Book of Mormon, part 1

Zion and Babylon are polar opposites.  They are scriptural symbols of two different ways or paths.  Babylon represents the ways of the world. 

When Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, he dreamt of a great image with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay.  (Daniel 2:31-33)  Babylon, as an empire, fell over 2,500 years ago.  It was followed by the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, and then the Holy Roman Empire and later the kingdoms of Europe.

What is interesting about the dream and its interpretation is that the great head of gold (Babylon) isn’t broken and crushed and blown away in the wind until the last days.  Why is that?  Babylon, the city and the empire, has been gone for over two millennia yet the head of gold remains with us. How? 

Babylon’s culture had a huge influence on the subsequent cultures.  The Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans, etc. were all influenced by Babylon. Likewise, so were the Jews during their captivity.  Our culture also has foundations in Babylon.  Babylon surrounds us, intricately woven into the cultural smog we breath on a daily basis.  So much so, that we fail to even recognize its presence or its source.  How are we to escape?  How does one flee Babylon?

Enter the Book of Mormon. 

Lehi and his family left Jerusalem around 600 BC a few years before Nebuchadnezzar invaded and destroyed it.  The capture of the Jews who remained and the time they spent in Babylon had an influence that can hardly be understated.  (Imagine if some foreign invaders captured Salt Lake City, tore down the temple and destroyed the Church and you can get an idea of how those Jews might have felt.)  They were God’s chosen people.  Delivered out of Egypt by Him. Freed by Him.  Led by God.  God fought their battles.  Now all of that was reversed. Once again, they found themselves in captivity.  This time in Babylon.  What had gone wrong?  Why didn’t God protect them as he had in the past?  What of their prophecies?

Well about 70 years passed.  Babylon was eventually conquered by the Persians. The Persian King Cyrus gave permission for the Jews to return to their homeland.  Many chose to remain in Babylon, but Zerubabbel led a group of about 42,000 Jews back to begin rebuilding the temple which had been destroyed by Babylon.  This rebuilt temple (which was later expanded by Herod) was the temple which stood in Jerusalem during the Savior’s ministry.

A few Jews, who had fled during the Babylonian invasion, had remained in the area and intermarried with other peoples thereby becoming “impure”.  Their descendants came to be known as the Samaritans.  They offered to help with rebuilding the temple but their offers were spurned and they ended up opposing and trying to frustrate the work.

During their captivity and in the years that followed many of the Jewish records, scriptures, and prophecies were altered.  Some things just didn’t make sense to them.  Some prophecies didn’t seem to fit with what had just happened.  History was rewritten and the revised versions found their way into our Biblical record.  These revisionist Jews are called Deuteronomists by modern scholars. This group of priests / scribes is responsible for many of the books that we have today in the Old Testament. 

Jewish culture was also influenced by 70 years in Babylon and was never the same thereafter.  Future Jewish records continued to reflect Babylon’s taint.  All of this influenced our Old Testament.  And that is all BEFORE the great and abominable church gets hold of it.  (We’ll get to that next week.)

Now, let’s skip ahead in time to Joseph Smith.  In the sequence of God’s latter day work—right behind the First Vision—He introduces the Book of Mormon.  Why?  One reason is that the Book of Mormon is scripture untouched by Babylon’s influence.  The Nephites never spent time in Babylon.

God intends the Book of Mormon to grind the great Golden Head to dust. 

“Few men on earth,” said Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “either in or out of the Church, have caught the vision of what the Book of Mormon is all about. Few are they among men who know the part it has played and will yet play in preparing the way for the coming of Him of whom it is a new witness. … The Book of Mormon shall so affect men that the whole earth and all its peoples will have been influenced and governed by it. … There is no greater issue ever to confront mankind in modern times than this: Is the Book of Mormon the mind and will and voice of God to all men?” (Millennial Messiah pp. 159, 170, 179.)

If we are to flee Babylon it must be through following the Book of Mormon’s teachings.