Accountability of the Covenant

Throughout history, the Lord has always provided the best way for each of us to get back to live with Him again. One of the greatest gifts the Lord has given us is free agency.

The Lord does not choose favorites, ever. Because of the wisdom of God, He makes covenants with some people or groups offering them a Sacred Land, Protection, Productivity and a Posterity, in exchange for Godly obedience.

With this covenant between God and some people such as; Adam, Noah, Jaredites, Abraham, Moses, Lehi, David, Christ, Pilgrims, Washington, and others, there is always a two way agreement or this agreed upon covenant will become obsolete, and those blessed with the blessings of the covenant will be smitten if not obedient and are held to be more accountable than those who had never entered into the Covenant.

We read, “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48

Also the Apostle James says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17

Thus, Where much is given, much is expected”. And “If you know to do good and doeth it not it is a sin.

Now think of the Lamanite who sinned because of their forfathers, not after making a covenant with God. The Lamanites learned from their mothers and fathers but no covenant was made between them and God. The Nephites learned from prophets who had made a covenant with God as their learning was from a prophet and not just their parents. “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression.” Second Article of Faith 

Prophets making Covenants with Christ:
Adam: 4070 BC
Enoch: 3313 BC
Noah: 2943 BC
Shem: 2441 BC
Jaradites: 2200 BC
Abraham: 2052 BC
Jacob (Israel): 1892 BC
Judah: 1804 BC
Joseph: 1801BC
Moses: 1542 BC
David: 1057 BC
Lehi: 600 BC
Limhi: 122 BC Mosiah 21:32
Moroni: 72 BC Alma 46:21
Pilgrims: 1620
Washington:1789
Joseph Smith: 1820
Dates From Johnpratt.com

“If We Do Not Do Right They Will Be A Scourge” 1853

“What do I care for what the world says? I care no more about it than I do for the squawking of a goose. It is none of their business if I have a mind to be a Saint, and keep the commandments of God; and as you have heard it said, so say I—the time will come in which you will dwell in peace and safety; and when the time comes that you will go back to Jackson County, you will be independent, and live without any opposition at all. Can the Lord do it? Yes. All the people are in His hands, and He can turn the nations as I can an obedient horse. They are governed and controlled by the Almighty as much as we are. What can they do against us? Why nothing whatever, but if we do not do right they will be a scourge in the hands of God to scourge us, just as the Indians are at this time. There never would have been a disturbance if this people had done as they were told.

I am not speaking of the people in this city any more than of the people of other settlements. To my certain knowledge there is not a settlement in these mountains but were instructed by brother Brigham to build good forts and live in them; and on these conditions alone were volunteers permitted to go out and make new settlements.

Have any of them built forts? Tell of one settlement, if you please, excepting they commenced one in Iron County which remains unfinished yet. The Indians are now upon us, and our brethren are scattered off, three, four, and five families in a place, away off in this and in that direction, exposed to the Lamanites. They have been called into the city that they might be safe, and they are now teasing us, and wanting to go back again, and live in those exposed locations without a fort… I have lived in the State of New York, town of Bloomfield, Monroe County, right in the heart of the country where the ancient Lamanites, and other veterans, destroyed each other, root and branch; where the Book of Mormon was discovered in the hill of Cumorah. From among those rich hills the people are flocking to these mountains. Why? Because this is the richest place in the world.” A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered at the Special Conference in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 13, 1853

President Kimball Loves the Lamanites

“The converted Lamanite is devout. Few ever apostatize. Some lose their way as they partake of the worldliness about them, but generally the children of Lehi of the twentieth century have inherited that grace and ability to believe like their ancestors of the long ago. We read in Hel. 6:36: ‘And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words’” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], p. 178; emphasis added).

“The Lamanites must rise again in dignity and strength to fully join their brethren and sisters of the household of God in carrying forth his work in preparation for that day when the Lord Jesus Christ will return to lead his people, when the millennium will be ushered in, when the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory and its lands be united and become one land. For the prophets have said, ‘The remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away.’ (Eth. 13:8.) “In this I have great faith.” Spencer W. Kimball (“Our Paths Have Met Again,” Ensign, Dec. 1975, p 5, 7.)

“Have you ever tried to recover something that you have lost in your memory all at once, as you strain and struggle, here it comes back? That is the way the Gospel is to the Lamanites. One good Navajo man said to me: “All our lives we knew that we were off line. We used to be with you folks in the long ago; then we came to a division in the road with a great stone in the middle. We went one way and you went the other, but now we are around it and we are all coming back together (Lamanite Conference April 24, 1971 President Kimball). Ether 13:8

“Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they (Lamanites) shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old;… (In parenthesis added)

Alma 9:16-17
16- For there are many promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it because of the traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them and prolong their existence in the land.
17- And at some period of time they will be brought to believe in word, and to know of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers; and many of them will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name.

“And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved.” (D&C 3:18–20.)

“The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians, having been found through the ministration of an holy Angel translated into our own Language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years containing the word of God, which was delivered unto them, By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the Land of America is a promised land unto them, and unto it all the tribes of Israel will come. with as many of the gentiles as shall comply with the requisitions of the new covenant. But the tribe of Judah will return to old Jerusalem.” ~Joseph Smith.

In July of 1866 Elder Wilford Woodruff said the following: “If the Elders of Israel had always treated the Lamanites as they should, I do not believe that we should have had any difficulty with them at all. This is my firm conviction, and my conclusion according to the light that is in me. I believe that the Lord permits them to chasten us at the present time to convince us that we have to overcome the vindictive feelings which we have harbored towards that poor, downtrodden branch of the House of Israel.”

We are Relatives

You non-Lamanites who, looking at these your brethren and sisters, can only see that which is “dark and loathsome,” take heed to yourselves! Look into your own past—any of our pasts—and you will find centuries of loathsomeness and unrighteousness. And then look to the scriptures and discover the Lord’s opinion of his chosen people, among whom the Lamanites are numbered. You who “pass by on the other side” when you meet one of these who have, as one may say, gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fallen among thieves and been stripped and beaten; in the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, “you know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and Kingdom than a babe upon its mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend it.” (Wilford Woodruff, General Conference Report,April 8, 1898, p. 57.) if you had been with me recently to witness a chorus of small Lamanite children singing “I Am a Child of God,” you would have begun to see a vision of what the Lord has in mind for these, his people….)

The Covenant Again!

There is one point I would like to make clear as I repeat what the Lord said: “I will give this land to you on one condition.” The title to the land of America is a conditional title, and only those who live the laws of God and serve him faithfully can inherit it. He wanted the Jaredites to come over. They found America. They lived for a long while here and ripened in iniquity before they encountered the people of Mulek. The land then was given to Lehi and to his sons and their families, but when a fulness of iniquity arose among these children of the land, they were swept off. Therefore, I want us to keep in our minds the fact that this land is ours only so long as we live the commandments of God. Whether it is Greeks or Italians or Norwegians or whoever is going to enjoy this land, they are going to serve God or they shall be swept off.