Repentance: I Would Not Hear. I Would Not Know

These posts on Repentance are intended to be read in order beginning with

Repentance: Introduction

At the bottom of each post is a link to the next one. 

The Lord calls them “but they hearken not, nor incline their ear, but walk in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart and go backward, and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:24). We know from Jeremiah that the Lord is describing His people Israel, particularly of Judah, but also is describing us, His people in the latter days, and this language is not flattering. Lest you think He is not talking about you, let’s see what else the Lord said to Jeremiah about our willfulness to turn away from Christ after we have been called. Make no mistake, our failure to hearken to the voice of God is willful and done with full knowledge that He has called us to hearken unto Him. We cannot plead ignorance. As Hugh Nibley said, the Book of Mormon was given, not to convince us, but to convict us of our willful refusal to hearken to Him. “They hearken not, nor incline their ear….”

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord. The Temple of the Lord, are these” (Jeremiah 7:1-4 emphasis added).

Concerning Judah’s lying words “the temple of the Lord,” you can draw your own conclusions as to whether the Lord’s people today are saying the same by taking pride in all the temples built and being built. But why exactly does the Lord call them lying words? Because Judah would rather “walk after other Gods” and then come and “stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations…” (Jeremiah 7:9-10). 

I would add in our day ‘The Book of Mormon, The Book of Mormon, The Book of Mormon are these.’ Trust not in lying words because while we have the Book of Mormon, we refuse to hearken to its message.

The Book of Mormon does not teach us to follow the prophet, but look to the Lord and Live, and to not put our trust in men. Look to God and Live and I Know In Whom I Have Trusted

The Book of Mormon does not teach us to live the gospel, but that Christ is the gospel, the good news, sent by His Father to draw all men unto Him. Living the Gospel?

The Book of Mormon does not teach us to be worthy church members, but to remember our unworthiness ‘before God’ at all times (Alma 38:14).

The Book of Mormon does not teach us to be self reliant, but that we are all beggars. Are We Not All Beggars?

The Book of Mormon does not teach us that we fare in this life according to the management of the creature; that every man prospers according to his genius, and that every man conquers according to his strength, but does teach us that this is the doctrine of Satan (Alma 30:17).

The Book of Mormon does not teach a gospel of Performance, but a gospel of Repentance (Alma 42:24).

The Book of Mormon does not teach that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are of Israel, a chosen people, but that we, the Ephraimite Gentiles, will refuse to repent, and that the Gospel will be taken from us, and given to the House of Israel, of which we only become a part of, if we repent (3 Nephi 16:10).

The Book of Mormon does not teach that America will continue to be blessed by God, but that as part of Christ's Great and Marvelous Work, America will be destroyed. The Lord Hastens His Work

The Book of Mormon does not teach justification by works, but that we are saved by grace, after we repent.

The Book of Mormon does not teach us to read the scriptures daily, but  teaches us to search God's words, to feast upon them, and specifically to search the words of Isaiah, and prophecies that the Ephraimite Gentiles refuse to do so (2 Nephi 32; 3 Nephi 23:1).

The Book of Mormon has not been given to us as a reward of our goodness, but as a test of our faith to see if we will receive His words and desire more (3 Nephi 26:9-10). Ether 4

The Book of Mormon does not teach ‘repent and’ but teaches ‘repent or’ because it is made up of several voices of warning. An Example of What Has Been and Shall Be

As Jeremiah said to us: “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.” Any words other than the word of God are lying words that cannot profit. “Yet (notwithstanding they have the Book of Mormon) they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers” (Jeremiah 7:26).

Jeremiah cannot emphasize our willful refusal more clearly than with these words: “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27 emphasis added). Notwithstanding that we have the Book of Mormon, he tells us that we will not hear and hearken unto His words!

I have always been struck by Amulek’s words concerning his refusal to hear and to know. He describes himself as a man of no small reputation with many family members and friends, and that he had also acquired riches because of his hard work. But then he says: “Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people.

Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart” (Alma 10:4-6 emphasis added).

Could it be that we too will not hear and will not know, notwithstanding all that has been given to us?

Alma spells it out for us in no uncertain terms:

“But behold, I say unto you that if ye persist in your wickedness 

that your days shall not be prolonged in the land; 

for the Lamanites shall be sent upon you; and if ye repent not 

they shall come in a time when you know not, and ye shall be visited with utter destruction; 

and it shall be according to the fierce anger of the Lord.

For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer 

that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, 

1) after having had so much light 

2) and so much knowledge 

given unto them of the Lord their God; 

3) Yea, after having been such a 

highly favored people of the Lord; yea, after having been favored above every other nation, kindred, tongue, or people; 

4) after having had all things made known unto them, 

according to their desires, and their faith, and prayers, of that which has been, and which is to come;

5) Having been visited by the Spirit of God; 

6) having conversed with angels, 

7) and having been spoken unto by the voice of the Lord; 

8) and having the spirit of prophecy, 

9) and the spirit of revelation, 

10) and also many gifts, 

11) the gift of speaking with tongues, 

12) and the gift of preaching, 

13) and the gift of the Holy Ghost, 

14) and the gift of translation” (Alma 9:18-21 emphasis added).

Please do not make the mistake of not likening these words unto you. We have been given all of these and yet we still refuse to hear, to know and to repent.

But why this willful refusal to repent, notwithstanding all that has been given to us?

We seem unaware that our preoccupation with earthly “things” has dimmed our recognition of  heavenly things. Earthly things and heavenly things cannot  coexist at one and the same time. We preach to ourselves, but seldom apply to ourselves, that the fruits of our labors or the lack thereof result from personal choices. We nevertheless imagine we can fathom the wonders of God even as we wallow in the depths of worldliness. If spiritual blindness results from infatuation with idols as the prophets declare, how better is it defined than by those who “see but don’t perceive,” who “hear but don’t understand” (Isaiah 6:9)? Don’t the minds of those who lose the light they once had become more darkened than before?

Could that be what Heber C. Kimball meant when he said, in 1856, “The time is coming when we will be mixed up in these now peaceful valleys to that extent that it will be difficult to tell the face of a Saint from the face of an enemy to the people of God. Then, brethren, look out for the great sieve, for there will be a great sifting time, and many will fall; for I say unto you there is a test, a Test, a TEST coming, and who will be able to stand?” (Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1945, 446). ​

What will the Mormon or Ephramite Gentiles do when the paradigm they have lived by for over a century and a half suddenly proves ineffectual in a wicked world descending into chaos? Will they grow angry at their leaders for not warning them of calamities befalling them in spite of their living only spiritual half-lives? If they never observed more than what they believe are the basic principles of their gospel while assuming “all is well in Zion” (2 Nephi 28:21)—walking in the dark about where the world was heading—won’t they become disaffected with their religion when they awake too late to “a sense of your awful situation” (Ether 8:24)? The chances for spiritual growth they forfeited by pursuing worldly objectives in place of heavenly ones will then come back to haunt them like a nightmare from which they can’t wake up. The God they turned away from when his arm reached out in love must then himself turn away and “bring upon them the thing they dread” (Isaiah 66:4; cf. 30:8–17; 42:21–25; 2 Nephi 28:32).

The Harlot Babylon’s “skill” or “wisdom” and “science” or “knowledge”-- her sophisticated technology and human advancements--become “wickedness” or evil when used to promote her egocentric and self-serving agenda. So inured to her way are we who grew up in her materialistic utopia that we fail to recognize its idolatrous nature. What characterizes the Harlot Babylon is that she and all who pertain to her are “led astray,” their preoccupation with the things of this world preventing them from discerning the fact that she embodies all that is destined to perish.

Can you see in this last paragraph the answer to why we refuse to repent? If not, read it again and, if necessary, again, until you see the answer.

Next: Repentance: The Lord Covenanteth With None Save it be With Them That Repent