How the Prayers of Righteous People Affect the Fate of a Nation
Alma 10:22–23
22 Yea, and I say unto you that if it were not for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by flood, as were the people in the days of Noah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence, and the sword.
23 But it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand except ye repent.
President Spencer W. Kimball said:
“Our world is now much the same as it was in the days of the Nephite prophet who said: ‘If it were not for the prayers of the righteous . . . ye would even now be visited with utter destruction’ (Alma 10:22). Of course, there are many upright and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the world from destruction.”
(“Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future,” Ensign, June 1971, 16.)
