Post by Lamoni’s Father
Our people are not a record-keeping people. A thing I sorely regret. If we were, I believe it may not have been so difficult a work to bring us to repentance. I do qualify that statement understanding that even today as the Nephites struggle to obey the commandments of God, they are a record-keeping people.
Thus for me, a record from which I could refer would make what I wish to write more accurate. But the testimony of my beloved Savior which I bear, needs no previous record to support what I declare. For He lives. I know it personally, first-hand, I know Him.
I wish to share how I know my Savior in a way that might seem unique. To do so, I step back several generations and tell how this came to be. You may then realize the miracle of mercy that is extended to someone even as wicked a man as I was. Only through the great mercy of Jesus Christ could my sins become as white as sun-bleached wool.
Roughly 120 years ago an ambitious and powerful Nephite came up to our lands to inhabit what he claimed is the land of our father’s first inheritance. He did not want to conquer, but to live in harmony. This was when my grandfather lived. Our king obliged that man who I remember being told was named Zeniff. His people were industrious. They flourished. Our people became jealous of their prosperity in flocks, herds, and fields. They also became a strong people causing our people, the Lamanites to fear them one day overpowering us. After some twenty years, our king died. Several times we broke the treaties our king made with them. Each time we warred against them; they drove us back.
Eventually, the conflicts became bloody battles. About the time I was born, these Nephites living among us became a wicked people and perverted the word of God. We did not know why but we overpowered them. Our armies subdued these Nephites and put them into bondage. Their wicked king and several of his priests escaped leaving the people to remain under our dominion.
Each time they attempted to free themselves from the yokes of our bondage, they failed and many of their people died.
At one point several of their priests who had escaped, kidnapped our daughters and constrained them to become their wives. In our anger, we attacked the Nephites and I was struck down and left for dead. Rather than kill me, which the Nephites had the right to do. They used me to soften the hearts of my warriors. I was one of those warriors. We increased the tributes they had to pay us in punishment.
It had thus been 80 years since these Nephites came to dwell in our midst. Our guards failed to keep the people in bondage, and the remnants of their people fled by night. My armies tried to follow them and bring them back but became lost in the wilderness. We did however discover another group of Nephites led by a man named Alma. They too had built a prosperous city. The Nephites continue to be industrious, whereas our people without God fail to do so.
As I mentioned the priests of their King Noah were responsible for kidnapping our daughters. We in our mercy failed to punish those priests and accepted them into our society. The leader of those priests, a man named Amulon when he learned about our capturing Alma’s people, succeeded in convincing us to appoint him the leader over the Nephite people led by Alma. As I mentioned, this Alma was one of the priests of King Noah and had escaped from King Noah’s people years earlier.
You may wonder about the importance of this brief history, but in this one point, you will see that when a man turns from God, he becomes more hardened. He becomes an enemy to God. And since we the Lamanites are without God, we become subject to the persuasions of these hardened people.
These are the hardened Nephites we call the Amulonites. Because our people share in the hatred of the Nephites, our peoples mostly live in harmony. Yet, conflicts are settled by the sword most often.
During my reign as king, I have seen much bloodshed, and much of it at my hand and my command. Most recently we were stirred up in anger and our armies again charged into Nephite cities and began the work of murder. In one day, we destroyed every living soul in the city of Amonihah. We left the city desolate.
So as you see, when I contended with Ammon and was willing to slay my own son in my anger, the mercy of a just God came on full display. I thank my God that many thousands of my people have come unto Christ. It is a tumultuous time for us. A war within my own people is at hand.
So now, as my sons including Lamoni and my son Anti-Nephi-Lehi to whom I confer the kingdom, are facing the anger and hostility of the hard-hearted Amulonites and Amalikites, you may witness how much evil can be perpetrated by those who once knew God and then rebelled against Him. I fear many more of my people and many more of the innocent Nephite people will perish at the hands of these godless men. Although I feel responsible for much of the wickedness and destruction, my Redeemer has forgiven me. In His great mercy, my heart is new. He lives. I know it, I know Him.
May God protect and preserve those of us who have now laid down our weapons of rebellion, whether those weapons are made of steel, flesh, or passion.
