Samuel Prophesies of the Signs of Christ

This Lamanite prophet, Samuel, said many other things to the people, but not all his words can be written in this book. Here are more of his words:

“I will give you a sign, which will happen in five years, when the Son of God comes to redeem all who believe in Him. There will be great lights in heaven during the night before He comes. That night there will be no darkness, for it will seem like day.

“This will be your sign: You will see the sun set and rise as usual, but the night before His birth will not be dark. You will have one day, one night, and one day without darkness.

“You will also see a new star in the sky. This is not all, for you will see many signs and wonders in the sky and be so amazed that you will fall to the earth. And everyone who believes in the Son of God will have everlasting life. This is what the Lord’s angel told me to tell you. The angel commanded me to prophesy these things to you. He told me to cry to this people, ‘Repent and prepare the way of the Lord!’

“Because I am a Lamanite, and because I told you the Lord’s harsh words, you threw me out of your city. Now you are angry with me again and want to kill me. But you will hear me now, for I have climbed on top of this wall to tell you of God’s judgments that await you because of your sins, and how you may yet repent of them. I came to tell you of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning, and also of the signs of His coming so that perhaps you will believe in Him. If you believe in Him, you will repent of all your sins and have them taken from you through His merits.

“I give you another sign—the sign of His death, for He must surely die so that salvation and the resurrection may come. After men and women are resurrected, they will again be brought into the presence of the Lord. His death and resurrection will redeem all people from the first death of their spirit and body. The first death came upon Adam and Eve and upon all their descendants when they were sent out from the Lord’s presence, out of the garden into a world in which their bodies had to die. Because they were no longer in the Lord’s presence, they were considered to be dead to spiritual things. This condition for them, and now for us, is called the first death. The resurrection of Christ redeems all people from this first death of the body and spirit by bringing them back into the Lord’s presence. The resurrection of Christ also allows us to repent and not suffer a second death, or a spiritual death, which is to be cut off from the Lord’s presence again after we are judged. Therefore, I call upon all of you to repent! Otherwise, you will suffer a second death for knowing these things and not doing them.

“On the day that Christ dies, the sun will be darkened and refuse to give its light. The moon and the stars will do the same, so that no light will be upon the face of this land. This complete darkness will continue for three days, beginning from the time Christ dies and continuing until He rises again. And when His spirit leaves His body, there will be thunder and lightning for many hours as the earth shakes and trembles. Massive rocks, both on the surface of the earth and below it, will be broken up. The entire face of the earth will be broken up, above and below. There will be great storms, and many mountains will become valleys, while many valleys will become very high mountains. Many highways will be broken up, and many cities will become desolate. Graves will be opened, and resurrected saints will appear to many.

“The angel told me that this thunder and lightning will last for many hours. He said that after these great destructions, darkness will cover the whole earth for three days. The angel told me that before Christ is born, many people will see even greater signs than these. This will prepare them to believe in Christ when the signs of His birth are given—so that whoever believes might be saved, and whoever will not believe will be given a righteous judgment. If the unbelievers receive condemnation, they will have brought it upon themselves.

“And now, remember my brothers and sisters, that those who die in their sins can only blame themselves, for God has given you the knowledge and the freedom to act for yourselves—the knowledge to know good from evil, and the freedom to choose life or death. You may do good and have good restored to you, or you may choose evil and be restored to evil.