“Hewn Down and Cast into the Fire”

Brant Gardner

The efforts of the Lord have been tremendous, yet the result is universally disastrous. All of the branches that are discussed are now yielding unfit fruit. Only the two unmentioned branches in the poor and poorer soil might be profitable but we do not see them. From a literary standpoint, they may be assumed to be overrun just as the others, though there is no historical way to prove or disprove the literary assumption.

The narrative now moves to an important crisis. the efforts of the Lord have appeared to fail, and the various trees are ripe only for destruction. Once again, we need not presume that the Lord seriously considers the early termination of his children on earth. This crisis strengthens the story without necessarily implying that these are the actual feelings of our Father (the sorrow certainly is, but the desire for destruction would not be).

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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