“For it shall come to pass in that day that the churches 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 other shall say, I, I am the Lord’s — and thus shall everyone say that hath built up churches and not unto the Lord. And they shall contend one with another, and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the holy ghost which giveth utterance. And they deny the power 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 no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men. 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 miracles; he hath done his work.” (LDS 2 Nephi 28:3-5, RE 2 Nephi 12:1)
The scripture above is one of my favorite for cleverness. Nephi is speaking of the prevailing attitude and corruption that will be manifest in the latter days. On the surface it appears that Nephi is simply saying that there will be false churches that will claim to be the Lord’s, even though they’re not. That idea is probably not too surprising. How else is a false church going to deceive people unless they claim to be something they’re not. If this is what false churches are saying, what about one that really is built up unto the Lord? Wouldn’t it basically be saying the same thing, that they are the Lord’s?
What I find so clever is the repeated, “I”. I think this double “I” is key to understanding the whole paragraph. Why does he say “I” twice…? And it is not just in one place, but does the exact same thing a second time, as if to be sure that it wasn’t a mistake and we don’t miss it. Why does he do that?
I think Nephi says it that way because he is showing where the attention is really focused… on themselves. It’s like saying “Look at me! I am the Lord’s! Look at how great I am! Pay attention to me because I am the Lord’s!”
It goes right along with priestcraft, where men and women are really trying to get themselves promoted rather than truly promoting the Lord. Rather than praising the Lord for His mercy, His compassion, His righteous judgment, His wisdom, His sacrifice, His power, Hs victory and all that can be said of the greatness of God, and confessing our own sins and nothingness, instead the focus and attention is really on promoting themselves.
And this is what every one will say that is building up churches that are not built up unto the Lord.
This “look at me!” attitude is related to other problems that Nephi points out here. Nephi speaks of how they say that the Lord has given them power to do His work. Then because the Lord has given them this special position and standing on the earth, the people don’t need to look anywhere else for God’s power because they have it. And because they have it, God is not going to do anything outside of what He has given them power to do.
They are basically saying, “The Lord and the Redeemer has done His work! Now he has given his power to us! So pay attention to the men now with God’s authority! Focus on me! I, I am the Lord’s! Now that you know God has given his power to men, and I, I have this power, if someone else claims that something divine or miraculous is happening outside of this power we have, ‘believe it not’ — God isn’t going to do anything today unless we are responsible for it, now that he has given his power to us! The Lord has done His work. He has given his power to men. We have it. Now, the Lord is not going to do anything without us!”
Such notions are “foolish and vain”. They are self promoting. That’s what it is really about. Every one that is building up churches and not unto the Lord is doing this kind of thing. It’s so effective that they just can’t seem to help it. Even though Nephi is clearly warning against this self promotion and control, or power from God that they claim to have — they can’t help but have this attitude anyway.
Churches are built up all over, that claim to be the Lord’s but they are really promoting themselves. Nephi was right.