The Book of Mormon's Fantasy Chapter

Which chapter in the Book of Mormon speaks of dragons, owls, nobles, palaces, kingdoms, weapons, battles, constellations, the golden wedge of Ophir, Arabians, and satyrs that dance? That sounds like something out of a fantasy book, but, though surprising, such a chapter does exist. It is a quotation of Isaiah, 2 Nephi 23, and contains words that Nephi wrote down for us to have. What can we learn from this unique chapter? The words are a prophecy about the destruction of Babylon which, according to the chapter header, should teach us about the destruction to come at the Second Coming. These words against Babylon then tell us that the day of the Lord—the Second Coming—will not be a good day for the wicked. We read this sobering description: “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, every man’s heart shall melt; And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it” (v6-9). The Lord also added, “And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay down the haughtiness of the terrible” (v11). Those who choose wickedness will be punished for their evil when the day of the Lord comes. For us to not fear the Second Coming, we must choose righteousness instead. If we worship the Lord instead of the world, we have this promise: “I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones, for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness” (v3). As we seek to be sanctified and to rejoice in Him, His anger will not be upon us at the last day. President Nelson urged us in these words: “Brothers and sisters, now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.”

               The chapter ends with this prophecy about the city of Babylon: “It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her day shall not be prolonged. For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish” (v20-22). This is the part that especially sounds like something from fantasy literature, but the dragons were probably “wild dogs” and the satyrs “he-goats” instead of fictional creatures (see footnotes in Isaiah 13). The essence of the poetic language is that the city would never be rebuilt; people would not live there again. What is most important is that this prophecy has proven true—the place where Babylon was is still not inhabited today. Elder Bruce R. McConkie put it this way: “Babylon was also destroyed by Xerxes in 478 B.C. and again after Alexander the Great overran the Persian empire in 330 B.C. A rival city was soon built on the Tigris, and Babylon never recovered. Today the greatest world city of antiquity is a mound of desert earth that will not rise again. Babylon the great has fallen forever.” A more recent online source describes it this way: “The glory days of Babylon were short-lived. As foretold by Old Testament prophets, the grand ancient city fell to the Persians in 539 B.C.E. and slowly crumbled over centuries of foreign invasions and occupations. Although Babylon was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, there isn't much left to see of the once-unstoppable empire that dazzled Greek historians and enslaved its rivals, most famously the biblical Kingdom of Judah. If you took a trip to Babylon today, located 55 miles (85 kilometers) south of Baghdad, you'd see a tacky recreation built by Saddam Hussein in the 1970s that's been partially destroyed by decades of war. It's a sad ending to such a fabled city.” The message is that the Lord’s prophecies will come true—despite all its glory, Babylon fell, and so will the wicked today. We can trust the prophecies of the Lord’s prophets, knowing that our faith should be in God and not the world’s strength. We can rest assured that despite the trouble in the world today, the Lord will watch over His people who keep covenants with Him as summarized in the final statement of the chapter: “For I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish.”