Helaman 1-6: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam

Welcome! As a quick check in from my first post, we are still in the struggle after rebirth stage. over 40 years ago, the reign of judges was established, the church in its current form was established by Alma, and they are working hard to guard the liberty of the land and the faith of the people. here we can see that the tremors, both good and bad, are getting bigger and badder. I want to say that they are mostly bad, but at the same time, peace is established between the Nephites and the Lamanites during this time!!! Who could have predicted that ?!?

TL;dr is that there are tectonic movements happening for good and bad at the same time, which have massive consequences now and later.

The curse of kings

The Nephite civilization seemed to really struggle with kings. Mosiah was smart enough to get rid of the of position, but the Nephites really struggled with both avoiding kings, and for the judges, avoiding treating them like kings. 

Thus we come to the tragic story of Pahoran's sons: Pahoran II, Paanchi, Pacumeni. Spoiler alert: none of these sons survive what's coming, although Pacumeni comes out the best, unless you consider being struck against the wall significantly worse than being knifed.

Now, it shouldn't be a surprise that the sons of a chief judge would be good candidates for a chief judge. The problem is that with life appointments, successorship passed to the sons, wars between the sons, and other candidates not considered... its beginning to look an awful lot like kings with a democratic face-lift. The people of Nephi don't seem like they were ever successful in truly ending the tendency to want someone to rule over them. I think this had devastating consequences for the integrity of the nation and even the morality of the people. When you constantly outsource your free agency to someone else, I believe you lose some of your moral agency as well.

The curse of Kishkumen.

Now to the second issue of the curse of kings, and really to the beginning of madness in the open. The second issue is this somewhat aristocratic element of society that constantly felt like they should be rulers and kings. This has been popping up for a long time. I believe it started with priestcraft, which means it goes all the way back to Nephi's time (was he talking priestcraft in Jerusalem or among his own people?) and Jacob (with our friend Sherem). Priestcraft is "that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion." Kings are life-givers and protectors, and Jesus is the King of Kings, the king of the life-givers, and the king of protectors. When people set themselves up as the light and life-giver instead of Christ, they will naturally gravitate to seeking power as part of that image. Nehor and his teachings led to the order of the Nehors. The city of Ammonihah was after the order of the Nehors, conspired to take away the liberty of the people, and after it was destroyed was known as the desolation of Nehors as a warning. The Zoramites represent the order of the Nehors in their manner of wearing costly apparel, excluding the poor from their worship, praising themselves, and seeking to overthrow the Nephites. Amalekiah and Ammoron were both Zoramites, as were all the chief captains. There was also continual defection within, concerning the king-men, who felt they had a right to rule, and the lower judges, who aspired to higher positions.

During the book of Alma, it seems that these efforts by the king men were more overt. They would try democratically to persuade the people, then when that did not work, use force of arms to foment rebellion (Gideon standing up to Nehor in becomes a microcosm of this conflict). Each time they brought great suffering to the Nephites, but were put down again.

Starting with the book of Helaman, things turn a shade darker. Instead of overt rebellion, they turn to covert murders. The hop from Priestcraft to king-men is pretty clear in my mind. The leap from king-men to secret combinations is a little more difficult, but I can at least see why they changed tactics. They must have been so frustrated by the laws and by righteous people who would continually stop them!

From this time, on, the fate of the Nephite nation is extremely precarious, until the Savior Himself comes.

Zarahemla gets it

Zarahemla was relatively unscathed in the last war. Being closer to the center of the land, it was never besieged or ravaged, although it did trade hands a couple times between King men and Pahoran.

Here it gets wiped out. gone.

It is a lesson for me on the delicate nature of existence and the fact that the hammer can fall in the place you least expect it. Ammonihah had the same feeling before it was gone and you want to tell them that it is so obvious looking back that this would happen, but looking forward, they completely missed it. The same thing happens with Zarahemla. They cut down the watch and the city is wiped out in a single battle.

I think about poor Moronihah during this time as well. He certainly had experience in the Lamanite wars so he isn't about to go to pieces but here he is, commander in chief of an army that used to follow his larger-than-life father, and its his first big conflict. He has watched all the outer cities and has all of these weak places well-guarded and things are going just great when a messenger shows up at army HQ and says that Zarahemla basically isn't on the map anymore and there's a massive enemy  force booking it to bountiful.

I'm guessing that wasn't one of his favorite days. Lucky for him, Coriantumr basically walked into a trap of his own making. But let's give it up to Moronihah, the unsung hero with the weight of a nation on his shoulders.

More on the people of Ammon

The people of Ammon are a fascinating group. They were wicked Lamanites who would kill Nephites, and kill each other, they were taught the word of God, they were killed in cold blood without fighting back, they migrated to Nephite lands and the created an army that was invincible.

Wow.

Now many of them are going North again. This is the second migration mentioned in 10 years. I think that the smart ones among the Nephites could see where things were heading. I think they saw continual wars and wickedness coming from the Nephites, and the full swing of king-men and the seeds of secret combinations and they knew it was time to move, in a similar manner to Alma the older and the people of Helaman, those led by Mosiah I, and Nephi himself.

I also think it was difficult for the people of Ammon to integrate with the Nephites. We can draw many lessons from that, but one is that which Nephi taught in the beginning of the record: that God accepts people of all races, creeds and religions if they come unto him with a broken heart and contrite spirit and follow His gospel. More importantly, the sacrifice of the People of Ammon was no less accepted than the sacrifice of the people of Nephi, and even though they didn't achieve the same power of faith, the cause of the Christians among the people of Nephi was accepted by God as was the church among the people of Ammon.

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

Great blessings

It is so interesting that at such a precarious time, the windows of heaven are opened to the people. Mormon writes that even the priests of the church were astonished at all the blessings.

Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.

29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall 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 of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—

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.

Here's my problem - as we are about to see, it is going to be one of the darkest times of the Nephite nation soon. What that means to me is that these blessings came to a people who did not have root. They did not have the ability to persist their state of blessedness so to speak. It is a reminder to me that when we receive blessings, we should always be grateful, but we should never be so naive to think that we are somehow past our tests, that we are free from sin, or that we are better than others. It is more likely when we are blessed that we are dancing on the edge of a knife.

Also compare Alma 32/Moroni 7 to the word, good/evil, and faith.

Great pride and great war.

If the people who went north did it to avoid war, they saw the writing on the wall. In one chapter, the Nephites suffer their worst defeat ever, and cease to exist as a geographical entity. The Lamanites slay and destroy their way all the way to the last northern possession of the Nephite nation, the land bountiful. Moronihah, once again lifting a burden that seems unfair for him to carry, must have been smashed that first year, but rally's the next two years in what I imagine were brilliant campaigns to retake about half of the land that was lost. The tricky thing, militarily at least, is that retaking that land doesn't get you back people or economy. This leads the question - how many people died in this conflict? How many refugees were there? How many were taken prisoner? Was this a wholesale dissension, where a substantial minority or even a small majority waged war to take over the kingdom?

Mormon said, once again, that it was not primarily the lack of armed forces of the Nephites. It was because the poor went hungry. It was because those who said they were members of the church did not treat everyone like a brother and sister. They made a mock of that which was sacred. They denied the spirit of prophecy (!). It also mentions they were caught in lying, stealing, and dissensions themselves which makes it sound like they were supporting secret combinations, or at least unknowingly adopting the attitudes that made their works possible.

Finally they wake up. It only took an event that almost wiped them out, but they realized that they had both trampled the commandments and corrupted the law. Isn't it interesting that these two go hand in hand? Isn't it fascinating that the wicked people were stopped both by the laws of Mosiah and by the word of god?

Lehi and Nephi become GLORIOUS!!

The bad was definitely getting worse. The good was getting better though. Lehi and Nephi are missionaries that are so good, we don't even try to be like them. We can barely relate. We can't imagine what it would be like to be these people. It is like they took the sons of Helaman and turned all their warrior miraculousness into missionary miraculousness.

In a prison in the land of Nephi, these two men accomplish more in one day than all of the efforts of missionaries and armies could do over the last 100 years. They conquer the bitterness in the hearts of the people.

The Prison experience in chapter 6 was a physical representation of the spiritual struggle. On earth we are separated from the Father and are in a spiritual prison, with spiritual darkness of sin and ignorance. We think our enemies are people. It is not the people, it is the darkness. God sends us messengers of peace that we may get out of the darkness of the prison we made. Notice how the Lamanites see Nephi and Lehi as the prisoners, but they are the ones that are actually trapped in the prison of their own making, while Lehi and Nephi are the only ones free from the darkness. If we want to be free of the darkness, and if we are lucky enough to have some inkling of the teachings of God, we know that we need to repent, and cry unto Jesus, as best we understand him from the prophets we know. In this case, it was Alma and Amulek and Zeezrom (can anyone say after this experience that the efforts of these missionaries, even to the wicked, were in vain? was that dissenter a Zoramite by chance?). If we do these things, we can become glorious, and escape the darkness that hangs over us.

Have any of you read the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson? In the Book of Mormon, there are literal Knights Radiant!

The evil reveals itself more plainly and the true insanity begins.

Lehi, Nephi, and the 300 souls in the prison help the entire Lamanite nation to walk away from the war and for the first time ever, the two civilizations are united on a massive scale.

So what do they have to fear now?

Well, they have the same thing to fear that they always had to fear because the Lamanites were never the true enemy in the first place!!! The enemy was always the darkness in their own hearts. It just can't hide by anything anymore. It has no excuses. From here until the end of the Nephite civilization, the conflict is now clearly, not obscuridely, the conflict between the righteous fruits and the wicked fruits of the people.

Mormon takes a few verses to make this point. He shows that this is what humanity has been fighting against from the very beginning. From Cain to Babel to the present Gadianton all civilizations have struggled against that hideous strength.

And the Nephites learned nothing from their afflictions. They learned nothing from almost being wiped out, they learned nothing from being spared. They learned nothing from riches, they learned nothing from sorrows. They sold their entire country to a secret band with murder in their hearts. Probably because they couldn't get the darkness out of their own hearts to see clearly.

Only the gospel.

Preach My Gospel has the following quote from President Ezra Taft Benson

“We are commanded by God to take this gospel to all the world. That is the cause that must unite us today. Only the gospel will save the world from the calamity of its own self-destruction. Only the gospel will unite men of all races and nationalities in peace. Only the gospel will bring joy, happiness, and salvation to the human family” 

Could any message be more true?

8/30 update apparently ex-KGB agree with this. Check out this clip, especially the end, starting at about 59:00