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The Divinity of the United States

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The Divinity of our Nation
Topic Introduction: Explain why you chose this topic with the different example you witnessed after the bishop asked you to speak and the impression after reading 1776.
Scripture: The Book of Mormon states, beginning in 1Nephi 2:20 that this is a choice land which we live in. I have found over 30 similar references throughout the Book of Mormon. 1. Explain that the Nephites and Jaredites were allowed to inherit this land under one condition: “he that doth possess it shall serve God or be swept off.” (Ether 2:10) a. Many understood this principle and headed the word of the Lord. Many did not. b. We learn from Mormon and Moroni of the great destruction of the Nephites because of their lack to obey the word of the Lord. (Moroni 9:19, part of 22-23)
Our country in Modern days 1. God has again established this a choice nation a. People again have honored and dishonored our country 2. I would like to impress upon your minds the sacredness of our country. b. Speaking of the Constitution President Benson said: i. I want to pay tribute to those who laid the foundation of our Republic. I desire to bear testimony concerning one of the most vital principles that makes the work of the founders timeless and inspired. The framers of the Constitution were men raised up by God to establish this foundation of our government, for so the Lord has declared by revelation in these words: “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” (D&C 101:80) ii. How much blood has been spilt to preserve our freedom? 1. Approx: 825,000 soldiers killed. This does not include others who died defending freedom. 2. Over 9,000 in the Revolution 3. Over 407,000 in WWII iii. Speaking of those who drafted the Constitution Wilford Woodruff said: “they were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits. 4. J. Rueben Clark: “There has not been another such group of men in all the 200 years of our history that even challenged the supremacy of this group

3. Speak of the Sacredness of the Document and how the Lord himself has established it for our benefit and our Freedom. c. D&C: 101: I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh. iv. According to that scripture it is our responsibility to uphold the Constitution if we are to retain our freedom. d. How do we support our Constitution? v. John Adams said: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. e. John Taylor said: : “When the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States, the elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of the earth, and proclaiming liberty and equal rights to all men, and extending the hand of fellowship to the oppressed of all nations.” f. Brigham Young said: Will the Constitution be destroyed? No: it will be held inviolate by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, ‘The time will come when the destiny of this nati/on will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this -----people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.// g. We will do this because as stated in Ether 13:3: The Lord has decreed that this land should be “the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven … the holy sanctuary of the Lord.” 4. Just as in the days of old when Moroni hoisted the Title of Liberty proclaiming their freedom from bondage so we must also hold the Constitution as our way to stay free from bondage. h. President Benson said: I say to you that the price of liberty is and always has been blood, human blood, and if our liberties are lost, we shall never regain them except at the price of blood. (Mosiah 29:21-23) i. Many Americans have lost sight of the truth that righteousness is the one indispensable ingredient to liberty. j. Speaking of this-/ very point Abraham Lincoln stated: We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the Offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

5. What do we do now?-+ k. In 1973 the First Presidency of the Church made public this statement: “We urge members of the Church and all Americans to begin now to reflect more intently on the meaning and importance of the Constitution, and of adherence to its principles.” l. President Benson stated: Goodness, wisdom, and honesty are the three qualities of statesmanship, qualities this country needs more than ever before. May we be wise—prayerfully wise—in the electing of those who would lead us. May we select only those who understand and will adhere to Constitutional principles. To do so, we need to understand these principles ourselves.

Closing: Pres. Benson: I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I testify that the God of heaven selected and sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government as a prologue to the restoration of the gospel and the second coming of our Savior.
May God bless us to protect this sacred instrument. In the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, “May those principles, which were so honorably and nobly defended, namely, the Constitution of our land, by our fathers, be established forever.

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