Samuel Prophesies of the Destruction of the Nephites
READ Helaman 13:1-4 and Helaman 16:1-5
Why did the Lord send an
“outsider” to preach His word when Nephi II was right there ministering to the
Nephites?
In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word of the
Lord be established (see 2 Corinthians 13:1; Matthew 18:16; D&C 6:28).
The Lord’s ways are not our ways, which makes His work seem
“strange” to us (see Isaiah 55:8-9; D&C 101:95).
By small means the Lord brings about great things (see Alma 37:6;
D&C 64:33), and a “wicked” and backward Lamanite coming to the heart of
Nephite culture and civilization to preach to the “enlightened” would have been
viewed as insignificant.
Clearly the Lord cares much less about Church “hierarchy” than we
do – as an example, on the day of His resurrection, He didn’t appear to Chief
Apostle Peter until late in the day after He’d already met with Mary, His
mother and several other women, and the two non-Apostles on the Road to Emmaus
(with whom He had spent several hours walking and discussing scripture).
READ Helaman 13:5, 9-10
What does Samuel mean by the
“sword of justice”?
Sword = a means to destroy or kill.
Justice = to get what you deserve.
The sword of justice is the rightful and deserved destruction of
the people based on their continued violation of the law of the land which is:
since you were brought to the Americas by God, either worship Him or be swept
off when you have reached the fullness of iniquity (see Ether 2:7-10; 2 Nephi
10:19).
Why is Samuel prophesying of a
destruction 400 years away?
So that it is recorded in the records of the Nephites to a) warn
those in the future to repent and b) show that the Lord knows the beginning
from the end and will reveal future events to His prophets, lending credence to
the other, more important words of repentance and the path to exaltation that
those same prophets also preach about (see 3 Nephi 23:9-13).
READ Helaman 13:6-7
What was it about the angel’s
message that had Samuel excited to share it with the Nephites?
That Christ was coming to redeem mankind through His suffering and
death, to all those who repent and come unto Him.
Not the destruction of the Nephites if they don’t heed the call to
repent – that is the warning he was commanded to give them, not the “glad
tidings”.
READ Helaman 13:8
Why does the Lord say He will
withdraw from them because of the hardness of their hearts, rather than because
of their wickedness?
Because ALL have sinned and NO unclean thing can dwell with God;
in other words, all are wicked.
But He can forgive them and decree them righteous or perfect, enabling
Him to dwell with them.
IF they will soften their hearts towards Him.
But if they will harden their hearts, He will withdraw because
they will not come unto Him in humble repentance; it is up to them, they use
their agency to choose (see Alma 37:46).
What does it mean that the Lord
will take away His word from the Nephites?
He will withdraw and stop revealing Himself to them (He is the
Word).
He will stop communicating with them through revelation.
He will allow the natural processes to run, wherein they lose all
knowledge of the mysteries of Godliness as they harden their hearts (see Alma
12:10-11).
He will allow them to change the scriptures and covenants until
all they have is the philosophies of men, disguised as scripture or His word.
READ Helaman 13:11-14
Why is the Lord sparing
Zarahemla?
Because of the righteous few who still live there.
When will Zarahemla’s fate be
sealed?
When they cast out the righteous from among them.
Implied is that as long as they don’t cast out the righteous,
regardless of how evil they become, they will be spared.
Why might they finally cast out
the righteous?
They become afraid of them for some reason, that they might gain
power and put down the Robbers who lead the government and their economic
benefits they have somehow created.
They become so irritated by them because of the differences
between them.
They become guilty by interacting with them.
They are filled with blind hatred of them by Satan and just want
to destroy them because they are righteous.
READ Helaman 13:17-23
What does it mean to have your
heart set upon riches?
Money and the stability, luxury and power it brings is your
deepest desire.
You are completely oriented to this Telestial existence; you never
think to look beyond it and consider it absolute foolishness to do so.
Which means you do not remember the Lord or His blessings – to
thank Him, to pray to Him, to depend upon Him, to sacrifice all things for Him
so that you can know Him.
But instead your money is an objective measure of your success as
a person (and insidiously, can be mistaken for a blessing from God for
righteous living) and your self-esteem is defined by it.
How are riches a "false god?"
That is where the
Nephites hearts are - their desires are not to submit their whole souls to
Christ but to save themselves (at least for the foreseeable, i.e. mortal,
future).
Your God is what you
worship or where your heart is.
Why are they cursed “for the
peoples’ sake”?
Their riches are cursed to disappear.
They are cursed in the hope that the people will turn back to the
Lord, once their riches are lost; if their “god” (money) can’t save them or
give them the security they are hoping for, perhaps they will turn back to the
living God?
What does it mean to “hide one’s
treasures up unto the Lord”?
If speaking about earthly riches, it means to earn money for the
express reason of distributing it to those in need (see Jacob 2:19).
But it could also refer to seeking for the kind of “riches” on
earth that will exalt you in heaven (see Matthew 6:19-21).
What does it mean to “hide one’s
treasures up in the earth”?
They are kept to one’s self; they are not for sharing with others.
It’s all about greed and selfishness; take from others or obtain
“on the market” and hide away for myself.
If riches seem to lead so inevitably to pride and the
worship of them (and then to wickedness), why does the Lord prosper His people
at all?
It is a true and
subtle test of our faith (the more you have to lose the harder you fight to
protect it).
The hope is that the
resources you are given will be used by you for the building up of Zion.
Among the eight sins we talked about two sessions ago
that lead to a fullness of iniquity and destruction, what are the primary sins
that the Nephites are committing?
Cast out the
righteous & prophets - rejection of good (v14,24).
Set their hearts on
riches - worship false gods (v20-22).
Great swelling, boasting
- pride (v22).
Murders - violence
(v22).
Gadiantons are back -
secret combinations (see Helaman 11:24-26).
All but three are
mentioned here (immorality, occult, and loss of all civilization); and
immorality is probably in play (when is it not) and possibly the occult because
of their "abominations", which connotes using religious rites and
practices for evil (v14).
READ Helaman 13:24-29
What are the Nephites doing to true prophets who
declare the word of the Lord which they claim they heard directly from Him?
They angrily reject
their message, mock them for saying they have a message from God, and violently
cast them out from among them.
They say that the
individual is a false prophet; in other words, they say he is either a liar,
insane, deceived, or in league with the devil...because God would never say
those things to or about them because they are highly favored and all is well
in Zion; and because God's House is a place of order and He has given the keys
to them and this fellow has no authority to receive that level of revelation
and call them to repentance; and if there ever was even the beginning of an
issue with those leaders who hold God's keys, He would destroy that leader to
prevent them from leading the Church astray.
And with these excuses,
they justify both their rejection of the true prophet's message and their
attempts to destroy him; in fact, it is their duty to cast him out to protect
the rest of the Church from hearing his ranting and possibly believing it and
being deceived.
What are the Nephites doing to those who tell them that
all is well?
They will say that he
is a prophet - they will "make" him or sustain him to be their
Prophet!
They will lift him up
above them and place him between them and God, and support him and his programs
with their money.
Because he is
flattering them and telling them that they have no real need of repentance, but
are God's chosen people.
READ Helaman 13:30-33
Why are they repenting in the
days of their poverty?
They are sad that they’ve lost everything and they want it back.
It is similar to “worldly regret” for sin – where the sinner feels
bad…that they got caught.
READ Helaman 13:36-38
Are they really surrounded by
demons and dark angels and what does that mean?
Yes.
Light cleaves to light and by implication, darkness abides with
darkness (see D&C 88:40).
Satan and his host were cast out of heaven for rebellion and were
sent to this earth; here they tempt us, distract us, and bind us in chains of
darkness through our sins.
They are all about us unless we cast them out and then live our
lives with the Holy Spirit (which the dark entities don’t like – although they
will still attack you, actually more because you stand out as a target) so that
this increase in light might attract angels of glory, which they cannot abide.
Why will the day of their
probation be past at that point?
Because they have given themselves over to Satan and his angels;
they are filled with darkness and dark spirits, no longer just encompassed
about by them – they have embraced them and invited them in.
They have lost all their light and even the slightest desire to
repent.
Are they damned for what they
obtained and kept to themselves or for what they tried to but failed to obtain?
They are damned for what they tried but failed to obtain because
their hearts were set on worldly treasures and glory of a heavenly magnitude –
which even the greatest man by the world’s standards will never obtain and is
continually left wanting more.
They are damned for their hearts and desires, from which flowed
the behavior of seeking to obtain riches to consume them selfishly upon their
various lusts, and in so doing, have nothing to share with the poor or anyone
else.
Why can’t you find happiness in
doing iniquity?
Because iniquity is contrary to the actual nature of true
happiness.
It violates a natural law of the universe to find happiness in
iniquity.
What are the similarities between
making one’s calling and election sure and making one’s destruction sure?
They both are pronounced by God to us.
As a result of the deepest desires of our hearts and the actions
that resulted therefrom.
And as God is a God of Truth and cannot lie, His pronouncements
are “everlasting” and will come to pass – they are “sure”.
Both are received in this life and are a “sealing” to a state in
eternity.
Samuel Prophesies of Christ’s Mortal Ministry
READ Helaman 14:2-4, 28
Why did the Nephites get a sign
that all the people could see, while in Israel the sign of the star could only
be read by those few who were looking for it and knew how to interpret it?
They were both tests of faith – one a test for the spiritually
alert to find and follow; the other a test for people of all levels of
spiritual preparedness – a sign to either confirm faith or willfully reject it.
To enable His mission, Christ came quietly to Israel, so that
“only” heaven, the stars and a few shepherds celebrated His birth.
This meant that in Israel, you had to be looking for Him to come,
which means that you had to work to understand the spiritual messages contained
in God’s heavenly signs, which most likely required receiving revelation from
God and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
In the Americas there was no need for secrecy and no chance for
the people to “find” Christ in the flesh, so the Lord decided to give the
people a sign that all could see, as a test of their faith; this test was
particularly relevant because at this time both the Lamanites and the Nephites
were either active members of Christ’s Church or had been and knew the
doctrine, so Samuel’s prophesy provided a great test of faith in God’s word
(and in the idea that a man had parted the veil and received revelation from
God about something that would soon occur and all would see).
In the Americas they have no excuse for “unbelief,” as all will see
these signs and wonders and should believe on Christ.
How did the Nephites know that
the sign was given and what does this imply about the sign?
They would see the sun go down as normal but it would remain as
light as day, and the next morning they would see the sun come up again on the
day of Christ’s birth.
In America there was no such need for secrecy – everyone would see
this sign.
They see “great lights” in heaven that light up the night sky like
noon-day; this is not a star or sun but likely the hosts of heaven.
READ Helaman 14:5-6
How did the “Christmas star” just
arise at this time and then disappear?
Either a portal to heaven must have been opened up for the hosts
of heaven to come through to witness to the earth with their glory, in
celebration OR…
It was a special confluence of planets and stars overlapping their
orbits to create what looked like a “super star” for a temporary amount of time.
What were the “many” other “signs
and wonders” seen in the heavens and why were they given?
The Lord uses the Zodiac constellations that circumnavigate the
earth and the planets that come to appear and move within them, as signs that
cannot be changed by men on earth – their prophetic power is lost only when men
forget their meaning, which have been revealed to man from God (see Abraham
1:31; D&C 45:39; Abraham 4:14; Jeremiah 31:35-36; Abraham 3:1-17).
The Lord uses solar and lunar eclipses, comets and asteroids as
“wonders” in the heavens, to get our attention and focus us on where the
“signs” or stars are at a given point in time, so that He can send a specific message.
The Lord continues to use “signs and wonders” in our day as He
recently did in a series of four blood moons which occurred on sacred Jewish
holy days between April 2014 and September 2015.
READ Helaman 14:7-8
Why will people be so amazed that
they will literally fall to the earth when they see the sign of Christ’s birth
occur?
They are so convinced that these sorts of “supernatural” things
cannot happen that when they do, they are absolutely amazed to the point that
they cannot contain their wonder, either for fear or joy – their “minds are
blown”.
Why would anyone NOT believe in
Christ after witnessing such an obvious and objective sign coming true?
Because they will not believe; they choose not to believe but “set
up stakes” of what is “real” or true; which means that they must rationalize
everything that doesn’t fit into their preconceived belief system.
They say, “Since I know that supernatural things do not exist, any
other ‘scientific’ explanation, no matter how far-fetched, must be the answer”.
But belief is a choice and they cannot see what they do not choose
to believe in; which is why signs do not inherently convince people of the
truth.
READ Helaman 14:9-10
Are the Nephites racist?
Yes.
Part of why they don’t believe Samuel is because he’s a Lamanite.
Why did the Lord choose a
Lamanite to give the Nephites this vital message if they would inherently doubt
him because he was a Lamanite?
That’s exactly why the Lord would send Samuel – to put the focus
on the message not the messenger.
He uses “small and simple means” so that people must listen to the
Holy Spirit; God is not obvious because this is a probationary state and we
need to retain our agency which we would not if He spoke using credible
authorities; for example, Enoch was a “wild man,” Moses was an outlaw and
introvert, Peter was a fisherman from rural Galilee, and Joseph Smith was an
uneducated farm boy and treasure hunter – none had “credibility” as the world
requires of its learned experts.
READ Helaman 14:11-13
What do the Nephites need to
believe: Samuel’s prophecy of Nephite destruction, or his prophesy of the signs
of Christ’s coming, or his testimony of Christ’s ability to redeem them if they
will repent and come unto Him?
They need to believe Christ, repent and come unto Him.
The prophesy of destruction is the natural result of their not
coming unto Him but ripening in their iniquity until they reach the fullness.
The prophesy of His coming is as a sign to them to test their
faith in Christ and in the truth of Samuel’s testimony of Christ.
But the message of all true prophets is always about your personal
eternal welfare as enabled by the Lord Jesus Christ (and His atonement and
resurrection).
READ Helaman 14:14-19
Why did Christ have to die and
what is the implication?
He had to die so that salvation could come to man.
He had to die to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead;
implying that our salvation is in being resurrected; that we cannot be saved
without being resurrected…
That thereby (because of the resurrection) men may be brought into
the presence of the Lord (God, meaning the Father Ahman), the implication being
that if men were not resurrected, they could not reenter God’s presence.
Christ’s death brought to pass the resurrection because He died
unjustly, having never sinned and earning eternal life in the process (death
being the wages of sin), but since He submitted to death unjustly, He gained
power over death to break its bands over whomever He chose to release, which is
all mankind.
What happens to those who are cut
off, at any time, from the presence of the Lord?
They are “dead” both temporally and spiritually.
To be dead temporally means to either have lost your physical body
or to be presently occupying a physical body that is dying, as all our bodies
are slowly “dying” from the moment we are born – it is just a matter of time
that they will expire as they are corruptible and will eventually break down.
To be dead spiritually means to be cut off from God and cast out
of His presence because we cannot abide it; being separated from God is to be
“dead” spiritually (see D&C 29:39-45); it is something we are born into
here, not something we bring upon ourselves with sin – but sin inevitably
follows spiritual death as we have full agency out of God’s presence but have
lost all but a portion of the Holy Spirit (which we call the Light of Christ,
which is given to everyone).
Who will suffer the second
spiritual death, being cut off again from God’s presence and His righteousness?
All those who will not repent (see Alma 12:16-18).
This is not talking about the Sons of Perdition who sin knowingly
after having been already sealed up to eternal life; Samuel is preaching to
lapsed and evil former Church members, not to those who have previously made
their callings and elections sure.
This is interesting because it is a different doctrine from what
we currently teach in the Church – it is a much bigger scope than what we hear
today, which begs the questions: why and which doctrine is correct?
READ Helaman 14:20-27
What is the symbolism of the sign
of Christ’s death?
Three days in the dark tomb before the glorious resurrection.
The God of Nature or true God of the Whole Earth is dead and the
earth mourns (see 1 Nephi 19:12; 3 Nephi 11:14; Moses 7:48).
READ Helaman 14:29-31 and Helaman 15:1-3
Why are the signs given?
That the people might believe in Christ.
That they might all see the same things, which is fair, and all have
a full chance to believe.
That all might have a righteous (accurate and fair) judgment on
them as a result of their own choices with regards to how they reacted to the
signs they all saw together.
How is all iniquity done “unto
themselves” when people’s poor choices and sins hurt others, too?
Because if those that we hurt come unto Christ, He will dry their
eyes, heal them, and save them, so any hurt we cause them is for a “small
moment” (see D&C 121:7-8).
We are, ultimately, the ones who chose death or “the deaths” for
ourselves (see D&C 132:25) with our own free will, given the fact that we
have enough knowledge of good and evil through the Light of Christ to make an
educated choice.
Lessons from the Lamanite Conversion
READ Helaman 15:4-10
What does it mean that the Lord
has hated someone when He is supposed to be a god of love?
Light cleaves to light and dark to darkness (see D&C 88:40).
Those who are stained with sin and bound in darkness cannot abide
the presence of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there (see Moses 6:57;
Mormon 9:3-5).
They are natural men and enemies to God (see Mosiah 3:19).
God does not hate them in the sense that we use the word but they
are a foreign entity to Him as they are “children of men” not “Sons or
Daughters of God”; Christ came to redeem all who would come unto Him and He
begs all that they will put off the natural man and come; but if they will not,
they will have restored unto them what they have become which will mean that
they have no part with God and will be cast out of His presence forever to
experience a “second” spiritual death.
Samuel says “a” change of heart;
should it be “the” change of heart?
There is “the” mighty change of heart where one “enters the Gate”
and receives the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost as a gift from God in
the form of a baptism of fire.
But every time we are sanctified, which happens as we move “from
grace to grace”, we have “a” change of heart; as we learn more and our
capability for righteousness increases, a new “vision” is opened to our view
and our change of heart deepens and expands; we have many of these “changes” of
heart over the time of our journey back to Christ and then continuing on with
Him to the Father.
Why is Samuel still talking about
the Ammonites burying of their swords, which occurred 80 years prior?
It demonstrated a complete change of heart from the culture of
violence and war that had marked the Lamanite society for 500 years prior to
that moment.
Samuel seems to imply that 80 years later, converted Lamanites are
still burying their swords and making a vow of non-violence in the hope of
maintaining a remission of their sins; they would still rather die than take
the risk of falling from grace (“they WILL suffer themselves that they be
trodden down and slain… and WILL not lift their swords…because of their faith
in Christ” is all present tense; it’s not “they DIDN’T suffer…”).
READ Helaman 15:11-16
What does it imply that Zenos,
Samuel and “many other prophets” have witnessed of the restoration of the
Lamanites to the truth in the Last Days?
It is a big event; it is a fulfillment of the prophesy that the
first shall be last; that after the Gentiles have been given the Fullness of
the Gospel and have rejected it, that the Fullness will again be restored to
Israel or the Lamanites, and it is them who shall build Zion and prepare a
people who will receive the Lord when He comes in glory.
Samuel has also seen this in vision; his description is too vivid
and testimony too strong than what we would hear from one saying “I really
believe what these others have said they’ve seen” (which is what we experience
today in the Church, by way of comparison and point of reference).
READ Helaman 15:17
Why will the Lord utterly destroy
those that have been offered the Fullness of the Gospel but have rejected it?
They are rejecting God and all His mercy and blessings, which He
offers freely if they will only humble themselves, have faith and come unto
Him; His justice dictates that by utterly destroying them He is merely restoring
to them what they have chosen and giving them their “earned wages” (see Alma
42:27; Romans 6:23).
They know better and they sin against the light (see Alma 39:6;
Alma 45:12).
They profess a connection with God that they do not have, using
God’s name in vain as they seek to build their earthly kingdoms of power and
wealth, grinding the faces of the poor and exercising control or dominion or
compulsion over others (see D&C 121:37).
Lessons from the Nephite Reaction to Samuel
READ Helaman 16:6-8
Where else in the Book of Mormon
do we read about a prophet coming out of nowhere to preach repentance or
destruction to the people?
Abinadi regarding King Noah’s Nephites (see Mosiah 12:8).
Ether regarding the Jaredites (see Ether 13:2, 4-8, 13, 20-21;
Ether 15:19).
Moroni regarding the latter-day Gentiles (see Ether 2:11-12; Ether
4:5-19; Ether 8:20-26; Ether 12:22-41).
READ Helaman 16:13-23
What are the two reactions to the
great signs, wonders and words of the prophets beginning to be fulfilled?
“Wise men” with believing, soft hearts had angels appear to them
to declare unto them glad tidings and performed many miracles, as a result.
The majority of the Nephites and Lamanites, even among the Church
(“all save the MOST believing part” implies that the less believing but still
“believing” or in other words, Church members…), hardened their hearts in the
face of the fulfillment of the prophesies, saying “sure, they guessed a few
things right or perhaps they are using the power of the devil to deceive
gullible people but I will not follow these fringe prophets who come out of
nowhere without authority to teach crazy things that are not in the Law and
that cannot be verified – they are no doubt just after my money and want to
control me”.
Moroni talks about the Gentiles’
destruction and assimilation of the few repentant souls into Israel in the last
days; why did the Lord want Mormon to include the prophesy of Samuel the
Lamanite in a book meant for our day?
The Nephites are cast as a type of the latter-day Gentiles.
Samuel is cast as a herald of the coming of Christ and the
destruction of the people – a “voice of one crying in the wilderness” (see
Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1-3; D&C 84:28).
Following this analogy further,
who is Samuel called to preach to?
Those who profess to be the “true followers of Christ” but have
embraced the ways of the Gadianton Robbers or Master Mahan.
The Church, who have gone into apostasy by becoming like Babylon.
How might we identify a modern
day Samuel – coming to preach to us from outside the official and recognized
Church hierarchy?
They actually know Christ – have likely received the Second
Comforter and their calling and election has been made sure.
They are likely a member of the Church (although they will likely
be cast out of the Church after they begin to preach like this).
They are an outsider and looked down on by those in power.
They could be from a different ethnicity.
They preach repentance or destruction to the Church, but is hotly
rejected by leadership and the great majority of “good” members.
Their prophesies come to fruition in time.
And if we really stretch the analogy, their teaching will cause
people to repent and seek out another roundly rejected prophet who had received
the Second Comforter and dwells among the Church, for baptism.
