Applying the scriptures: Wicked lament, for they cannot always 'take happiness in sin'
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During one point in the battle for survival by the Nephites, the prophet-military leader Mormon saw his people mourning and lamenting. Thinking they were recognizing their iniquities and beginning to repent, he rejoiced — that perhaps once again his people would become a righteous and mighty people.
But, as then-Presiding Bishop Robert D. Hales explained during the April 1992 general conference, Mormon was mistaken, to his own great sorrow. "Behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin." (Mormon. 2:13.)
Continuing, Bishop Hales, now of the Quorum of the Twelve, said: "Mormon teaches us that there will always be suffering and sorrow in sin, but to repent only because we feel bad or because we have suffered or because we are sorrowful does not show that we understand the goodness of God.
"The point I would like to make is that when we express thankfulness to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ, we base our faith and repentance upon their forgiveness and their goodness."
