We shall now move forward in history to analyze another tale from the scriptures which will further our knowledge and bring us to the current day. In the Book of Ether we find the history of Jared, his brother, their families and other righteous people caught in the difficulties of Babel. The Lord blessed them by not confounding their language but, instead, sent them on a journey not unlike that of Lehi and his family.

Several generations later in the new land to which the Lord led them, Omer had become a righteous king. Omer had sons and daughters who inhabited the land. His son, Jared, rebelled and gathered a following and gained half the kingdom. Once that goal was achieved he fought against his father and gained the other half. Jared sent his father and his immediate family into captivity for half his days. While in captivity, Omer begat more sons and daughters among whom were his sons Esrom and Coriantumr.

These sons were, of course, angry with their elder brother, Jared, for their captivity and raised an army of their own which did battle with Jared and his armies and defeated them. The brothers wanted to slay Jared but he weaseled his way out of the execution with a promise to willingly return the kingdom to their father. Jared’s willingness was a lie.

The vanquished Jared moped around the house until his daughter devised a “...plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom unto her father.” (Ether 8:8) This daughter is described to be exceedingly expert and fair. She reminds Jared of the “...account concerning them of old, that they by their secret plans did obtain kingdoms and great glory?” (Ether 8:9) The plan she then presents is simple in its deviousness. They send for Akish, a family friend and also friend of the king. Jared’s daughter is to dance for Akish, seducing him such that he will want her for his wife. Jared will agree on the condition that Akish brings to him the head of his father, Omer, the king.

All this takes place and the murderous services of Akish are obtained. Akish had been schooled by Jared, and Jared by his daughter, in the ancient oaths. “And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms.” (Ether 8:16) Akish gathers all of the house of Jared together and administers the evil oaths of secrecy and allegiance “...which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning.” (Ether 8:15)

Now at this point in the narrative, Moroni pauses. He has a fairly important message for us. Remember, as Moroni finishes the book his father began, Moroni informs us that the Lord “...hath shown you unto me. and I know your doing.” (Mormon 8:35) He knows us and the circumstances in which we live. The chastisement by Moroni in Mormon is largely aimed at the World and the disgusting place we have made of it. Now, in Ether he relays to us, the Saints of the Latter-days, a far more pointed message from the Lord.

Amidst this story of treachery, seduction, lies, deceit, sedition, and murder, Moroni stops and parenthetically delivers this message: Saints of the Latter-days, all this that I am describing to you in this story will happen to you in your day. It will be foisted upon you by secret international groups (combinations) whose sole ambition is to get power and gain over you and they don’t care how they get it. These organizations will use governments and private and non-profit organizations and will take on the legitimacy necessary to lull you to sleep with psychological programming and other difficult to discern methods of persuasion. You are simply cannon fodder for them. They will flatter you, lie to you, give you anything you desire including, drugs, pornography, big screen TVs and iPods, even support you with the spoils they steal from others if you will give in to them and follow them: You may have a living with little or no work as long as you keep them in power. They desire to have you by any means necessary including infiltration of your schools, entertainment, unions, news media, political parties, and any other organizations capable of influence or coercion.

The punch line (I won’t paraphrase this) is this message directly from the Lord: “...awake to a sense of your awful situation.” Now I grant you that I have modernized the language above and if you refuse to awaken, and tell me that Ether 8:22-26 doesn’t say that, I will simply allow you your opinion and leave you to the consequences described in those verses because, I can assure you that the Lord does not forget His promises. If, however, you begin to sense that there is something you previously missed in those verses along the way, I can sympathize with you. Many do. The issue is not the past, however, the issue is what to do as we awaken.

Overcoming a cultural aversion to the subject of evil is not necessarily the point. We ought to have a healthy distaste for any opposite of God. Some even ridicule Latter-day Saints for their innocence. Our attitude ought to be love for those who ridicule us from the great and spacious building and a desire to have them come unto Christ. If our disposition has grown to completely lose the desire for even the slightest evil in our lives how then can we, at the same time, get close enough to evil to truly understand it? We can’t and we shouldn’t want to. But we can recognize it and recognition is all we seek. In fact, our innocence is one of our greatest weapons. How difficult is it for a frequent partaker of pornography to look upon a woman, or girl, and not lust after her? Conversely, how easy is it for honorable and faithful holders of the Priesthood to feel sorrow for their sisters portrayed in movies, television, or billboards in compromising situations? They want to run and cover up a sister being ogled by depraved bystanders and they feel sickened rather than aroused. Innocence is a wonderful insulation against temptation. While they may learn lessons of some value, it is never true that those who engage in sin, survive, and repent, are somehow better off than those who remain pure. Repentance requires climbing out of a self-dug hole while the innocent have, all the while, continued to climb upward in their mortal growth. Sin, therefore, is a colossal waste of time.

The point of these and other scriptural accounts of evil is to arm us with knowledge. If we can recognize the depth of evil at work around us we can more easily understand how and why the world works as it does. It is not by chance that our schools ignorantly teach ignorance or that our politician’s law-making has ignored and circumvented our inspired Constitution. Chance is not involved with our commitment to murder a generation before it is even born or our youth in immoral wars. This may sound harsh to innocent ears but such is the nature of evil and for us to successfully recognize it we must be willing to understand at least that much of its characteristics. The various foreign and domestic mortal citadels of consummate evil direct all these and other endeavors designed to rob us of the one thing we came here to experience. The Lord directed Moroni and others to ensure this message was delivered to the Saints of the Latter-days. What is most difficult for us to recognize is our allegiance to those very actions that we now recognize as evil. We may ask how we could have been so blind but don’t. It is not necessary or advisable. Only forward motion towards peace and persuasion and to the love of Christ is desired. The Lord’s command to Lot not to look back is just as advisable to us.