Converted Lamanites Bury Theirweapons

Event 92

Reference: Alma 24:1-30; 25:1-17

AND it came to pass that the Amalekites and the Amulonitesand the Lamanites who were in the land of Amulon, andalso in the land of Helam, and who were in the land ofJerusalem, and in fine, in all the land round about, who hadnot been converted and had not taken upon them the nameof Anti-Nephi-Lehi, were stirred up by the Amalekites andby the Amulonites to anger against their brethren. 2 Andtheir hatred became exceedingly sore against them, eveninsomuch that they began to rebel against their king,insomuch that they would not that he should be their king;therefore, they took up arms against the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi. 3 Now the king conferred the kingdom uponhis son, and he called his name Anti-Nephi-Lehi. 4 And theking died in that selfsame year that the Lamanites began tomake preparations for war against the people of God.MormonLand of Nephi91 to 77 B.C.5 Now when Ammon and his brethren and all those who hadcome up with him saw the preparations of the Lamanites todestroy their brethren, they came forth to the land ofMidian, and there Ammon met all his brethren;Land of Midianand from thence they came to the land of Ishmael that theymight hold a council with Lamoni and also with his brotherAnti-Nephi-Lehi, what they should do to defend themselvesagainst the Lamanites. 6 Now there was not one soul amongall the people who had been converted unto the Lord thatwould take up arms against their brethren; nay, they wouldnot even make any preparations for war; yea, and also theirking commanded them that they should not. 7 Now, theseare the words which he said unto the people concerning thematter:Land of IshmaelI thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has ingoodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preachunto us, and to convince us of the traditions of our wicked fathers.8 And behold, I thank my great God that he has given us a portionof his Spirit to soften our hearts, that we have opened acorrespondence with these brethren, the Nephites. 9 And behold, Ialso thank my God, that by opening this correspondence we havebeen convinced of our sins, and of the many murders which wehave committed. 10 And I also thank my God, yea, my great God,that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things,King Anti-Nephi-Lehi and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins andmurders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt fromour hearts, through the merits of his Son. 11 And now behold, mybrethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were themost lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the manymurders which we have committed, and to get God to take themaway from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repentsufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—King Anti-Nephi-LehiLand of Ishmael91 to 77 B.C.12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away ourstains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain ourswords no more with the blood of our brethren. 13 Behold, I sayunto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stainedwith the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain ourswords again they can no more be washed bright through the bloodof the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonementof our sins. 14 And the great God has had mercy on us, and madethese things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and hehas made these things known unto us beforehand, because heloveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in hismercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvationmight be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it hasbeen as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us,and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that theymay be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or atthe day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged,that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethrensince he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us,behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will burythem deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimonythat we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethrendestroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made anend of these sayings, and all the people were assembledtogether, they took their swords, and all the weapons whichwere used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they didbury them up deep in the earth. 18 And this they did, itbeing in their view a testimony to God, and also to men,that they never would use weapons again for the sheddingof man’s blood; and this they did, vouching andcovenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood oftheir brethren they would give up their own lives; and ratherthan take away from a brother they would give unto him;and rather than spend their days in idleness they wouldlabor abundantly with their hands.Mormon 19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites werebrought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm,and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin;and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, orthey buried the weapons of war, for peace.MormonLand of Ishmael91 to 77 B.C.20 And it came to pass that their brethren, the Lamanites,made preparations for war, and came up to the land ofNephi for the purpose of destroying the king, and to placeanother in his stead, and also of destroying the people ofAnti-Nephi-Lehi out of the land. 21 Now when the peoplesaw that they were coming against them they went out tomeet them, and prostrated themselves before them to theearth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thusthey were in this attitude when the Lamanites began to fallupon them, and began to slay them with the sword. 22 Andthus without meeting any resistance, they did slay athousand and five of them; and we know that they areblessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God.Land of Nephi23 Now when the Lamanites saw that their brethren wouldnot flee from the sword, neither would they turn aside to theright hand or to the left, but that they would lie down andperish, and praised God even in the very act of perishingunder the sword— 24 Now when the Lamanites saw thisthey did forbear from slaying them; and there were manywhose hearts had swollen in them for those of their brethrenwho had fallen under the sword, for they repented of thethings which they had done.25 And it came to pass that they threw down their weaponsof war, and they would not take them again, for they werestung for the murders which they had committed; and theycame down even as their brethren, relying upon the merciesof those whose arms were lifted to slay them.26 And it came to pass that the people of God were joinedthat day by more than the number who had been slain; andthose who had been slain were righteous people, thereforewe have no reason to doubt but what they were saved. 27And there was not a wicked man slain among them; butthere were more than a thousand brought to the knowledgeof the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in manyways to the salvation of his people. 28 Now the greatestnumber of those of the Lamanites who slew so many oftheir brethren were Amalekites and Amulonites, the greatestnumber of whom were after the order of the Nehors. 29 Now, among those who joined the people of the Lord,there were none who were Amalekites or Amulonites, orwho were of the order of Nehor, but they were actualdescendants of Laman and Lemuel. 30 And thus we canplainly discern, that after a people have been onceenlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had greatknowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and thenhave fallen away into sin and transgression, they becomemore hardened, and thus their state becomes worse thanthough they had never known these things.MormonLand of Nephi91 to 77 B.C.1 AND behold, now it came to pass that those Lamaniteswere more angry because they had slain their brethren;therefore they swore vengeance upon the Nephites; andthey did no more attempt to slay the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi at that time.2 But they took their armies and went over into the bordersof the land of Zarahemla, and fell upon the people whowere in the land of Ammonihah and destroyed them. 3 Andafter that, they had many battles with the Nephites, in thewhich they were driven and slain. 4 And among theLamanites who were slain were almost all the seed ofAmulon and his brethren, who were the priests of Noah,and they were slain by the hands of the Nephites;Land ofAmmonihah5 And the remainder, having fled into the east wilderness,and having usurped the power and authority over theLamanites, caused that many of the Lamanites shouldperish by fire because of their belief— 6 For many of them,after having suffered much loss and so many afflictions,began to be stirred up in remembrance of the words whichAaron and his brethren had preached to them in their land;therefore they began to disbelieve the traditions of theirfathers, and to believe in the Lord, and that he gave greatpower unto the Nephites; and thus there were many of themconverted in the wilderness.Wilderness eastof land ofZarahemla7 And it came to pass that those rulers who were theremnant of the children of Amulon caused that they shouldbe put to death, yea, all those that believed in these things. 8Now this martyrdom caused that many of their brethrenshould be stirred up to anger; and there began to becontention in the wilderness; and the Lamanites began tohunt the seed of Amulon and his brethren and began to slaythem; and they fled into the east wilderness. 9 And beholdthey are hunted at this day by the Lamanites. Thus the words of Abinadi were brought to pass, which he saidconcerning the seed of the priests who caused that heshould suffer death by fire. 10 For he said unto them:MormonWilderness eastof land ofZarahemla91 to 77 B.C.What ye shall do unto me shall be a type of things to come.Abinadi11 And now Abinadi was the first that suffered death by firebecause of his belief in God; now this is what he meant,that many should suffer death by fire, according as he hadsuffered. 12 And he said unto the priests of Noah that theirseed should cause many to be put to death, in the likemanner as he was, and that they should be scattered abroadand slain, even as a sheep having no shepherd is driven andslain by wild beasts; and now behold, these words wereverified, for they were driven by the Lamanites, and theywere hunted, and they were smitten.Mormon13 And it came to pass that when the Lamanites saw thatthey could not overpower the Nephites they returned againto their own land; and many of them came over to dwell inthe land of Ishmael and the land of Nephi, and did jointhemselves to the people of God, who were the people ofAnti-Nephi-Lehi. 14 And they did also bury their weaponsof war, according as their brethren had, and they began tobe a righteous people; and they did walk in the ways of theLord, and did observe to keep his commandments and hisstatutes. 15 Yea, and they did keep the law of Moses; for itwas expedient that they should keep the law of Moses asyet, for it was not all fulfilled. But notwithstanding the lawof Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ,considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming,and believing that they must keep those outwardperformances until the time that he should be revealed untothem.Land of Ishmaeland land of Nephi16 Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the lawof Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen theirfaith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith,unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy,which spake of those things to come. 17 And now behold,Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni, and theirbrethren did rejoice exceedingly, for the success which theyhad had among the Lamanites, seeing that the Lord hadgranted unto them according to their prayers, and that hehad also verified his word unto them in every particular.