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2 Nephi 28:8

And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

This is a famous Mormon scripture - all the seminary kids know it. But do they know how startlingly accurate Nephi's prediction was? How could Nephi have known that it would have been fulfilled - to the letter- by 19th century confidence man Joseph Smith? Behold the fulfillment of holy writ!

D&C 132

26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.

"If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven, and if you will follow the revelations and instructions which God gives you through me, I will take you into heaven as my back load. If you will not accuse me, I will not accuse you. If you will throw a cloak of charity over my sins, I will over yours—for charity covereth a multitude of sins. What many people call sin is not a sin. I do many things to break down superstition." - Joseph Smith

Truly, the Book of Mormon is a marvelous work and a wonder! Nephi saw Joseph Smith's day and lamented it!

I had to think about that for a while.

A lesson on excessive dependency on one's social environment for conscience development. It leads to trying to rule the social environment in order to do whatever one wants to do. It is ultimately atheistic, in the sense of Stalin, Lenin, and Hitler.

It also leads to a conclusion that we need prophets, defined as people with the courage to confront an unhealthy social environment, and those who perpetuate it.