Helaman 16

Many people heard Samuel the Lamanite’s words spoken from atop the city walls of Zarahemla. Those who believed what Samuel had said went out in search of Nephi to confess their sins and be baptized.

But there were many who didn’t believe what Samuel had to say, and were angry with him for having said it. As he stood on the wall these people threw stones and shot numerous arrows at him. But because the Spirit of God was with him, Samuel was an impossible target to hit. After seeing this miraculous protection, many more people came to believe in what he’d said, and went to Nephi for baptism. As a result of this, Nephi was busy baptizing, prophesying, preaching, crying out for the repentance of the people, revealing signs, and working miracles among the people so they’d know that Jesus Christ was coming soon. Nephi had prophesied many things to come, so that people would recognize these signs when they happened. He did this with the intent of catalyzing people into belief. So when the people heard Samuel speak many of them chose to repent, confess their sins, and be baptized.

But the majority of them didn’t believe what Samuel said. When they saw that they couldn’t hit him with stones and arrows they called officers of the law to come and arrest him. “Arrest this man and take him to prison,” they said. “He is possessed by the devil, and because of this we are unable to hit with our stones and arrows.”

When the officers tried to capture Samuel he jumped down from the city wall and escaped. He returned to his own country where he preached and prophesied among his own people, and was never again heard of by the Nephites.

In the 87th year of elected judges, the majority of the Nephite people held onto their pride and wickedness, and a minority of them maintained their faith in God. [5 BC]

In the 90 th year some of the signs that had been predicted were revealed, and the words of the prophets began to be fulfilled. Angels appeared to wise men and declared that the good news that was written in the scriptures was about to be fulfilled. [2 BC]

In spite of the signs and miracles the unbelievers hardened their hearts further. “Some of these events, among so many, were correctly guessed, ” they conceded, “but we know that all these great events that were predicted will not happen.”

These people used their rational thought to declare, “It is not reasonable to believe that someone such as this Jesus Christ will come. If he is truly the Son of God, why won’t he show himself to us as well as the people of Jerusalem? We know that this is just a wicked myth that was handed down to us by our ancestors to try and make us believe in something that will supposedly happen in some distant land. Because these prophecies purport to take place in this distant land that we cannot see with our own eyes, how would we know whether or not they are true? These believers are really only cunning practitioners of the devil’s mysterious arts who want to keep us down as servants to their words, and servants to them. They want us to be dependent on them to teach us the word and keep us in ignorance for the rest of our lives.”

Many more foolish and vain things were said. The people were disturbed because Satan continually provoked them into sinfulness, by spreading rumors and instigating conflicts across the land. Satan hoped to harden the hearts of the people against all that was good, and against all that was about to come. In spite of all the miracles and signs, Satan was successful in holding onto the hearts of many people all across the land.