Latter Day Saints; United States -- Description and travel
Alma, after uttering this prophecy, disappeared in the same mysterious way
that Moses did, and no man knoweth his grave unto this day. At this period
all who believed in Christ took upon them the name of Christians. Various
wars now raged between the Lamanites and Nephites. The people of Nephi
erected many forts and high mounds to secure themselves from the invasion
of their enemies.
The Book of Helaman, which consists of five chapters, opens with the
fortieth year of the reign of the Judges. It details sad accounts of
dissensions and war, and strange alternations of prosperity and adversity
to the church. A man by the name of Nephi, who was now chief judge,
imitated Alma, and laying down his civil office, became a great preacher
and prophet, performing miracles and mighty wonders. He went even to the
Lamanites, and was so successful in converting them, that he arrested the
tide of war and restored peace to the land. The earth shook, the heavens
were opened, and angels came down at his voice. After Nephi, rose up
Samuel, a Lamanite, who predicted that Christ would come in five years, and
that on the day he was born, though the sun would go down as usual, there
would be no night, it would continue as light as day. This was to be the
sign. Another sign to attend his death, which was to take place in the
thirty-fourth year after his birth, was three whole days of darkness, in
which there were to be thunderings and lightnings, and earthquakes, and the
rending of rocks and cleaving of hills. According to the testimony in the
next book, at the end of five years the sign of his birth occurred, two
days succeeding each other without any intervening night. The Nephites,
therefore, knew that Christ had come. They accordingly reckoned their time
from this period, regarding it as the commencement of a new era. The
Lamanites that were converted now became white as the Nephites. At the end
of thirty-three years, the signs that were foretold would accompany the
death of Christ, appeared. There was a great tempest, and terrible thunder;
the earth shook, as though about to divide asunder. Vivid lightning ran
along on the ground, cities were overturned and buried in the midst of the
sea--a terrible darkness came over the land for three days--and a great
mourning and howling and weeping among the people. The voice of Christ was
heard, amid the awful tempest, denouncing woes upon sinners, and offering
grace and salvation to all who would repent and believe. After this Christ
made his personal appearance on the earth, coming down from heaven with
great glory. There were several occasions on which he appeared, at which
times he delivered to the assembled thousands all the instruction, and
performed nearly all the miracles recorded in the New Testament, and then
he was again taken up out of their sight. He ordained twelve apostles and
gave them singular gifts. He instituted baptism and the Lord's supper,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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