Helaman 8

When Nephi said this he angered a lot of men, including the judges who belonged to the gang of robbers. “Why don’t you seize this man,” they asked the people, “and bring him forward to be condemned for his crimes? Didn’t you just hear this man accuse our judges, and rebel against our laws?”

In fact, Nephi spoke out about the corruption of their laws, but nothing he said ran contrary to the commandments of God. The judges were angry because he spoke honestly about their secret conspiracies and works of darkness. But they were afraid to personally arrest Nephi because they were worried that the people might oppose them. They asked the people to have him arrested.

“Why do you let this man rebel against us?” they asked. “He also condemns all of you people, and consigns you to destruction. He tells us that our great cities will be taken away from us and that we will have no place in them. We all know this is nonsense. We are powerful, our cities are great, and our enemies are powerless over us.”

In this way the judges incited the people’s anger against Nephi, and caused conflicts among them. There were some who disagreed with the judges, and said, “Leave this man alone. He is a good man, and unless we repent, what he prophesies will surely come to pass. The judgments about our sinfulness that he’s testified to are correct. He knows what will happen to us just as surely as he knows about our sinfulness. If he were not a prophet, he could not have testified as he did.”

The men who wanted to arrest and destroy Nephi were afraid to do so. Seeing that he’d won approval for his views from many of the men assembled, Nephi spoke again. “Brothers, you’ve read about how God gave Moses the power to divide the waters of the Red Sea so that our ancestors escaped from the Egyptian armies. You can remember how the waters closed upon the Egyptians, and drowned them after our people had passed through. If God could give this much power to one man, then why do you argue that he hasn’t given me the power to know about the judgments you will receive if you don’t repent? Not only do you deny my words, but you also deny the words that have been spoken by our ancestors including this man Moses, who prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. Didn’t Moses testify that the Son of God would come? Just as Moses lifted up the brass snake in the wilderness, so too will God lift up the Messiah who will come. Just as those who saw the snake, lived, so too will those who see the Son of God with faith, live eternally.

“It wasn’t just Moses who testified to these things,” Nephi continued, “but all the holy prophets since the days of Abraham. When Abraham saw the coming of the Messiah he rejoiced and was filled with gladness. Even before Abraham there were many others who were called by God and shown the coming of his Son, thousands of years before his arrival. They saw how the redemption of men would become possible. Since the days of Abraham many prophets have testified about these things including the prophets Zenock, Ezias, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zenos, who was even killed for his bold prophecies.”

“Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, and we know that Jerusalem was destroyed just as Jeremiah predicted. So how can you disbelieve in the coming of Jesus Christ according to his prophecy? How can you dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed? Do you claim that sons of Zedekiah, except for Mulek, were not killed? Don’t you know that the descendants of Zedekiah who are among us were survivors of that destruction?

“Our ancestor Lehi was driven from Jerusalem because he testified about these things. Our ancestor Nephi also testified about this, along with almost all of our ancestors down to this time. They have prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ, and have rejoiced as they looked forward to that day of his coming. Jesus Christ is the God who was with them, who manifested himself to them so that they could be redeemed. They gave their devotion to him because they knew about what would come. You know these things are true, and cannot deny them unless you lie. In your lying about this, you have sinned. You have rejected these things in spite of all the evidence that you’ve received from heaven and from earth telling you that these things are true. But you’ve rejected the truth, rebelled against God, and instead of preparing yourselves for heaven where corruption and filth are not allowed, you are preparing yourself for the anger of God on judgment day. Because of your murders, wickedness, and fornication you are ripe for destruction unless you repent, and do it soon.

“Destruction is now at your doorstep,” concluded Nephi. “If you go to the chief judge’s throne right now, you will find that your chief judge has been murdered and lies in his own blood. He has been murdered by his own brother who now seeks to be the chief judge. Both of these men belong to your secret band of Gadianton. This Gadianton of yours is the evil one who wants to destroy the souls of men.”