Faith not Fear should lead us. According to prophets and Apostles below, America will not fail, but if we don’t obey the Commandments, we will lose this great country of America. Happy 244th Birthday America!
“America Will Not Fail: Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won’t fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges. “I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through. President Harold B. Lee, 1974 Ye are the Light of the World, pp. 350-351
“I should like to say a few words about America…No land is without its beauty, no people without their virtues, and I hope that you who come from elsewhere will pardon my saying a few words concerning my own native land, America…surely this is a good land, a choice land, a chosen land. To me it is a miracle, a creation of the Almighty.” Gordon B. Hinckley Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”, BYU Speeches of the Year, October 29, 1974, pp. 267-68 )
“We have a great message to tell the world. We have to live it, and then we have to tell it, too. If you’re interest in history and in geography, just think what you can get out of the Book of Mormon! The Book of Mormon is the most tangible evidence that we have the truth, for no man could have written it at the time that it was written—except the story of the Prophet Joseph be a true story. Just imagine what that book has to tell us about America. Go back to the promises of Jacob and Moses and Joseph, who was sold into Egypt and who was promised a new land in the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. Nobody in this world, outside of this Church, can tell you where that new land is, and yet Moses, in describing that land, used the word precious five times in just four short verses in the bible (see Deuteronomy 33:13–16). He called it a precious land, and we read the history of how Lehi and his people came here and how they were told that it was a land choice above all other lands. This fact is repeated over and over again in the scriptures.
From a historical standpoint, it ought to be worth something to people to know about this land of America or when Columbus discovered it. The knowledge that we get through the Book of Mormon is a knowledge that we can’t get any other way in all this world. It not only tells us of the great destiny of this land of America, but it also gives the promises of the Lord through his prophets that it would be a land choice above all other lands and that it would be the land upon which God would build his New Jerusalem in the latter days. It was hidden away from the eyes of the world that it might not be overrun, and the Spirit of the Lord moved upon a man across the great waters to come here. We understand and know that man was Columbus. You see what a marvelous thing it is to have understanding.” LeGrande Richards, “You’re Fringe Benefits” 1975 Devotional
America’s Past Uncovered
“On Sept. 10, 1925 what are believed to be bodies of a royal family of the ancient mound builders were unearthed in a group of mounds near Bainbridge, Ohio. With these remains were found strands of pearls, some of extraordinary size and perfection; also ornaments of silver and copper and some sculptured objects of exquisite workmanship.
This is a highly interesting find. It shows that these mound builders in the Mississippi valley were wealthy and civilized, and that they must have had commercial connections with distant places where pearl oysters were procured.
Scientists know nothing certain about the time when the mound builders lived, whence they came and what became of them.
However, when Zion’s Camp, in the year 1834, was temporarily located on the western bank of the Illinois river, the Prophet Joseph and others ascended a high mound, on the top of which three altars had once stood. On removing some soil, they uncovered a skeleton, between the ribs of which there was an arrowhead. To the Prophet it was later made known that this was the remains of a Lamanite warrior, by the name of Zelph, who served the great Onandagus, a prophet known from the Hill Cumorah to the Rocky Mountains. Zelph was slain during the last struggle between the Lamanites and Nephites. May not this furnish a key to the mystery of the mound builders in the Mississippi valley? Besides this, at various points, from Maine to California, we find evidences of a race, or perhaps more than one race, that, like the Jaredites, who from their point of departure, carried with them “the fish of the waters,” depended largely upon sea food for their sustenance. The evidence of this they have left in numerous shell mounds, which consist almost entirely of oyster shells, some of gigantic size.
Some tell us American archaeology does not corroborate the Book of Mormon. As I see it, American Archaeologists will never unravel the mysteries of this country without the Book of Mormon.” THE JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR, Vol. 60, No. 10 October 1925 Janne M. Sjodahl
“I testify that America is a choice land. (See 2 Nephi 1:5.) God raised up the founding fathers of the United States of America and established the inspired Constitution. (See D&C 101:77–80.) This was the required prologue for the restoration of the gospel. (See 3 Nephi 21:4.) America will be a blessed land unto the righteous forever, and is the base from which God will continue to direct the worldwide latter-day operations of His kingdom.” (See 2 Nephi 1:7.) “Ezra Taft Benson,” in Latter-day Prophets and the United States Constitution, ed. by Donald Q. Cannon (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1991), 163–210.
“It was his latter-day purpose to bring forth his gospel in America, not in any other place. It was in America where the Book of Mormon plates were deposited. That was no accident. It was his design. It was in this same America where they were brought to light by angelic ministry. It was” . . . [here] “where he organized his modern Church, where he, himself made a modern personal appearance” (Editorial, Church News).” The Lord’s Base of Operations” Elder Ezra Taft Benson Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles Conference Report, April 1962, pp. 103-106
“[The Constitution] is the keystone of our nation. It is the guarantee of our liberty. That original document, with the Bill of Rights, constitutes the charter of our freedom. Through all of the years that have followed we have had some ambitious men who have sought to subvert the great principles of the Constitution, but somehow we have endured one crisis after another. We have been involved in terrible wars during this, the bloodiest of all centuries in the history of man. All of this is part of the miracle that is America, the struggle, the travail, the bitterness, the jealousies, the cynicism, and the criticism. But beyond and above it all is the wonder of a nation that for more than two centuries has remained free and independent and strong, the envy of the world, the hope of the world, the protection of free men everywhere, the manifestation of the power of the Almighty. Source: Gordon B. Hinckley “
Keep Faith with America”, commencement address at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah on 6 May 1999
“Certain lands were given to Israel for an inheritance in time and in eternity. America is the land of Joseph; it was the home of Nephite Israel, who were of Joseph, for a thousand years, and it is the headquarters of the Church in this final dispensation in which the church and kingdom of God are in the lands of Ephraim.” 1985 – Elder Bruce R. McConkie
“The Lord gave a divine promise to the ancient inhabitants of this favored country (the United States): ‘Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).
“Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of…the United States of America, that they might together, under His direction, having been raised up by God for the purpose, establish the Constitution of this country and…Bill of Rights, that by the year of our Lord 1805 [there would be] a climate where our Heavenly Father could send into this period of mortality a choice spirit who would be known as Joseph Smith, Jr.” 2011 President Thomas S. Monson (ordained an Apostle, 1963; ordained President of the Church, 2008)
“I would that all men could believe in the destiny of America as did the early pioneers: that it is the land of Zion; that the founders of this nation were men of inspired vision; that the Constitution as written by the inspiration of heaven must be preserved at all costs. “I make a further plea that the citizens of this favored land live righteously that they might enjoy the fruits of their righteousness in this land of promise.” Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled Gordon B. Hinckley of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Oct. 29, 1974 • Devotional
