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Episode: Ether 6-11 Part 2 • Dr. BJ Allen • November 18-24 • Come Follow Me

Author: Hank Smith & John Bytheway
Duration: 00:43:01

Episode Shownotes

Dr. BJ Allen continues to analyze the role of prophets in a civilization’s stability and the power of faith, hope, and charity amidst trials.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM47ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM47FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM47DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM47PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM47ESYOUTUBEhttps://youtu.be/HPfSave1oy4ALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 Part II

• Dr. BJ Allen01:01 A prescription for your sickness01:30 Ether 8 - Secret combinations04:40 Organized evil05:51 “I Testify” by President Ezra Taft Benson07:54 Ether 8-10 - Daughter of Jared10:53 Ether 9:12 - Destruction of the kingdom13:39 How to remain righteous amidst evil16:48 Growth mindset18:20 Remembering and roses22:23 Ether 7 - King Shule24:53 The call for repentance is joyful25:56 Ether 9 - Omer’s faithfulness28:07 Ether 10:1-25 - A king’s righteousness30:45 The Spirit and technological advancement33:58 Ether 11:1-22 - Prophets and a safe civilization36:40 Ether 11:14 - Ether 12 - “Moron did that which was wicked”37:48 Two major lessons 39:01 Commandments lead to greater happiness 45:48 End of Part 2 - Dr. BJ AllenThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Summary

In this episode, Dr. BJ Allen discusses the vital role of prophets in guiding communities toward righteousness while addressing the dangers posed by organized evil, particularly secret combinations, as depicted in the Book of Ether. The episode emphasizes how pride and wickedness lead to societal downfall, with narratives illustrating the disastrous consequences of disobedience to divine commandments. Additionally, the discussion advocates for the importance of remembering past experiences of faithfulness and the significant impact of righteous leadership on societal stability and prosperity. The interconnectedness between spiritual principles and advancements in technology is also highlighted, alongside the necessity of listening to prophetic counsel for personal and communal well-being.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Ether 6-11 Part 2 • Dr. BJ Allen • November 18-24 • Come Follow Me) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:01 Speaker_01
Welcome to Part 2 with Dr. B.J. Allen. The Book of Ether, Chapters 6-11. Like you said, there's this pride cycle going on. Verse 23, there came prophets among the people who were sent from the Lord.

00:00:14 Speaker_01
It could have said, and the Lord decided I've had it with you people and sent fire from heaven and consumed them all. That is such an act of mercy if he sends prophets. It's just another invitation to repent.

00:00:28 Speaker_01
And earlier, I mentioned as a bishop, I try to tell people to read the Book of Mormon. And sometimes the answer I would get would be, That's a prescription that doesn't fit my sickness. And yet, yes, it does. You just mentioned a couple of examples.

00:00:43 Speaker_01
God will speak to you in that way when you're studying the words of the prophets. He'll speak to you in a way that you need, whether it's from the Book of Mormon or, as you just mentioned, some conference talks.

00:00:54 Speaker_01
Yeah, I hope when people read this and they keep seeing, and the Lord sent prophets, they're going, that's a merciful God who does that.

00:01:01 Speaker_02
Yeah. John, I love what you said because we talked earlier about the importance of Revelation and helping us understand the answers to our questions.

00:01:11 Speaker_02
The Book of Mormon is the antidote to your sickness because the Book of Mormon serves as a catalyst for Revelation. Like President Oaks said, the Book of Mormon is like our own personal Urim and Thummim.

00:01:22 Speaker_02
Yeah, if you have a question, read the Book of Mormon.

00:01:24 Speaker_01
It connects you to God and then He can talk to you in exactly the way that you need.

00:01:30 Speaker_02
Those are some insights we learned from Ether 7 about what led to the downfall of the Jaredites. So now let's go to Ether 8. We have the entering of secret combinations. If there's one thing that Mormon and Moroni hate, it's secret combinations.

00:01:49 Speaker_02
Both of them take time in their chapters to put an insert into this historical summary about how terrible secret combinations are.

00:01:59 Speaker_02
I imagine these conversations between Mormon and Moroni around the dinner table about how much they hate secret combinations and Moroni's taking this in from his dad because Moroni says almost the same thing

00:02:11 Speaker_02
as Mormon says, is that secret combinations led to the downfall of the people. And then we can actually read in verse 20 and 21, Moroni's insertion says, and now I Moroni, and I love how Moroni does this. He wants us to be clear. Hey, this is me.

00:02:29 Speaker_02
I'm talking here. I'm taking a little break from the story. And now I Moroni do not write the manner of their oaths and combinations for it hath been made known unto me that they are had among all people.

00:02:43 Speaker_02
and they are had among the Lamanites, and they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi."

00:02:55 Speaker_02
Both Mormon and Moroni give credit for the downfall of their civilizations to secret combinations. I think it's interesting to think about like why, like why did they make this such an emphasis of the Book of Mormon?

00:03:10 Speaker_02
This is what President Ezra Taft Benson said, this most correct book on earth states that the downfall of two great civilizations came as a result of secret conspiracies whose desire to overthrow the freedom of the people.

00:03:25 Speaker_02
Now, undoubtedly, Moroni could have pointed out many factors that led to the destruction of the people, but notice how he singled out the secret combinations, just as the church today could point out many threats to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's Word, but has singled out the greatest threat, the godless conspiracy.

00:03:46 Speaker_02
Thinking about how terrible secret combinations are, how do we get rid of these? What's the antidote to evil in our world? What's the antidote to secret combinations?

00:03:57 Speaker_02
Well, if we go back in the Book of Mormon to Helaman 6, 37, he tells us, And it came to pass that the Lamanites did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton, and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them.

00:04:16 Speaker_02
in so much that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Nephites." What's the antidote? It's the Word of God.

00:04:25 Speaker_01
Shouldn't be a surprise. They sat them down, they plugged in a Hank Smith CD, and they said, listen to this. And it solved the problem.

00:04:35 Speaker_00
They said, we'll change. Just stop the torture. We'll change.

00:04:40 Speaker_01
We have lots of families out there. As a kid, secret combinations, I didn't know what that meant. I thought, oh yeah, when I went to junior high and they said, there's your locker and here's your secret combination, don't tell anybody.

00:04:53 Speaker_01
I wanted to make sure we talk about what is that? And you use the word conspiracy. These are agreements that people make in secret to overthrow, to do crime, to do murders. I mean, it gets really bad. They're conspiracy secret agreements

00:05:10 Speaker_00
Organized evil. Yeah.

00:05:12 Speaker_01
Organized evil. It even calls it a wickedness above the wickedness of the whole earth because it can be organized. It's like murder sometimes organized on international scale. Wow. Verse 21, he's Moroni what he's saying. This brought down the Jaredites.

00:05:28 Speaker_01
It brought down the Nephites. And then verse 22 better be careful. It could be you as they come among you.

00:05:37 Speaker_02
Yeah, and it's not just that they did evil in secret, it's that the whole role of their organization was to take down what was good. It's to overthrow what is godly.

00:05:51 Speaker_01
And to bring bondage. In the October 1988 General Conference, President Ezra Taft Benson gave what I think might have been his last talk in conference. It was called, I testify, and I will never forget it because every paragraph began, I testify.

00:06:07 Speaker_01
This is one of the last ones. I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before.

00:06:20 Speaker_01
Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.

00:06:38 Speaker_00
Oh, it's intense, yeah.

00:06:40 Speaker_01
It is so intense.

00:06:41 Speaker_00
Moroni then turns to the reader, breaks that fourth wall and says, Oh, you reader, this could happen to you and your nation. Wake up to the sense of your situation and make sure this doesn't happen to your land.

00:06:58 Speaker_00
These groups want to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries to destroy that which is good. You said that BJ, this is the same being who came after Adam and Eve from the beginning.

00:07:12 Speaker_00
It's interesting that you have this author turn to the reader and say, are you awake?

00:07:18 Speaker_01
I feel sometimes the Book of Mormon is like, hi, we're the Nephites. Here's how we destroyed ourselves, pride, wickedness, and secret combinations. And now, here's a second witness. Hi, we're the Jerudites.

00:07:28 Speaker_01
Here's how we destroyed ourselves, pride, wickedness, and secret combinations. And this is how you will destroy yourselves. OK, thanks. Happy book.

00:07:38 Speaker_00
A message from the Church of Jesus Christ.

00:07:42 Speaker_02
Yeah, that would have been a great commercial when we were growing up. Would you like to learn about a book about that tells us how our civilization is going to be destroyed?

00:07:51 Speaker_00
There you go. You can get it for free.

00:07:55 Speaker_02
I don't want to spend a lot of time here on secret combinations, but it is such a theme in the Book of Mormon. I think we could talk a little bit about how it started. Interestingly, it's actually a young adult who reintroduces here combinations.

00:08:08 Speaker_02
It's the daughter of a man named Jared, And Jared loses his kingdom, which, by the way, he had actually won by rebelling against his father, but then he loses it.

00:08:19 Speaker_02
So his daughter sees that he's sad, and she comes to him with a plan that we can read in Ether 8 through 10.

00:08:28 Speaker_02
And the daughter of Jared, being exceedingly expert and seeing the sorrows of her father, thought to devise a plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom of her father.

00:08:38 Speaker_02
Now the daughter of Jared was exceedingly fair, and it came to pass that she did talk with her father, and said unto him, Whereby hath my father so much sorrow? Hath he not read the records which our fathers brought across the great deep?

00:08:52 Speaker_02
Behold, is there not an account concerning them of old, that by their secret plans they did obtain kingdoms and great glory. It's interesting here to note that she cites a record they had brought with them. It's not maybe even her plan.

00:09:09 Speaker_02
It's something that she has read and they took with her. And then this is the plan she comes up with. And now, therefore, let my father send for a Kish, the son of Kimor.

00:09:20 Speaker_02
And behold, I am fair, and I will dance before him, and I will please him, and he will desire me to wife.

00:09:27 Speaker_02
Wherefore, if he shall desire of thee that you shall give unto him me to wife, then shall you say, I will give her if you will bring unto me the head of my father, the king.

00:09:39 Speaker_02
I mean, this is a very similar thing that plays out with John the Baptist, right? This idea of I'm going to dance before him and please him. This is a very dysfunctional family by the way. Yes.

00:09:50 Speaker_01
Yeah. These are lovely people.

00:09:54 Speaker_02
The scenario plays out exactly like she planned. The same thing happens. Akish desires her to wife and Jared says, you can have her if you bring me the head of my father. Then Akish brings his friends and administers the secret oaths and combinations.

00:10:12 Speaker_02
Actually, it was the daughter of Jared and Jared who encouraged Akish to search up these things of old. That's what the scriptures say. But here's the kicker of the whole story. Akish ends up killing Jared.

00:10:27 Speaker_02
who's his wife's father in order to take his throne after Jared had took the throne from his dad. Then he becomes jealous and he puts his son in prison. But what does the daughter of Jared get for her evilness and her plans? She gets her father killed.

00:10:44 Speaker_02
She gets her son put in prison. And we get another really good example that breaking the commandments always brings misery. Then what does Akish get for his plans? Well, he eventually gets overthrown by his sons.

00:10:59 Speaker_02
And the war is so bad that in Ether 912, it tells us that it lasted for the space of many years. Yay. Unto the destruction of nearly all the people of the kingdom, even all, save for 30 souls. This is like a mafia movie playing out here.

00:11:18 Speaker_02
It's a really salient example, as the Book of Mormon tells us, that wickedness never was happiness. It's not that God won't let you be happy if you break the commandments.

00:11:30 Speaker_02
It's that by natural consequences, if you break the commandments, it leads to misery.

00:11:35 Speaker_00
B.J., as you were talking about the destruction that ensued from this organized evil, it just annihilates everybody. Moses 7.26. And he beheld Satan, and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness.

00:11:54 Speaker_00
And he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced.

00:12:00 Speaker_01
Yeah, and then God looks down and weeps. It's poetry. How is it that the heavens weep and shed forth their tears as rain upon the mountains? There's another beautiful lesson about God in there. He is not unaffected by our problem. Enoch saw him weep.

00:12:17 Speaker_02
And you get a feeling that that scenario that you just read in Moses is exactly what's playing out here. Satan's laughing and God is weeping. And why is God sad? Because he just wants our happiness.

00:12:30 Speaker_02
He's like, I've been trying to tell you over and over again, what will make you happy? And you choose mystery instead. They hate their own blood.

00:12:38 Speaker_01
It's the two great commandments. I asked them to choose me their father, but they were without affection and they hate their own blood. That's kind of a gut punch of vision, that Moses 7. Look at Ether 8, 26.

00:12:50 Speaker_01
Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things, that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come into the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.

00:13:06 Speaker_02
That's a theme of the Book of Mormon, is the prophets tell us, look, we don't want you to focus so much on evil, but we want you to know enough about it so you know how to avoid it and you can recognize when it's coming.

00:13:20 Speaker_01
Well put. Yeah.

00:13:22 Speaker_02
I don't want to spend too much time talking about the wicked. Now we're that super depressed now, BJ.

00:13:29 Speaker_00
Thanks a lot.

00:13:31 Speaker_01
Thanks for joining us for follow We're still here.

00:13:37 Speaker_02
We'll see you next time Let's bring us out of the darkness of talking about evil talk about well, what about the righteous in a time of wickedness?

00:13:48 Speaker_02
What about the people that we read about in the Book of Ether who were righteous at a time when people weren't? And similar to our day, have you ever asked yourself why you have to live in such a time of evil?

00:14:01 Speaker_02
Have you ever felt like Nephi on his tower saying, oh, if I had lived in the days, right, where people did what the prophet said, would it be easier to live in another time when evil and temptation isn't so rampant? This is from Elder Anderson.

00:14:14 Speaker_02
He gave a UAU devotional. And he said this, as evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory power, an additional spiritual endowment, a revelatory gift for the righteous. Think about what that looks like in our day. How many temples do we have?

00:14:35 Speaker_02
The days of Moses, they had one traveling temple. Think about the rapid growth in the temples being built. We're the only generation with the full book of Mormon. We're the only generation with the Doctrine and Covenants.

00:14:49 Speaker_02
The access that we have to temple history, it is all in my phone. Isn't that amazing?

00:14:55 Speaker_01
And we could go on.

00:14:58 Speaker_02
The idea here is that yes, we live in a time of wickedness, but we also live in a time of abundant righteousness. And Christ has compensated us for living in a fallen and difficult world by offering so many blessings.

00:15:12 Speaker_02
And not only as a church, but also as individuals, we can all be blessed individually and overcome these times of wickedness. What I want to do is talk about some of those individuals and what they did to come closer to God.

00:15:28 Speaker_02
I actually want to go back to Ether 6 and I want to introduce a man named Uriah. This is in Ether 6 verse 30.

00:15:36 Speaker_02
And it came to pass that Uriah did walk humbly before the Lord and did remember how great things the Lord had done for his father and also taught his people how great things the Lord had done for their fathers.

00:15:53 Speaker_02
There's that word humbly, which we talked about earlier, and did remember how great things the Lord had done. This is a theme throughout the Book of Mormon, but especially through the Book of Ether.

00:16:05 Speaker_02
Three of the six chapters mentioned some version of he remembered what the Lord had done. It's almost as if God knows that we're mortal. We're not always going to feel faithful all the time.

00:16:18 Speaker_02
We change in the moment, our emotions change, and he's saying, look, remember. When you're going through a hard time, remember how I helped you through that other time.

00:16:28 Speaker_02
When you forget how you feel spiritually, remember that other spiritual time that I gave you. About this remembering, there's this quote from C.S. Lewis. He says, faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods.

00:16:43 Speaker_02
Through some of my research, I've learned some of the psychological benefits of remembering. I do organizational training sometimes for companies.

00:16:52 Speaker_02
One of the things I'll talk about is this concept of mindset, like having a growth mindset, having a mindset that gets you through difficult experiences and has courage to take on challenges.

00:17:04 Speaker_02
And one of the things I share is this insight from the Pacific Institute, which is an organizational consulting agency. They call it the flick back, flick up technique.

00:17:15 Speaker_02
And what it means is when you go through a difficult time, so you could be given a big presentation to your boss or a talk in church and you're really nervous, is you flick back to a past situation where you succeeded.

00:17:28 Speaker_02
Or in other words, you force yourself to remember. You visualize yourself doing it and you cultivate those positive feelings. I did it before, I can do it again.

00:17:38 Speaker_02
And then you flick up to the present situation and you extrapolate those feelings to how you feel now. And it's a really powerful psychological mechanism to force yourself to remember to give yourself those feelings now.

00:17:54 Speaker_02
I remember I went through something difficult, I can do that now. I used to feel faithful, I can feel faithful now.

00:18:02 Speaker_02
Sometimes in our difficult situations, whether that's a trial or testimony or whatever, we're told to remember, especially when it feels difficult to remember, because the Lord wants to come into our lives and he wants us to remember the great things that he's done.

00:18:20 Speaker_00
BG, I'm so glad that you brought this up because I have kept a little story from Sterling W. Sill in my back pocket and I've never been able to use it. I can use it now. This was a BYU devotional back in the seventies. John, you were probably there.

00:18:38 Speaker_00
This says this, the philosophy of excellence was demonstrated by the artist Whistler, capital W, not a Whistler, but Whistler. who once painted a tiny picture of a spray of roses. The artistry was magnificent.

00:18:52 Speaker_00
Never before, it seemed, had the art of man been able to execute quite so deftly a reproduction of the art of nature. The picture was the envy of the artists who saw it, the despair of the collectors who yearned to buy it.

00:19:05 Speaker_00
But the artist refused steadfastly to sell it. Why? Well, this is the artist. Whenever I feel that my hand has lost its cunning, Whenever I doubt my ability, I look at that picture of those roses and say to myself, you painted that. Your hand drew it.

00:19:25 Speaker_00
Your imagination conceived the colors. Your skill put the roses on the canvas. Then I know what I have done. I can do again. Hang on the walls of your mind, the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weaknesses.

00:19:41 Speaker_00
Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or desire for which you had deeply longed.

00:19:50 Speaker_00
Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life.

00:19:56 Speaker_02
Isn't that great? What a fantastic example of the importance of remembering. Remember what great things the Lord has done through you. Remember the great things you've done.

00:20:07 Speaker_02
We can gain confidence in ourselves and in the Lord through remembering the past. I want to talk about another reason in the scriptures that we're told to remember.

00:20:17 Speaker_02
And I want to introduce this by reading a quote from Elder Bender that he gave in a recent conference address.

00:20:24 Speaker_02
He said, I pray the Holy Ghost will enlighten each of us as we consider a higher and holier dimension of stillness in our lives, an inner spiritual stillness of the soul that enables us to know and remember that God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children and Jesus Christ is our Savior.

00:20:46 Speaker_02
This is the type of remembering that talked about in Psalms that says, be still and know that I am God. So often in this church, we talk about doing all the things we should be doing, which is important.

00:21:01 Speaker_02
Maybe we talk less about just being in a state of stillness and meditation and remembering. What does it say in the sacrament prayer? To bless and sanctify this bread to all the souls of those who partake of it, that they may do it in remembrance.

00:21:21 Speaker_02
And then later, we promise to always remember him. Maybe we don't talk as much as we should about remembering. I think of the primary song, search, ponder, and pray. Sometimes when I'm giving counsel to people, I forget about the ponder part.

00:21:39 Speaker_02
They just say, oh, pray to read your scriptures, but maybe we need to spend a little bit more time remembering.

00:21:46 Speaker_02
Helaman 5, and now my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer who is Christ, that Son of God, that you must build your foundation. And then later in Helaman, we get this interesting contrast from Samuel the Lamanite.

00:22:03 Speaker_02
Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he has blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches. It's almost as if the scriptures are using the word remember to mean what do you focus on?

00:22:20 Speaker_02
What do you think about when no one's around? And here in this account in Ether, we learn that remembering God is crucial to our spiritual development.

00:22:34 Speaker_02
Continuing on this theme of what are some of the people in the account of Ether who are righteous, now let's go to Ether 7. We're going to talk about Shul. He's righteous, but he has a rough go with some wars.

00:22:50 Speaker_02
in contention, he actually loses a portion of his kingdom, he's almost put to death. It really would have been easy for him to say, God, I was righteous and look at all these bad things that happened to me.

00:23:03 Speaker_02
I lost my kingdom, I'm almost put to death, I've been in captivity. But instead, we get this account in Ether 7, 23-25. And it came to pass that the people did revile against the prophets and did mock them.

00:23:33 Speaker_02
And it came to pass that King Shul did execute judgment against all those who did revile against the prophets. Rather than turn away from God because of his difficulties, what does he do? He protects the prophets.

00:23:49 Speaker_02
Then later on, we get what the reward is for that in verses 26 and 27. we're going to read about what the reward is for protecting the prophets.

00:24:00 Speaker_02
The people listen and they repent and then in verse 26, And because the people did repent of their iniquities and idolatries, the Lord did spare them, and they began to prosper again in the land.

00:24:14 Speaker_02
And it came to pass that Shul begat sons and daughters in his old age, and there was no more wars in the days of Shul. What is his reward for protecting the prophets and being righteous? A time of peace and a time of prosperity.

00:24:32 Speaker_02
Again, here we learn what's the natural consequences of being righteous. Peace and happiness and times of prosperity. It's almost like repentance is a great idea.

00:24:46 Speaker_02
Yes, to quote one of the missionaries who just gave a farewell talk, my word, repentance is what the good people do.

00:24:53 Speaker_00
That's true. B.J., I have a little second witness here for what you taught us with Shul. This is Elder Christofferson. He says the prophecies and philosophies of the world.

00:25:06 Speaker_00
He talks about Nehor and Korahor seem appealing because they give us license to indulge any appetite or desire without concern for consequence. By using these teachings, we can rationalize and justify anything.

00:25:18 Speaker_00
When prophets come crying repentance, it throws cold water on the party. But in reality, the prophetic call should be received with joy. Without repentance, there's no progress or improvement.

00:25:32 Speaker_00
Pretending there is no sin does not lessen its burden and pain. Suffering for sin does not by itself change anything for the better. And this is just beautiful. Only repentance leads to the sunlit uplands of a better life.

00:25:48 Speaker_00
That's exactly what you said there. Times six, the sunlit uplands of a better life. That's what prophets want for us.

00:25:56 Speaker_02
There's one more individual that I want to talk about that we can learn a little bit from in terms of being righteous in times of wicked, and that is a man named Omer. This is Ether 9. Omer's actually the father of Jared, who we had just talked about.

00:26:10 Speaker_02
So it was Jared's daughter who danced and brought secret combinations. Omer was the king. Before Jared had convinced Akish to kill Jared's father, which was Omer, Omer was actually warned in a dream to leave.

00:26:24 Speaker_02
Omer was never actually killed and later on he actually received his throne again.

00:26:29 Speaker_02
But similar to what we just discussed with Shul, he went through a really difficult time and it would have been really easy for him to walk away or to say, no God, I'm not leaving even though you gave me a dream telling me that I should.

00:26:43 Speaker_02
But when he does obey God, he's actually miraculously given his throne again through some really strange twists and events that seem really heavenly sent. Then after Omer, we have this span of peace and joy through a good number of kings.

00:27:00 Speaker_02
Scholars think it's about 200 years of peace. I want to point that out because sometimes we're really hard on the Jaredites, but 200 years is a long time. That's like about the time between us and the first vision.

00:27:15 Speaker_02
And think about how many wars have we had between the first vision and now. the Jaredites went that long with peace. And why was it? Their leaders were righteous, and they listened to the prophets, and they did the things that God asked them to.

00:27:32 Speaker_00
That is interesting. We generalize the Jaredites into this, well, secret combinations, and they were destroyed. But there's some righteous people here who are bringing out lots of these periods of peace. That's great.

00:27:45 Speaker_01
Omer has a son named Emer, and it tells us that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness, so it sounds like he had an appearance.

00:27:54 Speaker_02
Yeah, isn't that cool? And all we get is that little line, that he saw the Son of Righteousness. It's almost as if Moroni's—wait a second, I gotta mention this. This is really cool.

00:28:05 Speaker_01
I gotta tell you this part, yeah.

00:28:07 Speaker_02
Now let's go into Ether 10. What we're going to do in Ether 10 is talk about how civilizations are blessed when they do the things that God wants them to.

00:28:16 Speaker_01
Here's the italics of chapter 10. One king succeeds another. Some of the kings are righteous. Others are wicked. When righteousness prevails, the people are blessed and prospered by the Lord.

00:28:28 Speaker_01
It just sounds like this is what we've been reading the whole time in the book of Ether.

00:28:34 Speaker_02
Yes. Well, that's actually all I wanted to talk about.

00:28:40 Speaker_01
He's saying write out what you have been saying when the kings are righteous righteousness prevails and the people are blessed when they're not They aren't next chapter, right?

00:28:47 Speaker_02
Moving on Yes Yeah, have I told the story before I feel like i've read this like deja vu all over again. Yeah the pride cycle

00:28:57 Speaker_02
What I think is special about Ether 10 is we get an amazing insight into how great civilization can be when we're righteous together. Not just spiritual blessings, but economic blessings. Again, natural consequences of doing what God wants.

00:29:14 Speaker_02
Verse 22, And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain.

00:29:23 Speaker_02
Again, it's important to understand in context what we're reading about right now is one of those times of peace and righteousness. And when we have that, not only are individuals blessed by God, but also economies are blessed financially.

00:29:37 Speaker_02
You have a time of peace, you have free trade, as business professors, we love scriptures like this. It shows us that when you're righteous, the Lord blesses not only individuals, but also countries and economies as a whole.

00:29:53 Speaker_00
They're living the Jaredite dream. This is every family can get their own barge.

00:30:00 Speaker_02
No, yeah, you're right.

00:30:01 Speaker_02
This continues on in verse 23 and they did work all manner of ore and they did make gold and silver and iron and brass and all manner of metals and they did dig it out of the earth wherefore they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore of gold and silver and iron and copper and they did work all manner of fine work.

00:30:23 Speaker_02
So they were blessed, not just mentally and spiritually, but physically. The Lord fine-tuned their skills to help them do the things that they wanted to do. Then we get this really cool insight into verse 25.

00:30:36 Speaker_02
They did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash. As a business professor, I'm going to say that they were blessed with insight into technological advancements.

00:30:51 Speaker_02
that made their work easier and more efficient. One of my main areas of research is a new product development in innovation.

00:31:00 Speaker_02
When you study innovation over the history of mankind, there has been more innovation in the last 200 years from 1800 to now compared to the beginning of mankind up until that point. That's called the Age of Innovation.

00:31:18 Speaker_02
Around 1800s, you have the Industrial Age, and then from that, innovation just exploded. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I can see a correlation between early 1800s and the rapid source of innovation.

00:31:35 Speaker_02
The Spirit of the Lord has been unleashed. We have the gifts of the Holy Ghost and we have the light of Christ. And when that comes into civilizations, innovation happens.

00:31:44 Speaker_02
The Lord opens up our minds and we're able to do things that we weren't able to do before.

00:31:51 Speaker_00
Never could a people be more blessed than they were, prospered by the hand of the Lord in this choice land.

00:31:59 Speaker_01
Do you know what this reminded me of? When you use that word, industrious, in verse 22, I remembered that 2 Nephi 4, Lehi dies, Nephi gives his psalm, and in 2 Nephi 5, he says to his people, we gotta go.

00:32:14 Speaker_01
They go, and in 2 Nephi 5.17, it says, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious and to labor with their hands. And I think of the alternative. I cause my people to relax for a while. Man, this has been rough.

00:32:30 Speaker_01
But instead, this is important to be industrious and to labor with their hands. And oh, that verse 25, I love that, because it's actually a sequence. You plow first, then you sow. Then you reap. I love that agriculture tech there in verse 25.

00:32:49 Speaker_01
Plow, sow, reap, hoe. And I was hoping there would be something that would rhyme again. Thrash and go.

00:32:59 Speaker_00
Have you heard this quote from President Monson? It is wonderful. It's one of my favorites. I think he was taking another quote and kind of adapting it. He said, God left the world unfinished. for man, for us to work our skill on.

00:33:15 Speaker_00
He left electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth, the rivers unbridged, the forest unfelled, cities unbuilt. God gives to us the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things.

00:33:27 Speaker_00
He leaves the pictures unpainted, the music unsung, the problems unsolved, that we might know the joy and glory of creation. That fits with Ether 10, doesn't it?

00:33:37 Speaker_01
That's awesome. Yeah.

00:33:40 Speaker_02
That is really cool. The Lord blesses us with not just increasing our capacity spiritually, but also mentally and physically. He makes us better in all ways. I have a feeling BJ, this isn't going to last. Hank, you're a prophet.

00:33:55 Speaker_01
Some kings are righteous, others are wicked.

00:33:58 Speaker_02
Yes. As we wrap up Ether 11, we're going to learn about the prophecy of their downfall. I want to contrast that to the story we learn here at the end of A Man Named Calm. This is in Ether 11, one through three.

00:34:16 Speaker_02
And there came also in the days of Qom many prophets, and prophesied of destruction of that great people, except they should repent, and turn unto the Lord, and forsake their murders and wickedness.

00:34:28 Speaker_02
And it came to pass that the prophets were rejected by the people, and they fled to Qom for protection. for the people sought to destroy them. And they prophesied unto Qom many things, and he was blessed in all the remainder of his days.

00:34:44 Speaker_02
I just love this idea of being a protector of the prophets. Even if you're like Qom and you're the last person on earth who's going to believe them, you can protect them and independent of anyone else, you can know that the prophets are sent from God.

00:35:02 Speaker_02
And what do the prophets do? They ministered unto Qam. They prophesied things. Even though it was just him, the prophets still gave the message.

00:35:11 Speaker_00
We can do that today. What a great application. We can protect the prophets in our own way.

00:35:17 Speaker_02
Then we get the contrast of the rest of the people rejecting the prophets, which eventually led to the end of their civilization.

00:35:26 Speaker_02
Ether 11, 20-22, And in the days of Coriantor there came many prophets, and prophesied of great and marvelous things, and cried repentance unto the people.

00:35:39 Speaker_02
And except they should repent, the Lord God would execute judgment against them to their utter destruction. If they had obeyed the prophets, how different would the story have turned out?

00:35:52 Speaker_02
And then we get the rest of the story in verse 21, and the Lord God would send or bring forth another people to possess the land by his power after the manner by which he brought their fathers.

00:36:05 Speaker_02
And they did reject all the words of the prophets because of their secret society and wicked abominations. What happens to the Jaredites?

00:36:16 Speaker_02
whole civilization gets destroyed, then in just a little bit, we're going to have the Nephites come to the land of promise and take over because the Jaredites rejected the prophet and didn't do what God asked them to do. Wonderful.

00:36:32 Speaker_00
What is it Elder Holland said? All God has to work with is imperfect people. Yes. It must be terribly frustrating for you. Just reading about it is frustrating.

00:36:42 Speaker_01
And then we get verse 23, and it came to pass Coriantor begat Ether. So here comes the man for whom this book is named.

00:36:53 Speaker_01
We went so rapidly, didn't we, through all those generations, and now the rest of the book of Ether is Ether talking about what he sees and observes.

00:37:04 Speaker_01
It's fun to see what did he just abridge and now what is he going to say about what he just abridged? And that's a lot of Ether 12.

00:37:11 Speaker_00
What lessons did he see?

00:37:14 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:37:15 Speaker_00
I have my boys, I have four teenage boys, and I have them memorize Ether 1114, the last few words, and moron did that which was wicked before the Lord. Just in case.

00:37:32 Speaker_01
And now we know the etymology of that.

00:37:35 Speaker_00
Should I do something wicked? Remember the verse you memorized.

00:37:39 Speaker_01
Paint that one on your wall, but in vinyl.

00:37:42 Speaker_00
Someone put it on a t-shirt and send this to us. That'd be funny.

00:37:46 Speaker_02
BJ, how do we want to wrap this up? I want to end with where we started, talking about the major lessons we learned from the Jaredites. What are we supposed to pull from these stories of roughly 2-3,000 years?

00:38:03 Speaker_02
Number one, obey the prophets and keep the commandments and be intentional on how we follow the prophet. President Eyring said this, One of the things we learn from the Jaredites is we are not exceptions to the things the prophets ask us to do.

00:38:42 Speaker_02
When we listen to the prophets in general conference, rather than thinking to ourselves, oh, I wonder if he's talking to me or maybe I'm an exception to this council, we should be very intentional on how we follow the prophet and rather ask ourselves, how can I apply this?

00:39:01 Speaker_02
Along with that, we learn from the Jaredites that God doesn't arbitrarily make up rules and commandments. He wants us to be happy and if we keep the commandments, it leads to greater spiritual happiness but also temporal happiness.

00:39:14 Speaker_02
Reminding the reader of the lens by which we talked about we would read through these chapters, the lens of what does Moroni want us to get out of these stories and how does this typify Christ.

00:39:27 Speaker_02
We learned at the beginning that Christ can compensate us in many ways, even through difficult and wicked times, if we have faith and hope. He can bless us with spiritual capacities. He can help us beyond our own.

00:39:40 Speaker_02
And no matter where you feel you are in your life, in regards to faith or obedience or anything you want to do better, Christ's grace is sufficient for you. You are enough because Christ is enough.

00:39:53 Speaker_00
We've come full circle. BJ, thank you for walking us through these chapters. It says way back when we started, the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness to give light.

00:40:05 Speaker_00
You can see that throughout these chapters, there's so many dark things happening, but occasionally you have someone who chooses to be a light to light up this dark society. We, of course, want to be that way in our own world.

00:40:19 Speaker_00
We want to be lights that shine in darkness. the ones that the Lord has touched and said, light up. John, what a great day.

00:40:27 Speaker_01
Yeah, I love the journey, getting there, everything we've learned once we got there. I love this idea. No monster of the sea can break you. You'll come out on top again because you have the light continually. It's beautiful stuff in here.

00:40:44 Speaker_00
It really is. When we're consuming media, that says, well, if the prophet's wrong, here's what you do. If you don't agree with the prophet, here's what you can do. Be careful around that, that kind of thing.

00:40:58 Speaker_00
As the book of ether shows us, if you lay aside the prophets, they did reject all the words of the prophets. Things don't go well.

00:41:08 Speaker_02
BJ, thanks for your time. Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun to be with you guys.

00:41:14 Speaker_00
Chris Allen, if you're still out there listening, You've done really well. We do not doubt his mother knew it. I love you, mom. That's beautiful. That'll be a great final note. With that, we want to thank Dr. B.J. Allen for joining us on Follow Him today.

00:41:30 Speaker_00
We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorenson, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson, and every episode, we remember our founder, Steve Sorenson. We hope you'll join us next week.

00:41:42 Speaker_00
We've got another lesson in the Book of Ether on Follow Him. Before you skip to the next episode, I have some important information. This episode's transcript and show notes are available on our website, followhim.co. That's followhim.co.

00:41:58 Speaker_00
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00:42:06 Speaker_00
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00:42:17 Speaker_00
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00:42:30 Speaker_00
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00:42:42 Speaker_00
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