Lessons From the
Nephite Christmas
December 1997
Updated December 1998 and December 2000
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…The book of Nephi, the son of Nephi, who was the son of
Helaman… And Helaman was the son of Helaman, who was the son of Alma, who was
the son of Alma, being a descendant of Nephi who was the son of Lehi, who came
out of Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of
Judah…. (3 Nephi 1…)
So
starts our story. We read in 3 Nephi 1:2-5 the historical setting which lead to
our drama….
2 And Nephi,
the son of Helaman, had departed out of the land of Zarahemla, giving charge
unto his son Nephi, who was his eldest son, concerning the plates of brass, and
all the records which had been kept, and all those things which had been kept
sacred from the departure of Lehi out of Jerusalem.
3 Then he departed out of
the land, and whither he went, no man knoweth; and his son Nephi did keep the
records in his stead, yea, the record of this people.
4 And it came to pass
that in the commencement of the ninety and second year, behold, the
prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully; for there
began to be greater signs and greater miracles wrought among the people.
5 But there were some who
began to say that the time was past for the words to be fulfilled, which were
spoken by Samuel, the Lamanite.
What signs and wonders were given? What prophecies were being
fulfilled? What of Samuel the Lamanite's "sign"?
We read
in Helaman 13:
AND now it came to pass in the eighty and sixth year, the Nephites did still remain in wickedness, yea, in great wickedness, while the Lamanites did observe strictly to keep the commandments of God…. And it came to pass that in this year there was one Samuel, a Lamanite, came into the land of Zarahemla, and began to preach unto the people. And it came to pass that he did preach, many days, repentance unto the people …. And he said unto them: Behold, I, Samuel, a Lamanite, do speak the words of the Lord which he doth put into my heart; and behold he hath put it into my heart to say unto this people that the sword of justice hangeth over this people; and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people. Yea, heavy destruction awaiteth this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, and nothing can save this people save it be repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely shall come into the world, and shall suffer many things and shall be slain for his people.
In other words,
the Nephites, the chosen people
of the Lord on this
continent, were warned about their spiritual apostasy. Imagine if you will the level of
darkness they were walking in, when it took a Prophet of the Lord to call them
to repentance threatening them with destruction. Let's fast forward and imagine
the Prophet, at the next General Conference, standing up and saying,
"…brethren and sisters, the Lord is not well pleased with us. Unless we
repent He will destroy us…" What do you think the reaction might be? Shock
and disbelief are probably the mildest of emotions….
Samuel continued:
Therefore, thus
saith the Lord: Because of the hardness of the hearts of the people of the
Nephites, except they repent I will take away my word from them, and I will
withdraw my Spirit from them, and I will suffer them no longer, and I will turn
the hearts of their brethren against them. And four hundred years shall not
pass away before I will cause that they shall be smitten; yea, I will visit
them with the sword and with famine and with pestilence. Yea, I will visit them
in my fierce anger, and there shall be those of the fourth generation who shall
live, of your enemies, to behold your utter destruction; and this shall surely
come except ye repent, saith the Lord; and those of the fourth generation shall
visit your destruction. But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God
I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed
are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto him that repenteth not.
Helaman 13:8-11
The Lord's message
through Samuel was very very clear. They had, as we do, a choice. This same
sentiment was echoed hundreds of years earlier by Lehi, when he said,
Wherefore,
men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient
unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through
the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according
to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might
be miserable like unto himself. And now, my sons, I would that ye should look
to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be
faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the
will of his Holy Spirit; And not choose eternal death, according to the
will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the
devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you
in his own kingdom. (2 Nephi 27-29).
Samuel continued
with a promise and a prophecy….
Helaman
14:1 reads: "...a great many things which cannot be written..."
Which means the
things which are written are of ultimate importance to our day. The
warnings he gave of pending destruction were clear. But what had the
Nephites done, that had brought upon themselves, the judgements of God?
Helaman 13:22 reads:
Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities.
Ingratitude, obsession with
the things of this life, pride, strifes, hatred , persecutions and more.
They also denied they had need of repentance, for they were the chosen people
of the Lord,
And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.
They supported
evil incarnate, the Gadianton secret combinations and upheld false prophets,
while persecuting the poor and the humble followers of God. Helaman
13:27-29 tells us:
27 But behold, if a man
shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that
and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own
hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart
desireth--and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him,
and say that he is a prophet.
28 Yea,
ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give
unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly
apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that
all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.
29 O ye
wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how
long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye
suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye
choose darkness rather than light?
Does any of this
ring familiar to our day? Ezra Taft Benson in 1986 gave that great talk
on the Book of Mormon in which he reaffirmed the Lord's condemnation placed on
the Latter Day Saints in the 1830s. He said in Cleansing the Inner
Vessel: President Ezra Taft Benson (April 1986) ,
Unless we read the Book of
Mormon and give heed to its teachings, the Lord has stated in section 84 of the
Doctrine and Covenants that the whole Church is under condemnation: "And
this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all." (V. 56.)
The Lord continues: "And they shall remain under this condemnation until
they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the
former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do
according to that which I have written." (V. 57.)
Now
we not only need to say more about the Book of Mormon, but we need to do more
with it. Why? The Lord answers: "That they may bring forth fruit meet for
their Father's kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be
poured out upon the children of Zion." (V. 58.) We have felt that scourge and
judgment!
The
Prophet Joseph said that "the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any
book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to
God by abiding by its precepts, than any other book." (Book of Mormon,
Introduction.) The Book of Mormon has not been, nor is it yet, the center of
our personal study, family teaching, preaching, and missionary work. Of this we
must repent.
He went on to
say, three years later, that as a people we had failed to build and redeem Zion
due to the great sin that brought upon the Nephites their own
destruction. This sin was and is the sin of pride. President Benson
said (in Beware Of Pride: Ezra Taft Benson April 1989):
My dear brethren and sisters, we must prepare to redeem Zion. It was essentially the sin of pride that kept us from establishing Zion in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was the same sin of pride that brought consecration to an end among the Nephites (see 4 Nephi 1:24-25). Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. I repeat: Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. We must cleanse the inner vessel by conquering pride (see Alma 6:2-4; Matthew 23:25-26). We must yield "to the enticings of the Holy Spirit," put off the prideful natural man," become "a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord," and become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble" (Mosiah 3:19; see also Alma 13:28). That we may do so and go on to fulfill our divine destiny is my fervent prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Earlier, in October 1988,
President Benson placed the American people and the Latter-Day-Saints under
warning that they, and us were to avoid every and all entanglements with
organized anti-God forces. He said:
I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. (D&C 1:14-16; 84:49-53.) it is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world. (Ether 8:18-25) General Conference October 2, 1988
Ultimately, then as now, the
only solution is to repent, turn from our sins, our pride, and come unto Jesus
Christ. See Moroni 10:32. Samuel proceeded by giving the Nephies
and us a prophecy. Helaman 14:2-5 reads:
2 And behold, he said
unto them: 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.
3
And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for
behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night
before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto
man as if it was day.
4
Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day
and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall
know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall
know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the
night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born.
5
And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld;
and this also shall be a sign unto you.
He continued that
after the sign of the savior's birth there would be many signs and wonders....
6 And behold this is not
all, there shall be many signs and wonders in heaven.
Helaman
14:7
7 And it shall come to pass that ye shall all be amazed, and wonder,
insomuch that ye shall fall to the earth.
8
And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the
same shall have everlasting life.
He taught the
Nephites the core gospel:
9 And behold, thus hath
the Lord commanded me, by his angel, that I should come and tell this thing
unto you; yea, he hath commanded that I should prophesy these things unto you;
yea, he hath said unto me: Cry unto this people, repent and prepare the way of
the Lord.
10
And now, because I am a Lamanite, and have spoken unto you the words which the
Lord hath commanded me, and because it was hard against you, ye are angry with
me and do seek to destroy me, and have cast me out from among you.
11
And ye shall hear my words, for, for this intent have I come up upon the walls
of this city, that ye might hear and know of the judgments of God which do
await you because of your iniquities, and also that ye might know the
conditions of repentance;
12
And also that ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning;
and that ye might know of the signs of his coming, to the intent that ye might
believe on his name.
13
And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye
may have a remission of them through his merits.
He also gave them
another sign, a sign of his death:
14 And behold, again,
another sign I give unto you, yea, a sign of his death.
15
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, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord.
16
Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all
mankind from the first death--that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the
fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as
dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.
17
But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all
mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.
18
Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever
repenteth the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; but whosoever
repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; 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.
19
Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them
ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are brought down
unto this second death.
20
But behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death,
behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and
refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there
shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall
suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time that he shall rise again
from the dead.
In Helaman 16, we
read that Samuel cannot be slain even though the evil Nephites threw their
entire army at him. This speaks to the protection of God and the power of
real Priesthood (see JST Genesis 14).
What actually happened after
Samuel's departure?
4 And it came to pass that in the commencement of the ninety and second year, behold, the prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully; for there began to be greater signs and greater miracles wrought among the people.
Signs began to be
given. Notwithstanding the signs, there still was rampant evil and
widespread apostasy.
3 Nephi 1:5
5 But there were some who began to say that the time was past for the
words to be fulfilled, which were spoken by Samuel, the Lamanite.
3 Nephi
1:6
6 And they began to rejoice over their brethren, saying: Behold the time
is past, and the words of Samuel are not fulfilled; therefore, your joy and
your faith concerning this thing hath been vain.
3 Nephi
1:7
7 And it came to pass that they did make a great uproar throughout the
land; and the people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means
those things which had been spoken might not come to pass.
3 Nephi
1:8
8 But behold, they did watch steadfastly for that day and that night and
that day which should be as one day as if there were no night, that they might
know that their faith had not been vain.
The evil was so
great and pervasive, the non believers set aside a day to kill the believers,
if the sign had not been given.
3 Nephi 1:9
9 Now it came to pass that 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, which had been given by Samuel the prophet.
The faith of the
believers was not in vain.
3 Nephi 1:10
10 Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this
wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.
3 Nephi
1:11
11 And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the
earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who
were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their
fathers.
3 Nephi
1:12
12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord, all that
day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
3 Nephi
1:13
13 Lift up your head and 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, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have
caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
3 Nephi
1:14
14 Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfill all things which I have made
known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the
will, both of the Father and of the Soon the Father because of me, and of the
Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall
the sign be given.
3 Nephi
1:15
15 And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were
fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of
the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because
there was no darkness when the night came.
3 Nephi
1:16
16 And there were many, who had not believed the words of the prophets,
who fell to the earth and became as if they were dead, for they knew that the
great plan of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the
words of the prophets had been frustrated; for the sign which had been given
was already at hand.
Imagine now the
level of faith and testimony which had to exist for the
"believers". What if you knew that you were to be killed, and
your children would likewise be killed, unless Zion were redeemed by a certain
date, or unless the millennium were to begin with the return of Christ?
How much faith would be required to remain true? We continue with the
story,
3 Nephi 1:19
19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but
it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did
rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it
was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been
given.
3 Nephi
1:20
20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the
words of the prophets.
Why is this relevant? Every event which Samuel said would happen
surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ happened. The Nephites had that
testimony, and they knew of the this and other signs, and the future signs that
were coming, surrounding His death. What about us? Are we ready for
the modern 3 Nephi period in our own lives? What patterns have we been
given that tell us of what is to come?
Mormon 8, which represents one of
Moroni's last discourses prior to hiding up the plates, the Liahona, the sword
of Laban and other sacred artifacts in the stone box, speaks to us and our
day. We read that:
How do we get
ready? I would offer for your consideration the following:
D&C 38:30
30 I tell you these things because of your prayers; wherefore, treasure
up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto
you by their wickedness, in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a
voice louder than that which shall shake the earth; but if ye are prepared ye
shall not fear.
D&C
45:56-57
56 And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be
fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. 57 For they
that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for
their guide, and have not been deceived--verily I say unto you, they shall
not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.
Ultimately, it is
the Spiritual preparation and only Spiritual preparation, which I shall define
here, as the relationship with Father and acquisition of real Priesthood
as the only thing that matters.
Finally for your further reading
and study, I recommend the following:
Comments? Email Jim
Winegardner.