By Abinadi, a Servant of God, Preaching in the Streets of Lehi-Nephi
O you people of this land, you people of King Noah, repent! For the Lord hath sent me again to cry repentance unto you, for your sins have reached unto heaven and your hearts have waxed hard.
You priests, you teachers, you proud ones who wear fine clothing and feast upon the labors of the poor—do you suppose that your riches will redeem you? Do you suppose that your temples and your altars, while your hearts are far from God, will save you?
Nay, I say unto you, the time shall come—and is nigh at hand—when the Lord will stretch forth His arm, and none shall escape unless they turn to Him, the Holy One of Israel.
Have you not read the words of Isaiah?
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant… He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…”
—Isaiah 53:1–3
Behold, I testify to you that this Man of Sorrows is the very Christ, the Redeemer, the Eternal God, who will come down among the children of men, and take upon Him the form of man, and walk among the outcast and the brokenhearted. He will be rejected by the learned, mocked by kings, and scourged by those who profess to serve God.
He shall not open His mouth, for His mission is not to fight with the sword but to conquer death and hell through His infinite suffering and love.
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…”
—Isaiah 53:4–5
O you blind priests! O you stiffnecked people! Have you not taught the law of Moses? And you know not what it means! For all these ordinances, these burnt offerings, these rituals and washings—they point your souls to Him. And if you offer them without understanding, and without faith in the Messiah to come, then you do them in vain.
The law was given that you might look forward to the Great and Last Sacrifice—not a sacrifice of beasts, but of the Son of God, full of grace and truth.
The time will come that He will be brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.
Do you think the Lord delights in the shedding of blood? Nay, but in mercy, and in justice, and in His Only Begotten, who will bring salvation to all who believe on His name.
But if you will not repent, if you will not turn from your whoredoms, your idolatries, and your persecution of the prophets—then a sore destruction awaits this people, and the record of your wickedness will stand as a testimony against you at the last day.
I am Abinadi. I speak not of myself, but the Lord has commanded me. I fear not the wrath of men, for I stand as a witness of Christ. Whether I live or die, my words are true, and they will stand as a voice from the dust.
O people of Noah, the Lord still stretches forth His hand. Will you not hear Him?
Turn youselves to the Holy One of Israel. For by His stripes you may be healed, if you will but look to Him and live.
—Abinadi, the Lord’s Messenger in the Wilderness
