The Five Seekers of Truth

Helaman 9 contains an interesting story about five Nephites and their quest to understand whether Nephi was a true prophet.  The people were gathered together at the garden of Nephi, and the prophet was speaking out against their corruption and wickedness.  When he proclaimed, “Go ye in unto the judgment-seat, and search; and behold, your judge is murdered, and he lieth in his blood; and he hath been murdered by his brother,” five of those who were listening decided that they would check out his claim (Helaman 8:27).  They went to the judgment seat, found the chief judge dead as prophesied, were falsely accused of the murder and put in jail, and then they were released.  Is there anything we can learn from these five and their story?

               I believe that the story of these five Nephites teaches us something about faith and following the prophet.  Though they were not believers at first, they were willing to listen to the prophet and try “an experiment upon [his] words” (Alma 32:27).  They clearly had a sincere desire to know for themselves if Nephi was indeed a prophet, and they were willing to put for the effort required to find that out.  They said this to themselves as they “ran in their might” to the judgment seat: “Now we will know of a surety whether this man be a prophet and God hath commanded him to prophesy such marvelous things unto us….  If this thing which he has said concerning the chief judge be true, that he be dead, then will we believe that the other words which he has spoken are true” (Helaman 9:2-3).  They were not simply sign-seekers, but they were seeking with real intent to understand the truth and everything that implied.  They knew that if they found that the prophecy was true, it would mean that the other things he taught must also be true. 

When they arrived and found the chief priest dead they were “astonished” but “they believed” as they had promised.  And they faced what happens often to those who first begin down the path of belief in true prophets: they received opposition.  They were falsely accused of the murder, and the people “bound them and cast them into prison.”  But they did not give up on their new understanding about Nephi, and this experience in jail somehow solidified their new found testimony of the truth Nephi taught: “They [were] converted while they were in prison.”  Soon they were set free when it was clear that they were not the murderers.  When they were liberated from the jail they showed their faith in the prophet and willingness to stand up for him: “They did rebuke the judges in the words which they had spoken against Nephi, and did contend with them one by one, insomuch that they did confound them.”  And theirs was a true conversion indeed, for after the events unfolded they became missionaries of what they had come to know, “There were some also, who believed because of the testimony of the five.” Their story I think shows what happens when we are sincere in searching for the truth and willing to test the words of the prophet—if we persevere through the opposition and challenges that come as we experiment on the word, we can gain the witness we desire.