Continuing from the post of June 15th, two days ago “Distress of Nations With Perplexity,” Neal A. Maxwell in 1985 wrote:. . . .
“Are we not, therefore, now seeing a prophecy fulfilled—not only with regard to war, but also as to other challenges, such as to international debt—when, on the earth, there will be “distress of nations, with perplexity”?* (Luke 21:25; see also D&C 88:79). Perplexity is defined as “complicated, confused, troubled and bewildered.”
But surely, it is sincerely asserted, nations must see that they must try and must trust. They must at least make a start. To fail is absurd. The need to negotiate is so obvious. Self-interest alone makes clear the path to be pursued.
It is precisely at this point that something ominous becomes more clear: the terrible price we are paying for secularized man.
If man’s brotherhood is biological only, temporary only; if the Fatherhood of God is no longer an operating moral imperative; if past and present treaties and international organizations have proven inadequate to the task; if this life is all there is—out of what reservoir of hope, goodness, and trust do we expect to draw sufficient, universal good will to underwrite such sorely needed negotiations?
Desperation is not inspiration. The requirements to be shared by all nations in order to achieve such peace are nothing short of breathtaking.
But, it will be said, cannot those with religious faith cooperate fully with agnostics and atheists for common survival?
It would seem so. Then why is it not happening? Do we really believe that half a dozen leaders can frustrate a concern and a hope so deeply and universally held? It includes but is much more than “a communication problem.”
Moreover is it intellectually honest for some to extract and to invoke certain anticipatory and prophetic language from the scriptures, such as from the Old Testament about beating our “swords into plowshares” and our”spears into pruninghooks” (Isiah 2:4), without knowing how that condition is to be achieved? For it will happen with the coming of the Messiah. These promises rest on specific premises. They will occur in a setting in which the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will usher in a millennial reign during which there will be worldwide peace.
Furthermore, if the United Nations diagnosis of 1945 is correct and war begins in the hearts and minds of men, how hopeful for the future can we be if more and more families are failing and if our educational systems are too bereft of moral content? These two are mainstay institutions which profoundly shape the hearts and minds of men. ~Neal A. Maxwell, Sermons Not Spoken (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985), 34-5
continued. . . ‘Distress of Nations with Perplexity III
