Abinadi

It's a heavy witness that he has to share of something negative.

Which by the way, remember the priests of Noah, King Noah, the Book of Mormon? They were mad at Abinadi for preaching negative things, and they turn to Isaiah and say, "Hey, interpret this." And because a, a true prophet should only speak uplifting things and never bring or share anything that might have a negative vibe.

Right.

And these, the priests of Noah clearly had never taken the time to read Isaiah 13, that sometimes there's, uh, there, there's heaviness in the message.

And what's interesting, if I think back to King Noah's priests, they were like the leaders who were vomiting everywhere and just drunk with wine.

In fact, Noah was getting everybody drunk.

And Abinadi, who shows up and also preaches the message of Isaiah, could have used this with them and said, you guys are doing exactly what Isaiah called out in 28.

Woe to drunken leaders.

It doesn't appear in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and more significantly, it does not appear in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Nephi uses it once, Zeniff once, Abinadi once, and Mormon uses it three times throughout his narration.

It is a very helpful and descriptive phrase of a common human tendency.

If Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon, how could he have avoided using the phrase in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price? He didn't have to because they were not his words.

There's only four people in the Book of Mormon that use Isaiah, and three of them were born in the Middle East, Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus.

There's this one odd guy out called Abinadi, who is a mysterious character.

Abinadi in Book of Mormon situation is a lot like Elijah in Judaism.

He's a mysterious person.

We can't quite figure him out.

But Abinadi quotes Isaiah 53, and that's all we get from him on that.

But it's Nephi and Jacob, who are both native Middle Easterners, and Jesus, obviously, native Middle Easterner, born in Bethlehem, who know how to deal with Isaiah, and they were all Jews.

To the extent that any Latter-day Saint out there will try to do what Nephi did and learn those things of the Jews which would help them, that Old Testament context which would help them understand Isaiah, you'll be blessed with that contextual layer that becomes this foundation for building your understanding of the Restoration and the Gathering.

That's a you thing.

I see them all at the same time." Look at people like Abinadi, who see something and then speak as it has already happened, 'cause they saw it already happen.

In their mind, yeah, it's already happened.

I saw it.

Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield, the past, the glorious future stand revealed.

we are now of necessity carried back in our research to the cradle of nations the tower of babel in order to trace the history of this wonderful science from the first emigration of a colony to the western hemisphere till its final decline and overthrow for the knowledge of which we are indebted to many ancient records written by the fathers or ancient students and professors of this science on the western hemisphere Among these we will make honorable mention of the prophets Jared, Ether, Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Abinadi, Mormon, and Moroni, who wrote and prophesied in the Western Hemisphere during the several ages intervening between the time of the dispersion at Babel and the 5th century of the Christian era.

by the science of theology jared and his brother led a colony from the great tower to the sea coast conversing with the lord and walking by the light of his revelations on the way by this science they were instructed in the building of eight barges similar to the ark of noah by this science their leader saw god face to face and talked with him in plain humility as one man talks with another thus obtaining a knowledge of his future coming and kingdom and of the great events of all ages and generations by this science they were preserved on the great waters three hundred and forty-four days and were then landed with their eight barges in the western hemisphere together with their women children cattle and seeds of every kind by this science they became a great nation peopling the entire continent and enjoying all the blessings of civilization and heavenly light by the abuse and neglect of it they were at length exterminated in the days of their prophet ether who lived about six hundred years before christ came in the flesh By this science, the prophets Lehi and Nephi came out with a colony from Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, and after wandering for eight years in the wilderness of Arabia, came to the sea coast, built a vessel, obtained from the Lord a compass to guide them on the way, and finally landed in safety on the coast of what is now called Chile in South America.

by this science they also became a great nation enjoyed many visions and the ministering of angels and of many prophets by which means they knew of the coming birth ministry death resurrection and ascension of jesus christ by this science they also enjoyed a personal visit of the risen redeemer who descended from heaven in their presence taught them his gospel chose and ordained twelve of their number as apostles and prophesied many things by this science these twelve and others established the gospel church and ordinances of god throughout the entire western hemisphere by this science their sick were healed demons were expelled the lame walked the blind saw the dumb spake the deaf heard and their dead were raised by this science three of those apostles having a change wrought upon them tarried in the flesh upon the earth ministered the gospel and its blessings nearly four hundred years and then withdrew from the people because of their iniquity took away the keys of apostleship and of the gospel and its powers sealed up the records and caused the work of healing and of gifts and miracles to cease from among the people because of iniquity bloodshed and persecution by this science they yet live in the flesh upon the earth holding keys of apostleship and power upon the western hemisphere being now about one thousand eight hundred years old by this science being held in reserve above the powers of mystery babylon they will soon go forth prophesying preaching the gospel and doing mighty signs and wonders in the midst of all nations in order to complete and mature the gentile fulness and restore the tribes of israel nor is this all john the beloved disciple among the jews is yet alive in the flesh and is held in reserve to prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings as it is written But to return to our history of the Western Hemisphere, after the science of theology had ceased to be cultivated and enjoyed among this branch of Israel, terrible wars and bloodshed ensued.

The second passage comes from Mosiah.

In the fifteenth chapter, the prophet Abinadi is quoting the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to the wicked priests of King Noah.

The tenth and eleventh verses read in part as follows, And now I say unto you, Who shall declare his generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.

And who shall be his seed? Behold, I say unto you that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets and have hearkened unto their words and believed that the Lord would redeem his people are his seed.

For many years I envisioned the garden and the cross as places where an infinite mass of sin and pain were heaped upon the Savior.

Thanks to Alma and Abinadi, it is no longer an infinite mass.

but an infinite stream of people with whom the Savior became intimately acquainted as he suffered our sins, pains, and afflictions.

I testify that he knows each of us, is concerned personally about our progress, and has the infinite capacity not only to heal our wounds, but also to lift us up to the Father as sanctified sons and daughters.

Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield, the past, the glorious future stand revealed.

we are now of necessity carried back in our research to the cradle of nations the tower of babel in order to trace the history of this wonderful science from the first emigration of a colony to the western hemisphere till its final decline and overthrow for the knowledge of which we are indebted to many ancient records written by the fathers or ancient students and professors of this science on the western hemisphere Among these we will make honorable mention of the prophets Jared, Ether, Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Abinadi, Mormon, and Moroni, who wrote and prophesied in the Western Hemisphere during the several ages intervening between the time of the dispersion at Babel and the 5th century of the Christian era.

by the science of theology jared and his brother led a colony from the great tower to the sea coast conversing with the lord and walking by the light of his revelations on the way by this science they were instructed in the building of eight barges similar to the ark of noah by this science their leader saw god face to face and talked with him in plain humility as one man talks with another thus obtaining a knowledge of his future coming and kingdom and of the great events of all ages and generations by this science they were preserved on the great waters three hundred and forty-four days and were then landed with their eight barges in the western hemisphere together with their women children cattle and seeds of every kind by this science they became a great nation peopling the entire continent and enjoying all the blessings of civilization and heavenly light by the abuse and neglect of it they were at length exterminated in the days of their prophet ether who lived about six hundred years before christ came in the flesh By this science, the prophets Lehi and Nephi came out with a colony from Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, and after wandering for eight years in the wilderness of Arabia, came to the sea coast, built a vessel, obtained from the Lord a compass to guide them on the way, and finally landed in safety on the coast of what is now called Chile in South America.

by this science they also became a great nation enjoyed many visions and the ministering of angels and of many prophets by which means they knew of the coming birth ministry death resurrection and ascension of jesus christ by this science they also enjoyed a personal visit of the risen redeemer who descended from heaven in their presence taught them his gospel chose and ordained twelve of their number as apostles and prophesied many things by this science these twelve and others established the gospel church and ordinances of god throughout the entire western hemisphere by this science their sick were healed demons were expelled the lame walked the blind saw the dumb spake the deaf heard and their dead were raised by this science three of those apostles having a change wrought upon them tarried in the flesh upon the earth ministered the gospel and its blessings nearly four hundred years and then withdrew from the people because of their iniquity took away the keys of apostleship and of the gospel and its powers sealed up the records and caused the work of healing and of gifts and miracles to cease from among the people because of iniquity bloodshed and persecution by this science they yet live in the flesh upon the earth holding keys of apostleship and power upon the western hemisphere being now about one thousand eight hundred years old by this science being held in reserve above the powers of mystery babylon they will soon go forth prophesying preaching the gospel and doing mighty signs and wonders in the midst of all nations in order to complete and mature the gentile fulness and restore the tribes of israel nor is this all john the beloved disciple among the jews is yet alive in the flesh and is held in reserve to prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings as it is written But to return to our history of the Western Hemisphere, after the science of theology had ceased to be cultivated and enjoyed among this branch of Israel, terrible wars and bloodshed ensued.

And so they just let it be muddled without any concern at all.

No, and in fact, in, uh, Mosiah 15, uh, [laughs] Abinadi has to teach the, the people there that the title Father and the title Son belong to the Son.

Yeah.

And, and there's no, there's really no confusion in their minds who they are.