These chapters are a continuation of the dream/vision that Nephi had, which is in response to the dream that his father, Lehi, had about the tree of life. This portion of the dream has some similarities with the information that John the Revelator gave in the book of Revelations, and is, in fact, apocalyptic, or having to do with the history and future of the world.
Before I proceed further I must send you to a really, really, really great article written by Stephen Robinson, a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. His article changed the way I thought about how I view religious events in history and the future:
"Warring against the Saints of God," found in the Ensign, January 1988
1 Ne 13:4-9 states some of the characteristics of the great and abominable church. The context is Jerusalem, right after the death of the Savior and the death of the set apart 12 apostles. Stephen Robinson compares the words Nephi uses to describe the great and abominable church, to the words John uses to describe Babylon (I copied and pasted from his article for brevity) :
1. It persecutes, tortures, and slays the Saints of God. (See 1 Ne. 13:5, Rev. 17:6; Rev. 18:24.)
2. It seeks wealth and luxury. (See 1 Ne. 13:7–8, Rev. 17:4; Rev. 18:3, 11–16.)
3. It is characterized by sexual immorality. (See 1 Ne. 13:7, Rev. 17:1–2, 5.)
4. It has excised plain and precious things from the scriptures. (See 1 Ne. 13:26–29.)
5. It has dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. (See 1 Ne. 14:11, Rev. 17:15, 18; Rev. 18:3, 23–24.)
6. Its fate is to be consumed by a world war, when the nations it incites against the Saints war among themselves until the great and abominable church itself is destroyed. (See 1 Ne. 22:13–14, Rev. 17:14–16; Rev. 18:23.)
The one difference is that Nephi sees that the great church takes away plain and precious things from the Bible, which Brother Robinson says makes sense, since John was actually writing some of the things that would be taken out.
Brother Robinson also concludes that the church mentioned in Capter 13 is actually a real entity, but it's name or really anything about it other than they were anti-Christ is not known. Here is what I shared with my class concerning the subject:
"In 1 Nephi 13, the great and abominable church is one specific church among many. Nephi’s description of it as “most abominable above all other churches” (1 Ne. 13:5, 26) does not make sense otherwise. Moreover, the great and abominable church in chapter 13 has a specific historical description: it was formed among the Gentiles after the Jews transmitted the Bible in its purity to the Gentiles. (1 Ne. 13:26.) It is also the specific historical agent responsible for excising plain and precious truths from the scriptural record.
This period might be called the blind spot in Christian history, for it is here that the fewest primary historical sources have been preserved. That different [church] can accurately be described as hellenized Christianity.
The hellenization of Christianity is a phenomenon that scholars of Christian history have long recognized. Hellenization refers to the imposition of Greek culture and philosophy upon the cultures of the East. The result was a synthesis of East and West, a melting pot of popular culture that was virtually worldwide. In the realm of religion, however, synthesis means compromise, and when we speak in terms of the gospel, compromise with popular beliefs means apostasy from the truth.
When Jewish Christianity and Greek culture met head-on in the gentile mission field in the middle of the first century, a great battle of beliefs and life-styles arose. The Greeks’ world-view eventually won, and Jewish Christianity was revised to make it more attractive and appealing to a Greek audience.
In order to satisfy the Gentiles steeped in Greek philosophy, Christianity had to throw out the doctrines of an anthropomorphic God [a God with a body] and the resurrection of the dead, or reinterpret them drastically." Which is what Paul fought against so forcefully.
Nephi sees a number of other things including the settlement of the Americas by a man (later identified as Columbus) and the revolutionary war and that the immigrants brought with them the Bible that had plain and precious truth missing from it's doctrine.
Those truths are restored with the coming forth of The Book of Mormon and it's doctrines.
What truths are restored?
Namely the ones that were taken by hellenized Christianity: that there was in fact a Christ, and that he was resurrected. Two essential truths to understanding the plan of God for us. In addition to those things, there are other plain and precious truths restored in the pages of and because of the doctrines in The Book of Mormon: proper baptism with proper authority, more detail of the atonement, what happens after this life, how to live the commandments in this life, how to live the higher law that Christ gave during his earthly ministry, that one can receive personal revelation, service, charity and much more.
This does not mean the Bible does not contain these doctrines, it does and we would know Christ without it, obviously. But The Book of Mormon, as it says on the cover, is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." It does testify of Christ and it does this via the inhabitants on the American continents. Same doctrine, but different people and experiences bring different perspective and in some cases, more clarity to Christian doctrines.
1 Ne 13:40-41 states the purpose of The Book of Mormon (vs 26-41 gives the whole picture)
In chapter 14, Nephi again recognizes a great and abominable church, but in a more general manner. Same characteristics, but not narrowed down to a specific church. It's pretty much anything that is evil or leads someone to do evil and the founder is the Devil, who by the way, doesn't care one stitch for your true happiness.
Verses 8-14 say that the Devil's church is over all the earth and that there are little pockets of Saints throughout the world.
"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 aarmedwith brighteousness and with the cpower of God in great glory."
The way to protect ourselves from the power of the Devil is to be a covenant people, that is, we make promises to God and He makes promises to us and acting upon those promises will provide protection during and after it's all over.
Brother Robinson stresses again, that this is more a matter of your heart than it is what church you are a member of
"In either the apocalyptic sense or the historical sense, individual orientation to the Church of the Lamb or to the great and abominable church is not by membership but by loyalty. Just as there [are] Latter-day Saints who belong to the great and abominable church because of their loyalty to Satan and his life-style, so there are members of other churches who belong to the Lamb because of their loyalty to him and his life-style. Membership is based more on who has your heart than on who has your records."
It seems to me that Lehi, Nephi, John and other have visions such as these to encourage us to be prepared for opposition. We need to know the characteristics of opposition, so that we can choose between right and wrong. We also need be ahead of the game with our spiritual strength, knowledge and faith so that when opposition comes (in all it's many, many general and personal forms), we are not caught clinging to what we have heard or may have been taught, but that we know where to find our strength, having had experiences with it beforehand, are "continually holding fast" (as Lehi says) to the doctrines of eternal truths.
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