Reading today in ...

I was reading today in 1 Nephi 22 and was struck by the power of the word "and".

Notice this verse: "For behold, saith the prophet, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of men; for the day soon cometh that all the proud AND they who do wickedly ..." (vs 15).

Wait a minute. Screech. Halt. When I'd read it in the past, I thought that the proud and the wicked were the same thing. And maybe they are. But today I realized an important distinction. There is a possibility that a person, in being proud, is not engaging in the same activities as the second category mentioned in the verse above. But simply be "proud" apparently still gets you in the booted out category.

One dictionary I looked in stated that pride was simply a pleasure felt when obtaining high achievement. No wonder we sometimes think that pride is a good thing. It's a natural feeling, after all. Right?

Yet when I looked in another dictionary, the first definition listed was "defiant attitude." It also mentioned pride as an attraction to worldly goods. Yep. Those probably are the definitional categories that place a person fair and square in verse 15 above.

So just what happens to the "proud and they who do wickedly"? Here is the rest of the verse:

"For behold, saith the prophet, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of men; for the day soon cometh that all the proud and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble; and the day cometh that they must be burned" (You can read this online at this link: 1 Nephi 22:15).

That's a pretty serious call to repentance.

I think the reason pride is one of the oft-quoted "seven deadly sins" is because it leads to this attitude: Proverbs 1:29, Alma 30:46 and 2 Nephi 9:40.