Turbulent Nephite Times

President Benson said this about the Book of Mormon: “In the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Second Coming.  A major portion of the book centers on the few decades just prior to Christ’s coming to America.  By careful study of that time period, we can determine why some were destroyed in the terrible judgments that preceded His coming.”  The book of Helaman in particular in the Book of Mormon gives I think a sobering warning about the times that we live in today.  If we regard the chapters from Helaman 1 to the coming of the Savior in 3 Nephi as a parallel to the last days—those “few decades” prior to the Savior’s appearance—then they certainly gives cause to consider the precarious conditions of our own days.  In particular, there was serious political instability and dangerous situations that must have caused the righteous of those days great alarm. 

                It’s incredible to see how many of their political leaders were killed (or narrowly escaped this fate) in this time of Nephite history.  In Helaman 1, we read of how the three sons of Pahoran—Pahoran, Paanchi, and Pacumeni—were all killed.  Pahoran was murdered on the judgment seat, Paanchi was condemned to death because of his rebellion, and then Pacumeni was killed by killed by Coriantumr the Lamanite general.  In the next chapter Helaman was made the chief judge, and he would have been murdered by Kishkumen if the servant of Helaman had not stopped the attack (Helaman 2:9).  Helaman’s son Nephi held the position for a short time but then gave it up to Cezoram, which we see later was a good thing for Nephi.  Cezoram was “murdered by an unknown hand as he sat upon the judgment-seat.”  His son then became the chief judge, and he was “also murdered” (Helaman 6:15).  What appears to have been the next chief judge (Seezoram) suffered the same fate, for as Nephi revealed the chief judge’s brother Seantum murdered him as part of the Gadianton robbers (Helaman 9:26-34).  That makes five chief judges who were murdered in about a period of thirty years.  But it wasn’t just dangerous in the political arena.  We read that the Gadianton robbers were rampant, and they “did do great destruction unto them; yea, did kill many, and did carry away others captive into the wilderness, yea, and more especially their women and their children” (Helaman 11:33).  Surely it was a scary and dangerous time among the Nephites.  It’s no wonder that Nephi would lament: “O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!” (Helaman 12:4)

                So what do these events of the Book of Mormon mean for us?  Surely the political landscape we will see in the future will be only more volatile and dangerous than it has in the past.  I think we can expect to see the unexpected, but we need not “[fall] to the earth” in astonishment like the five Nephites when we see such things around us (Helaman 9:14).  Our safety lies in our individual actions despite what happens around us as Mormon told us in his commentary of this turbulent time: “Blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.  And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace” (Helaman 12:23-24).