Mosiah 12

After two years, Abinadi came again to the kingdom, in disguise, to deliver his prophecies. “God has commanded me to tell you about the punishment that awaits you if you do not relent in your disobedience to his laws and repent your evil ways. God curses this generation of people. You will be hunted and killed by the Lamanites before being delivered to them as slaves. When King Noah’s life is worth less than garments burning in a fire, he will know who God is. God will punish his people with such troubles, starvation, and disease that they will howl in sorrow all day long. Their backs will be loaded with burdens and they will be driven like donkeys. Bitter winds and insects will afflict their crops and steal their grain. This will be done in retribution for your sins and abominations. Unless you repent, you will be utterly destroyed from the face of the earth. Only your records will be left behind to show that you ever existed, and these will be used as an example to other nations.” [148 BC]

Abinadi was bound up and brought before King Noah as a prisoner. “This man is out prophesying evil about our people and says that God will destroy us,” they said. “He says that your life is as worthless as a dry stalk trampled underfoot. He pretends to speak for God, saying that great harm will befall us unless we repent. What sins have we done that we should be condemned or judged critically by this man or by God? We are guiltless and this man lies about all of us, making false prophecies. We are far too strong and prosperous to be become slaves of the Lamanites, as he predicts. We give this man to you, to do what you think is best.”

Sometime after Abinadi was cast into prison, King Noah’s priests brought him out for questioning. During the interrogation, the priests hoped to confuse him and to have good reasons to condemn him for heresy. But Abinadi answered boldly and confounded them with his words. One of his questioners asked him about the meaning of an old scripture of prophecy from Isaiah.

“How can you priests pretend to teach your people,” asked Abinadi in response, “about the spirit of prophecy, if you ask me for the meaning of your scriptures? You are perverting the ways of God. Even if you do understand the scriptures, they certainly aren’t what you teach. What do you teach your people?”

“We teach the law of Moses,” they replied.

“If you teach the law of Moses,” Abinadi said, “why don’t you keep it? Why do you devote yourselves to wealth and fornication? Why do you allow your people to live in sin? God has sent me to expose this evil against his people. You know that I speak the truth and that you should tremble before God. You will be punished for your crimes, because you say you teach the law of Moses. Doesn’t the law of Moses say that salvation comes from observance of God’s commandments?”

When the priests affirmed that salvation did come from observance of the law of Moses, Abinadi said to them, “If you keep the commandments of God, you will be saved. God said to Moses, ‘I am the god who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. You shall have no other gods but me. You shall not worship any idols or graven images.’ And yet you have done exactly that and taught the people to do these things. You have not obeyed the law of Moses at all.”