Lecture 80 Helaman 13 – 3 Nephi 2
The Hopelessness in Wickedness
[Samuel the Lamanite Prophesizes]
[Utter Destruction Promised]
[Expected Signs Finally Appear]
278 Helaman 13 Now, we’re beginning to learn a lesson that these Book of Mormon people were having a hard time learning—that things do [change]. It’s not always going to be the same. They thought it was, you know. We’re in chapter 13 of Helaman. We got down to where he’s talking about blind guides. They lifted him [the false prophet] up, remember. From the Chilam Balam—that’s the oldest record we have from Central America, the Mayan record—when a prophet is approved by the people, they dress him in costly apparel and carry him on their shoulders in a sedan chair around the town. It says the very same thing [in Helaman 13:28]: Ye will lift him up, give him your substance, and clothe him in costly apparel. Everything follows the customs.
278 Helaman 13:29 How far can public relations and rhetoric be carried here? We’re going to find out. Verse 29: “Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides. ... He hath cursed the land because of your iniquity [are there no limits here?] And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery.” It’s a very interesting phenomenon of riches. It seems you can have them one day and don’t have them the next.
279 Helaman 13:37 Then the great fear comes. Verse 37: “Behold, we are surrounded by demons.” At the end of the fourth and fifth centuries the very same thing happened in the ancient world, all throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. People were seized by this terrible fear. It was a strange kind of fear. There was the great fear of 1789 (there’s a new book out on it now) in France mostly. People were suddenly seized by a terrible fear. They didn’t know what it was; it just drove them wild.
279 Helaman 37:13 These people got the same way. I think this is built up. It reaches a point when you can’t trust anything. What are you going to do? Well, you finally just go like a young soldier in Israel. Nothing could be settled at all, so he just committed suicide. You have these mass suicides at times like this, but it’s this idea that they’re surrounded by demons. They’re haunted and helpless. They’re in the grip of something, and they think they’re spooked. They don’t know what it is. They get that illusion, and it drives them crazy. “We are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls.” This feeling of utter helplessness culminates in this. What are they going to do?
280 Helaman 13:38 “But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation.” Every day brings us closer to this, you see. It’s an amazing thing that you do reach this point, and then you have these climaxes in civilization, and these sharp breaks. Our memories are very small. These unpleasant things we don’t like to remember. So the next generation forgets them almost immediately, and it goes on as if they were the only people who ever lived. It happens after a war, too. You get half a nation wiped out, and in a little while nobody ever thinks of them. They’re gone, and so we go on living from day to day. “Ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.”
280,281 Helaman 14:2-6 So it was “contrary to the nature of that righteousness,” and that’s your foolishness wasted the time trying to get that. Now Samuel the Lamanite is talking here. He predicts the coming of Christ. Helaman 14:2: “Behold, I give unto you a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name.” Remember, the prophecy for Kirtland was five years, too. The Prophet Joseph said, “We’ll be here five years.” It was just five years, and they had to get out “This will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming.” Now notice these signs are all a matter of timing. Of course, the meteors that are going to show in the heavens are already on their way. The way these things are coordinated is a very interesting thing. When these great events happen, there are these signs of coordination, how these things are worked together, and you see a lot of it here. “For behold, great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness.” “And behold, there shall a new star arise.” Well, there’s a nova, all right. That’s the Star of Bethlehem, “And ... there shall be many signs and wonders in the heaven.” They go along with it.
281 Helaman 14:9-15 And behold, thus hath the Lord commanded me, by his angel, that I should come and tell this thing unto you.” [Alma 8:16] says the same thing. In a crisis it’s an angel that’s sent. “Yea, he hath said unto me: Cry unto this people, repent and prepare the way of the Lord.” Because I’m a Lamanite, you’re not going to listen to me; you just get angry with me. The Nephites resent Lamanite righteousness teaching them anything. They’re the righteous people [in their eyes]. “And ye shall hear my words, for, for this intent have I come up upon the walls of this city ... that ye might know the conditions of repentance.” He’s going to give them a break. He’s going to reason with them and give them an explanation. Of course they don’t want any of it. “And if ye believe on his name, ye will repent of all your sins;... and behold, again, another sign I give unto you, yea, a sign of his death. For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead [now this is the Atonement] that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord.”
281 Helaman 14:16 It’s going to be a matter of a breakthrough, you notice in verse 16: “Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection,” and nothing else [can do it]. This death is one thing. It’s in the nature of a breakthrough. The whole system is going this way, and then something breaks through and puts it on an entirely different footing. Something changes everything. Of course, this is the way things happen in nature too. “.. . and redeemeth all mankind from the first death . . .” All mankind right now are cut off and are considered as dead. But when that happens there’s going to be a real change. Something marvelous is going to take place.
281 I was just thinking this morning about the heavenly world, the celestial world, the other realms, the eternities that we can’t even imagine. Most people don’t believe they exist at all. They are so hard to imagine. But equally hard is the other side—the extreme, irrational, wild and insane other world. Imagine that we have that, you see. That’s just as incredible, just as hard to believe. But the point is, we don’t just walk into that other world. We’re not equipped. It is there all right, but because I’m not there now I may not believe it. But don’t expect that you can just walk into it—that’s the whole point. We’re preparing for it here because there’s going to be a lot to do. In this terrible mess we’re preparing for it, and that’s what it’s going to be. But there is this division line. It comes like that, and precise times and places are marked. These things [miracles] come, and when they’re realized, you say, well it’s the most natural thing in the world. He’s going to talk about that, the resurrection.
281 Helaman 14:18,19 “Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance. [It’s a state required for the accomplishment of that, the condition of repentance],... and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness.” You can go on in a state of corruption, but you’ll have nothing to do with that other world at all—you’ll be out. See, [the Lord said] worlds without number have I created—all sorts, many mansions. “Therefore, repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come unto condemnation.” There’s the tragedy, to know and not do.
281,282 Helaman 14:20-22 And then these are the signs of his death; they’re described more fully later on in 3 Nephi. Verse 20: “And there shall be no light upon the face of this land ... for the space of three days.” That’s just the opposite. There was the light for three days, and now there’s darkness for three days to match it. This is the cosmic effect. And “there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble.” A vivid description is going to be given of this later on. “One solid mass, shall be broken up ... shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments [go up Rock Canyon, you’ll see this all right] upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath,”
282 Helaman 14 25-27 “And many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead.” Now does that mean resurrection, or is it the shattering of the tombs where the dead fall out? There are various interpretations. Why not all appear if it’s going to be a resurrection? It says “many of the saints shall appear unto many”—not all of them. What’s going on? Again we’ll find a description later on—be patient. “Darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days.”
282 Helaman 14:28,29 “That there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men.” They will not believe a righteous judgment, see. Will they believe this? Now do we convince by miracles? This is the point. No, a wicked and adulterous nation seeketh a sign. Can you force people to believe by miracles? No, it doesn’t work. They immediately start explaining it away on scientific grounds, etc., as it tells us here.
282,283 Helaman 14:30,31 “And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself.” With all these titanic forces around us, the decision is still our own. You can be impressed or not be impressed, but the fact is when this has wrecked your best excuse, you see that these things don’t just happen. “And whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourself [nobody is going to twist your arm here]. ... He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil.”
283 Helaman 15:1-8 “My beloved brethren,” he says [in Helaman 15:1]; he calls them that. Now he gives them what the Lord teaches in Matthew 24: Make sure that you don’t have any pregnant women around when this happens, because there’s going to be a bad time. “Ye shall attempt to flee, and there shall be no place for refuge; yea, and wo unto them which are with child, for they shall be heavy and cannot flee;... wo unto this people who are called the people of Nephi except they repent. .. . They have been a chosen people of the Lord; yea, the people of Nephi he hath loved, and also hath he chastened them ... because he loveth them. But behold, my brethren, the Lamanites hath he hated [that’s strong language, to say the Lord hated the Lamanites] because their deeds have been evil continually, and this because of the iniquity of the tradition of their fathers. But behold, salvation hath come unto them.” It’s been completely reversed; the bad guys are now the good ones. The Lord will prolong their days, he said. This part of the chapter is an encomium of the Lamanites. “The more part of them ... walk circumspectly before God [and they do]. ... Yea, I say unto you, that the more part of them are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they bring the remainder of the brethren to the knowledge of the truth.”
283 Helaman 15:9-16 “And ye know also that they have buried their weapons of war [they followed the example of the Ammonites on a broad scale in burying the hatchet, you see], and they fear to take them up lest by any means they should sin; yea, ye can see that they fear to sin [well, the NRA would put an end to that]... and [they] will not lift their swords against them, and this because of their faith in Christ.... The Lord shall bless them and prolong their days, notwithstanding their iniquity [because they have redeeming virtues]. Yea, even if they should dwindle in unbelief [which they do] the Lord shall prolong their days until the time . . . spoken by our fathers, and . . . many other prophets, concerning the restoration of our brethren, the Lamanites [eventually they will be restored]. ... In the latter times the promises of the Lord have been extended to our brethren, the Lamanites; and notwithstanding the many afflictions which they shall have ... they shall be driven to and fro upon the face of the earth, and be hunted, and shall be smitten.” This is the fate of the Lamanites now, of course, in the country. Every treaty that’s been made with them has been broken. Any time anything of any value was found on the reservation, they just went in and took it from them. “... and scattered abroad, having no place for refuge.” This is the basis, and it’s true. He says they’ll suffer all that. They’ll go all the way down before, and then they’ll be blessed. But they shall be “numbered among his sheep.” Verse 16: “I will not utterly destroy them [that’s quite a promise] I will not utterly destroy them ... they shall return again unto me, saith the Lord.” That’s the promise. But, in the next verse: “I will utterly destroy them [the Nephites].” There’s the difference. “I will not utterly destroy them [the Lamanites—this is the condition of today but] . .. concerning the people of the Nephites: If they will not repent, and observe to do my will, I will utterly destroy them.” That’s the promise.
283,284 Helaman 16:4-8 Well, as many as believed on his [Samuel’s] words, hurried to confess and get baptized. Most of them, though, cast stones at him and shot arrows at him, but they couldn’t hit him as he stood on the wall. When they saw that he couldn’t be hit, they went away to Nephi to be baptized. Helaman 16:4-5: “For behold, Nephi was baptizing, and prophesying [like Alma]; ... therefore as many as believed on the words of Samuel went forth unto him [Nephi] to be baptized.” He was the one who had the authority to do it. So they didn’t go to Samuel; they went to Nephi after they had heard the preaching of Samuel. Verse 6: “But the more part of them did not believe in the words of Samuel... they [said]: Take this fellow and bind him, for behold he hath a devil”—because we can’t hit him. See, they interpreted it their way all the time—supernatural protection. So he jumped from the wall and ran out of the land, went to preach among his own people, and was never heard of again among the Nephites, like Alma and the younger Nephi. It was something of a custom. You would just flee out of society and never be heard of again.
284 Helaman 16:10,14 “And thus ended also the eighty and seventh year of the reign of the judges, the more part of the people remaining in their pride and wickedness.” The people began to be more hardened. In the ninetieth year there were great signs “and angels did appear unto men, wise men [now the chain begins, you see] and did declare unto them glad tidings. .. . Nevertheless, the people began to harden their hearts, all save it were the most believing part of them ... and began to depend upon their own strength and upon their own wisdom.
284 Helaman 16:17,20 “And they began to reason and to contend among themselves.” This is not only a false tradition, it’s a wicked one. Some great and marvelous thing is going to happen in a land far away—so what? [they say]. Notice verse 20: They say that just to keep us in ignorance. They don’t have to explain it, because it won’t happen here. You’ll notice it’s not going to happen here; it’s going to happen there. So they’re safe; the [wicked] can say anything they want to. They keep us in ignorance where we can’t witness it with our own eyes. So the [intellectuals] can tell us anything they want.
284 Helaman 16:21,22 “For we depend upon them to teach us the word; and thus will they keep us in ignorance. .. . They were much disturbed for Satan did stir them up to do iniquity continually; yea, he did go about spreading rumors and contentions upon all the face of the land that he might harden the hearts of the people against that which was good and against that which should come, .. . [and thus did] Satan get great hold upon the hearts of the people upon all the face of the land.” And thus ends the book of Helaman.
284,285 3 Nephi 1:1 Finally we get to 3 Nephi here. “And it was in the year that Lachoneus was the chief judge and the governor over the land.” Lachoneus is going to play an important role here; he’s an important man.
285 3 Nephi 1:2 “And Nephi, the son of Helaman, had departed out of the land of Zarahemla, giving charge unto his son, Nephi [and we have an account of the record here]. Then he departed out of the land, and whither he went, no man knoweth.” There it is again. Alma did that. Where is it they go in these places?. So he disappeared too.
285 3 Nephi 1:4 “There began to be greater signs and ... [they] began to say that the time was past” and heaved a great sigh of relief. The time has passed, and you’ve missed it—you’ve muffed it. And they began to rejoice about it. There are many examples of that when they set a particular date [for something to happen], and when [it doesn’t happen on] that date there’s a great uproar.
285 3 Nephi 1:6 “And they began to rejoice over their brethren, saying: Behold, the time is past, and the words of Samuel are not fullfilled; therefore, your joy and your faith concerning this thing have been vain. ... They did make a great uproar. . .. There was a day set apart by the unbelievers, that all those who believed in those traditions should be put to death except the sign should come to pass.” Well, wasn’t that rather extreme? No, that has happened lots of times.
287 3 Nephi 1:10,13 So this is what happened [because of their] faith. And here [in 3 Nephi] was a day set, and what was going to happen? It looked pretty bad, Verse 10: “Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people [he was upset, of course, and he] ... cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people.” He prayed and prayed and the Lord said, “Lift up your head”—I’m coming tomorrow, so don’t worry. Verse 13: “Be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand; and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world.” Notice this fine tuning. The dates are set. Everything is timed.
288 3 Nephi 1 15 ]: “And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken [the great solemnity of this is like the tolling of a great bell]; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness [it sounds just like a Greek chorus—a supernova appeared]; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came. And there were many, who had not believed the words of the prophets, who fell to the earth, ... for they knew that the great plan of destruction. ... [We talked about falling to earth as supplication, submission, and terror at the same time.] All the people upon the face of the whole earth from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth.” Does that mean they lost their foothold? It could have been deliberate. See this is the point. When you’re faced with something too much to cope with, when there’s some power that’s beyond your control, that’s what you do, of course. You put yourself in a position of complete submission
289 3 Nephi 1:19,22 “ There was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day,. .. and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born. ... A new star did appear according to the word.” Ah, now you say, this would certainly convert them and there would-be no more lying, but it was just the opposite in verse 22: “And it came to pass that from this time forth there began to be lyings sent forth among the people by Satan to harden their hearts.*’ They said, we can explain this all right. Immediately, the reaction is not what you expected. You can explain every situation. Notice how Satan is going to exploit every situation to his ends. ‘The more part of the people did believe.... Nephi went forth among the people, and also many others, baptizing unto repentance.” There was peace in the land, and they preached by the scriptures. Verse 24: “And there were no contentions, save it were a few that began to preach . . . that it was no more expedient to observe the law of Moses,” because Christ had come, but they were soon converted and everything went along smoothly. There was peace “save it were for the Gadianton robbers, who dwelt upon the mountains, who did infest the land.”
289 3 Nephi 1:27-30 Now, we have a very interesting psychological study in this first chapter from verse 27 to the end, namely the younger generation. You remember the clever Zoramites. They were the snazzy people that wore the natty uniforms. They were the best fighters. There was a time when all the best officers in the Lamanite army were Zoramites who had been Nephites. They were very hard working, rich, prosperous, and pious. They observed strict dress standards and all that sort of thing, and they were the ones that intrigued the young to go over and join the Gadiantons. They gave it sort of a romantic allure—become soldiers of fortune, etc. It tells us that [they went] among the Gadianton robbers in their secret places. “Therefore they did commit many murders, and did do much slaughter among the people. And it came to pass that in the ninety and fourth year they began to increase in a great degree, because there were many dissenters of the Nephites who did flee unto them.”
289 3 Nephi 1:29 “And there was also a cause of much sorrow among the Lamanites; for behold, they had many children.” When they started to grow up they were led away by some of those who were Zoramites. The Zoramites sold them on this. The Zoramites were recruiters for the Gadiantons. They said it was glamorous and adventurous. “. .. led away by some who were Zoramites, by their lyings and their flattering words to join those Gadianton robbers [so that’s what happened]. And thus the Lamanites were afflicted also, began to decrease as to their faith and righteousness because of the wickedness of the rising generation.” The young were very much attracted by this. The life of a Gadianton robber was romantic, it was exciting, and it was profitable, too. And the Zoramites went out and recruited them successfully. A very interesting psychological touch there.
289,290 3 Nephi 2:1,2 In the second chapter the signs and wonders began to be less and less astonishing because they got to see more and more—they became commonplace. “They began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen—imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil,... and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again.”
290 3 Nephi 2:3 ‘The people began to wax strong in wickedness [this is a fine thing to happen] and abominations; and they did not believe that there should be any more signs or wonders given; and Satan did go about, leading away the hearts of the people, tempting them and causing them that they should do great wickedness in the land.” This is going to be pretty bad, I’m afraid.
290 3 Nephi 2:8,11 That “the Nephites began to reckon time from this period when the sign was given. .. . And Nephi, who was the father of Nephi ... could nowhere be found in all the land [he went out]. . .. The people did still remain in wickedness, notwithstanding the much preaching and prophesying which was sent among them [they get worse and worse]. . .. There began to be wars and contentions [verse 11] throughout all the land.” The Gadianton robbers just took charge. They laid waste many cities, Verse 11: “It became expedient that all the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them.” They were compelled to take arms against them. The Nephites were threatened with utter destruction from these robbers. It’s getting very serious.
290 3 Nephi 2:14 “Those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites.” There’s a nice note on race again. If you were Lamanite who had joined the Nephites, you were now called a Nephite. “And their curse was taken from them.” Did they change their complexion and become white overnight? No, it’s a cultural thing. The same things go together all the time. And they were called Nephites; the same name was given to them. We can’t dwell on that now—we will later.
290 3 Nephi 2:17,18 “The people of Nephi did again gain some advantage of the robbers insomuch that they did drive them back out of their lands into the mountains [again],... [but then] because of the wickedness of the people of Nephi, and their many contentions and dissensions, the Gadianton robbers did gain many advantages over them. . . . And [thus] the sword of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity.”