Helaman 15 and 16

Helaman 15
Samuel continues to enrage the Nephites by telling them how much more righteous the Lamanites are than the Nephites. The Nephites are full of pride and undoubtedly look upon the Lamanites as lesser people. I would guess the Lamanites are not as wealthy and so the Nephites must look down upon them still as the wild, untamed and uneducated side of the family. Samuel tells them there are two basic keys to the Lamanites gaining faith on the Lord, and I think these are two important keys for anyone who wants to gain faith. The first is, the Lamanites are getting their knowledge of the Lord through the scriptures. This is leading to a change in their hearts. The second is they are remaining steadfast in their belief once they have gained it. Samuel tells the Nephites that it will be better for the Lamanites than for them because the Lamanites have not had so many things revealed to them by the Lord. This is why the Nephites will eventually be destroyed as a nation and the Lamanites will not.

Helaman 16
In the last chapter of Helaman, the Nephites try to kill Samuel and fail and he returns to his own people and teaches among them. The Nephites continue to grow more "hardened in their iniquity" while the the Lamanites continue to be converted. There is a smaller group of Nephites who remain faithful and to them and their leaders, miracles happen and angels appear. They are shown what is shortly going to come to pass, but the remaining people refuse to believe. When prophecies are fulfilled, they say the prophets guessed right. They is not given to them to know that the Savior will appear on their continent because they argue that if the Lord were going to be on the earth in Jerusalem, why wouldn't he show himself to them too? This change in the Nephites is happening over a period of only about 30 years. As the nation becomes more wicked, there is a stronger dividing line between the righteous and wicked.

I think there is a very strong parallel between what happens in the Book of Mormon and what is happening in our own time. And it's happening almost as fast. When I was a boy, the whole nation basically lived and believed in the same high principles. All stores were closed on Sundays. Pornography was basically non-existence. There were no drugs available. An X rated movie was one where women appeared topless. Sexual relations outside of marriage was a very strong taboo and kids who involved themselves in sexual relations before marriage were treated with great disrespect. There was an element in Hollywood who were immoral but it was kept secret for the most part. The vast majority of people believed in the same standards. I could be reprimanded by a friend's parent as well as my own and with my parent's full support. As time goes on, we will see a stronger division between righteous people and those who promote unrighteousness. This will happen on many levels. As the church and others stand for righteous principles, unrighteous people will attack the church's positions and belittle religious belief. There will be more and more Bill Mayers and Joy Bahars who will use their national prominence as forum to attack religious principles. Nations of wickedness will promote war against righteous people. The rich will persecute and play upon the poor, and government will be more and more influenced by, and become more corrupt over power and money. It's so important that, like the Lamanites, we are rooted in the scriptures and we read and teach them to our children so we have a foundation of faith on which we can remain steadfast.