GIFTS: By the Lord's definition we seem awfully close to the TIPPING POINT as a nation.

Let's get a few things straight.

As great as America has become, and as great as its auspicious foundings were, America is not spoken of in scripture as a "choice nation," as many Latter-day Saints believe and profess.

This is where we get mixed up:  this is a "choice land," and this sacred fact presumes a huge responsibility and accountability upon the nation that possesses it.

The words of scripture explain:

"And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity. . . ."

And further from Moroni:

"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written."

This is the repeated message of Moroni found in Ether chapter 2. Read the whole chapter.  There is a power in Moroni's repetition.

Note that the God of this land is Jesus Christ.  How marvelous that the Book of Mormon is so plain, so clear, so true to its own internal message as a witness, another testament of Jesus Christ!

This is the land where it all began.  Where the human family had its origins. Where the Garden of Eden stood.  Our enemies and detractors scoff at this.  But, in the Lord's words to Moroni further on in the Book of Ether, "Fools mock, but they shall mourn" (Ether 12:26). This is sacred turf, special---even holy---ground, a choice land.  It is a great privilege to live here, to "possess this choice land." It is not to be trifled with.  The Book of Mormon makes this abundantly clear.

Today, as we write, the financial markets are closed.  The reason: the approach on New York City of "the greatest storm in our history."  Whether Hurricane Sandy turns out to live up to that description we shall soon see.  The point is: the Lord is in charge of the weather, and He often uses the weather to get the attention of the people, as we wrote in a GIFTS post in June 2010.

So, what about this little detail of "swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them"? Is the Lord pleased with the inhabitants, the possessors of this choice land?

Here is an acid test. Perhaps this is how we test out whether we are close to the "Tipping Point." Consider the following in the context of events set to take place next Tuesday, November 6th:  the national election.

"Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people [the minority] to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law---to do your business by the voice of the people."

This warning verse sounded an ominous alarm for me at the 2008 election. My worst fears came true at that event.

The next verse says:  "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land" --- this choice land.

This warning voice in Mosiah 29 is separated from Moroni's "choice land" passages we started with here by some 285 pages and some 500 years in the Book of Mormon chronology.

Neither Moroni nor his father, chief compiler, editor, and prophet, Mormon were optimistic about the future possessors of this land.  They witnessed the destruction of the early possessors of this choice land and their record is a warning voice: the Book of Mormon is a warning voice. History tends to repeat itself.

In conclusion, some cogent insights from Hugh Nibley in a 1970s article entitled, "Beyond Politics":

"At the present time the political dialogue throughout the world has deteriorated catastrophically. In most countries it has degenerated into such mechanical and stereotyped forms that it is no longer profitable or meaningful --- it is no longer a dialogue at all. If you are a private citizen you just do not 'discuss' things with colonels, commisars [czars?], or corporations --- you do what they tell you to do or at best manipulate you into doing. Has it ever been different? Not much . . . ."

Brother Nibley continues:

"God has never given us a time schedule for the developments of the last days. There are a number of reasons for this; for example, if we knew the time and the hour, we would gauge our behavior accordingly and conveniently postpone repentance --- whereas God wants us to live as if we were expecting his coming at any moment. He comes as a thief in the night, 'Watch, therefore, for ye know not the time. . . .' But though he does not give us dates and figures, he does give us unmistakable signs of the times, and urges us to pay the closest possible attention to them. . . ."

And in conclusion from Brother Nibley:

"Specifically, if we want to know the sure sign of the end, we are instructed to look for ripeness or fullness. The end comes when, and only when, 'the time is ripe,' when 'the harvest is ripe'; when the people are 'ripe in iniquity.' Or, to use the other figure, when 'the cup of His wrath is full,' which will be when 'the cup of their iniquity is full.' Or, to combine both terms, when the world is fully ripe in iniquity. Fruit is fully ripe at that moment when further ripening would not mean improvement but only deterioration. . . . When the fruit is ripe there is no point in letting it remain longer on the tree. . . . A society has reached such a point when it can no longer go in the direction it has been taking, when the only hope of motion lies in a change or a direct reversal of direction, and repentance is that change of direction. . . .

"Yet throughout the world today, few, it would seem, have any intention anymore of repenting. That is the ominous note!" (Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 293--95).

Gloom and doom?  No.  God and His servants the prophets are not gloom-and-doom merchants.  But they are dead serious about conditions in the earth today.  When abortions are in the millions and are often used as a convenience of birth control, God sees that as a "ripening in iniquity."

And when I get feedback from Latter-day Saints telling me that abortion is not viewed negatively by the Lord because He has given no revelation on the subject, I have to think of the Prophet Joseph's words, which Nibley cited earlier in his article.

The last word, then, from Joseph, Kirtland, January 4th, 1833, in a letter to the editor of a newspaper:

"For some length of time I have been carefully viewing the state of things, as it now appears, throughout our Christian land; and have looked at it with feelings of the most painful anxiety. While upon one hand I behold the manifest withdrawal of God's Holy Spirit, and the veil of stupidity which seems to be drawn over the hearts of the people; upon the other hand, I behold the judgments of God that have swept, and are still sweeping hundreds and thousands of our race, and I fear unprepared, down to the shades of death. With this solemn and alarming fact before me, I am led to exclaim, 'O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.' [See Jeremiah 9:1 and 2 Nephi 33:2--4]

"I think that it is high time for a Christian world to awake out of sleep, and cry mightily to that God, day and night, whose anger we have justly incurred" (Teachings, 13--14).

Tipping Point?  We'll see soon. "Fully ripe in iniquity"?  Remember, "the only safety for what is coming is in the scriptures" (BKP) --- and in our ongoing repentance.

God bless.

Steve