It is about 544 to 421 BC in the land of Nephi.
The prophet Jacob warns against pride
and teaches that the Lord delights in chastity.
Based on actual events as recorded in the Book of Mormon:
Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Stop this!
Stop!
Are you all right?
Thank you.
Come on.
Let's go.
Beloved, this day I am weighed down with much more desire
and anxiety for the welfare of your souls
than I have hitherto been.
It grieveth my soul and causeth me to shrink with shame
before the presence of my Maker, that I
must testify unto you concerning the wickedness of your hearts.
And also it grieveth me that I must
use so much boldness of speech concerning you,
before your wives and your children,
many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste
and delicate before God, which thing is pleasing unto God.
Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained,
because of the strict commandment which
I have received from God, to admonish you according
to your crimes, to enlarge the wounds of those who are already
wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds.
But I must do according to the strict commands of God,
and tell you concerning your wickedness and abominations.
And this is the word which I declare: many of you
have begun to search for gold, and for silver,
and for all manner of precious ores, in the which
this land doth abound most plentifully.
And because some of you have obtained more abundantly
than that of your brethren ye are
lifted up in the pride of your hearts,
and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness
of your apparel, and persecute your brethren
because ye suppose ye are better than they.
Do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing?
Nay, he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things
his judgments must speedily come unto you.
O that ye would listen unto the word of his commands,
and let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls!
Think of your brethren like unto yourselves,
and be free with your substance, that they
may be rich like unto you.
But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.
And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain
riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent
to do good--to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry,
and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick
and the afflicted.
The one being is as precious in his sight as the other.
I make an end of speaking unto you concerning this pride.
And were it not that I must speak unto you
concerning a grosser crime, my heart
would rejoice exceedingly because of you.
Thus saith the Lord: They understand
not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves
in committing whoredoms, because of the things which
were written concerning David, and Solomon his son.
David and Solomon truly had many wives
and concubines, which thing was abominable before me,
saith the Lord.
For there shall not any man among you
have save it be one wife; and concubines
he shall have none; for I, the Lord God, delight
in the chastity of women.
For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me,
I will command my people; otherwise, they
shall hearken unto these things.
For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow,
and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people
because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands.
And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts,
that the cries of the fair daughters of this people,
which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem,
shall come up unto me against the men of my people,
saith the Lord of Hosts.
My brethren, ye have come unto great condemnation.
Ye have done greater iniquities than the Lamanites,
our brethren.
For behold, their husbands love their wives,
and their wives love their husbands;
and their husbands and their wives love their children.
But ye--ye have broken the hearts of your tender wives,
and lost the confidence of your children,
because of your bad examples before them;
and the sobbings of their hearts ascend up to God against you.
I speak unto you that are pure in heart.
Look unto God with firmness of mind,
and pray unto him with exceeding faith,
and he will console you in your afflictions,
and he will plead your cause, and send down justice
upon those who seek your destruction.
But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart;
for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes.
And also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness,
bring your children unto destruction,
and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the last day.
O my brethren, arouse the faculties of your souls;
shake yourselves that ye may awake
from the slumber of death; and loose yourselves
from the pains of hell that ye may not
become angels to the devil.
Amen.
Come, children.