"...their prosperity in Christ."

This isn't the first or second or third blog post about prosperity here, but it comes up in the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, including instructions on how to obtain it.  In this blog post, we investigate some actions that can be taken to lose the prosperity that righteousness merits.

First, just a recap of what "prosperity in Christ" looks like: 

4 Nephi 1

23 And now I, Mormon, would that ye should know that the people had multiplied, insomuch that they were spread upon all the face of the land, and that they had become exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ.

There is something here that makes social scientists jump:  The entire idea that people multiplying happened at the same time as people getting rich.  It works the exact opposite way in our time - when people become rich, they have less children.  This is a rock-hard doctrine of our times, but apparently not a feature among the righteous followers of Jesus Christ.

What was the difference? We can see what happens when things take a turn for the worse.

24 And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world. 

We live in a world awash in pride and the acquisition of the things that show we are prideful and that are worn like a badge of honor these days. After exactly 200 years, the non-prideful, prolific, and in-congruently rich people started wearing expensive clothes and jewelry and feeling pretty prideful doing it. This very quickly proved their undoing - no more peace.

In a world quick to blame the environment, social pressures, one ideology or another, solar flares, or biorhythms for the bad state of things, God and his prophets are quick to reveal the real culprit: personal pride.  If you want the prosperity in life that Christ offers, a prosperity so foreign to our times that you can enjoy a large posterity and lots of money at the same time, you humble yourself before the Lord. You stop considering your own path as superior to the agenda of God. You follow the teachings of prophets and apostles and you start receiving blessings that defy logic. It is amazing to see, especially in your own life.

The path to prosperity is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you put yourself between Jesus and your more obedient self through pride, how can the Lord prosper you?  As we follow God's agenda, miraculous blessings will come as surely as the sun rises.

"...as I have proposed, so shall it stand:"

We always think we can somehow trick God and foil his purposes. Often, it just looks like we can get away with things of our own design. 

 

Isaiah 14:24-27

24 ¶ The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

God had this all figured out before you even came on the scene. You don't really know the background and you might have a vague clue about how things are going to turn out, but the fact of the matter is that you and me and big people like the Assyrians don't know what is happening.

We are a little people that get to have a few rounds where the adults accomplish things.  We are asked to learn the Gospel, share it around, make sure ordinances are done properly, and do what the Lord tells us to do as exactly as we can. We are in a position that we must trust in Him in our almost complete ignorance.

No wonder Christ talks about the importance of our being humble.

 

Obedience toward Alignment then Acculturation

A progression toward Godhood.

1. Obedience - We do as God commands, often in ignorance of the purposes behind it;
2. Alignment - We work in parallel with the purposes of God as we understand them;
3. Acculturation - God desires that we come to know him fully and, with that knowledge, adopt his ways and purposes as our own, gaining his trust to share in his exaltation.

God wants us to become like him. He wants to share his purposes and all that he has and is with us. We can become as he is and he will help us to do it.

Preaching Liberty to My Senator

I got a letter from my US Senator Martin Heinrich (further below) and I felt a need to respond.

Mr. Heinrich,

I am continually frustrated by your refusal to work with President Donald Trump, who often works to resolve domestic and international issues that elected legislators and executives for generations have either ignored through sloth or political/personal advantage/disinterest. I understand that the President is your political enemy at the request of the Democratic Party, to which you seem to have sold your fullest devotions. Although the rewards for your complete worship to "D" are likely very great, my hope is that you will, at any point, choose to do what is most representative of our American virtues of individual liberty and the restraint on smothering public governance. You ask me to contribute my resources toward your party's efforts to push further Washington and Santa Fe institutional dominance over the lives of New Mexicans. Your loyalties and votes in the Senate give greatest evidence of a purpose toward crushing liberty and enthroning yourself and your friends in an unassailable dictatorship over all American and international enterprise, the engulfment of individual states in a federal entanglement of patronages and graft, financed by confiscatory taxation and enslaving regulation on the stifled industry of your embattled constituent-victims. Trump-hatred is no excuse for opposing good legislation.

250 years ago, you and your legislators began to have the power to throw down tyranny and to grant further liberty for Americans to profit from their efforts without undue government interference. Sadly, your caste continues the tradition of stamping down personal enterprise until it can be properly bled to the vampiric desires of government control. The British King and his Parliament have merely been replaced by a pre-corrupted and vetted Executive and its legislative and judicial baying-hounds, if we are to hearken to our national founding. You sir give every evidence of one whose loyalty is to party spoilage and professional blood-lust of the un-vetted.

Your letter of July 4, 2026 is a little-varnished call to continue to dismantle the liberty of individuals and petition for the ignorant citizen plea-pandering for "free" grants to "aggrieved" groups and sophistic causes. As you tail a "D" after your name, the text is all in service to the never-ending status and power of the Democratic Party. It would be to your credit if you could stand for something higher than loyalty to mutual corruption among either of the major parties. Trump is willing to fight his own party on many fronts, you could try to rise to that noble battle as well.

Though your station today is a credit to your prowess in buying favor from the right groups and delivering New Mexico for your chosen party, I still hold out hope that you can burst above the ocean of partisan swill and put yourself of the side of the individual New Mexican American who yearns for a life more free from government coercion. You can still grant us the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" that the Declaration of Independence demanded from a king 250 years ago. You can do a better job to honor our God-given rights and make good on our founding resolve to humanity's better principles.

With hope,

Jason Nemrow, Citizen

Tucumcari, New Mexico, USA

https://quix.us

---

July 4, 2026

Dear Friend,

250 years ago, a group of Americans declared that government exists to serve people—not the other way around. That radical idea became the foundation of this nation, and it’s one worth fighting for in every generation.

The path to achieving America’s promise has been fraught. From slavery to the forced removal of Native peoples, to our ongoing struggle to make freedoms written on paper real for everyone, the work remains. But we’ve also proven, time and again, that we can do better—that we can expand opportunity, strengthen the protections every American deserves, and move closer to fulfilling our founding promise.

This Fourth of July, that work feels more urgent than ever. There are those in power who would sell off our public lands to the highest bidder, strip health care from working families, silence the voices of voters, and replace the rule of law with the rule of one man.

The answer isn’t nostalgia. It’s recommitment. To a democracy that answers to the people, not the powerful. To communities where everyone can get ahead. To the public servants, military families, and veterans who remind us that patriotism is measured by service to our country and one another—not by serving ourselves. To the wild places that belong to every American, not just the wealthy few.

The story of America has always been one of people who believed our country could better live up to its founding promise—and rolled up their sleeves to make it happen. That's the work ahead of us, and it's work I'll never stop fighting for. Happy Fourth of July.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH United States Senator