I Loved all the classes, they were so spiritual and it was just so uplifting and edifying, but this class, it was amazing. The teacher had us draw the parallels between all the previous wars, falling away, pride cycles, it was all the same, stuff that happened throughout the Book of Mormon, so what was different this time? why were they completely eradicated this time?
I'll tell you what the teacher helped us see. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but he asked us to read specific verses and tell him if we read anything that was familiar. It was all just the vicious cycle of pride, but there was something that was a little bit different this time. This time the people were not humbled, they did not turn to the Lord, this time their hearts became harder every step of the way.
So the Lamanites attack them and they win for a little while, the Lamanites attack again, sore battles, everyone loses many people. They choose great leaders(strong looking guys who were blessed and favoured of the Lord [thats not why they chose them, they chose them because they looked strong]), fortify their cities, gather their people in and prepare to live under siege for .. 3 years? Mormon rallies them to fight for their Freedom, Home and Family, and then the last stand, they gather at the hill Cumorah, they gather to higher ground to give themselves the upper hand.
The Nephites did all the right things (in a worldly sense), they did all the things that were tried and true, the things that their ancestors did in order to withstand the Lamanites, but they were missing one VERY crucial thing: faith.
The teacher brought it all back around to (in my head anyways) Elder Hallstroms (of the Presidency of the Seventy) Saturday morning session talk titled "Converted to His Gospel through His Church"
To me it was all a matter of, the Nephites were just going through the motions of what they had been taught, there was no faith or obedience in what they were doing.
They had lost their way, their lives were not centered on Christ, they wanted nothing to do with him.
It was such an amazing class, It made me shake my brain a bit to think about how I was living my life. Is the Savior at the Center of my Life? Was I wrongfully interchanging the words Gospel and Church? Was I, Am I just going through the motions?
And so this is something that makes me so sad, the thought of people being lost.... I'll just end with Mormons words,
Mormon 6:17-19
17 aO ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I amourn your loss.
there is just so much sorrow, and rightfully so, such a Tragedy.
