The record of King Noah posted by his son Lemhi
And now, O king!
This Abinadi was brought before me accompanied with his outrageous accusations. My servants again outlined the many evil things he prophesied about me and my people. Repeating that my life would be as a garment in a furnace of fire, he said we would be as a dry stalk in the field which is run over by the beasts and trodden under foot. He said we would be like the blossoms of a thistle, which when ripe will be driven forth upon the face of the land when the wind blows.
What evil have we done, what great sins have we committed to warrant the judgement of this man? We have not sinned, we are guiltless and we will not come into bondage or be taken captive by our enemies. In fact we are prospering as I mentioned earlier.
I caused that he be cast into prison until I could gather my priests together that we may hold a council. After we counseled together we elected to question him. I commanded that he be brought before us that we might catch him in his lies.
As we challenged this mad man, one of my wise priests posed a simple question from the scriptures to see if we could expose his lying and deceit.
When we asked, “What do the words mean which have been taught by our fathers?”
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; 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?”
Rather than a simple answer, Abinadi attacked my priests accusing them of perverting the ways of the Lord. He turned the questions on my priests, asking,
“Are you priests, and pretend to teach this people, and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire to know of me what these things mean? You have not applied your hearts to understanding; therefore, you cannot teach. What do you teach this people?”
When we boldly proclaimed that we teach the law of Moses, Abinadi went back on the attack. He asked,
“If ye teach the law of Moses why do ye not keep it? Why do ye set your hearts upon riches? Why do ye commit whoredoms and spend your strength with harlots, yea, and cause this people to commit sin, that the Lord has cause to send me to prophesy against this people, yea, even a great evil against this people? Know ye not that I speak the truth? Yea, ye know that I speak the truth; and you ought to tremble before God.”
He went on again to tell us we will be smitten for our iniquities, and then he began harping that since we claim to teach the Law of Moses, did we even know the law of Moses. Then he asked if salvation came by the law of Moses. Of course we answered that salvation did come by the law of Moses.
There seemed to be some power that kept us from taking Abinadi and silencing him for he went on preaching of Christ and how the law of Moses was a preparatory law leading to Christ. All this did was to anger my priests and offend me. When he finally finished I commanded my priests to take and him and put him to death. They would have done so if it had not been for one of my priests, a young man whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi, who showed so much potential until he was duped by the preaching of Abinadi. Alma actually agreed with Abinadi’s claim that we were a wicked people. Alma actually had the audacity to plead before me to let Abinadi depart in peace.
I am a kind and benevolent king, but this was a betrayal and I had Alma thrown out of our council and I sent my servants to slay him. I would be free of Abinadi and free of his token follower Alma.
I had Abinadi cast back into prison that I might council with my priests again.
Book of Mormon | Mosiah 12:9-37, Mosiah 13 Mosiah 17:1-3
