all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
12 And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.
13 And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God.
14 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.
15 And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon that great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth.
16 And as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold, thou seest all these things—
17 And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose founder is the devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel.
Nephi, in describing the future of these two churches, gives good reason for staying with the Church of the Lamb of God. Both churches will be worldwide, but the church of the Lamb of God will be small because of the wickedness of the whore of all the earth (vv. 11–12). John the Revelator also saw the mother of abominations, who gathered multitudes from among all nations of the Gentiles (v. 13).
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. [Revelation 17:15]
Nephi sees the small church armed with righteousness and the power of God in contrast to the wrath of God poured out upon the great and abominable church that was among all nations (vv. 14–16).
The Lord has led his people away from destruction many times. Moses was led out of Egypt, Lehi was led out of Jerusalem, and the saints were led to the West. The time that Nephi is seeing is past the fleeing stage; the Lord will now defend his Church with his power because of the Saints righteousness. He will establish Zion in fulfillment of his covenant (v. 17). Nephi earlier saw the day of those “who shall seek to bring forth my Zion” as the day of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon records (1 Nephi 13:35–37).
In 1831, the Saints gathered into “the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion” (D&C 57:1–2), but three years later were told they “should wait a little season for the redemption of Zion” (D&C 105:9). Nephi was apparently seeing the time when Zion would be established (v. 17). He was shown the entire future of the Church in the latter days.
The dependence of the church of the Lamb of God upon God was emphasized by President J. E. Reuben Clark.
The scriptures state that in the last days there will be two churches. John the Revelator spoke of the great church with worldly power that had under its dominion and leadership the kings of the earth—he spoke of it as Babylon, the mother of Harlots. Nephi’s spoke of it as the great and abominable church. I am not going to say what that church is, though I have a very definite and clear idea. But I want to say that those scriptures also tell us that the other church is a weak church, a church to whose assistance God has come in order to preserve it. We certainly are not the great church, for no kings are tied to the chariot wheels of our church. We are the other church.