Ancient and Modern Members of a Secret Band
Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, December 3, 2023, Helaman 8
Nephi struck a major nerve in the corrupt Nephite society.
The bguilty take the ctruth to be hard, because it dcuts them to the very center.
Light and truth always stir up darkness and a dust cloud.
Who was most upset when Nephi spoke the truth? Why, it was the judges and the conspirators whom Nephi had exposed. These wicked judges, robbers, and murderers accused Nephi of reviling against the people and their law. But of course Nephi had done nothing of the sort. Nephi spoke plainly, and he exposed their secret works of darkness. Darkness does not like to be dragged into the light. Darkness shrinks, slinks away, and tries to hide when light shines upon it.
The wicked judges, robbers, and murderers attempted to pin the blame for their own crimes on the only one who had courage enough to speak the truth. There was a division among the people because some of them knew that Nephi was a good man, and they knew that he had spoken the truth. Some of them began to believe that Nephi was a prophet. How else could he have known hidden things?
Therefore, those who sought to destroy Nephi also feared the people and were not able to seize him. This opened up another opportunity for Nephi to speak to them again. Then Nephi launched into one of the most blistering rebukes ever recorded in scripture. Importantly, Mormon doesn’t paraphrase Nephi. He quotes him directly.
Think about this. Why would Mormon, who had so much work to do to abridge a massive history, the hundredth part of which he could not write, include this verbatim rebuke of these wicked Nephites? Mormon could have simply summarized Nephi’s message and encapsulated the main points in a paragraph. But he didn’t. By the time that Mormon had received, read, and studied Nephi’s prophecies, Nephi and his accusers had long since gone the way of all the earth. Furthermore, Mormon didn’t have many faithful supporters and students of the scriptures in his own coterie of friends who would have appreciated the account, and Mormon’s son Moroni was as faithful and as true as they come. So why did Mormon include this blistering rebuke of the hypocritical judges, robbers, and murderers?
The answer, at least to me, is obvious. Mormon was writing for a future audience, and he knew that there would be wicked judges, robbers, and murderers to whom this same rebuke would apply. Mormon also knew that his future audience would include too many spiritually, scripturally, historically, and philosophically illiterate people for whom the opening question “have ye not read” would sharply sting.
The question “have ye not read” was a question that Jesus often posed to the scribes and the pharisees - those who were supposed to have been the most sophisticated and educated among the Jews. Although the scribes and the pharisees quoted scripture freely in support of their own erroneous notions, and although they prided themselves on their great knowledge of scripture, Jesus often had to ask them the same question that Nephi asked his accusers: “have ye not read”? As the Son of God, Jesus spoke with authority. As the Lord’s prophet, Nephi also spoke with authority.
Nephi launched into a withering rebuke that is reminiscent of his namesake’s rebuke of his brothers Laman and Lemuel. Like Nephi of old, Nephi, the son of Helaman drew first from the example and prophecies of Moses. Like Nephi of old, this new Nephi posed poignant rhetorical questions that must have left his audience embarrassed and frozen in their tracks. In essence, Nephi reasoned that if God gave power unto Moses, why couldn’t God give him power?
Nephi showed his accusers that by denying and rejecting his words, they were also denying and rejected the words of their fathers, of Moses, and of all the prophets, including Abraham, aZenos, aZenock, bEzias, cIsaiah, dJeremiah, Lehi, Nephi, and almost all of the fathers up to their own time. This is a crucial point for us to understand. We cannot negate or oppose the teachings of living prophets by using the words of their predecessors against them. Whenever we reject the words of the living prophets, we also reject the words of the prophets who preceded them.
Nephi’s humbling and humiliating history lesson for his accusers, a lesson that was replete with incisive rhetorical questions, and the answers to those questions, turned the tables on them. The accusers incriminated themselves even more, and Nephi lambasted them for their wickedness:
But behold, ye have rejected the truth, and arebelled against your holy God; and even at this time, instead of laying up for yourselves btreasures in heaven, where nothing doth corrupt, and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of cjudgment.
Yea, even at this time ye are ripening, because of your murders and your afornication and wickedness, for everlasting destruction; yea, and except ye repent it will come unto you soon. (Helaman 8:25-26)
Then to seal his prophetic rebuke, Nephi announced, by inspiration, the murder of the chief judge:
Yea, behold it is now even at your doors; yea, go ye in unto the judgment-seat, and search; and behold, your judge is murdered, and he alieth in his blood; and he hath been murdered bby his brother, who seeketh to sit in the judgment-seat.
And behold, they both belong to your secret band, whose aauthor is Gadianton and the evil one who seeketh to destroy the souls of men. (Helaman 8:27-28)
Returning to the theme of Mormon’s future audience, what did Mormon foresee about us? He certainly foresaw masses of spiritually, scripturally, historically, and philosophically illiterate people, including politicians, judges, and even academics who pride themselves on their sophistication and quote scripture freely in support of their own erroneous notions. Mormon certainly foresaw that many people in the last days would reject the truth, arebel against God, and heap up for themselves wrath agains the day of cjudgment instead of laying up for themselves btreasures in heaven. He certainly foresaw that we would be ripening in iniquity, and ripening for destruction because of murders, afornication, and wickedness.
But could we get a little more specific, like Nephi does? Nephi identifies the chief judge and his brother as members of the secret band of Gadianton, and Nephi also identifies the chief judge’s brother as his murderer. In order for us to get more specific about modern Gadiantons, we need to do our research. I’ve already mentioned several good resources for identifying the Gadiantons and the Kishkumens of our time, but I don’t mind mentioning them again:
I would also like to mention that our friends at We Are the People have done great work in bringing to light the conspiracy facts that pertain especially to those of us who live in the great state of Utah. And since I know that inspiration flows from good information, please allow me to provide a brief list of names, some of which are very well known names, of people who have belonged to, or now belong to secret societies and other organizations that reek of Gadianton-like wickedness:
Rhodes Scholars: Rachel Maddow, George Stephanopoulos, Bill Clinton, Gerrit W. Gong, Pete Buttigieg
The Council on Foreign Relations: Jon Huntsman, Jr., Gerrit W. Gong
Skull & Bones: The Bushes, John Kerry, Marvin J. Ashton, Robert F. Bennett, Robert D. Hales, Russell M. Nelson, William F. Buckley, Jr.
The Bohemian Club: Henry Kissinger, the Bushes, Donald Rumsfield, Richard Nixon, Colin Powell, Ronald Reagan, Walter Cronkite, David Brooks, William F. Buckley, Jr., John Gallivan (publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune)
The Alfalfa Club: The Bushes, Dick Cheney, Madeleine Albright, Sandra Day O’Connor, John Kerry, Obama, Mitt Romney, Warren Buffett, Bill Marriott, Chief Justice John Roberts, Neil Armstrong, Joe Biden, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, David McCullough, Condoleeza Rice, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates
To be clear, this does not mean that every person in these lists is necessarily a modern Gadianton robber. Some of them certainly are. The names of others may at least raise an eyebrow or two. And there is more than ample evidence to show that a lot of Gadianton-like corruption is right in our backyard here in Utah. (Warning: some of these material is highly disturbing and viewer discretion is advised: see also here, here, and here)
But until a prophet or an apostle announces from the podium during General Conference an assassination of some kind, we too need to do our part to waste and awear out our lives in bringing to light all the bhidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven.