Helaman 5-9

1. Helaman 5-9

2. Helaman 5:2 “Those who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good.” What happens if the wicked outnumber the righteous? “If distress through the judgments of God comes upon this people, it will be because the majority have turned away from the Lord. Let the majority of the people turn away from the Holy Commandments…and cease to hold the balance of power in the Church, and we may expect the judgments of God to come upon us; but while six-tenths or three-fourths of this people will keep the commandments of God, the curse and judgments of the Almighty will never come upon them, though we will have our trials of various kinds” (Brigham Young, JD, 10:336).

3. “That city, nation, government, or Kingdom which serves not God, and gives no heed to the principles of truth and religion, will be utterly wasted away and destroyed” (Brigham Young, JD, 2:176, 178). Helaman 5:5-14 “Remember” appears 15 times! President Kimball said that the word remember might be the most important word in the dictionary (It is used 240 times in the Book of Mormon).

4. “When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be ‘remember.’ Because all of you have made covenants… our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day, to take the sacrament and listen to the priests pray that they ‘may always remember him,’… ‘Remember’ is the word. ‘Remember’ is the program” (Spencer W. Kimball, Book of Mormon Student Study Guide, 147).

5. Some Latter-day Saints remember Him only when adversity overtakes them; in prosperity they forget him… Never forget God” (Joseph F. Smith, in Collected Discourses, 2:280). Helaman 5:6 “Remember your name”

6. George Albert Smith told the story about seeing his grandfather George Albert Smith in a dream. His grandfather was an Apostle and counselor to Brigham Young and weighed over 300 pounds. His grandfather came while George was sick and said, “I would like to know what you have done with my name?” His answer was, “I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed” (George Albert Smith, Sharing the Gospel with Others, 110).

7. Can we say the same? Helaman 5:10-12 “He should not redeem them in their sins,” but to redeem, “from their sins” (D&C 19:20, there is a personal responsibility). What is the rock upon which we should build?

8. “Now the most important principle I can share: Anchor you life in Jesus Christ, your redeemer. Make your Eternal Father and His Beloved Son the most important priority in your life, more important than life itself, more important than a beloved companion or children or anyone on earth” (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1993, 94).

9. “If our lives are centered in Christ, nothing can go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and His teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right” (Howard W. Hunter, Teachings, 40).

10. “At the very moment, at the hour when the crisis came for him to offer up his life, the Father withdrew Himself, withdrew His spirit, and cast a veil over (Jesus). That is what made him sweat blood. If he had the power of God upon Him, He would not have sweat blood; but all was withdrawn from him, and a veil was cast over Him, and He then pleaded with the Father not to forsake Him” (JD, 3:206).

11. “His Father looked on with great grief and agony over His Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: visible flames encircled the humble followers of Christ, literal manifestations of fire and the Holy Ghost, but more often this fire works quietly and unseen in the hearts of those who have received the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Loren C. Dunn, Ensign, June 1995, 24).

12. Helaman 5:47 Who spoke the words “My Well Beloved”? “According to the laws of mediation and intercession which the Father himself ordained, he has chosen to reveal himself through the Son, through that holy personage frequently speaks in the Father’s name by divine investiture of authority; that is, he speaks in the first person as though he were the Father” (Bruce R. McConkie, DNTC, 3:317).

13. Helaman 6 and Ether 8 provide some of the most important insights into secret combinations, including how they work, what motivates them, and how they came to power.

14. Helaman 6:22 Do secret combinations exist today? “The Book of Mormon teaches that secret combinations engaged in crime present a serious challenge, not just to individuals and families but to entire civilizations. Among today’s secret combinations are gangs, drug cartels and organized crime families. The secret combinations of our day function much like the Gadianton robbers of the Book of Mormon times. They have secret signs and code words. They participate in secret rites and initiation ceremonies” (M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, November 1997, 38).

15. The significance of Secret Combinations Such organizations are viewed by the Lord as constituting a wickedness “above all the wickedness of the whole earth” (Ether 8:18). Such organizations flourish and thrive when the “more part” of the people are wicked and seek to benefit from the spoils of such wickedness (v. 38). Secrecy is one of the basic operating tenants of such organizations (v. 22, 25-26).

16. Joined with the idea of secrecy is the idea of making covenants (v. 22, 25-26). The objectives of secret combinations are power or gain, or both (Helaman 6:38). These organizations use immorality, money, and violence to achieve their ends (Helaman 6:15, 17). The only way to lastingly curtail these organizations once they are established and begin to flourish is through conversion of the people to righteousness (Helaman 6:37).

17. Helaman 7:7-8 “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” (Jacob 7:26). If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it’s probably artificial turf! The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but still has to be mowed! Helaman 8:14-15 What connection is there between the “serpent” and the “Son of God”?

18. “Some… have wondered if this story of the serpent…did not account for the ‘serpent motif’ in the art and architecture of some of the American Indian cultures…One of the names given…to the great white God who appeared out of the eastern sky was…Quetzalcoatl, which literally means the bird-serpent” (Daniel H. Ludlow, Companion, 244).

19. Helaman 8:19-20 These men lived somewhere between the time of Abraham (2200 B.C.) and Isaiah (700 B.C.) Their writings were on the brass plates. Zenos is mentioned 12 times in the Book of Mormon. Zenock is mentioned 5 times. Ezias just once.

20. “My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?” “In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it even longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child has to be taken out of the room so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed His head and hid in some part of His universe, His great heart almost breaking for the love that He had for His son. Oh, in that moment when He might have saved His Son, I thank Him and praise Him that He did not fail us, for He had not only the love of His son in mind, but He also had love for us. I rejoice that He did not interfere, and that His love for us made it possible for Him to endure to look upon the sufferings of His Son and give Him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer. With Him, with His sacrifice, we would have remained, and we could have never come glorified into His presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father in heaven to give the gift of His Son unto men” (Melvin R. Ballard, Melvin J. Ballard, Crusaders for Righteousness, SLC, Publishers Press, 1966, 137).

21. Elder Talmage wrote: “Christ’s agony in the garden in unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause…He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other being who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, ‘the prince of this world,’ could inflict…’In some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world” (Jesus the Christ, Talmage, 613).