Apostasy
The Gospel and World Religions
[Atonement Defined]
[Increased Pride]
[Rapid Shifts Take Place in the Book of Mormon]
[Four Stages of Prosperity]
[Power, Gain, Popularity, Lusts of the Flesh]
[Ministering of Angels]
[Five Requirements of Secret Combinations]
214 Helaman 3:30 “And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.” To sit down—it uses that a number of times in the Book of Mormon. Remember, you’re invited to go into the tent and sit down—have place with us. What he’s talking about is the old Mosaic law, which was abolished after Lehi left Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed. It was never the same after that. These people were familiar with the old custom—that going in and sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is very important. That’s the yeshiva, which is the atonement. Yeshiva means “sitting down.” This is a very important part of the atonement, talking about the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. This is the way it’s given in Deuteronomy. The Lord parts the veil of the tent, which is the kippur, the covering, and he says he’s ready now to converse with Moses. Moses is supposed to come in. After they have conversed and [he has] passed the test, then he comes in and sits down. But the sitting down is very important. That’s the yeshiva, and yashav. Yashav means to settle down in a place permanently, and yeshiva means to take a seat by somebody.
214 The word atonement is only found once in the New Testament. It’s found a number of times in the Old Testament, but only once in the New Testament. And it’s not found at all in the Revised Standard Version. They don’t use atonement at all. The word doesn’t even appear in the New Testament. They use instead reconciliation, keeping it quite literal, from reconcilio. Reconciliation means “to return and sit down beside somebody again.” And, of course, the yeshiva goes along with the teshuva. Yashuv means “to return.” So you have yeshiva and teshuva. You return and then you sit down. You sit down by the side of the Lord, and you sit down again because you’ve been there before. It’s reconciliation. It’s redemption. It’s the redeeming. This means buying back something that he had before. We weren’t just created out of nothing, you see. We are returning to his presence. We’ve been there before, and the whole thing is a sense of returning to his presence. That’s what reconciliation is, which is the equivalent of atonement, and you can see where that comes from. You know this, of course. This is at-one. It is not a Latin word. It’s not a Greek or Hebrew word. Atonement a good old English word, a theological word. At-one-ment, being at-one with the family, to go out no more, as he says, “with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.”
214 There’s your solid security. You’re home at last. You’re back where you started from, and we hope that you’re back with some added credentials, etc. The only passage [where atonement is found] is in Romans 5:11 in the New Testament. There in the King James [translation] you’ll find the word is atonement, but now in the Bible they use only reconciliation, which is a good word. We’re reconciled. To be reconciled with someone is [to return to] someone from whom you’ve been separated before. They say separated by the Fall. But this is return to what? Separated from what? It isn’t a return to Eden, you see. It’s a return to the tent. You have the tent of covenant, and that’s what the kippur is. Well, we won’t go into that too far. We talked about continually rejoicing.
214,215 Helaman 3:33 Then something happens in the fifty-first year. It didn’t take long, did it? The cloven hoof appears again in verse 33 when things go bad. “... the pride which began to enter into the church—not into the church of God, but into the hearts of people who professed to belong to the church of God.” Ah ha, there are two churches. There are the people who profess it, and the people who really are. They all profess to belong to the church of God, but how do you distinguish? Well, as Paul says, our security rests in this. God knows his own. Only he knows the ones who are true Latter-day Saints and those who aren’t. We have no means of knowing. You’d be surprised what rascals there are among us and what good people there are among us too. But you never suspect.
216 Helaman 3:34 “And they were lifted up in pride, even to the persecution of many of their brethren.” But would they go so far as to persecute? What do you call persecution? Cutting off? Ignoring? If they start swearing at you and giving you a bad time, they’re at least paying attention to you. But when they make a studied attempt to ignore you, as if you didn’t exist, that hurts worst of all, doesn’t it? There are various ways of persecuting, as far as that goes, “even to the persecution of many of their brethren ... which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions ...” because they put up with it. You can’t be a true member unless you’re a member of my group or believe in my political party and things like that. That’s a very strong feeling in the Church now. But why did they persecute? You know what it is. We’ve gone into those things before. We’ve compared men with dogs before, and that was a very important thing. Dogs aren’t bad at all, but they behave that way. And people aren’t bad at all, but they behave that way. But what pushes you over? There’s a point at which it becomes really nasty, and that’s where Satan is really there. He really works there, and it makes a difference. We’d get along all right if it weren’t for him, I think, but he does spoil things, we shall see here. Notice the effect here. It’s just like the war. The length of the war made many people hard-hearted, but the length of the war had made many other people soft-hearted. So don’t blame the war. And here [it’s] the same thing.
216 Helaman 3:35 “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility [that’s good, you see; notice the end of the next verse:]... because of their exceedingly great riches and their prosperity in the land; and it did grow upon them from day to day.” So both sides became stronger and stronger, whether it was in their perversion or in their salvation here. “They did fast and pray oft and wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ [so this pressure was doing them good—it strengthened them, as a matter of fact, just like the war] .. . even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts [well, we have to be brought down pretty low, don’t we?], which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.”
216 Helaman 3:36 And here’s the effect that prosperity has on the others: “And it came to pass that the fifty and second year ended in great peace also, save it were the exceedingly great pride which had gotten into the hearts of the people [This is in general. Why? Because of their riches. Every time it will take us back to that, won’t it?]; and it was because of their exceedingly great riches and their prosperity in the land [those to whom money was all in all—the economy is everything, you see]; and it did grow upon them from day to day.” It is as if this were a plague of some sort. Well, what do the Book of Mormon and Bible both call it? Wealth, they say, cankers the soul. It’s a cancer, and it will grow.
216 And so Helaman died, and his eldest son Nephi began to reign in his place. Now, the fourth chapter is the turning point, until the coming of Christ, of course. Here’s the turning and the breaking. The Lord has to come; that’s the only thing that can stop it. An angel comes or the Lord comes. It has to be the end of a cycle, the end of a dispensation. The only thing that can stop this now is the coming of the Lord himself. We’ll see that’s going to happen.
217 Helaman 4:1,3 “There were many dissensions in the church, and there was also a contention among the people.” Notice this: the church is not the people. It’s no longer a sacral society. There’s a distinction between the church, in which there were dissensions, and also contention among the people. That was something else. Everybody didn’t belong to the church. And alas, much bloodshed. “And the rebellious part were slain and driven out of the land, and they did go unto the king of the Lamanites.” So it was a showdown, and they went out, and they went over and stirred up the Lamanites, their usual thing. They’ve done this before. But the Lamanites didn’t want to have any of that, you see. They didn’t want to get into this squabble. Notice verse 3. “The Lamanites were exceedingly afraid, insomuch that they would not hearken to the words of those dissenters.” Remember, Zarahemla at this time was brilliant. It was strong. It was the center of everything. But the dissenters succeeded finally in stirring them up and brought the [Lamanites] to battle.
217 Well, they were pulling the old Coriantumr ploy again. And this time it worked. Well, it worked with Coriantumr too, until he got himself trapped. But here they began the work of death again, and “they succeeded in obtaining possession of the land of Zarahemla.” How was that possible? Right up to the land Bountiful, which was the last stronghold, as we’ve seen. Now this is beginning to be the decline and fall. The armies of Moronihah were driven right up to the land of Bountiful. And then here we have some more geography, and we know that it’s on the isthmus. It’s down there pretty far south. The decline and fall is neatly summed up in these pages right here. They fortified against the Lamanites. They were going to make fortification and a stand there, “a day’s journey for a Nephite, on the line which they had fortified and stationed their armies to defend their north country.” This would hold pretty well on both sides.
217 Anyway, the dissenters of the Nephites helped the Lamanites to obtain possession of the Nephites’ [territory] which was in the land southward. The Nephites and Lamanites are all mixed up here. Notice dissenters of the Nephites are working along with the Lamanites because they want a share of it too. They want to go back to the old homestead; now it belongs to me, and I can take what I want now—this sort of thing. But there was no particular strength or survival value in that sort of thing, so Moronihah was able to take some of it back, many parts of the land. These are border wars now, back and forth. They have been all along.
217,218 Helaman 4:11,12 He [Moronihah] got half of it all back. And none of this would have happened [except for wickedness]. Now here is the cause again. Here it’s analyzed. How ould the Lamanites succeed so? It would never have happened, he said, “had it not been for their wickedness, and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God.” They were the ones who made this possible. They could always claim they were the good guys because they were members of the church, and blame the Lamanites because they weren’t—they didn’t even have the gospel. You can’t take that position at all. They professed to be the church of God, and it was their wickedness and their abominations that brought this all on. And why? What was the nature of their abomination? It was the pride of their hearts. And why the pride of their hearts? Because of their exceeding riches. Here we go again. Verse 12: “Yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry [now we go down the list here—these things all go together; this is a single package here], withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, rising up in great contentions, and deserting away into the land of Nephi, among the Lamanites.”
218 Helaman 4:13,15 “... Driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands” in this seesaw war. And Moronihah got busy now, and he preached because of their iniquities, and Nephi and Lehi. He preached unpopular subjects concerning their iniquities and what would happen to them if they didn’t repent. And surprise, surprise, in verse 15 they did repent. Sudden repentance is a human phenomenon. It does happen. Suddenly everybody changes their mind very quickly, and it becomes a totally different experience for everyone. We may have seen that happen. This is what happens, and they did repent.
219 Helaman 4:16-19 “For when Moronihah saw that they did repent he did venture to lead them forth.” Then they could try to get back something, and they regained one-half of their property. They had lost it, and he gained back half. Then they lost it again and gained it back again, one-half of their property. As I said, this is the turning point here with verse 16. That was as much as they could do. Verses 18-19: “And it came to pass in the sixty and second year of the reign of the judges, that Moronihah could obtain no more possessions over the Lamanites. Therefore they did abandon their design to obtain the remainder of their lands [they’re not going to retain it, but to contain it—that’s all they can do now], for so numerous were the Lamanites that it became impossible for the Nephites to obtain more power over them; therefore, Moronihah [he had to settle on that] did employ all his armies in maintaining those parts which he had taken.” So it’s a policy of containment from now on. They’re not going to gain any more. From now on it’s going to be downhill. They’re on the defensive.
219 Because of the greatness of the number of the Lamanites, the Nephites were in this constant state of fear, this loss of confidence. They began to remember the prophecies of Alma, and they had altered and trampled the laws of Mosiah under their feet. It was a moral decline. And how do you alter and corrupt the laws? Notice, the laws had become corrupt. How? Well, they can become twisted very easily.
219,220 Helaman 4:23 So the church began to dwindle, and they began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy. They were becoming disinterested. The spirit of prophecy faded out, and the spirit of revelation, “and the judgments of God did stare them in the face [verse 23]. And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their brethren, the Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them [that’s all the difference in the world].... Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them [the lights go out now]... for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness [there’s a hopeless imbalance now];... they must unavoidably perish [they didn’t have a chance]. For behold, they saw that the strength of the Lamanites was as great as their strength, even man for man [now it was that, you see]. And thus had they fallen into this great transgression, yea, thus had they become weak, because of their transgression, in the space of not many years.”
220 The Book of Mormon likes to emphasize that, how quickly these shifts take place. You say that’s too fast. No, it isn’t too fast. You can follow it in our own society just the same way. American history is only 200 years old. Take it decade by decade and the picture just changes like that—a totally different picture in the space of not many years, this sad refrain. But it still has this paralyzing effect, you see, because in our subconscious we know we are guilty, and it paralyzes us to action. We even try to camouflage it by cruelty, taking that as strength, etc. Nevertheless, it’s sin that will hold you back and keep you from doing things and sap all your courage away actually.
220 Helaman 5:2 And Nephi delivered up the judgment-seat. This is what happens. Now we talk about the governments of the East, etc. We’re praising up the value of democratic government everywhere now, but that is not enough to assure righteousness, not by any means, as it tells us in Helaman 5:2: “For their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good.” Even though it was the voice of the people, they didn’t always choose good. The principles were set down by Mosiah that the people usually choose good. It’s rarely that the people choose evil in preference to good, and therefore he said do all things by the voice of the people. Then if they choose evil, it’s their responsibility. They’re to blame. They can’t blame anyone else; they’re not innocent. Remember, he was talking about his sons and said, if you have a king his unrighteousness can bring calamity on many, and it’s his blame, but not if the people have their own voice. Then they’re to blame for what they bring on themselves. And this is what happened here. The voice of the people chose evil, so “they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted.” Unfair practices. Inequitable. This is acceleration.
220 Did we mention the four stages here? It’s important that we get them. I talked about four societies. Well, this is four stages that we’re all familiar with. The first stage, of course, is prosperity, which they call OLBOS. That’s the Greek word for prosperity, OLBOS. When you prosper and get rich, that’s OLBOS. Things are flourishing and looking up. We’re smiling and we prosper. Next after that comes KOROS—when you have enough, when you’re full. KOROS is full, and you don’t want to eat any more. If you eat any more, you get sick. That’s koros, completion, repletion. After that comes the word we all know, which is HYBRIS. Then it goes to your head and you think you’re really somebody, and you start pushing people around. That’s what happened here. See this is HYBRIS. Because of their riches they turned to their cruelty and their arrogance and their pride. HYBRIS is pride. It’s usually just translated as pride. And then comes this chapter we’re at now, which is AFE. ATE is that point at which there’s nothing you can do except make things worse, so it’s time you got off the stage.. There’s no more use for him. There’s no more hope for him; therefore, he cooperates in the gods’ or in nature’s operation to remove him. He’s just so much excess baggage. So ATE is the point at which there is no return. You’re on the way out after ATE.
220,221 Helaman 5:4 So they reach the point of ATE. TMs is a good description of it here. In the space of not many years they were ripening for destruction and became corrupted. And how do you deal with it? Nephi had become fed up; he was exhausted. It was too much because of their iniquity. He gave up the judgment-seat and “took it upon him to preach the word of God all the remainder of his days, and his brother Lehi also, all the remainder of his days.” Both Nephi and Lehi had had enough. Alma did the same thing [Alma 4:18]. Remember, Alma had all these high offices. He was chief judge, he was head of the church, and he was also the commander of the armies. What more do you want? But he gave them all up because that won’t work.
221 Alma 45:16,18 “Thus saith the Lord God—Cursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do wickedly, when they are fully ripe [he waits til that point, though]; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land [this is the promised land, you see, but with the blessing goes the curse], for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. ... And when Alma had done this he departed out of the land [he blessed those in the church] of Zarahemla, as if to go into the land of Melek. And it came to pass that he was never heard of more.” There were legends that sprung up around him. He said we don’t know if they’re true or not “The saying went abroad in the church.” We supposed that the Lord took him, as he took Moses, but that’s just a legend, he says. We don’t know whether it’s true or not. But he says at the end [of verse 18], “therefore, for this cause we know nothing concerning his death and burial.” Now this is another test of the Book of Mormon, you see. What a chance to make up a nice story here. But he says they realize that pious legends are not necessarily the gospel. People made up stories about Alma, and he says it may be true and it may not, but we just don’t know. This is not the way a person writes a forgery, to put it that way.
221 Helaman 5:6 So we’re back here [in Helaman 5], and Nephi and Lehi do the same thing. They go out by themselves. We notice that the names in the Book of Mormon are significant It tells us here [in Helaman 5:6)] that their father said to them: “I have given unto you the names of our first parents,” and when you hear those names you think of certain qualities and you remember those names, that “ye may remember them.”. As the Romans say, “Your name is the omen. It tells your story.”
221 Helaman 5:6,8 “When you remember your names, you remember them; and when ye remember them, ye may remember their works.” And remember that their works were good. Now this is not a platitude here. Be good; don’t be bad. What did the minister say about sin? He was against it. Well, that’s obvious enough. We’re talking about something much deeper here. “I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them. ... Lay up for yourselves [this is where it counts] a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away.”
221 1 Nephi 22:23 3 Nephi 6:15 Now what is the opposite of that? Well, of course it’s success. It’s the career. See how that spoils, how that sours, how that embitters and leads to all sorts of violence and unscrupulous action. The success, the career, the good life, gracious living, all the things that go with it. The four things, remember, that the two Nephis both mentioned, are power, gain, popularity, and the lusts of the flesh. These are the four things. They’re one package; they come together. You get them on TV any night you want. You see these things. You see the money, the power, the crime, and the lusts of the flesh—plenty of that too.
222 Helaman 5:9 : “O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people.” Notice, they always refer to Benjamin and Mosiah. They do it again here, because that is the standard. Here it is in Helaman 4:22: “And they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws of Mosiah.” See, they were still observing the laws of Mosiah. So if you want to know what the constitution was they were living under, what version of the law of Moses, the laws of Mosiah were just the laws of Moses. And they were the ones laid down by Benjamin in his farewell address. So if you want to know what they were living under, what they were obliged to follow, that was the basic law. Like our Bill of Rights was the speech of Benjamin. He says here, remember the words of King Benjamin.
222 Helaman 5:9 “Yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ [here you have it again], who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.” Now why do we have to have him? Well, it’s obvious why we have to have him. We cannot save ourselves.
222 Only the gospel has this. It talks about Jesus Christ and repentance. Other religions don’t have it, comparative religions. The best thing that Hinduism can give you, for example, is the desire to become a drop of water in the ocean. That’s what you’ll return to. Zen and Buddhism will tell you, don’t expect anything and you won’t be disappointed. The main thing is don’t expect anything. Deny the flesh. Get rid of your ego, your self, your identity and everything else. Well, the Book of Mormon is exactly in the opposite direction. It’s the intensification of your identity. You’re going to live forever. The Egyptians would never settle for being a drop of water in the oceans. No, every individual had to keep it for himself. And how do we do that?
222 Helaman 5:11 Other religions do not have this. Verse 11: “And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.” This is not self-evident. Other religions do not have it.
222,223 The first angel that Mohammed saw was the angel Gabriel. He didn’t know what he was seeing. He rushed home and had his wife Khadija cover him with blankets so he’d have a sweat and sweat it out. Then he had Khadija’s cousin come whose name was Waraqa, and who had been a Christian and knew the teachings of the Jews and the Christians. And Mohammed asked him, is this a real vision I had, or was I misled? He needed reassurance, and Waraqa reassured him and said, this is a real vision because you shall be the prophet to this people. And Mohammed was the prophet. He was a real prophet, but to those people. But he wasn’t sure of what he’d seen. He said he thought it was a bow shot away. Sometimes he filled the whole sky. Sometimes he was like a man, and then suddenly he was behind him. But it was all around. What was he seeing? He thought he was off his head. He said, am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? Well, Joseph Smith never asked that. He was always absolutely sure and stood up against the most tremendous [pressure] when he was just a little kid. He stood against all sorts of criticism, because he said I knew I talked to those people, the Father and the Son. I knew I had seen an angel, and nobody would ever make me deny it.
223,224 Helaman 5:12 And what’s the alternative? When angels come then big things are happening. Well then, Satan has to counteract with big things. His big act is in the next verse. He’s the one that counteracts. He hits back with the same sort of thing. Notice verse 12: “Ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind ...” See, swept along in an irresistible force, like the drug plague that’s sweeping the world today into all countries. It’s like a whirlwind, like a zawbaca, like a tornado or typhoon. “. .. his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you ...” So the devil doesn’t strike back gently at all. He hits back just as hard as the other side. When they send angels, he sends his angels, and they really get busy here. “It shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built.” This refers to the rock again, the thing they always refer to. This is throughout the Old and New Testament, the same way.
224 Helaman 5:13,17,19 “And it came to pass that these were the words which Helaman taught to his sons; yea, he did teach them many things,” and they went forth to preach them. They were going to try to reform the people. They went from city to city and “among all the people of Nephi who were in the land southward; and from thence into the land of Zarahemla, among the Lamanites.” [Verse 17:] They confounded the dissenters from the Nephites who argued against them. It was the dissenters from the Nephites that argued against them. They came forth, repented, and were baptized. They went back home to the Nephites again and tried to repair the wrong that they had done. Well, there’s hope there. But the main hope comes from the Lamanites here. And this is the interesting thing, this sudden shift of conscience. Verse 19: “Therefore they did speak unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, to the convincing of them, insomuch that there were eight thousand of the Lamanites who were in the land of Zarahemla and round about baptized unto repentance.”
224 Helaman 5:28-34 Then they were taken by an army. Notice there were roving bands of Lamanites. That’s the Lamanite type of warfare. And they were taken by an army of Lamanites and cast into prison. And then came the miracles. They were encircled by fire and they took courage. The interesting thing here is they’re among prison rabble in the prison. “In the prison were Lamanites and Nephites who were dissenters.” They were criminal types, the criminal element. Verse 28: “And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them. And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants whom I have sent unto you to declare good tidings; ... [there] was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul.” The earth shook exceedingly. The voice came again, and the earth shook again. These things are all timed. It’s a matter of timing. That earthquake was scheduled, but so was the voice that was talking to them there. These things are all timed. The Lord knows they’re going to happen. Then the third shake was the worst one. It was not an aftershock. It was a humdinger, “as if it were about to divide asunder ... [and they were paralyzed] they were immovable because of the fear which did come upon them.”
224 Helaman 5:39-41 One among them was a Nephite who had been one of the di