3 Nephi 25

This is when Christ is ministering to the Nephites, He gives them the teachings of the Prophet Malachi. (Compare Malachi 4)

3 Nephi 25:1

The day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud , yea, and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

As I read this scripture this time, I couldn't help but think about what it meant when it said the day would burn as an oven. I accept that there may be some literal burning on the judgment day as part of the cleansing of the earth but I think that this must have some deeper meaning. I remembered that the prophet Joseph Smith said that God dwells in everlasting burnings, and I remember reading in Moses that our natural selves cannot withstand God's presence, Moses would have withered and died unless he had been transfigured (Moses 1:11).

So I began to theorize that possibly the fire is from the presence of Christ. His presence is our judgment. He is the way the truth and the light. His fire is the fire of reality. The day will come when, in the presence of the Truth, we can no longer lie to ourselves about what we are, or what we've become, or why. And all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble. In that day, we will have to face the Truth, and in the light of his glory all of our imaginary friends will disappear. All of the money , and the mansions, and the titles, and the things that never really mattered, won't matter. Those who have wasted their lives in iniquity will have nothing to show for themselves, they will not have become what they were supposed to become, they shall be left with neither root nor branch.

OK, so I also believe that being left with neither root nor branch means not having any ancestors (roots) or progenitors (branches) but maybe that is just a modern metaphor that we impose on ancient scripture (the family tree). But the last scripture in this chapter I think gives some support to that idea.

3 Nephi 25:6

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Doctrine and Covenants 138:48 adds lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.

In the day when we are forced face to face with reality , when God's brilliance illuminates all the darkest corners of infinity, and all our deepest secrets are torn from their hiding places, we may find that only those who have turned their hearts to their families , those who have made relationships with others their lifelong quest, have anything to show for their mortal existence. We may find that all other endeavors are simply a waste.