By Gideon, Defender of Liberty and Disciple of Truth
Some men do not stop destroying even after they’ve fled.
I thought we had left the corruption of King Noah behind—his lies, his lusts, and the priests who fed on both. When we returned to Zarahemla after escaping Lamanite bondage, I believed we had turned a new page in our history. But evil seeds, once planted, do not always die in the dust.
I remember the day word reached us: the Lamanites were gathering for war.
Again.
We were bewildered. We had not provoked them. We had paid our tribute, abided their boundaries, and offered no threat. Yet they came with vengeance in their eyes and weapons in their hands.
I joined our defenders. I stood in the line. And as we fought to defend our families, I saw the Lamanite king fall, wounded in the midst of battle. By the grace of God, we spared his life. And when he revived, I was there.
He was seething with wrath. “You Nephites,” he spat, “you have stolen our daughters!”
His words struck like an arrow. Daughters? What was he talking about?
The weight of that accusation pressed down on me. I turned it over in my mind again and again, and then—like dawn rising over the mountains—I saw it.
The priests.
Noah’s priests, who had fled into the wilderness years before, abandoning their wives and hiding like cowards from justice. They had not repented. They had not vanished. They were out there—still lurking, still scheming.
And what had they done?
They had watched. Waited. Found the daughters of the Lamanites in their moments of innocence and joy, dancing in the woods. And they had taken them. Stolen them—just as they had once stolen virtue, stolen authority, stolen the trust of the people.
I told King Limhi my suspicion, and we sent word to the Lamanite king.
That message saved us.
It was the truth. And when truth is spoken plainly, it pierces through the fog of war. The Lamanite king believed us. He stayed his hand. Peace returned—though fragile, and hard-won.
I often wonder about those daughters—how they fared, how they mourned, how they were misled by men who wore priestly robes but knew not the God they pretended to serve. And I wonder how long the poison of Noah’s court will linger in our land.
But I take comfort in this: truth revealed, once more, preserved a people.
And I, Gideon, will continue to speak it—so long as I have breath.
Mosiah 20: 17-22
