Gold adorned cathedral
“And I also saw gold, 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, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abominable church.”
Nephi sees the formation of an abominable church whose desires are on riches and fine clothing. We can see this in a number of churches today who have large and marvelous cathedrals, most notably in Europe. They are adorned with gold in places, and built at a time when poverty was terrible. The priests would dress in very fine linens while impoverished people wore shredded, dirty cloth and were embarrassed to even enter the church. While the money that went into these spacious buildings and clothings for the Priests could have been used to help the poverty of the people – to save lives, the desired of that church were set upon money.
Also, we can look to the practice of abusive selling of indulgences in the middle-ages as a desire for money and not for righteousness. Furthermore, the controversies regarding sexual activity of Priests and other clergy members both in the middle-ages and in recent times point to the desires of that church. Now, of course, people are not perfect and perhaps we should not judge an entire church for the abuses of a few, but there were much, much more than a few, and we can see if in direct fulfillment of Nephi’s vision.
We must be careful to balance the need to have beautiful places of worship with the needs of God’s people. Yes, we want to build houses of the Lord (temples) that are magnificent, that make us think of the majesty of God and are truly places that are of our best craftsmanship to be called the House of the Lord, but church leaders also balance that with a substantial welfare program that sees to the needs of the people, many of whom are not even members of the church.
What other practices from churches meet Nephi’s vision, and what should we be wary of to avoid?
Posted in C) 1st Nephi | 
Tags: abominable church, book of mormon, fine twined linen, gold and silver, precious clothing, scripture