Divine Protection

Not only was the Book of Mormon a history of the people who once inhabited the Americas, it is also very applicable to us today because it was written for us and our times.  We are meant to look to its pages for guidance on many doctrinal things (revelation, faith, the atonement) and on how we can prepare for the Second Coming when our Savior, Jesus Christ, will come again to the earth.  

One of the things we can apply is found in the Nephite people.  Whenever they were righteous, the Lord protected them, but when they forgot the Lord and became caught up in their wickedness, he would no longer protect them.  The main thing they needed to fear was not attack from the Lamanites, but pride and dissension among their own people.  If wickedness prevailed, they would be cut off from the Lord and destroyed.  

In the book, Just and Holy Principles, Orson Pratt relates a similar concept to the people of the United States.  He says, ". . . may we not be fearful because of the oppressor and the wicked, but trust in the living God, and He will continue to protect us all the day long, and no power can prevail against us. . . . All that we have to fear is our own wickedness, and corruptions, and liability to depart from the true faith" (24).

From what I've seen of the world, I'm beginning to get scared.  Even the former prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, has stated that "we as a nation are forsaking the Almighty, and He is forsaking us."  It is only a matter of time before our nation becomes so ripe in iniquity that it will be brought down by its own doings.