Fully Ripe in Iniquity

That moment in time when people can no longer repent, when they have reached the limit described by Nephi when judgment will overtake them too quickly: Woe to those who disregard the just for something of no value and loudly condemn what’s good and say it’s worthless, because the time is soon coming when the Lord God will visit the inhabitants of the earth in judgment. And when they’re fully ripe in iniquity, they will be destroyed. However, the Lord of Hosts has said, if the inhabitants of the earth repent of their wickedness and abominations, they won’t be destroyed (2 Nephi 12:4 CE). When the limit has been reached, the end “will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth.” That means they will no longer even listen to the truth. They have completely closed minds. It would do no good to extend them further opportunity, because they will not take any advantage of it and are scheduled for destruction. But Nephi reminds us they can repent. If they will change their minds and come to Christ, He will forgive them and heal them. If they repent, they will be preserved from the destruction. However, as has already become clear, their destruction is due to the fact they are “fully ripe.” So although repentance remains theoretically possible and the Lord will accept even a late return to Him, the offenders are committed to their offense. They are not likely to take advantage of the opportunity. How humble it is for the Lord to be willing to accept the reluctant, tardy, and slow to repent. Nevertheless, He is willing to accept even them. He suffered for all and will redeem as many as will come to Him. Initially, He won’t destroy them with the wicked. Ultimately, the outcome will depend upon how committed they are to the process of repentance, for to repent is to come to Him. They decide if His open arms will be where they finally embrace Him; or if they will stand afar off and think it too hard to surrender their sins and go further.¹

The theme of ripening for destruction is emphasized when the brother of Jared was warned that whoever occupied this land of promise, from that time forward and forever, must serve Him, the true and only God, or they would be swept away when they provoked His full wrath upon them… . The full extent of God’s wrath will be provoked when they’ve ripened in iniquity (Ether 1:6–7 CE). Other warnings concerning what takes place when a people are fully ripe continue: The land will be cursed to destroy any people on this land who do evi l… when they’re fully ripe (Alma 21:3). In this dispensation, the Lord warned that when the earth [is] ripe, all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and I will burn them up (T&C 9:3), and Behold, the world is ripening in iniquity and it must needs be that the children of men are stirred up unto repentance, both the Gentiles and also the house of Israel (JSH 15:29).

“God has never given us a time schedule for the developments of the last days… But though He does not give us dates and figures, He does give us unmistakable signs of the times, and urges us to pay the closest possible attention to them. Simply by looking at a fig tree, for example, one can estimate quite closely about how far away the harvest is… Specifically, if we want to know the sure sign of the end, we are instructed to look for ripeness or fullness. The end comes when, and only when, ‘the time is ripe,’ when ‘the harvest is ripe’; when people are ‘ripe in iniquity.’ Or, to use the other figure, when ‘the cup of His wrath is full,’ which will be when ‘the cup of their iniquity is full.’ Or, to combine both terms, when the world is fully ripe in iniquity. Fruit is fully ripe at that moment when further ripening would not mean improvement but only deterioration… And a vessel is full when nothing more can be added to it; when its contents can no longer be improved or damaged by adding any more ingredients. When the fruit is ripe there is no point in letting it remain longer on the tree. And when the cup is full nothing further remains to be done about its contents. Ripeness and fullness are that state of things, in short, when nothing further remains to be done in the direction of filling or ripening, and the process has reached the end. A society has reached such a point when it can no longer go in the direction it has been taking, when the only hope of motion lies in a change or a direct reversal of direction. It is when men reach the point of refusing to repent that they have reached the point of fullness: And it shall come to pass, because of the wickedness of the world, that I will take vengeance upon the wicked, for they will not repent; for the cup of mine indignation is full (D&C 29:17 [see T&C 9:5]).”²See also INIQUITY.