Geography and Ecology
{Evil vs. Righteous Brotherhoods]
[Secret Combinations by Gadiantons]
[Resettlement to Lands with Timber]
[Building Cities with Cement]
202 Helaman 1:15 We’re in the first chapter of Helaman, and we’ve just come to Coriantumr’s exploit where he marched right into Zarahemla. The reason he could do it is because there was so much social unrest in Zarahemla. This Coriantumr was the leader, and he was appointed leader by the [son of] Ammoron who was the brother of that rascal Amalickiah. [Tubaloth] is a nephew of Amalickiah, and he was put in charge of things, but he put Coriantumr in charge. And here’s an interesting distinction. Notice Helaman 1:15: “And they were led by a man whose name was Coriantumr; and he was a descendant of Zarahemla [that means he wasn’t a Nephite]; and he was a dissenter from among the Nephites.” So Nephites is a political term here, as it has been telling us for a long time. He dissented from the Nephite society. They all call themselves Nephites. He dissented from among the Nephites. He was among the Nephites. “.. . and he was a large and mighty man.” But he was a descendant of Zarahemla, who was a Mulekite, of course. He founded Zarahemla.
202 Helaman 1:19 But there was so much contention among them [the Nephites]. They hadn’t kept sufficient guard, it says, over them. That’s the all-important thing, you’ll notice, in war or anything else [you must keep sufficient guard]. And they marched with great speed. It was a real blitz attack here, it says in verse 19.
202,203 Helaman 1:20 “Therefore Coriantumr did cut down the watch by the entrance of the city, and did march forth with his whole army into the city, and they did slay every one who did oppose them, insomuch that they did take possession of the whole city.” This was Zarahemla, right in the center of the land. Pacumeni, the chief judge, had to flee. He was killed trying to get away. Coriantumr then obtained possession of the strongest hold in all the land, which was the center, and then he went forth to expand his conquest toward the city of Bountiful and obtain the north parts of the land. That was the strongest part, as you know. And he was met by small bodies, which they cut down. They should have practiced guerilla warfare, as we’ve learned since then. He marched right through the center, but Moronihah had put all the defenses on the outside. Of course, they never expected anything like that. So Coriantumr had actually gotten himself surrounded, and he was taken care of.
203 Helaman 1:27 In verse 27 he marched through the land, slaying the people with a great slaughter. It was their way to just go through and slaughter everything indiscriminately. It’s the normal procedure for armies anyway. Moronihah had sent forth Lehi to stop him. When he met Lehi that was too much, because Lehi was a very tough guy. They began to fall back on Zarahemla, and Moronihah had them in retreat There was an exceedingly bloody battle, and Coriantumr was killed in the center [of the land]. Nobody had their hearts in this thing. Notice, neither side was very worked up about it. They were both willing to call it quits then.
203 Helaman 1:32 “And the Lamanites did yield themselves into the hands of the Nephites.” [What did the Nephites do? They just let them go, that was all.]... Moronihah took possession of the city of Zarahemla again, and caused that the Lamanites who had been taken prisoners should depart out of the land in peace.” Notice, no reparations, no indemnities. Well, was that wise? Look what they’d done. Here was an army that had raided their country, sacked their capital, killed people right and left, slaughtered everything, and yet they were let off without any reparations or indemnities or anything like that. Well, that was wisdom, of course, because the reparations and indemnities always lay the foundation for the next war.
203,204 Then what happens? The troubles go on among the Nephites though. Notice they fill the judgment seat. This judgment seat is most important. Who has more power than the chief justice of the Supreme Court today? Nobody does. He has as much power as anyone. The power of judges is very great, as you know.
204 Helaman 2:3 But Helaman was appointed to fill the judgment seat, and Kishkumen, the hit man, prepared to destroy Helaman too. And he was upheld by his band. Now we have organized crime, you see. Helaman 2:3: “And he was upheld by his band, who had entered into a covenant that no one should know his wickedness.” If you were in business with a person who had no principles—you knew he didn’t—who would kill anybody for money, betray anybody and break any promise, or shoot you in the back, how could you possibly do business with him and get along with him? Well, men like that gang themselves together because they know in unity there is strength. The only way you can bind them is with these fearful oaths and covenants, terrible things they take.
204 So you have the evil brotherhoods as well as the righteous brotherhoods. There are two sides to brotherhood, just as there are two sides to Babylon. There’s a good side, a cultural side.. There are two sides to the warlords. They can be the great conquerors; they can also be the great peacemakers. The greatest of the warlords was Alexander, and he did more for civilization perhaps than any other man did. And so there are good sides to the warlords; there are also good sides to the primitives who can have their bad sides. There can be tribes governed by witch doctors who practice cannibalism. That’s not a good side. On the other side there can be the gentle savages, whom Columbus discovered. There are such people—the Pueblo Indians, the peaceful Indians, the Moqui, the Hopi, etc.
204 Now here comes an expert, this Gadianton. He was a pro. He was the new professional Capo. Verse 4: “For there was one Gadianton, who was exceedingly expert in many words [he was a fast talker, and that’s important—they always are, you’ll notice], and also in his craft.” Now this was his craft, and he was polished in it. He was proud of it. He was efficient; he did a thorough job of bumping off. He would take a contract, and he was good at it, which was “the secret work of murder” and he could crack a bank anytime. He was good at murder and robbery. And we have experts in that today. He was a professional. He was the leader of the band of Kishkumen. Well, this is just the feudal system. The big bandit gets his supporters, those who support him most valiantly.
204,205 Helaman 2:6 And here’s one of the servants of Helaman, “... having been out by night, and having obtained, through disguise, a knowledge of those plans . . .” Now what was his disguise? His disguise was that of a defector, of course. He’d come over as an insider who knew all about it, and defectors are quite common. He was a mole. He was actually an undercover man; he was a double agent for Helaman. He knew all the workings, and this is why they would come to him and why Gadianton said, lead me to him. Get me an audience with the judge so I can bump him off. So this was one of the servants of Helaman; otherwise, this looks rather confusing, but it isn’t when you realize the nature of his disguise. He didn’t wear a mask or a false moustache or anything like that. But his disguise was his persona. He was a [pretended] defector. He’d come over; he knew all about Helaman. And he had attained “a knowledge of those plans which had been laid by this band to destroy Helaman.” This is their regular police practice. He was put in there as an undercover man, a double agent.
205 Helaman 2:7 “And it came to pass that he met Kishkumen [in the street—going about his business and probably waiting for him], and he gave unto him a sign [Kishkumen knew who he was then and decided he could trust him] ... desiring that he would conduct him to the judgment seat that he might murder Helaman.” He knew where the judgment seat was, but, you see, this is what you would ask of an insider or a defector, someone who knew about it. He could get him into the presence of the judge without being suspect. As to the notorious Gadianton—well, he wasn’t notorious yet—he’d run a risk, but not with this man to take him there. So that’s why he was very pleased.
205 Helaman 1:8 “And when the servant of Helaman had known all the heart of Kishkumen [he found out all about it], and how that it was his object to murder, and also that it was the object of all those who belonged to his band to murder, and to rob, and to gain power, (and this was their secret plan)... now this did please Kishkumen exceedingly [he’s got an in to the judge now, and he knows what he’s going to do. It’s a big doublecross], for he did suppose that he should accomplish his design; but behold, the servant of Helaman, as they were going forth unto the judgment seat, did stab Kishkumen even to the heart. This is the doublecross that dominates the scene now and makes things more exciting. They’ve used up all the other good guy/bad guy ploys.
205 Helaman 1: Notice previously that “the servant of Helaman said unto Kishkumen: Let us go forth unto the judgment-seat.” How do we know it pleased Kishkumen if Kishkumen was bumped off on the spot as they were going? Well, the servant reported it. Of course we get all this information from the one informed servant of Helaman. He tells us the story. And so the servant of Helaman stabbed Kishkumen.
205,206 Helaman 1:10-13 : “And it came to pass that Helaman did send forth to take this band of robbers and secret murderers.” He came back and reported, of course, and Helaman wasted no time. They were going to raid the headquarters and do a bust, but they were too late. They’d already flown. This happens too. “But behold, when Gadianton had found that Kishkumen did not return he feared lest that he should be destroyed.” Very shrewd and very suspicious, immediately he said, we’ve got to get out of here. There’s something wrong. So his band followed him in flight out of the land. They wasted no time at all, so the bust was a bust. Verse 11: “And they took their flight out of the land, by a secret way, into the wilderness; and thus when Helaman sent forth to take them they could nowhere be found.” So that was that. But now he says, I’m going to tell you this. Verse 13 is very important: “Ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.” But the Gadianton band did overthrow the government and did almost destroy everything too while they were at it, but not quite.
206 Helaman 3:3,12 So, now we go on to happier times, or do we? The next year, the forty-third year, was a nice time. There was a little pride in the church, some little dissensions, but they were taken care of. There were no contentions in the forty-fourth year, and not much contention the next year. But then it started heating up. Four years after, all hell broke loose. How could that be, so soon? Why would they change so quickly? Well, we see these things happen. Verse 3: “In the forty and sixth year there was much contention and many dissensions [they couldn’t stand prosperity very long, could they?]; in the which there were an exceedingly great many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla.” This is the movement north, and it was a regular one. There were good people in it too. It says here that the people of Ammon, the Ammonites, did it. Maybe it was to escape the general unrest. Verse 12: “There were many of the people of Ammon, who were Lamanites by birth, did also go forth into this land.” So it was a general pioneering movement. They were opening up new lands in a time of prosperity. In this time of troubles, of political stress, of rivalry, and all sorts of things like that, they started this big movement toward the north.
206 Helaman 3:4 “They did spread forth into all parts of the land.” Now here we get some geography. We try to avoid it, but there must be some here. A little later on we’re told that a certain place here was a day’s journey by a Nephite from one sea to the other, so it was still in a pretty narrow neck. Verse 4: “And they did travel to an exceeding great distance [that’s a long way] ... to large bodies of water and many rivers.”
206 Helaman 3:5,12 “Yea, and even they did spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate and without timber.” Now we get into a very interesting thing. This next section to verse 12 is the ecology and the environment. This is a wonderful passage on that.. This whole story here brings out the importance of it. This third chapter is very valuable for other things too. It shows us that there had been other people in the land—not Jaredites. It had been inhabited before. Every time we discover a ruin or artifact you say well that’s Nephite or Lamanite. Well, that’s absurd. The Book of Mormon doesn’t require that at all. Just as it says more people can come after, more people came before. And this is an example here.
207 So they spread into all parts of the land. We think of Central America as running north and south. It doesn’t at all. It runs east and west mostly. Here’s the Panama Canal [pointing to a map].. If you enter from the Pacific side, you go from east to west. Here are the lines of longitude here, you see. Panama City on the Pacific is definitely east of Colon on the west. It can be very confusing.
207 And so the Book of Mormon keeps telling us about seas on the east and the west and the north and the south. As I say, there’s no point in getting all tangled up in this at all. But you get the general idea.
207 Helaman 3:5,6 Well anyway, we’re not going to argue about those things. You can argue about that til the cows come home. So they went a great distance. But this is the point here. Helaman 3:5: “... into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land.” When we get to the history of the book of Ether, if we do [we’ll see] they were nomads. They were very mobile in the manner of the Asiatics. They were destroyed in this north country. They were in the north areas and were a different people entirely. It was a different culture. But these people were obviously practicing what the Mayans still practice, the age-old slash and burn, and they had cut it all down. You cut down the jungles, and the ash deposits make the soil rich for a few years. But then it wears out. As you know, jungle soil is very poor soil, so you have to move on. What you do is cut some more jungle, and then get the ash for a while. So with slash and burn you keep progressively destroying the forest.
208 Helaman 3:6 “And now no part of the land was desolate, save it were for timber [they didn’t have that]; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land it was called desolate.” So they called that land desolate. There had been people there before, but there was not a trace of them left. And we know that lots of Jaredites escaped and went back into the woods. People with Jaredite names would turn up and intermarry with the Lamanites. But here the land was called desolate. It was absolutely cleaned of forest.
208 Helaman 3:7 “And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, nevertheless the people who went forth became exceedingly expert in the working of cement [this is a thing they made quite an issue about in the Book of Mormon]; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell.” Well, cement can be any bonded building [material]. You use rocks with lime, adobe, or something between them. But this is real cement.
208 Many Latter-day Saints are disturbed when they read of the remains that must be much older than Book of Mormon times. In their simplistic reading of the Book of Mormon, they assume that the only people permitted in the hemisphere before Columbus were either descendants of Lehi or Jared and his brother. The Book of Mormon corrects this quite handily here. We learn in this passage here—we haven’t finished it yet—how the Nephites, pushed up from the south an exceeding great distance. In a major infiltration they settled a clearly defined territory. It tells us here, there was a sea to the north and to the south, as well as to the east and the west. And of course that can only be found in one region. That’s Central America, one we were just pointing out here. And the expressions referring to the seas were ancient.
209 Helaman 3:5-10 Verse 8: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east.” See verse 8 shows us they were in an area where there were seas in all directions.
And this is a lesson in ecology. It shows how strict they were. There was to be no cutting of trees—any trees at all. Verse 9: “And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up [they wouldn’t let you touch a tree, a growing tree], that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples.” So until a tree grew up, all cutting was forbidden. So you’re not going to get firewood out of that, are you? What were they going to burn? Coal? Verse 10: “And it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce [he keeps harping on that] in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way the way of shipping.” What they did was ship timber.
210 Helaman 3:11 “And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.” In the ancient world transporting timber was a big business. It went by sea in the Mediterranean. The main business was cedar of Lebanon for many years at the east end of the Mediterranean.
210 Helaman 3:12-14 And many people of Ammon joined [the migration] too. This was a peaceful migration, and “many records [were] kept of the proceedings of this people.” Now here’s an interesting thing: Many records, very large, we can’t give a hundredth part of them here. It tells about them.
211,212 Helaman 3:15 So their records are there. There’s a big ball of wax here, and here’s the subject. It says here [in Helaman 3:15]: “But behold, there are many books and many records of every kind, and they have been kept chiefly by the Nephites [but not only by them]. And they have been handed down from one generation to another by the Nephites.” The people were scattered on the face of the land and mixed with the Lamanites. The Nephites mixed with the Lamanites, so don’t call an Indian a pure Lamanite by any means. And the Nephites had become more wicked, and wild, and ferocious than the Lamanites. Here we have a switch. This is another story now. As you notice, we’re told that the unrighteous people become a dark and loathsome people and so forth, but there’s no mention of skin change here or anything like that. That doesn’t necessarily accompany a thing at all. We won’t go into that. That’s another story. We take it up the first semester.
212 Helaman 3:17 Here [verse 17] there’s still great contention in the land. How can they carry on this contention year after year?
212 Helaman 3:23 Then came Helaman. He filled the judgment seat with justice and handed it over to his two sons, Nephi and Lehi. Then there was a letup. Things got better then all of a sudden. But at the same time, in verse 23, the mob was moving in. They were doing it very subtly, not advertising themselves. Verse 23: “ There was continual peace established in the land, all save it were the secret combinations which Gadianton the robber had established in the more settled parts of the land.” In the urban districts, of course—that’s the way they do it. But it certainly caught the government off guard. It was not known unto those who were heads of the government. See, they moved in very subtly. They’d learned. They had to run for their lives before. They cleared out and now they’re going to be very shrewd about it. “[The Gadiantons]... were not known unto those who were at the head of government; therefore they were not destroyed out of the land.” Nobody knew they were there.
212 Helaman 3:25 And the church enjoyed great prosperity. They were absolutely amazed at what’s happening in the church. This is the forty-ninth year. Verse 25, “And so many [were] the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure” at this great progress. We’re astonished at the progress of the church today. There’s no real reason for it that you can explain, except that it’s the work of the Lord. It’s happening in the strangest places where you’d never expect it, very strange places. They were baptizing people “even tens of thousands.” They never expected that.
212 Helaman 3:27 Now this is a very interesting thing here in verse 27. We’ve been talking about people who couldn’t get along together. There was constant trouble and so forth. But who is to blame and what are we to do about it? Human nature is human nature. They will not behave themselves if they’re left to themselves. But the Lord, Jesus Christ, is the one around whom we can center our hopes for any kind of peace and cooperation here. We can’t do it ourselves. We cannot, any more than dogs will behave. With statistical probability or anything else, they will not behave, and once they fight, there will be pandemonium.
Helaman 3:27 :”Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.” You don’t trust in yourself, you see. You must call upon his name, because you don’t have the wisdom to carry it off. “Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open to all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. [It’s perfectly open to anyone.] Yea, we see that whosoever [notice he’s talking about individuals—no matter how the world goes, the individual can be happy here] will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares [that surround us— everything is deception with us as far as we’re concerned] and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course.” You can go through it all and won’t be affected.
213 Helaman 3:29,30 We have no security, no solidity, nothing you can rely on, except we rely on the darndest things. When the market cracks, then what happens? But notice: “... divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf [this isn’t just rhetoric he’s pulling off, at all—it’s a very strict instruction of our situation] of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God ... to sit down [notice, sit down] with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.” See, that’s solid security, to sit down and never have to go out again. This is very vivid imagery here. This is what atonement is. Home at last. At-one-ment. To be one, united with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That’s what the gospel is for, and so they could have continual rejoicing with this assurance in Zarahemla.
213 Helaman 3:31,32 Well, how can you rejoice continually? Don’t you get worn out? No, I’m told from many reliable sources that the pioneers rejoiced continually. They were happy all the time. In their worst sufferings they said, we just celebrated—we just thought it was a picnic. We were like people who had just been let out of jail. Sure we had hard work and so forth, but it was fun. Well, it is possible to be that way, but we certainly have forgotten a few lessons, haven’t we? Here’s something to cling to.