If you follow this blog you will have noted my saying that the Book of Mormon was written not only to us and for us, but also about us. If you’re not already a bit sick of me saying that, you’ll probably become so. One reason I repeat it is because I suspect most people who read my posts aren’t regularly returning for more and it’s such an important message I don’t want it to get lost. It’s not something I had recognised until the last couple of years – and I’ve spent my life so far (into my late 50’s) studying the Book of Mormon.

When I realised that Nephi’s statement about likening the scriptures to ourselves (1 Nephi 19:23) meant putting ourselves in the position of the people being preached to in the Book of Mormon, a whole new world of understanding opened to me. Putting ourselves in the shoes (or sandals) of Nephi is fine, but we’ll learn more if we assume we’re more like Laman and Lemuel. We’re less like Abinadi and more like King Noah. Rather than being like Alma, the wicked Zoramites provide a better example of our attitudes and behaviour. This is uncomfortable, for sure, but it’s the only way we can become the people God wants us to become. It’s the only way we truly apply what the Book of Mormon is trying to teach us into our lives.

This is why Nephi and Moroni in particular call out the latter-day covenant people as having transfigured the gospel, and all churches as having gone astray (2 Nephi 28:11-12; Mormon 8:33). If we can’t internalise that message, then the Book of Mormon will only ever have limited benefit for us.

Church president, Ezra Taft Benson, said that the condemnation the Lord placed upon the church for not taking the Book of Mormon seriously enough had never been lifted¹. While his preaching sparked a dramatic increase in the number of Books of Mormon distributed around the world, forty years on from that message in our church meetings we’re more superficial than ever in our discussions about what it teaches², and have even both added to and taken away from the ‘Doctrine of Christ’ it teaches so clearly (3 Nephi 11:40).

Cue a deep sigh.

There are several passages in the first book of Nephi where Nephi is preaching to his rebellious brothers, but the first full sermon we get of a prophet crying repentance to the people – remember, that’s to us – is from Jacob. I touched on part of this sermon a few months ago when I discussed polygamy. You can find that post here.

I’m not going to repeat the main points from that post, and will just say that as a people we absolutely haven’t repented of the abomination of polygamy. It is still taught in our scriptures (D&C 132). It is still practiced in our temples³. Indeed, over the last few years, the church has been actively excommunicating those who simply state publicly that they don’t believe Joseph Smith practised polygamy. I believe that is counterproductive and I hope that the Church will change the approach sooner rather than later⁴.

For the balance of today’s post I want to talk about the first half of Jacob’s sermon. While it probably goes without saying that these verses don’t get the attention they deserve (given what I’ve already said about how little attention we give the Book of Mormon), I want to especially emphasise this here. The ideas and principles Jacob expresses are repeated time and time again throughout the remainder of the Book of Mormon. It is always a sign of spiritual decay, and almost always a precursor to major division, social upheaval, war and destruction. It also ties in with one of the major themes of the Bible, and is listed by Old Testament prophets as one of the main reasons they were called to declare repentance. I’m talking about our seeking for riches and how we treat the poor.

This is a theme I’ve recently discussed on this site, but is another one I’ll return to because the more I study the word of God, the more I realise it is central to how the Lord wants and expects us to live. But if anything, we’re moving further away from these principles both as a church and as a society.

The first thing to note when looking at Jacob’s address is that Jacob calls this practice of seeking riches and not freely imparting to the poor as abominations – just as he does later with polygamy.

‘… I can tell you concerning your thoughts, how that ye are beginning to labor in sin, which sin appeareth very abominable unto me, yea, and abominable unto God.’ (Jacob 2:8)

‘… I must do according to the strict commands of God, and tell you concerning your wickedness and abominations…’ (Jacob 2:10)

‘O that he would rid you from this iniquity and abomination.’ (Jacob 2:16)

‘Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh?’ (Jacob 2:21)

The Hebrew word for abomination refers to something disgusting or abhorrent.

The second thing to mention is that Jacob is specifically instructed of the Lord to teach these things to the people – and consequently to us:

‘For behold, as I inquired of the Lord, thus came the word unto me, saying: Jacob, get thou up into the temple on the morrow, and declare the word which I shall give thee unto this people. And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you…’ (Jacob 2:11-12)

Okay, are we ready? This is what God is especially worried about. 

‘… many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores…’ (Jacob 2:12)

Jacob goes on in the next verse to say that ‘the hand of providence’ had provided those riches, and in that phrase I read that the riches in themselves weren’t the problem. But something to note here is that those three things – gold, silver, and precious things – were precisely the things that Lehi left behind when his family left Jerusalem.

‘And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness.’ (1 Nephi 2:4)

So the people are seeking those things that their covenant father had explicitly left behind. In a sense, they were seeking something that had been a symbol of the wickedness Lehi and family had abandoned. That should immediately cause us to stop and ponder.

The writings of Nephi reference gold, silver, and precious things several times, and it is almost always in terms that emphasise that we shouldn’t desire them. There’s no problem having them, as such, but desiring them is problematic. Laban seeks to kill Nephi and his brothers because, ‘… he did lust after it…’ (1 Nephi 3:25). Nephi later sees these same things in his panoramic vision of the future, the angel noting that these, ‘… are the desires of this great and abominable church.’ (1 Nephi 13:8)

Now, we need a certain amount of money to survive in this world, and seeking money in order to appropriately provide for ourselves and those for whom we are responsible is a responsibility. It’s when that desire tips over providing those things we need into things that differentiate us from those with less that it becomes problematic. This is what Jacob teaches:

‘… 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 that ye are better than they.’ (Jacob 2:13)

The first followers of Christ, after His ascension, ‘… had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.’ (Acts 2:44-45)

This mirrors exactly the instruction Jesus Himself gave to the rich young man, ‘… sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor … and come, follow me.’ (Luke 18:22)

The same was true amongst the Nephites, ‘And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor…’ (4 Nephi 1:3)

In the book of Moses we learn that Zion can only truly be called such when we are, ‘… of one heart and one mind, and [dwell] in righteousness; and there [are] no poor among [us].’ (Moses 7:18)

Apparently there are over two thousand references in the Bible to the importance of looking after the poor and the vulnerable. I haven’t counted them all to test that claim, but in my own study of the Old Testament over the last couple of years, I’ve come to believe it. It really is one of the most oft referenced commandments.

In the book of Isaiah, a book of scriptures Latter-day Saints specifically believe is written about the end times, the prophet references caring for the vulnerable at least twenty-seven times as either a promise for the future (when the people are finally ruled by Jehovah again), or as condemnation for their current lack of doing so and a reason for their imminent destruction. The first chapter of Isaiah is like a legal summary of how the people have broken the covenant sand why they will be destroyed. In it we read:

‘How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.’ (Isaiah 1:21-23)

To avoid the coming calamities, they were told, ‘Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.’ (Isaiah 1:17)

Still in the same chapter, the Lord calls the leaders of the covenant people , ‘rulers of Sodom’ (Isaiah 1:10).

What was the principle sin of Sodom? Not sexual immorality as we are usually taught.

‘Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.’ (Ezekiel 16:49)

With this in mind, we can better understand the next words of Jacob to us:

‘And now, my brethren, do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you.’ (Jacob 2:14)

This using of wealth to acquire things that divide us from the poor is, ‘… iniquity and abomination. And, O that ye would listen unto the word of his commands, and let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls!’ (Jacob 2:16)

This is really strong language, and if we can’t immediately see major problems in both the Church and society, I fear we are deliberately blind. A recent blog post quoted the following:

‘Unfortunately, in the developing world, the LDS church does not routinely provide food for its starving children. Many thousands of LDS infants and children are severely malnourished, which lead to deficiencies in body and brain development.

‘One non-profit organization is attempting to feed some of the malnourished (LDSchildren), but much more help is needed. Fifteen years ago, the Bountiful Children’s Foundation estimated that 120,000 of active LDS children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and about 900 die from malnutrition every year. Today, the numbers are much higher as the LDS Church grows in the developing world, where LDS members lack the resources to provide food for starving babies in their congregations and neighborhoods. (For $15, a donor can feed a child for one month, and the Foundation pays for all overhead.)

‘Sadly, the LDS Church asks impoverished parents to pay tithes without ensuring that their children have enough food to prevent the longterm development issues of malnutrition. Although some assume that food assistance is available for all faithful, starving LDS members, this is not the case.’⁵

This literally makes me weep.

All this while the estimated wealth of the Church is in excess of $300b (yes, that’s billion), and one of the wealthiest churches in the world. Remember the sin of Sodom.

Here in the UK, the LDS church is required to publish certain financial accounts each year in order to retain charitable status. From these, we can see that for many years, the Church was receiving millions of pounds in financial contributions to the humanitarian fund, while not spending a single penny of it. Eventually they just transferred all the money to Salt Lake. Remember the sin of Sodom.

Christ overturned the tables of moneychangers at the temple because they were polluting His Father’s House; because they were profiting at the expense of the poor who were humbly seeking to worship there. The spiritual leaders of the people had turned the temple into a ‘den of thieves’ (Mark 11:15-17). Stealing from the poor through clever financial instruments in order to further enrich the already wealthy.

‘Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.’ (D&C 112:24-26)

Remember the sin – and punishment – of Sodom.

‘But before ye seek for riches,’ teaches Jacob, ‘seek ye for the kingdom of God.’ (Jacob 2:18)

Remember, riches aren’t bad in and of themselves. The problem is why we want them and what we do with them. Investing them in order to make more money is a problem.

‘And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?’ (Luke 12:16-20)

I recently listened to a podcast where the host was trying to explain that the parable of the talents taught the exact opposite. Remember how a certain man had three servants and gave them five, two and one talent respectively. The men with five and two talents had doubled their money, while the man with a single talent had buried it. The Lord, on his return praised those who had doubled his money. (Matthew 25:14-30)

But this parable isn’t about finances – that should be obvious. It’s about stewardship. And our stewardship is to the poor and vulnerable. Remember those two thousand references in the Bible to this?

This is what Jacob concludes his sermon about riches with:

‘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.’ (Jacob 2:19)

Do you catch that? The only reason we should be seeking riches is in order to give it away to the vulnerable.

It is said that eight families control 50% of the world’s wealth. And according to wikipedia, in 2020, nine hundred and two billionaires in the US had an estimated net worth of $6.8 trillion. Recently Elon Musk is reported to have earned a bonus worth over a trillion dollars.

These individuals could, all by themselves, solve world hunger, rebuild national infrastructure, pay for education and healthcare for all the poor, provide housing and jobs for immigrants seeking refuge. Instead, by virtue of the fact that they own the media, social media companies, and the most popular influencers, they have managed to twist the narrative so that immigrants and the poor are the problem – the lazy ‘scroungers’ who steal our jobs and benefits – while having billionaires run our countries and our institutions has somehow become a great idea. Whatever your politics⁶, this runs completely counter to scripture in the strongest and most profound ways. The sins of Sodom.

The prophet Jacob told his people they needed to repent of this or face the consequences. That warning is also to us.

I hope and pray that we will heed it.

© Copyright Jeffrey Collyer 2026

1. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1986/10/the-book-of-mormon-keystone-of-our-religion?lang=eng
2. From 40 minute Sunday lessons on the scriptures every week, we’re reduced to one every other week. While later this year, we return to weekly Sunday School scripture discussions, the time is halved, so accounting for prayers and introductions, we could be left with 15 minutes of lesson time per week; and that based on the ‘Come Follow Me’, itself with a far more superficial study of scripture compared with previous lesson manuals. Seminary and Institute has also reduced the amount of time spent studying the scriptures themselves and more time focused on the words of the leaders of the Church.
3. Both the last Church president – Russell M Nelson – and the current Church president – Dallin H Oaks – are sealed to multiple women for eternity
4. I personally know individuals who have left the Church specifically because of how the Church has approached this issue, believing that excommunicating people over it shows the Church is not Christlike. Given Dallin H Oaks has expressed the view that we should be holding more disciplinary councils, I suspect the approach won’t change while he is Church president. 
5. https://exponentii.org/blog/how-the-lds-church-careds-more-about-the-dead-than-the-living/
6. As I’ve said before, I belong to no political party and have voted for both ‘right-wing’ and ‘left-wing’ parties in the past.