Question: In my gospel doctrine class, I rarely find topics discussed that touch on censuring parts of the scriptures, especially ones that address members of the church in our day. When Moroni says, “Why have ye polluted the holy church of God?” shouldn’t that be a concern, so that by facing this issue we can do something about it and come out from under condemnation? If we just let it slide, aren’t we actually assenting to it and therefore will be subject to covenant curses? What can members of the church do on their own to reverse this condition?
Answer: Let’s review the larger passage you quoted from: “Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you. Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing. And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.
“For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the world?” (Mormon 8:34–38).
The one redeeming feature of Moroni’s prophecy is that among the many whom he censures he sees “a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts.” Lest we assume we are counted among those “few,” compare Moroni’s prophecy with others that deal with the same end-time scenario. Jeremiah, for example, speaks of just “one of a city and two of a family” who are brought to Zion in that day (Jeremiah 3:14)—that is, to the end-time Zion to which Jehovah/Jesus comes to reign.
In Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, when both the mother tree and three daughter trees are full of fruit but “none of it which is good” (Jacob 5:32), there remain a few good branches that are able to bear the grafting process the Lord commands his end-time servant and fellow servants to do that succeeds in reversing this situation (Jacob 5:49–71).
In Jesus catalogue of offenses that members of the church become guilty of sometime after they have received his restored gospel (3 Nephi 16:10; 20:27–28; 21:9–11), there remain certain individuals who take the gospel back to the house of Israel—to the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites. Just as Jesus’ apostles took the gospel to the Gentiles when the house of Israel rejected it, so the reverse occurs when we, the end-time Gentiles, reject it (3 Nephi 16:4: 20:29–31, 40–41; 21:23–24; D&C 109:60).
In short, the scriptural answer to condemnatory prophecies of the church is for some members to qualify themselves spiritually and also physically to be among those saviors who take the fulness of the gospel to the house of Israel (1 Nephi 15:12–17; 2 Nephi 10:8–9).
