Verse 12 describes what I think the Church is like today. The members are few because of the wickedness of the whore who sits on the many waters. The people are blinded from the truth by the church of the devil. It goes on to say that the saints of God were small, but were upon all the face of the Earth. I don't think that we are quite in the position to say this. There are several main countries where we don't have a presence. Well, at least not a presence enough to proselyte. Perhaps it is sufficient for this scripture to say that there are members present in all countries. Maybe they're in the army and are not in a position to share the gospel a lot.
Verse 13 is a little intimidating. This fight could be temporal and/or spiritual. But, it seems that even though we are small in number, the great mother of abominations will gather together and fight with us. I say us, because I'm a part of the small band of saints.
From the Book of Mormon Institute manual:
President Hugh B. Brown spoke of the “final battle” between Satan and his followers and the followers of God:
“I hope that every young man under the sound of my voice will resolve tonight, ‘I am going to keep myself clean. I am going to serve the Lord. I am going to prepare every way I can for future service, because I want to be prepared when the final battle shall come.’ “And some of you young men are going to engage in that battle. Some of you are going to engage in the final testing time, which is coming and which is closer to us than we know” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1967, p. 115).
This was said back in 1967. Now it is 2008. Are we fighting a battle? I know that we are fighting a very large spiritual battle. In a recent meeting with some general authorities, they said that it is shocking how many of our youth fall away, because of this battle. They are our most important priority.
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