Post by Alma – former priest of King Noah
I will forever thank my God in Heaven for the prophet Abinadi, a man more courageous than any I have ever known or even known of. I regret never knowing how he became so, yet I strive to emulate his sacrifice.
Even now these years later as we witness the fulfillment of his prophesies, those of us who lived through the very promises, there are those who remain hardened.
I don’t know anything of Abinadi’s life before coming among our people in the land of Lehi-Nephi. Though Zeniff led our people up to this land and he was a good man, when his son Noah became king, he radically changed the affairs of the people. He dismissed his father’s priests and other leaders and surrounded himself with weak and wicked men who supported him in his wickedness. I am ashamed to have been one of them. Both our government and our people quickly moved into a wicked lifestyle which was supported by high taxes.
Through the grace of a forgiving and merciful God, Abinadi came among our people warning of God’s displeasure. When Abinadi came, Noah, us, his priests nor our people wanted to hear the dire warnings spoken by Abinadi, nor did we believe he was God’s spokesperson. Who was he anyway? We said.
He escaped our wrath once and we thought we were rid of him. He returned two years later, yet this time he publicly preached repentance. It was no longer warnings of consequences that could be averted through repentance. He was now proclaiming unconditional impending destruction, illustrating more severe consequences if we postponed our repentance.
In other words, when Abinadi first proclaimed repentance, had we repented we would avoid the punishments of bondage and destruction. We did not repent. We tried to arrest him and silence him. Two years later his warnings did not offer avoidance of bondage for repentance. We lost that chance. This time he proclaimed that by repentance we might avoid total destruction.
May I quote from the record I made of Abinadi’s teaching. “In my fierce anger will I visit them. This generation, because of their iniquities shall be brought into bondage, smitten on the heel driven by men and shall be slain and the vultures of the air and the dogs yea the wild beasts shall devour their flesh.”
Abinadi prophesied specifically to King Noah. He said the life of King Noah “shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace, for he shall know that I am the Lord.” He said that Noah should be “as dry stalk of the field which is run over by the beasts and trodden under food and as a fully ripe thistle blown by the wind.”
Abinadi prophesied famine, pestilence, terrible storms, heavy burdens on the people and if we don’t repent we would be utterly destroyed from off the face of the earth.
Now these years later as I share my witness of a loving God and His Son our Redeemer, I testify each and every prophesy of Abinadi has been or is being fulfilled to the letter. I know. I recorded each letter. Then I lived through the fulfillment of some of those prophesies.
Abinadi confronted the whole wicked royal establishment single handed. He boldly explained the Law of Moses, he taught about the Redeemer, he taught the details of the resurrection. He was powerful, blunt, concrete and colorful. It was not just the message that pierced my soul, it was his courage, his intensity, and his confidence that softened my heart enough that the message of God coming down among the children of men and taking upon Himself flesh and blood, going forth upon the face of the land and then being put to death for our sins, could take place in my heart.
As one of King Noah’s priests, I fancied myself an expert in the law. I laugh now—though with sorrow—at the foolishness of that belief. I was not wise in the law of God; I was cunning in the ways of manipulating it. I learned how to twist words to justify sin and to blind myself to my own guilt. Rather than seek repentance, I sought refuge in excuses and self-deception.
But when Abinadi stood before us, with power and authority from God, his words pierced through every layer of pride I had built. His bold and unwavering denunciation of our wickedness—mine included—cut deeply into my soul. Yet while I felt the sting of truth, my companions felt only insult and anger. His words, sharp and true, exposed our blindness and hypocrisy. I shall not rehearse all his accusations here, for they were as a mirror to our corruption. But I testify that he spoke the truth, and it was that truth which awakened my soul.
With that humbly said, I will now declare his words as if it were coming from his own mouth as best as I recorded.
“You ask me what the words “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tiding; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth; Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion; Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem; The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?”
After Abinadi soundly chastised us for perverting the ways of the Lord, he did not answer the question directly. He challenged us, asking what we knew concerning the law of Moses. He asked, “Does salvation come by the law of Moses?”
We confirmed that salvation does come by the law of Moses. Abinadi conceded that if we keep the commandments of God we will be saved. He then proceeded to rehearse the commandments that God delivered to Moses in the mount of Sinai. The following is how I recall him saying them.
“I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath.”
An interesting thing happened right in the middle of Abinadi rehearsing these commandments. The king got so angry, he commanded us to take him and slay him. We couldn’t. He withstood us. Boldly and with power from God he commanded us not to touch him, and that if we did, God would smite us. We believed him. He used the words “God will not suffer that I be destroyed at this time.” In my heart I wonder if Abinadi knew eventually he would be destroyed.
His face shined. He spoke with power and authority of God. He knew very well that his words cut us to the very core. He continued with the commandments, at times quoting God Himself.
“And now, ye remember that I said unto you:
· Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of things which are in heaven above, or which are in the earth beneath, or which are in the water under the earth.
· And again: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
· Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
· Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;
· For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
· Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
· Thou shalt not kill.
· Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.
· Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
· Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.
Abinadi hadn’t answered our first question about what the Glad tidings quote from the prophet Isaiah from the Brass Plates meant. He just challenged us again. To me it was evident Abinadi was not sent by God to play word games with us. His mission was a full-on call to repentance. He was exposing our many, and I mean many, transgressions, the least of which were our personal sins, the greater of which were our false teaching and wicked examples. He was right. We had not only not taught the commandments, we taught false doctrines and we were leading the people astray.
He then challenged our claim that salvation comes by the law of Moses. He confirmed it is expedient that we keep the law of Moses as yet. But what he said next held my interest like nothing else ever had.
He said that salvation does not come by law alone, and were it not for the atonement, which God Himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of His people, that we must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.
An entire post or more is required for me to crystalize what that word Atonement now means to me. I will attempt it another time.
Mosiah 17-18
