi 6:27,12 “Now it came to pass that those judges had many friends and kindreds; and the remainder, yea, even almost all the lawyers and the high priests did gather themselves together.” And remember we’re told this is a byzantine society, where you belong in a particular class. It says they were divided into classes, and they wore a particular garment and had a particular rank. They were members of the same order, so they stuck together. That’s what they were doing here, showing great solidarity. “Almost all the lawyers [it says here] and the high priests, did gather themselves together and unite with the kindreds of those judges who were to be tried according to the law.” [They were] these rich, influential people of the establishment—we read about them [today]. There was such an establishment. You see here in verse 12, “And the people began to be distinguished by ranks according to their riches and their chances for learning.” They formed definite groups in the society. But it went much beyond that.
311 We forget that far more important than the national state, anciently and today too, are the subgroups, the groups it’s divided into—our classes, interest groups where they’re in business, academics—and, of course, the tribes. All the cities were divided into demes and frateries, into smaller groups. They were the ones you belonged to. That’s so with any tribes of Indians or anything else. And these people were divided the same way, as our society is. The fact is we do divide up like that because we don’t see eye to eye. And this is what happened here, a very natural thing. This is tribal structure, and it remains. So we don’t have the single nation we think we do—never have and never will have, because we have our various interests, and our loyalties conflict.
312 This is the essence of tragedy, conflicting loyalties. It’s not the good guys against the bad guys. The Book of Mormon keeps telling us that, and we won’t believe it. We say, yes, it’s good guys vs. bad guys. But the essence of tragedy is the incompatibility of two good things.
312 3 Nephi 6:28,29 Here they enter into a covenant. These people are quite solid among themselves. They had the secret government. We have secret government today with parties and interest groups; we have underground things going on. We have covert operations, and we even accept them as legitimate now, though by very nature they’re vicious and extremely dangerous and very common in the Book of Mormon, you’ll notice. “They did enter into a covenant one with another [they made it very secret; they were making a society] .. . which was given by them of old, which covenant was given and administered by the devil to combine against all righteousness.” [They formed their own independent operation to get their release; the only way they could get out of it was to] ... enter into a covenant to destroy them, and to deliver those who were guilty of murder from the grasp of justice.”
312,313 3 Nephi 7:1-3 It’s not surprising that they succeed, and the government that follows works pretty well. This is interesting. This shows us that all the time they have been divided up this way— that the infrastructure was already there for the tribes. They moved right into it. It didn’t shatter the country or anything like that. Just as if we would give up the federal government, we would still have states. So here: “ They did destroy upon the judgment-seat, yea, did murder the chief judge of the land.” They destroyed him upon the judgment-seat; that’s the standard solution, neat and easy. “And the people were divided one against another, and they did separate one from another into tribes.” They went off by themselves, because the infrastructure was already set up. In a crisis that’s what you do; you gather around your family.
313 3 Nephi 7:2,2 “They did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family [that’s the nearest association, the safest, the one to take] and his kindred and friends [that’s the little larger circle, the relatives, the cousins, and the in-laws—and friends come into the circle]; and thus they did destroy the government of the land.” Everything was out of control, so they privatized everything and went back to the tribal system. Notice it says in the next verse, “And every tribe did appoint a chief or a leader over them; and thus they became tribes and leaders of tribes.” They went back to the old tribal government. They were ready for that all along.
313 And “their tribes became exceedingly great [see this infrastructure was already in place]. .. . And there were no wars as yet among them [these tribes didn’t fight with each other as yet—that will come later]; and all this iniquity had come upon the people because they did yield themselves unto the power of Satan.” They just gave up and stopped trying. They started out being a righteous people, but you have to make an effort. You have to keep at it. Being righteous isn’t just the absence [of wickedness]—what you don’t do; but what you do do. That’s what makes you righteous. As I said, there’s no such thing as being an idle righteous person—an idle person isn’t righteous. You’re not necessarily wicked or anything like that, but if you’re going to be righteous, it’s something you have to work at. That’s what we’re here for—being tested, being tried and tempted—and it doesn’t just stop when we’ve made one hurdle. There are more to follow. So they yielded themselves unto the power of Satan. They had given up trying. Notice the word is yield. They gave up. It wasn’t that they were pushed into it or anything like that. They yielded to it.
313 3 Nephi 7:6,8 “And the regulations of the government were destroyed [well, that’s exactly what they wanted, this privatization; they didn’t like government regulations, so they did away with them], because of the secret combination of the friends and kindreds of those who murdered the prophets [they were behind this; there’s unrestrained competition now]. And they did cause great contention in the land [as you might well expect], insomuch that the more righteous part of the people had nearly all become wicked [nearly all the righteous people, not just the wicked, and they had plenty of wicked to begin with—that’s pretty bad]; yea, there were but few righteous men among them [everyone accepted the system and went along]. And thus six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from their righteousness [and it quotes the prophets here] like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow to her wallowing in the mire.” That’s the Old Testament pattern here.
313,314 3 Nephi 7:11 Now this secret combination. Well, at the head of it, this powerful, right-wing coalition had existed all along. They were the hard-core king people, it tells us there, the secret combination. They placed at their head a man called Jacob to make him a king. But he wasn’t accepted; people hated him. He didn’t go over at all. They went too far, you see. These king people kept a nucleus, but “they were not so strong in number as the tribes of the people, who were united together save it were their leaders did establish their laws, every one according to his tribe.” They were united together. Notice, they were the united tribes, but the leaders of each tribe established their own tribal laws, and they were the laws by which they lived, “every one according to his tribe; nevertheless they were enemies.”
314 3 Nephi 7:11,12 There was no love between them, but they were united in one thing, you see. Once the federal government had disappeared, they all regretted it. They missed it. They wished it was back, and they united only in hatred of the people that abolished it. One thing they had in common—they wanted to get it back again. “They were united in the hatred of those who had entered into a covenant to destroy the government.” They thought that was what they wanted, but they didn’t. The plan backfired, in other words, and this is what happened here. Too late they regretted the loss of the central government, which has its virtue and its necessity too. What are they going to do? Well, the king people were very unpopular, and Jacob skipped out. He got out as fast as he could. Verse 12: “Therefore he commanded his people that they should take their flight into the northernmost part of the land [the north is the frontier] and build up unto themselves a kingdom.” They were going up there where they’d be left alone to build a kingdom, and he would be king. The dissenters would go and join them. That’s the old pattern, you see. We’ve seen that in the Book of Mormon; the Nehors started it out.
314 3 Nephi 7: 14 “And so speedy was their march that it could not be impeded,” and they went out and settled. And here’s another of these racial problems. See, here’s another stock moving out, and they’re a mixed stock. They’re going out by themselves to become independent. You have another tribe here. Before long they would be speaking [another language]; they must have been speaking a different dialect already. And here’s the idea of splinter groups in verse 14: “They were divided into tribes, every man according to his family, kindred, and friends.” It emphasizes this because it’s very important. This chapter actually tells us about the end of the Nephite state. It’s the end. This is where the book should end, if something wasn’t about to happen. Big things are about to happen now. When it reaches this stage, you can expect something to pop.
314 3 Nephi 7:14 “Nevertheless they had come to an agreement that they would not go to war one with another [that was sensible; that’s more sensible than we have been; now we’re finally agreeing that you’re not going to gain anything by that]; but they were not united as to their laws, and their manner of government, for they were established according to the minds of those who were their chiefs and their leaders. But they did establish very strict laws that one tribe should not trespass against another.” Territorial bounds were respected as is always the case, even with animals—wolves and foxes have their territories. The most lawless people in the world are the Arab Bedouins of the desert. They live by the ghazw, by raiding what they can get. But, nevertheless, even in the desert, there are certain tribal boundaries, certain limitations, and you can’t go over the boundaries. Of course, the main cause of war between tribes is infringing on the other’s boundary.
315 3 Nephi 7:14,15 “ But they did establish very strict laws that one tribe should not trespass against another, insomuch that in some degree they had peace in the land.” Well, they were not absolute fools, but they did stone the prophets. So the church was there and having a rough time. “And it came to pass that Nephi—having been visited by angels ...” Now we have to have the DEUS EX MACHINA. Something has to intervene at this moment, because they’ve reached rock bottom now. What’s going to move them off dead center here? This is the end. As I said, it would be the end of the book if it hadn’t been for the intervention of something else. “... visited by angels and also the voice of the Lord, therefore having seen angels, and being eye-witness, and having had power given unto him that he might know concerning the ministry of Christ, and also being eye-witness to their quick return from righteousness [notice how quick it was, always emphasizing the speed] unto their wickedness and abominations.” These lightning switches. They impress you; they impress the writer no less. He thinks it’s quite strange.
315 3 Nephi 7:18 They were grieved and they went forth among the people and tried to do something, but it didn’t pay off. Nephi had power and great authority, but “they were angry with him [in verse 18] ... for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words [they knew he was right, and that made them furious] for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily [these extreme conditions require extreme measures; we have them here]. And in the name of Jesus did he cast out devils and unclean spirits; and even his brother did he raise from the dead. ... And the people saw it... and were angry with him because of his power.”
315 What was the mortal offense of Jesus? When the elders of the Jews, the high priests, and the Levites came together, they decided there was only one solution to the problem, and that was to put Jesus to death, get him out of the way. That was [after] he raised Lazarus. That was the thing that decided it. You go back and look there. They put up with everything, but when he raised Lazarus from the dead, that was too much. They decided that he would have to be put to death. The doctors came together then. And it’s the same thing here. When the people saw it they “were angry with him because of his power.”
315 3 Nephi 7:21-25 . “There were but few who were converted unto the Lord; but as many as were converted did truly signify unto the people that they had been visited by the power and Spirit of God, which was in Jesus Christ, in whom they believed.” So the church was active, small, persecuted, etc. And here’s an account of what went on in the church. They had their miracles, their casting out of devils, and their testimonies. Verse 24: “Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water [anyone who repented got baptized, so the church was growing]. Therefore, there were ordained of Nephi, men unto this ministry.” Nephi had ordained others. The church was growing, and they were baptizing people with water for the remission of sins. “And there were many in the commencement of this year that were baptized.” So just before the big disaster many were baptized. Well, the church was growing. Things were going all right—then. Not too all right.
316 3 Nephi 8:1-4 : “And now it came to pass that according to our record [he wants to make sure we get it right], and we know our record to be true, for behold, it was a just man who did keep the record [so he wouldn’t make anything crooked—that’s very important, you see]—for he truly did many miracles in the name of Jesus. ... And now it came to pass, if there was no mistake [we must get this absolutely right, what we’re talking about here] made by this man in the reckoning of our time, the thirty and third year had passed away; and the people began to look with great earnestness for the sign [the thirty-third year, and this is building up the tension, you see]. ... And there began to be great doublings and disputations among the people,” a feeling of uncertainty. Will it happen, or won’t it? Well, this had happened before at the birth of Christ in the same way, when they pronounced a “Bartholomew’s Eve” for all those who believed.
316 3 Nephi 8:4 : “In the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm.” It starts out; now things are beginning to happen. It always hits suddenly, and it begins on low key here. And then POW! it “did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder.”
318 The Book of Mormon description [earthquakes and destructions] is one of the best. “ But the point is these things happen and on such a scale. But the description in the Book of Mormon is remarkable not for its spectacular and tremendous nature but for its restraint. It says nothing that isn’t characteristic of a big earthquake. It wasn’t the worst. I’d put it at about 8 because lots of places survived and lots of people survived, etc. But the description of the various phenomena that accompanied it [is accurate].