The Coming and Resurrection of Christ

After King Benjamin’s marvelous sermon on the Savior, the people were so moved that nearly all of them entered into a covenant to take upon themselves the name of Christ.  Mormon recorded that the names of the people were taken down: “King Benjamin thought it was expedient, after having finished speaking to the people, that he should take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments. And it came to pass that there was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ” (Mosiah 6:1-2).  The small aside that little children did not enter into the covenant actually turned out to be significant.  This happened in about 124 B.C., and it marked the beginning of the reign of Mosiah.  At some point in the next 24 years, these who were children at the time of King Benjamin’s speech became the cause of much trouble: “Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.”  They apparently did not believe the words of their parents as they recounted King Benjamin’s testimony, and therefore “they did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.”  The unbelief of those two facts—the resurrection and coming of Christ, led to their general unbelief and hardened hearts (Mosiah 26:1-3).                     

King Benjamin had indeed taught about the Savior’s resurrection and His coming, saying, “The time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay.”  After teaching some of what Christ would do, King Benjamin taught, “And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world” (Mosiah 3:5,10).  I think it is significant that Mormon would highlight these two important principles—the resurrection and coming of Christ—as the root cause of the young people’s unbelief.  If we don’t believe that we will live after this life, and if we don’t believe that Christ will come to right the wrongs of this world (and judge us of our own deeds), then we have little motivation to believe the rest of the gospel or keep the commandments.  As Paul put it, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:19).  The teachings of the gospel without the coming and resurrection of Christ would offer little lasting hope. 

            It is very likely that Mosiah’s four sons were among those “little children” who did not believe the words of King Benjamin after the fact.  Mosiah was about 30 years old when his father addressed the people, and so it is pretty unlikely that he had any children at that point old enough to really understand his father’s words and to make a covenant with Christ.  So it is no surprise that, once they were finally converted, these four sons and missionaries to the Lamanites would emphasize those principles they had at first rejected: the coming of the Savior and the resurrection.  We read of Ammon among the people of Lamoni, “He also made known unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and all the works of the Lord” (Alma 18:39).  When Aaron taught the Lamanites, he “began to open the scriptures unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead,” teaching specifically those very two principles.  Later when Aaron went before the king over all the land, he again spoke of Christ’s coming and the resurrection, teaching that “the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory” (Alma 22:14).  This testimony of the coming of Christ and the resurrection passed onto the Lamanite converts surely was a pillar of strength for them as they faced death from their brethren when they buried their weapons of war.  “They did look forward to the coming of Christ” and “they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come” (Alma 25:15-16).  At this time when we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior, we too look forward to things to come with a testimony in the words of King Benjamin that He will return and bring the power of the resurrection to all mankind.