2 Nephi 28

(All of my own thoughts are in red type.5/20 Green 2/21Orange 5/22 Brown 2023)

Chapter 28

Many false churches will be built up in the last days—They will teach false, vain, and foolish doctrines—Apostasy will abound because of false teachers—The devil will rage in the hearts of men—He will teach all manner of false doctrines. About 559–545 B.C. When we see apostasy, false teachers and doctrines, we'll see the fruits will "rage". Some of the current false doctrines are Critical Race Theory, Gender identity, abortion, climate change, sacrifice freedom for the common good, evils of ownership, and that the prophet cannot lead us astray on anything...and yet the prophets themselves say they are not infallible. The first, if true, causes the second, if true, to fall and violates the principle/doctrine of agency. 

  1 And now, behold, my brethren, I have spoken unto you, according as the Spirit hath constrained me; wherefore, I know that they must surely come to pass. MAJOR message of the scriptures. ALL God's word will come to pass!
  2 And the things which shall be written out of the ^abook shall be of great ^bworth unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a ^cremnant of the house of Israel. Is this the “literal” seed of Nephi, or the house of Israel as a whole? If it’s just the “remnant” than it would seem it’s his literal seed. Why is it “especially” of great worth to them? Is it because of the role they have yet to play when they are fully converted? If you believe that some of the Nephites left this land and settled in Europe, I could be the "seed" he's talking about, since my ancestry came from Europe! 
  3 For it shall come to pass in that day that the ^achurches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord’s; and thus shall every one say that hath built up ^bchurches, and not unto the Lord— "we" say "I am the Lord's" too...are we guilty in our wards and stakes of building up our churches not unto the Lord? Do we "honor Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him"? Do we "worship the works of our own hands"? Do we "grind the face of the poor" with our riches? In Joseph Smith's day, he certainly felt this was going on. So this might be referencing his day and time. I think our perception about our Sacrament meeting being about socially gathering, so it's okay to casually converse before the meeting starts is a reflection of "honoring Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him"...actually...we aren't even honoring Him with our lips in that moment! 
  4 And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their ^alearning, and deny the ^bHoly Ghost, which giveth utterance. I don't see much of this right now on a local level. There is a sense of disagreement about things, but they are not spoken of openly. I also don't see other faiths contending with one another, so this may yet be coming....however, I'm in Primary, and I hear stories of how things are going in Sunday School and Relief Society and that there is some contention and people teaching according to their own beliefs and there isn't much "powerful preaching" where you know it comes from the Holy Ghost.
  5 And they ^adeny the ^bpower of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is ^cno God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men; This fits all those faiths that do not believe in continuing revelation. No one in our church teaches this. So maybe none of the earlier verses apply to our church either...
  6 Behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of ^amiracles; he hath done his work. To some degree this is going on today, even in our church. The miracles of faith healings on a "common" scale, speaking in tongues, are not really heard of nor do I believe many expect they happen in our day except on rare occasions. 
  7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. This could be said by the "all is well in Zion" crowd who think doing the "checklist" things will get them to the celestial kingdom while they live the rest of their lives in Babylon. 
  8 And there shall also be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be ^bmerry; nevertheless, fear God—he will ^cjustify in committing a little ^dsin; yea, ^elie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a ^fpit for thy neighbor; there is ^gno 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. We could be guilty of this belief as well, for we do work for the dead, so they must be able to repent. What "sins" do we believe there is "no harm in doing"?  The Word of Wisdom comes to mind
  9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, ^afalse and vain and ^bfoolish ^cdoctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark. dark as in secret combinations...as in “of” the dark, more than “in” the dark
  10 And the ^ablood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them. How are they killing the saints? 
  11 Yea, they have all gone out of the ^away; they have become ^bcorrupted. Does "all" include our church? He could have said "all, except the covenant people of the Lord"...or it's "all" as in all of the churches I have been talking about
  12 Because of ^apride, and because of ^bfalse teachers, and ^cfalse doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up.
  13 They ^arob the ^bpoor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their ^cpride they are puffed up.
  14 They wear ^astiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and ^bwhoredoms, they have all ^cgone astray save it be a ^dfew, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are ^eled, that in many instances they do ^ferr because they are taught by the precepts of men. Okay, if I am a “humble follower of Christ” I need to look for the ways I am “led” that in many instances I make the wrong choice because I am “taught by the precepts of men.” Isn’t this pandemic being controlled by the precepts of men? There is no divine precepts of agency, accountability, freedom, trust in God and how He created our bodies, or trust in His Word of Wisdom. It’s all “follow the science”; “trust the science”; uphold the laws of the land. In this verse it says “only a few humble follower of Christ are not led astray in many instances.” It is only pride that prevents people of wanting to listen to the views of others to discern truth from error. 
  15 O the ^awise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the ^bpride of their ^chearts, and all those who preach ^dfalse doctrines, and all those who commit ^ewhoredoms, and pervert the right way of the Lord, ^fwo, wo, wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell! I don’t have to fix this. God will. But I can try to convert, persuade, invite and entice all to come unto Christ.
 16 Wo unto them that ^aturn aside the just for a thing of naught and ^brevile against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth! All those being censured for trying to share the “truth” as they see it are being told their voice “is of no worth”. For the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth; and in that day that they are ^cfully ripe in iniquity they shall perish.
 17 But behold, if the inhabitants of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts. The world wide call to repentance is yet to come. I believe when it starts to ring, we will see the real prophesied persecution. The dark side will do all in their power to silence that voice. Maybe there is an escape from the the effects of the vaccine that are harming so many people and will continue to do so...
 18 But behold, that great and ^aabominable church, the ^bwhore of all the earth, must ^ctumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof. But when???
 19 For the kingdom of the devil must ^ashake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the ^bdevil will grasp them with his everlasting ^cchains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; Have we seen this “shaking”? Is anyone being “stirred up to repentance yet? Right now they are being stirred up to anger. There are those trying to stir them up to the truth, so they might change their minds about what is right and what is wrong. (repent) I am beginning to see how these “chains” are strong and hard to break. Is there a Jesus Revolution coming? Please, please, please!
 20 For behold, at that day shall he ^arage in the ^bhearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. Rage in the hearts is a perfect description. “Good” is being censured and if you take a stand against the hoax being perpetrated upon us, people get very very angry! 
 21 And others will he ^apacify, and lull them away into carnal ^bsecurity, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the ^cdevil ^dcheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. Elder Oaks said in a GC talk that this group was us! I think we are being told, “all is well” in a sense, with this pandemic. Not that all is well from the pandemic point of view, but all is well with what we are being told are the solutions. But all is NOT well. Trusting in the mainstream narrative and the shot is a form of carnal security. We are marching, as a society, right into the devil’s snare. Be careful to see prosperity as evidence you are in good standing with the Lord. True, he prospers the righteous, but then the pride cycle kicks in and the riches canker the soul or lull us in to apathy because we think our riches are God's sign we are good. Notice Satan leads the saints "carefully". That means we are being deceived in some way that we don't notice. Just last Sunday I heard a former Bishop say we shouldn't focus on all that is bad in the world since there are so many good people and things to focus on. It felt a little dismissive, though that may not be what he meant to convey...
  22 And behold, others he ^aflattereth away, and telleth them there is no ^bhell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful ^cchains, from whence there is no deliverance. I see this reasoning too, with current society. “There is no devil in what we are being told. In fact, there is anything BUT the devil in the shot. It is from God.” and with that millions are being given something that is programming their bodies to do something that is not not natural. I believe it’s literally creating a “chain” reaction from which they will not escape without divine intervention. That is when we may see the “Brass serpent raised”.. I just read that Satanist profess to not believe there is a devil...
  23 Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be ^ajudged according to their works, It sounds like this includes those deceived from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a ^blake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.
 24 Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ^aease in Zion! This warning begins with “therefore”...meaning “in light of what I’ve just explained to you about the philosophies that cause one to say “all is well” and “wo” especially to those that fall victim to these ideas that are “in Zion”  Are you "at ease" in Zion? Should you be? 
 25 Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well! Wo to those who lead others to believe all is well...I am beginning to believe that until we have been "born again" and had our "calling and election made sure" we should never rest, nor feel "all is well". 
 26 Yea, wo be unto him that ^ahearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost! Wo, if you listen to the “science” and “wisdom of the government” and deny the power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost trying to speak to you to reject the lies and the control of the devil. Who can deny the Holy Ghost more than baptized LDS people? Who has the power of God (priesthood) but the LDS people? Are we denying the power of God in dealing with our bodies? Do we deny the power of the Word of Wisdom? Do we deny the power of our bodies to heal? Do we deny the power of the priesthood to heal? We also deny the gift of the Holy Ghost by not seeking to be "born again" where we are baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost and receive a remission of our sins by Christ Himself and receive the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. 
 27 Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we ^aneed no more! one way people say, “we have received and we need no more” is “we have received the truth about the wisdom of man’s shots and we need no more revelation on this matter. We already have the truth. We don’t need to listen to anyone who says there is more to look at than what we have already seen and known.” Another way we say "we have received and need no more" is by believing that baptism by water is all we need and we need no more. We had hands laid on our head saying "receive the Holy Ghost". But Elder Bednar recently taught is just an invitation to continue on the path to seek to receive it.
 28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are ^aangry because of ^bthe truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the ^crock ^dreceiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall. Here is your test. How do you receive “truth”? Especially if it goes against what you think is the truth? Are you angry or glad? To be angry is to built upon a sandy foundation...
 29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we ^aneed ^bno more of the word of God, for we have enough! We could be guilty of saying this by believing that since we have "received" the Book of Mormon and other scriptures and we "have them" that we do not need to study them to "receive more" revelation through them. It is enough just to "have" them....
 30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, ^aprecept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn ^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. Here is proof that we don’t really every have all truth. When we say that we do, we are closing ourselves off from wisdom and more and will actually lose what we already have that was a part of the truth.
 31 Cursed is he that putteth his ^atrust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the ^bprecepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost. We bring a curse upon ourselves for putting our trust in man. In this current situation, we literally “roll up our sleeve and expose the flesh of our arm” to trust that man has come up with something that will save us. The exception is that we can trust the precepts of man only if they are given by the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 32 ^aWo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and ^bcome unto me; for mine ^carm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts. There is a period of mercy for the Gentiles if we will acknowledge the hand of God in our lives and repent and go to HIM for all our needs. He is waiting! We are all to come unto Christ to be born again of Him. He is waiting. I am coming...