Post By Alma’s about Abinadi’s teaching.
To avoid dwelling on my own unworthiness, yet recognizing how Abinadi’s strength and forceful denunciation of King Noah’s priests, I being one of them, cut deeply into my soul while fueling the flames of hate within my fellow priests, I will forbear discussing his pointed and sharp declarations of our blindness and wickedness.
With that humbly said, I will now declare his words as if they were coming from his own mouth as best as I recorded.
“You ask me what the words “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tiding; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth; Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion; Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem; The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God?”
After Abinadi soundly chastised us for perverting the ways of the Lord, he did not answer the question directly. He challenged us, asking what we knew concerning the law of Moses. He asked, “Does salvation come by the law of Moses?”
We confirmed that salvation does come by the law of Moses. Abinadi conceded that if we keep the commandments of God we will be saved. He then proceeded to rehearse the commandments that God delivered to Moses on the Mount of Sinai. The following is how I recall him saying them.
“I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other God before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath.”
An interesting thing happened right in the middle of Abinadi rehearsing these commandments. The king got so angry, he commanded us to take him and slay him. We couldn’t. He withstood us. Boldly and with power from God he commanded us not to touch him, and that if we did, God would smite us. We believed him. He used the words “God will not suffer that I be destroyed at this time.” In my heart, I wonder if Abinadi knew eventually he would be destroyed.
His face shined. He spoke with power and authority of God. He knew very well that his words cut us to the very core. He continued with the commandments, at times quoting God Himself.
And now, ye remember that I said unto you: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of things which are in heaven above, or which are in the earth beneath, or which are in the water under the earth.
And again: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me;
And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;
For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.
Abinadi hadn’t answered our first question about what the Glad Tidings quote from the prophet Isaiah from the Brass Plates meant. He just challenged us again. To me it was evident Abinadi was not sent by God to play word games with us. His mission was a full-on call to repentance. He was exposing our many, and I mean many, transgressions, the least of which were our personal sins, the greater of which were our false teachings and wicked examples. He was right. We had not only not taught the commandments, we taught false doctrines and we were leading the people astray.
He then challenged our claim that salvation comes by the law of Moses. He confirmed it is expedient that we keep the law of Moses as yet. But what he said next held my interest like nothing else ever had.
He said that salvation does not come by law alone, and were it not for the atonement, which God Himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of His people, that we must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.
An entire post or more is required for me to crystalize what the word Atonement now means to me. I will attempt it another time.
