3 Nephi 10

The people again here the voice of the Lord as he teaches them in preparation for his coming. Four times he says, 'How oft would I have gathered you," telling them that if they would have repented, the destruction could have been avoided. He has gathered his people in the past and he gathers them now. But he never compels us to come to him. It is a decision we must make on our own, repentance and the desire to follow him being something that must come from within.

The Lord reiterates again that it was the righteous who were spared. They were the ones who had followed the prophets. This is important for our day and age for when the Lord comes again, it is the righteous who will be spared from the great destruction that will take place prior to his coming. To the Nephites, the Lord says that the living prophets had prophesied of the destruction they had experienced, and in their scriptures, the prophets Zenos had prophesied. It was all there for them just as it is all there for us if we choose to believe it. Just as the Lord will now come to the Nephites, we can be sure he will come again to the whole world, finally ending the wickedness that has sought to destroy it from the time of Adam.