Helaman Keeps a Secret
Book of Mormon Notes - Wednesday, October 18, 2023, Alma 45
Mormon creates a very smooth transition from the writings of Alma to the writings of Helaman. It makes sense to me that Mormon wrote the heading to this portion of the Book of Mormon:
The account of the people of Nephi, and their wars and dissensions, in the days of Helaman, according to the record of Helaman, which he kept in his days.
Alma had waxed strong in the gift of prophecy, even between the time of his prophesies regarding the movements of the Lamanites in the wilderness and the time of his final prophesy that he shared with his son Helaman. Alma was about to make his exit from Nephite history, but not before a final interview and conversation with his son Helaman who was his successor as prophet and record keeper.
Mormon’s account of Alma’s interview with his son Helaman and subsequent prophesy looks like another verbatim account, one of the many plain and precious things that Mormon had compiled, organized, and presented with his own commentary and abridgment of the large plates of Nephi. This is the interview:
Believest thou the words which I spake unto thee concerning those arecords which have been kept?
And Helaman said unto him: Yea, I abelieve.
And Alma said again: Believest thou in Jesus Christ, who shall come?
And he said: Yea, I believe all the words which thou hast spoken.
And Alma said unto him again: Will ye akeep my commandments?
And he said: Yea, I will keep thy commandments with all my heart.
Then Alma said unto him: Blessed art thou; and the Lord shall aprosper thee in this land. (Alma 45:2-8)
It is a short and sweet interview, but a necessary prerequisite for the revelation that Alma was ready to divulge to his son Helaman. Alma knew that he could trust his son Helaman with sacred information, and that Helaman would keep it sacred. The same things are prerequisites for revelation in our own lives:
Faith in and understanding of the scriptures that have already been revealed
Faith in Jesus Christ who came, and who will come again soon
Faith to keep the commandments of God and the counsel of living prophets
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught another principle that is exemplified here by Alma and Helaman:
On the subject of revelation he said a man would command his son to dig potatoes and saddle his horse, but before he had done either he would tell him to do something else; this is all considered right, but as soon as the Lord gives a commandment and revokes that decree and commands something else, then the prophet is considered fallen &c Because we will not receive chastisement at the hand of the prophet and apostles, the Lord chastiseth us with sickness and death. Let not any man publish his own righteousness, for others can see that for him, sooner let him confess his sins, and then he will be forgiven, and he will bring forth more fruit. When a corrupt man is chastized he gets angry and will not endure it. The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us, is because we do not keep them, but reveal them; we do not keep our own secrets, but reveal our difficulties to the world, even to our enemies, then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord? ‘I can keep a secret till Doomsday’. What greater love hath any man than that he lay down his life for his friend, then why not fight for our friend until we die.
Alma and Helaman, like the Prophet Joseph Smith, could keep a secret till Doomsday. In fact, they could keep a secret about Doomsday until Doomsday.
What was this secret?
But behold, I have somewhat to aprophesy unto thee; but what I prophesy unto thee ye shall not make known; yea, what I prophesy unto thee shall not be made known, even until the prophecy is fulfilled; therefore write the words which I shall say.
And these are the words: Behold, I perceive that this very people, the Nephites, according to the spirit of revelation which is in me, in afour hundred years from the time that Jesus Christ shall manifest himself unto them, shall dwindle in bunbelief.
Yea, and then shall they see wars and pestilences, yea, famines and bloodshed, even until the people of Nephi shall become aextinct—
Yea, and this because they shall dwindle in unbelief and fall into the works of darkness, and alasciviousness, and all manner of iniquities; yea, I say unto you, that because they shall sin against so great light and knowledge, yea, I say unto you, that from that day, even the bfourth generation shall not all pass away before this great iniquity shall come.
And when that great day cometh, behold, the time very soon cometh that those who are now, or the seed of those who are now numbered among the people of Nephi, shall ano more be numbered among the people of Nephi.
But whosoever remaineth, and is not destroyed in that great and dreadful day, shall be anumbered among the bLamanites, and shall become like unto them, all, save it be a few who shall be called the disciples of the Lord; and them shall the Lamanites pursue even cuntil they shall become extinct. And now, because of iniquity, this prophecy shall be fulfilled. (Alma 45:9-14)
Can you imagine what Mormon and Moroni must have felt when they first read and then transcribed this prophecy?
It’s like The Neverending Story when Atreyu enters the stone temple where the prophesies are engraved upon the walls, and Atreyu realizes that the prophecies are about him. It’s like The Dark Crystal when Kira and Jen discover that they will fulfill the prophecies for healing the Dark Crystal. More realistically, it’s like Ether emerging from his cave to see that the words of the Lord had been fulfilled. It’s like Joseph Smith translating 2 Nephi 3 and realizing that the prophesy is about him. It’s like our Lord reading Isaiah in front of the congregation in Nazareth and testifying of His Divine Sonship.
Mormon and Moroni were among the last surviving Nephites, and perhaps the only survivors who had access to these records and read them. They remained, and for a time they were not destroyed. They were among the few disciples of Christ, and the Lamanites were pursuing them in order to destroy them. The Nephites were about to become extinct when Mormon and Moroni read and transcribed this prophesy that Alma shared with his son Helaman. Approximately 400 years after the coming of Jesus Christ, Mormon and Moroni had witnessed the dwindling in unbelief of the Nephites, their degeneration, their wars, pestilences, famines, and bloodshed, their works of darkness, lasciviousness, and all manner of iniquities, and their near extinction.
Before vanishing from Nephite society, Alma gave a final blessing to his sons and he blessed the Promised Land for the righteous sake. Alma’s blessing and cursing upon the Land of Promise applies just as much to us today as it ever did to the Nephites or the Lamanites:
And he said: Thus saith the Lord God—aCursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do bwickedly, when they are fully ripe; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the cblessing of God upon the land, for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the dleast degree of allowance. (Alma 45:16)
We know that Alma’s prophesies, including his prophesies about the extinction of the Nephites, were all fulfilled. Thus we might want to pay close attention whenever Alma prophesies. If Alma prophesied, and if the Lord told him plainly that the Promised Land would be cursed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, for those who do wickedly and are fully ripe in iniquity, then I believe him. How are we doing in the Promised Land? If my discernment serves me well at all, then I cannot help but suppose that, even if we are not yet fully ripe in iniquity, we are quickly ripening for destruction.
Mormon notes that Alma blessed the Church and then vanished from Nephite society, perhaps in the same way that the Lord took Moses up unto Himself. Subsequently, Helaman went forth among his people, as his father Alma and his grandfather Alma had done before him, to declare the word unto them and to make a regulation throughout the Church. There were great convulsions in Nephite society at this time because of the wars with the Lamanites, the dissensions from the Nephites, and other disturbances. The Nephites were growing prideful during this time and they rejected the preaching of Helaman and his brethren. Mormon summarizes the attitude of the Nephites at this time as follows:
But they grew proud, being lifted up in their hearts, because of their exceedingly great ariches; therefore they grew rich in their own eyes, and would not give heed to their words, to bwalk uprightly before God. (Alma 45:24)
When we recall that Mormon did not record this abridgment and summary merely for his own sake or even for the sake of his son Moroni, but for us in the last days, then we may want to pay closer attention when Mormon interjects again with more “thus we see” lessons to draw from Nephite history.