Abinadi Questions the Priests

Upon hearing this, Noah said to his priests, “Why do you keep this crazy man around? Take him away and kill him!” The priests stepped forward to take hold of Abinadi, but he boldly said to them, “Do not touch me! God will strike you if you do, for I have not yet delivered the Lord’s message to you nor explained Isaiah’s words as you asked me to. Until I do this, God will not allow me to be killed. For I must fulfill the commandments that God has given me. Noah, because I told you the truth, speaking God’s words, you are angry with me and say that I am crazy.”

Because the Lord’s Spirit was upon Abinadi, no one dared touch him. His face shone very brightly, the way Moses’ face shone while he spoke with the Lord on Mt. Sinai. With God’s power and authority, Abinadi said, “Now that you realize you do not have the power to kill me, I will finish my message.

“I know my words cut you to the center of your hearts, for they testify of your sins. My words fill you with wonder, amazement, and anger! After I deliver my message to you, it will not matter where I go, as long as my soul is saved. But whatever you do with me will be a type and shadow of the future.

“Now I will read the rest of God’s commandments. I see that they are not written in your hearts because you have studied and taught sin for most of your lives. The Lord said, ‘Do not create images for your worship that look like anything in heaven, on earth, or in the water. Do not worship them, for I the Lord thy God demand loyalty. My judgments will come against those who hate me, even until their third and fourth generations. But I will show mercy to thousands of the descendants of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“Do not take the Lord’s name in vain, because He will not consider those who do this to be guiltless.

“Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Do all your work in six days, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, do not do any work—not you, your son, daughter, servants, cattle, nor your guests. The Lord made heaven, earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days. Then the Lord blessed the seventh day—the Sabbath—making it a holy day.

“Honor your father and mother. If you do this, the Lord your God will give you a long life upon the land of your inheritance.

“Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not take what is not yours. Do not lie about your neighbor. Do not covet your neighbor’s spouse, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ ”

After saying this, Abinadi asked Noah’s priests, “Have you taught the people to keep these commandments? No, you have not, for if you had, the Lord would not have sent me to prophesy evil about this people. You have said that salvation comes by the law of Moses. I tell you that it is necessary to keep the law of Moses for now, but in the future it will not be.

“Salvation does not come by the law of Moses alone, for if the Atonement were not made by God Himself for the sins of His people, they would all die spiritually—even after keeping the law of Moses

“It was necessary for the Lord to give the children of Israel a very strict law because they were stubborn, quick to sin, and slow to remember the Lord their God. If this strict, daily law of performances and ordinances had not been given to them, they would not have remembered God and their duty to Him. All of their performances and ordinances were types of things to come. But did the children of Israel understand the law? No. Most of them did not understand it because of their pride, which kept them from realizing that they could only be saved through God’s redemption.

“Moses prophesied to them about the coming of the Messiah, and that God would redeem His people. All of the prophets since the world began have said the same. They have all said that God Himself would come down among His people, take the form of a man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the earth, and that He would be oppressed and afflicted, and then bring to pass the resurrection of the dead.”