Bruce R. McConkie
"It is perfectly clear that these destructions came as a just judgment upon the wicked, and that they are in similitude of the outpourings of wrath that shall come upon the whole world at the Second Coming, but they also came as a sign and a witness to the righteous who remained and who were not destroyed." (The Promised Messiah, p. 541)
“There Shall Be Great Tempests”
By some error of scriptural bookkeeping, the grand and glorious fulfillment of Samuel's prophecy was not recorded as it should have been. The oversight was not missed by the Lord, who takes a personal interest in the consistency and continuity of the scriptures. When he appeared to the righteous remnant, He corrected them saying, How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them? And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. (3 Nephi 23:11-12)