First, we see that in our day, it is important to harken unto the Lamb of God because he will manifest himself unto us that we might have his blessing forever (v1-2). Sadly, some will be led into destruction because of the church of the devil. It is still our choice whether we choose to work wickedness because there is justice and we will answer for our mistakes (v3-4).
The work that is a marvelous work talked about in v7 is forever; which I don't know for sure, but it is basically immortality because we will love after our resurrection. We are going to live forever according to the works we learn ourselves on Earth, whether they be good or bad.
The next section of verses (v8-10) talks about how there are essentially only two churches: the true church of God and the church of the devil which goes by many names and has many faces. If you don't belong to the church of God you belong to the church of the devil. This means you can say you don't belong to any church and technically you are apart of a church of the devil.
So it is interesting to decipher the vision that Nephi sees in v11-17. The church of the devil is depicted as the whore of all the Earth and is amount all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unfortunate but not surprising. But also there is the church of God everywhere even though they weren't as numerous. Being small in number didn't matter because they have the protection and power of God, "they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory" (v14). By the way, this is talking about our day. As members of the church we are armed with righteousness as we spread the gospel. **special shout out to my best friend serving a mission and my other best friend leaving this week! So proud**
Eventually (but as far as I know it has already happened), "the wrath of God will be poured out up on the mother of harlots," and it will make way for the work of the Father to commence (restoration of the gospel on earth).
Nephi does get to see the rest of the history of the Earth (lucky duck) but the angel tells him that is will be written also by one of the twelve apostles (John v27) of the Lamb (v18-22). Those writings will be written in that book Nephi saw among us in the last chapter, so he is commanded not to write them (v25). Because The Lord has them written in the bible, he will make a way for them to not be changed when things were corrupted.
Apparently others have seen and wrote it down somewhere that is sealed up and kept hidden until The Lord sees fit to share (v26). I suspect that most prophets get to see these visions or at least parts of them because The Lord has blessed them. I know that I love Thomas S. Monson because he is our prophet today and I would not be surprised if he has seen these visions because his faith is strong and inspiring.
The things that Nephi has written that he has seen are true and reading the them gives me an opportunity to "see" them myself through my scripture study. I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to understand all that the scripture and Holy Ghost has taught me.
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