1 Nephi 22:13

[pam]

Reference Search: 1 Nephi 22:13

13 And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon their own heads, and they shall be drunken with their own blood.

Quote for Discussion

[it] will be destroyed, simply because every corruptible thing will be consumed at the Second Coming. In that day the Lord will truly fight the battles of his saints.

Bruce R. McConkie, New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 562-63

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[LostSheep]

Are they referring to catholisism?

[Aesa]

I think 1 Nephi 13 also does this. It even refers to the color of their clothing!

"And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church.

And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God [inquisitions, 'witch' trials, crusades, support of Hitler, et al], yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity.

And it came came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was the founder of it.

And I saw gold [the Vatican has reportedly been hoarding gold for a long time], and silver, and silks, and scarlets, and fine-twined linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many harlots.

And the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abominable church." (1 Nephi 13: 3-8)

I think Catholicism was the co-opter of Christianity. It was Catholicism which heavily paganised the gospel. e.g., Mary used to replace the pagan goddess.

Looks scarlet to me.

And that is just the beginning.

[Palerider]

Are they referring to catholisism?

nope....

[Aesa]

Well then what's it referring to?

Is there any Church position on these such scriptures?

[Palerider]

Is there any Church position on these such scriptures?

nope

[Aesa]

Ah, so it's up to us then. :)

The whore of babylon in revelation is quite often said to be the Catholic church by some.

Great and abominable church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

According to the Book of Mormon, the great and abominable church was formed soon after the life of Jesus and is responsible for killing the Apostles, and for the Great Apostasy (1 Ne. 13:5-6). The church was said to be instrumental in corrupting the Bible and removing from it "the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb" (1 Ne. 13:34).

Although some writers understand the great and abominable church to refer to the Catholic church or Protestantism, the references in the Book of Mormon could have been metaphorical, because, according to the book,

"there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth" (1 Ne. 14:10-11).

Interestingly...

A book entitled Mormon Doctrine, originally published in 1958 by Bruce R. McConkie, contains references linking the Roman Catholic Church to the Whore of Babylon.

According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see also Mormon), the Great Apostasy started not long after Jesus' ascension and continued until Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1820. To Latter-day Saints, the Great Apostasy is marked by:

the difficulty of the Apostles to keep early Christians from distorting Jesus' teachings and to prevent the followers from dividing into different ideological groups;

the persecution and martyrdom of the church's Apostles;

the loss of leaders with Priesthood authority to administer the church and its ordinances;

the lack of continuous revelation to instruct the leaders and guide the church; and

the corruption of Christian doctrine particularly with the infusion of Greek or other allegedly pagan philosophies such as Neo-Platonism, Platonic realism, Aristotleanism and Asceticism. (This point is most definitively Catholic)

I think, then, it refers to all churches save the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[pam]

This was in an article in the Ensign in 1988 by Stephen E. Robinson concerning this. Here is a brief quotation of what was written:

Some Latter-day Saints have erred in believing that some specific denomination, to the exclusion of all others, has since the beginning of time been the great and abominable church. This is dangerous, for many will then want to know which it is, and an antagonistic relationship with that denomination will inevitably follow.

Some, for example, have argued that elements of Judaism in the first century were reflected traits of Babylon. After all, Jewish leaders persecuted the Church and spilled the blood of the Saints. They crucified the Messiah and joined religion together with civil government. We should recognize, however, that it was this kind of argument—that the Jews were the beast, the anti-christ—that led directly to the Holocaust in this century and that still fans the moral insanity of some present-day groups. Has Satan’s hand ever been more clearly discernible in any human undertaking than in the Holocaust?

The irony is that while Jerusalem in a.d. 30 might have been one manifestation of Babylon (see Rev. 11:8), Judaism cannot be the great and abominable church Nephi and John describe. First, the Jews did not enjoy dominion over all the nations of the earth. Second, Nephi says that the scriptures were complete when they came forth from the mouth of a Jew, but that the great and abominable church, which had its formation among the Gentiles, excised them. (1 Ne. 13:24–26.) Third, it does not seem to be the fate of the Jews to be utterly consumed by the nations of the earth—quite the opposite, in fact.

More often, some have suggested that the Roman Catholic church might be the great and abominable church of Nephi 13. This is also untenable, primarily because Roman Catholicism as we know it did not yet exist when the crimes described by Nephi were being committed. In fact, the term Roman Catholic only makes sense after a.d. 1054 when it is used to distinguish the Western, Latin-speaking Orthodox church that followed the bishop of Rome from the Eastern, Greek-speaking Orthodox church that followed the bishop of Constantinople.

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Warring against the Saints of God

Edited May 17, 2009 by pam

[Aesa]

Thank-you for your post pam.

I think it's more accurate to say that all other churches are in apostasy.

Does anyone disagree with this?

[spiritseeker]

I think to limit it to one denomination is impossible. Even those churches outside the Roman Catholic church, eg. , Protestantism. Teach the doctrines of their Catholic fore fathers. So the "abominations" are universal. Hence IMO there are but two churches as the Book of Mormon states .