Helaman Helaman 13:2-4 Tenacious! Courageous! How significant were the words of Samuel the Lamanite? The words of this great prophet were so significant that the Savior himself requested they be added to the gold plates (read 3 Nephi 23:9-13). Helaman 13:6There is no other way!

True or False: 1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything. 2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.

3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet. 4. The prophet will never lead the church astray. 5. The prophet is not required to have any particular training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time. 6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.

7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know. 8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning. 9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual. 10. The prophet may be involved in civic matters.

11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich. 12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly. 13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency, the highest quorum in the church. 14. The prophet and the presidency, the living prophet and the First Presidency, follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.

Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet: By President Ezra Taft Benson BYU Devotional, Feb

Helaman 13:3 O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches! “As we pray daily to God for guidance, we should all make the same plea as George Washington did in his prayer for our country….” ‘In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail” (N. Eldon Tanner, Ensign, May 1976, 51).

Helaman 13:36-38 Ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure! Why? Ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of God!

Helaman 14 ProphecyEvents about Christ’s birth Fulfillment Hel. 14:2Christ born in 5 yrs.3 Nep.1:13 Hel. 14:3-4No darkness for 1 day, night 3 Nep.1:15 Hel. 14:5The new star appears3 Nep.1:21 Hel. 14:6Many signs in heaven3 Nep. 2:1 Hel. 14:7People would fall to the earth 3 Nep.1:16-17 Hel. 14:20Sun, moon, stars darkened 3 Nep.8:19-23 Hel. 14:21 Thundering/lightning for hours 3 Nep.8:12, Hel. 14:23Tempests, mountains made low 3 Nep.8:5-6 Hel. 14:24Highways broken up 3 Nep.8:8- 11,13 Hel.14:25 Graves open/mass resurrection 3 Nep.23:9-14 Hel. 14:16-19 What is the difference between the first death and the second “spiritual death?”

“The term ‘first spiritual death’ refers to the original transgression of Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and to the condition which comes upon a person when he commits his first sin… The ‘second spiritual death’…is used in the Book of Mormon to refer to a death which takes place after physical death wherein the person is ‘cut off again.’… The second spiritual death refers essentially to the state or condition of those who become sons of perdition” (Daniel H. Ludlow, Companion, 248).

Helaman 14:18 Cast into the fire! A representation of the torment which shall be suffered by the wicked. It is not a fire, but tormented of the mind. Let us be thankful that there will be but few who partake of this dreadful punishment (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:224-25).

Helaman 15:4 Why did the Lord prolong the days of the Lamanites? 1. 1 Nephi 2:24, to be a scourge to the Nephites when they forgot God to help them remember Him. 2. Helaman 15:4, Many of the Lamanites would join the Church over time. Helaman 15:8,10 What does it mean to be “steadfast” in the gospel?

“To be firm and steadfast is to be constant, consistent, and vigilant in one’s faith and approach to living the gospel” (Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary, 3:419). Helaman 16:2 They could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows.

Sometimes the Lord will spare his servants. “And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace… And the princes, governor and captains, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them” (Daniel 3:23, 27).

On the other occasion he chooses to bring them home to him. “Now, this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham. These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar, and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians” (Abraham 1:11).

Helaman 16:2, 6 The people “were angry with” and rejected the prophet Samuel. “Why are we mortals so prone to garnish the sepulcher's of the dead and stone the living, or give great credence to the past and deny the present?” (Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 28).

“It is not important that a prophet should say those things with which you and I are in full accord. But it is important that you and I should bring ourselves into full accord with those living things which a prophet speaks by virtue of his office and calling” (Richard L. Evans, Improvement Era, November 1939, 28).

Helaman 16:16-22 How did the wicked explain the prophecies of the coming of Christ? 1. Prophets “guessed right” in some of their prophecies, but not about Christ’s coming (v. 16). 2. Christ’s coming is “not reasonable” (v.18). 3. Prophecies of Christ’s coming are only the result of “wicked traditions” (v. 20). 4. We do not believe anything unless we can see it “with our own eyes” (v. 20). 5. The great mysteries the prophets know can only come from “the evil one” (v.21).