America’s Fate and Ultimate Destiny ~ Part One

 Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take four minutes to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a Brigham Young University (BYU) Devotional, and it is called "America's Fate and Ultimate Destiny" by Elder Marion G. Romney. This post is part one, and I hope you will be able to learn something new while you are reading through this post.

Elder Romney has mentioned the following; "... Celebration of the Fourth of July

Although I was born and lived for fifteen years in a foreign land, my parents, who were United States citizens, and their fellow colonists always remembered and observed the Fourth of July. The celebration regularly included a flag and bunting parade and an oration commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

... I hope each of you, and I, have like feelings about this great land of America, about the Declaration of Independence, and about the Constitution of the United States.

Sacred History of America

In God’s economy, America is now and has always been a choice and favored land. God has decreed for her a final, great, and glorious destiny. Here Zion is to be established and the New Jerusalem is to be built. From here the law of God shall go forth to all nations.

America received her first consecration as a favored land when the Lord planted here the Garden of Eden as a habitation for Adam and Eve. A thousand years later Enoch’s Zion flourished here.

And then some six hundred years thereafter this land was deluged by the Flood and left uninhabited, so far as human beings were concerned, until the Lord led to this land from the tower of Babel a colony of people, the Jaredites, declaring as he led them that he was bringing them to a “land of promise, . . . choice above all other lands,” and “that whoso should possess this land . . . from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them” (Ether 2:7–8).

... Six hundred years B.C., as time was running out for the Jaredites, the Lord brought to this land Lehi and his colony. Before they arrived here the Lord said to them, as he had said to the Jaredites, “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands” (1 Nephi 2:20). 

Simultaneously he warned them that if they did not serve him, they would not prosper in the land but would be cut off from his presence. The Book of Mormon record testifies to the fact that, when they obeyed the laws of God, they prospered, and that when they did not obey them, they were cut off from the presence of God. 

Finally the Nephite branch of those people, having ripened in iniquity, was destroyed by the Lamanites, who, under the curse of “their unbelief and idolatry,” were scattered and became the people discovered by Columbus when he was led here in 1492 (see Mormon 5:15).

You, of course, know that the facts I have just recited are not to be found in profane history books. Nowhere in all secular history is mention made of America before Columbus. Why? Because this land has been from the beginning reserved by the Lord for those whom he himself would lead here. 

This we learn from the ancient prophet Lehi. I . . . prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. 

And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for . . . many nations would overrun the land. ... Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. 

And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. [2 Nephi 1:6–9; emphasis added]

... This remarkable prophecy not only explains why America was to be discovered only by those whom God should lead here; it also foreshadows the forfeiting by Lehi’s descendants of their inheritance and the coming of other nations.

History records that these “other nations” were introduced to this land by Columbus, of whose coming ancient American seers prophesied. As early as 590 B.C., before Lehi made the foregoing prophecy, his son Nephi was given to see in vision Columbus being led by the “Spirit of God” to this promised land. 

Nephi thus described his vision: And I beheld the Spirit of God [before he had ever reached the promised land], that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.

... Everyone acquainted with colonial and U.S. history knows how the American Indians were scattered and smitten by the Gentiles who came here following Columbus. Nephi then saw and thus described our colonial history. And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance [that is, the inheritance of the seed of his brethren who had been scattered].

... And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them [the thirteen original colonies]. And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them [in the American Revolutionary War].

And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations. [1 Nephi 13:15–19]

We know why the colonies were able to win freedom in the Revolutionary War. Columbus, of course, knew nothing about this record of Nephi’s vision. Nevertheless, he corroborates it. He put on record his convictions that he was divinely led to America."

Stay Tuned until next time.