They Did Not Doubt ~ They Had Been Taught by Their Mothers

When Alma went on his mission to the Zoramites, he took with him his three young adult sons.  The eldest of these was named Helaman.  Helaman was a righteous man of great faith and he became the prophet and high priest of the Church when his father died.  Helaman had a son named Helaman who also became prophet of the Church in a time of warfare.

Once again, the Nephites were embroiled in war with the Lamanites.  I have often wondered why Mormon, the editor who abridged of the Book of Mormon, chose to include so many chapters about the many Nephite wars.  I have come to believe that it is because the Book of Mormon in it's current form was written for us in these latter days.  It is a cautionary tale given to us by the grace of God to help us make better choices than they did.  The key message of the Book is Jesus Christ - prophecies of His coming; declarations of His birth, atonement, death, and resurrection; preaching of His gospel.  The problem with the Nephites is that they would have historical times of great faith and then conscious, willing rebellion against Jesus Christ.  It was at these times that warfare, death, and suffering ruled.  But interspersed in these tales of war are tales of great faith.  I wish to share one of these today.

Remember*, if you will, that when the Lamanites were converted to the gospel by Ammon, they buried their weapons of war and made solemn covenants to die rather than take them up again.  That is exactly what happened.  When the violent and warlike Lamanites attacked them, they knelt down and prayed.  Many men were slain that day before the attacking Lamanites realized that they were killing unarmed men and stopped the slaughter.  Many of this invading army actually joined with the converts being so impressed by the depth of their faith.

Ultimately, the group was moved north to Jershon.  A large number of the children were raised by widowed mothers.  These were women of great faith and they taught their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord. (see Doctrine and Covenants 68:28)

As the war grew to such a pitch, the Lamonites of Ammon who were living in Jershon were concerned that the Nephites might be overrun and began to think of taking up weapons of war again.  The Prophet Helaman traveled to Jershon and counseled against such a move.  Here is the account as written by Helaman to the Chief Captain of the Nephite armies:

And now ye also know concerning the covenant which their fathers made, that they would not take up their weapons of war against their brethren to shed blood. But in the twenty and sixth year, when they saw our afflictions and our tribulations for them, they were about to break the covenant which they had made and take up their weapons of war in our defence.

 

But I would not suffer them that they should break this covenant which they had made . . . (Alma 52: 6-8)

 

During these discussions, it was made known that there were 2000 young men (probably still in their teens) who had been children at the time and, therefore, had not taken the oath.  They allied themselves with Helaman, if he would lead them, to support the Nephite armies.  This is what he wrote of them:

 

Behold, two thousand of the sons of those men whom Ammon brought down out of the land of Nephi—now ye have known that these were descendants of Laman, who was the eldest son of our father Lehi; . . . Therefore it sufficeth me that I tell you that two thousand of these young men have taken their weapons of war, and would that I should be their leader; and we have come forth to defend our country.

.  .  .

 

Therefore what say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle?

And now I say . . . that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.  For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army . . .

 

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.  And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.  (Alma 52: 3, 5, 44-48)

 

In what did these "stripling warriors" have faith? ~ In Messiah/Christ who would come.  They knew that if they lived, they would live in Christ and if they died, they would die in Christ.  In either eventuality, they would be saved.  What an incredible story of faith for men as young as they.

 

As we approach this Christmas day, we talk about our faith in Jesus Christ who came to earth and a helpless babe and changed all eternity.  These young men had faith in a Christ who was yet to come.  Do we have as much faith as they?

* December 16th post

 

Text copyright December 2013, Gebara Education

Picture of Helaman from www.bookofmormonbattles.com

All other pictures from www.lds.org