29 O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye astiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by bfoolishand cblind guides? Yea, how long will ye dchoose darkness rather than elight?
30 Yea, behold, the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you; behold, he hath cursed the land because of your iniquity.
31 And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become aslippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them.
32 And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say:
33 O athat I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and bstoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would not have become slippery that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us.
34 Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle.
35 Yea, we have hid up our atreasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.
36 O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
37 Behold, we are surrounded by ademons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls. Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us? And this shall be your language in those days.
38 But behold, your adays of probation are past; ye have bprocrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for chappiness in doing iniquity, which thing is dcontrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.
39 O ye people of the land, that ye would hear my words! And I pray that the anger of the Lord be turned away from you, and that ye would repent and be saved.
THE BOOK OF HELAMAN
CHAPTER 14
Samuel predicts light during the night and a new star at Christ’s birth—Christ redeems men from temporal and spiritual death—The signs of his death include three days of darkness, the rending of the rocks, and great upheavals of nature. About 6 B.C.
1 And now it came to pass that aSamuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written.
2 And behold, he said unto them: Behold, I give unto you a sign; for afive years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name.
3 And behold, this will I give unto you for a asign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.
4 Therefore, there shall be one aday and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is bborn.
5 And behold, there shall a new astar arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.
7 And it shall come to pass that ye shall all be amazed, and wonder, insomuch that ye shall afall to the earth.
8 And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall abelieve on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life.
9 And behold, thus hath the Lord commanded me, by his angel, that I should come and tell this thing unto you; yea, he hath commanded that I should prophesy these things unto you; yea, he hath said unto me: Cry unto this people, repent and prepare the way of the Lord.
10 And now, because I am a Lamanite, and have spoken unto you the words which the Lord hath commanded me, and because it was hard against you, ye are angry with me and do seek to destroy me, and have acast me out from among you.
11 And ye shall ahear my words, for, for this intent have I come up upon the walls of this city, that ye might hear and know of the judgments of God which do await you because of your iniquities, and also that ye might know the conditions of repentance;
12 And also that ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the aFather of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and that ye might know of the signs of his coming, to the intent that ye might believe on his name.
15 For behold, he surely must die that asalvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he bdieth, to bring to pass the cresurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the dpresence of the Lord.
16 Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the aresurrection, and bredeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the cfall of Adam being dcut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as edead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.
Our readings today and tomorrow include the prophecy of Samuel. Samuel pleaded with his people to listen to him and repent. One of the most specific prophecies in scripture is the one by Samuel concerning the birth and death of Jesus Christ. The following chart from the Institute Manual outlines this prophecy and the recorded fulfillment of each specific event:
The Birth of Jesus Christ | The Fulfillment |
1. Christ to be born in five years (v. 2) | |
2. No darkness for a day, a night, and a day (vv. 3–4) | |
3. A new star to arise (v. 5) | |
4. Other signs |
|
| |
|
| The Death of the Lord | The Fulfillment |
| 1. Sun to be darkened, moon and stars not to give light for three days (vv. 20, 27) | 3 Nephi 8:19–23 |
| 2. Signs of the earth | |
| 3 Nephi 8:6–7 |
| 3 Nephi 8:12, 17–18 |
| 3 Nephi 8:5–6 |
| 3 Nephi 8:8–11, 13 |
| 3. Many graves to be opened and people resurrected who shall appear unto many (v. 25) | 3 Nephi 23:9–14 |
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