When it is the case that the voice of the people no longer choose good-when the majority of the inhabitants of a nation turn from the God of Israel and worship instead the gods of wood and stone or riches and popularity-then that nation is said to have “ripened in iniquity” and is pursuing a course which will result in its eventual destruction.
In speaking to the wicked people of Ammonihah, Amulek said: “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; ... by famine, and by pestilence, and the sword. 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.” (Alma 10:22-23; cf. Helaman 13:12.)
In writing specifically of the land of America, Moroni warned: “And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:9.)