“Shadows and the Seer!” GET TO THE POINT™ Come Follow Me: Helaman 7-12

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Opening Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRchmZZB2Do

I. Theme: Shadows and the Seer
II. Helaman 7 Helaman 8 Helaman 9
i. Colophon, ancient heading. Book focuses on Nephi3's ministry.
ii. Nephi comes back from circuit, and weighed down by wickedness
1. "having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;
2. 5  Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—
3. 6  Now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years" Helaman 7:4-6
a. Specific issues with robbers: enabling wickedness.
b. NAM A 1992: "God will also “hasten” His work. (D&C 88:73.) He will also “shorten” the last days “for the elect’s sake”; hence, there will be a compression of events. (Matt. 24:22; JS—M 1:20.) Furthermore, “all things shall be in commotion.” (D&C 88:91.) Only those in the process of becoming the men and women of Christ will be able to keep their spiritual balance. Brethren, may we “walk by faith,” and, if necessary, even on our knees!"
c. Think about the cultural accelerators.
4. Wishes he could be in days of Lehi and Nephi, eat raw meat and get beaten up by L and L
iii. A crowd coalesces
1. Nephi, why gathered, like Isaiah and Christ reed shaken in the wind?
2. Continues his invective preaching. Connecting wickedness and secret combinations
iv. Crowd Reaction, Crowd division
1. Judges who were Gadianton (sole management, personal lives like Order of Nehor). Say mock laws and people. Say today not patriotic. Laws part of religion, revealed to Moses; Keep stable society "Rule of Law"
2. People say, no he's right, scares off judges.
3. Conversations today
v. Nephi continues
1. Moses, Abraham, lost prophets
2. Punch line: Chief Judge Seezoram dead (Zoram in name)
3. Shift from political thriller, war story to a murder mystery: whodunit?
vi. Tragicomedy of errors
1. 5, who are skeptics, got to judge, find dead and pass out. They discovered, thought to be murders. State funeral. Then wonder what happened to the missing 5
2. Guilt shifts to Nephi, put on trial, bribed, and continues preaching. A lot of warning, and little warmth. But it is what was needed
3. Explains that brother killed him, and shows how to detect him
4. Go to Seatum, and find blood on skirts, and countenance changes--excited outburst.
5. Part ways, Nephites none the wiser
a. Denialism and S combinations cloud eyes.
III. Helaman 10 Sealing Power
i. A coda to events
ii. Crowd divided, part ways. Nephi ponders
iii. Words of Heavenly Father (should be in red letters)
1. Unwearingness
2. Sealing power (not keys. Elijah Died in 9th century, 800s, and Nephi 20 BC)
a. "And behold, if ye shall say that God shall smite this people, it shall come to pass."
b. 11  And now behold, I command you, that ye shall go and declare unto this people, that thus saith the Lord God, who is the Almighty: Except ye repent ye shall be smitten, even unto destruction."(Book of Mormon | Helaman 10:10 - 11)
3. Doesn't go home, but continues his circuit of preaching. Spirit conveys him, as Elijah
4. "And it came to pass that they would not hearken unto his words; and there began to be contentions, insomuch that they were divided against themselves and began to slay one another with the sword." Helaman 10:18
5. SC lead to civic breakdown--law and due process serves those combined.
IV. Helaman 11
i. Wars
1. "the contentions did increase, insomuch that there were wars throughout all the land among all the people of Nephi. And it was this secret band of robbers who did carry on this work of destruction and wickedness" Helaman 11:1 - 2
2. Physical and Spiritual Crimes
ii. Nephi prays to replace war with famine
1. Pray for bad things to happen?
a. Have mercy, O Lord, upon the wicked mob, who have driven thy people, that they may cease to spoil, that they may repent of their sins if repentance is to be found; D&C 109:50
b. O Lord, we delight not in the destruction of our fellow men; their souls are precious before thee;
c. But thy word must be fulfilled.  Help thy servants to say, with thy grace assisting them: Thy will be done, O Lord, and not ours. D&C 109:43 - 44
2. Less violent curse, Swept away band of Gadianton
3. Worked, for a bit. More contentions
a. Contend over doctrine
b. But it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi, and many of their brethren who knew concerning the true points of doctrine, having many revelations daily, therefore they did preach unto the people, insomuch that they did put an end to their strife in that same year. Helaman 11:23
4. Robbers return
a. And they did commit murder and plunder; and then they would retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered, receiving daily an addition to their numbers, inasmuch as there were dissenters that went forth unto them. (Book of Mormon | Helaman 11:25)
b. Not many years great band
c. Wreck havoc
5. Armies ineffective, raided and captures women and children, rape and twist the minds of the children against God
6. Two type
a. Urban, government
b. Feral, or mountains group
c. GBH O 2001
i. It is the terrorist organizations that must be ferreted out and brought down.
ii. We of this Church know something of such groups. The Book of Mormon speaks of the Gadianton robbers, a vicious, oath-bound, and secret organization bent on evil and destruction. In their day they did all in their power, by whatever means available, to bring down the Church, to woo the people with sophistry, and to take control of the society. We see the same thing in the present situation.
V. Helaman 12 Human Nature
i. JT Ch. 1
ii. Human nature
1. Doctrine of Christ
a. Lost, Fallen, worthless
b. carnal sensual devilish
c. Enemy to God
d. "And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him." Helaman 12:3
e. False Prophets, false quorum instuctors and Sunady School teachers? False testimony bearers?
2. Rivals to HumanNature
a. Evolution, by mutations and natural selection improve
b. Self Esteem, Human Potential Movement (1960s)
c. Racial essentialsim
i. Pres Nelson's calls welcome and needed
ii. Anti whiteness part of work ideology
3. Problem not behaviors, not character, but nature
4. he Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson , p.28 "Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ. No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind."
iii. And I would that all men might be saved.  But we read that in the great and last day there are some who shall be cast out, yea, who shall be cast off from the presence of the Lord; 26  Yea, who shall be consigned to a state of endless misery, Helaman 12:25 - 26)
VI. Chrsit Quotient
i. Dangers of Combinations. pray for discernment
ii. Crowd Reactions:where do you stand?
iii. Prophets and Politics
1. 14 fundamentals
2. Council of 50
iv. Sealing Power
1. [The] sealing power puts the stamp of approval upon every ordinance that is done in this Church and more particularly those that are performed in the temples of the Lord. JFiS, 157
2. DTC O 2023
a. We tend to think of the sealing authority as applying only to certain temple ordinances, but that authority is necessary to make any ordinance valid and binding beyond death. The sealing power confers a seal of legitimacy upon your baptism, for example, so that it is recognized here and in heaven. Ultimately, all priesthood ordinances are performed under the keys of the President of the Church, and as President Joseph Fielding Smith explained, “He [the President of the Church] has given us authority, he has put the sealing power in our priesthood, because he holds those keys.”
v. Human Nature
1. Misunderstanding the problem leads to a wrong solution
2. All people good. think of the tragic idealist Zeniff: saw good, taken in, and a weapons smith for his people's liberation.
3. If people are good, why did Christ have to suffer to atone?
4. Need to understand doctrine: invitation: Know doctrine and know Christ, that's the point
 
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