First Nephi 22:14

And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the pit which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord. And all that fight against Zion shall be destroyed, and that great whore, who hath perverted the right ways of the Lord, yea, that great and abominable church, shall tumble to the dust and great shall be the fall of it.

It is hard to fathom the total collapse of the world order that we have known for most of recorded history. The great and abominable church is not just a church, or even a group of churches. It is governments and congresses and commissions and ministries and secret combinations. It is all powers, principalities, dominions, and worldly organizations that are not Zion. The world will be hard to recognize when these institutions are gone.

First Nephi 14:10

And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

There's no neutral territory. Since the true church was restored, people have a choice. If they do not choose the truth, they choose the lie by default. If they do not choose light, they remain in darkness. There is no shadow, no gray, no half truth.

First Nephi 13:29

And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles; and after it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles, yea, even across the many waters which thou hast seen with the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity, thou seest—because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God—because of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them.

Nephi saw in vision that the bible was corrupted from the very beginning. What is clear is that the corruption is not the fault of accidental mis-copying by scribes or mis-translation by scholars. Changes were made deliberately and with malice of forethought by a secret combination with an agenda.

The Bible has been an enormous blessing to Christian believers, but also a stumbling block. People stumble when they are on the path and trying to make progress but then trip over something they do not see or understand. People have stumbled over the Bible for nearly two thousand years. It has brought Christianity to a significant portion of the world, which is obviously a good thing; but it has also been the source of theological and political divisions that have resulted in inquisitions, bigotry, wars, and genocide. How can a book of such holy truth produce such unholy consequences?

The Book of Mormon is the antidote to the poison laced by the great and abominable church between the lines of the beloved Bible. It shines a light into the darkness and makes the stumbling blocks visible. I love the Bible and the many devoted and courageous men and women who risked all and gave their lives to preserve and perpetuate it, as imperfect as it may have been, because it was all they had. I love the Book of Mormon because it upholds and illuminates the wonderful truths of the Bible while clearing away the stumbling blocks of mystery and philosophy. Together they are an unassailable witness for Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

First Nephi 13:26

And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.

Recompiling of the Bible seems to be coincidental with the formation of the great and abominable church. The original aim of the great and abominable church seems to have been the perversion of the scriptures. What came forth from this mysterious period were the philosophies of men mingled with scripture. This book contained enough truth to make it compelling and plausible, but enough contradictions and mysteries to make it hard to understand.

The Book of Mormon is God's secret weapon against the great and abominable church. Written from original sources, uncorrupted, buried in the earth for fourteen hundred years, this record God held in reserve, to come forth in the last days to substantiate the truths of the Bible while sweeping away the sophistries and enigmas introduced by the great and abominable church of philosophical illusions.

First Nephi 13:4

And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church.

Four times in four verses it is repeated that Nephi sees nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles. It is clear that this large church is an invention of the Gentiles that spans international boundaries. The great and abominable church is not a single church or a single nation. It is a shadowy congress of churches, systems of belief, governments, and other organizations that oppose and seek to destroy the true church of Christ and the gospel. Only two camps exist. "He that is not with me is against me," said Jesus (Matthew 12:30). We are either in the one church or the other, regardless of our denomination, culture or nationality.