Stories of Cain, Akish Give Insight into How Secret Societies Operate

We have two scriptural accounts of how secret combination operate. One is the story of Akish in Ether the Book of Mormon, and the other the story of Cain in Genesis in the Bible. We find in both them the same ingredients. These are how people in secret combinations operate:

1.) Satan tempts them. He appeals to their vanity, to their lust for power or acceptance, and to their desire for greatness. He puts it into their heart to seek for greatness, such as to rule the country. Satan commanded Cain, saying, "Make an offering unto the Lord." "And Cain said unto the Lord, Satan tempted me because of my brother's flocks." Jared's daughter, "thought to devise a plan," which could indicate Satan put it into her heart. At any rate, it also says Jared sought to rule the nation.

2.) To get the vanity they want, they offer up from the vanity they already have. They put their vanity on display in hopes of gaining greater vanity. The daughter of Jared knew she was beautiful, so she offered to dance. Cain offered up from his crops not because the Lord asked him to, but because Satan told him to do so. Perhaps it was a vain offering and that is why the Lord rejected it. Perhaps it was a, Look-how-great-I-am-to-give-you-this offering, instead of a humble one. Cain said, "Truly I am Mahan, the master." Thus, in both cases, they were proud and sought reason to be even more prideful.

3.) They draw others of like mind into conspiracy. Cain married daughters (plural) of his brother who loved Satan, and they became his following. It also speaks of him having "brethren" in his act, so there were more than just the daughters. Jared and his daughter drew Akish into the affair, and then Akish "gathered in unto the house of Jared all his kinfolk."

4.) They demand loyalty. "And Satan sware unto Cain that he would do according to his commands." Akish told the followers they must "be faithful unto me."

5.) They reject or seek to cover up the truth. Cain "was wroth and listened not any more to the voice of the Lord." Satan pledged Cain not to tell the truth, and made him pledge his followers. Akish sought to hide the truth, not allowing them to "divulge whatsoever thing" he had made known unto them.

6.) They are boastful. "I am fair," the daughter of Jared said. "Cain was called Master Mahan, and he "gloried in his wickedness."

7.) They seek to punish those who will not follow them. If they can, they administer death. "Swear unto me by thy throat," Satan said to Cain. And, Satan made Cain extract the same oath of his followers. "For if they tell it, they shall surely die." And, in the account of Akish, "whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head . . . the same should lose his life."

8.) They swear by God. "Swear . . . by the living God," it says in the story of Akish. "Swear . . . by the heavens," it says in the story of Cain.