3 Nephi 8

According to the Nephite calendar, the destructions begin on the fourth day of the fourth month. That would be April 4th. Scholars have put the date of Christ's birth as April 3rd. I don't think the specific day matters as much as knowing that in the spring, Christ was both born and died. On this day, there were great earthquakes and storms. Whirlwinds were described which must have been tornados. That would make sense if the storms were as huge and devastating as they were. I believe that God used natural means to bring about this destruction. What doesn't seem natural was the darkness that enveloped everything for three days, a darkness so thick that it could be felt and one that smothered all light. Here again, I think God would have used something natural to bring about such an unnatural event. It doesn't make it any less a miracle, and I may not be right. But what's important is the symbolism involved.

The Light of the World has been smothered in death. Rejected by mankind, it has left mankind in a societal and personal darkness that cannot be removed except through repentance. To me, this darkness quickly evolved into great apostasy until the time came for God's light to again break forth on the earth in the form of the restored gospel and the presence of again of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I don't think it's any accident that from the date of the restoration, 1820, mankind has progressed more, in less than two hundred years, than all of the other centuries combined. Technological development, knowledge, scientific discovery, medicine, any area of development related to the human condition, has exploded over the past 190 years. No one can deny that a light has broken forth in knowledge of all kinds. Some would say that it was just a natural growth. But why would a natural growth suddenly appear and explode at that particular time? Why not 1000 years before? If you can accept the Lord's calendar, if you can see with an inspired eye how the Lord has been at the helm all the time, it actually makes more sense. What if there hadn't been a restoration with the Holy Ghost once again influencing mankind? What any development there was would have continued at the same extremely slow pace that it was keeping up to that time. The light that wicked men thought they had snuffed out forever, has broken forth again. What a blessing to live in a time such as this.