20 And moreover, I say
unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread
throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
21 And behold, when
that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little
children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God
Omnipotent.
22 And even at this
time, when thou shalt have taught thy people the things which the Lord thy God
hath commanded thee, even then are they found no more blameless in the sight of
God, only according to the words which I have spoken unto thee.
23 And now I have
spoken the words which the Lord God hath commanded me.
24 And thus saith the
Lord: They shall stand as a bright testimony against this people, at the
judgment day; whereof they shall be judged, every man according to his works,
whether they be good, or whether they be evil.
25 And if they be evil
they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which
doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery
and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have
drunk damnation to their own souls.
26 Therefore, they
have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice could no more deny
unto them than it could deny that Adam should fall because of his partaking of
the forbidden fruit; therefore, mercy could have claim on them no more forever.
27 And their torment
is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose
smoke ascendeth up forever and ever.
Thus hath the Lord commanded me.
Amen.
Mosiah 3:20-27
Becoming a disciple of Christ will defeat the natural
man. The time will “come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” The
Lord emphasized this in a revelation to Joseph Smith. “Nevertheless,
my work shall go forth, for inasmuch as the knowledge of a Savior has come unto
the world, through the testimony of the Jews, even so shall the knowledge of a
Savior come unto my people” (D&C 3:16).
Abinadi echoed Benjamin’s words. “AND
now, it came to pass that after Abinadi had spoken these words he stretched
forth his hand and said: The time shall come when all shall see the salvation
of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to
eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just” (Mosiah
16:1).
[Benjamin] prophesies of Christ's
coming, and he proclaims by authority, speaking "the words which the Lord
God hath commanded" him (Mosiah 3:20, 23). The people are thus awakened to
a sense of their nothingness by a knowledge of the goodness, power, and wisdom
of God.[1]
We must remember, no one will be able to stand before God
(except little children – “Only little children are exempt from the command of
constant repentance (Mosiah 3:21).”[2]) who
will be able to be held blameless. We
all sin. At times, we all give into the
natural man. Only though repentance and
faith in Christ we will be able to be stand guiltless before God, having put off
the natural man. “The whole purport of Benjamin's message for the future is
that men should be found blameless before the Great King, who will sit in
judgment (Mosiah 3:21), exactly as the king sat in judgment at the New Year.”[3]
The angel told Benjamin to teach the people. Once they were taught, they were no longer
blameless in the eyes of the Lord. “Benjamin,
of course, did not need to issue a formal indictment or accusation, for the
people all confessed their guilt voluntarily (see Mosiah 4:2) and agreed that
none of them should ‘be found blameless before God’ (Mosiah 3:21) and that all
were without defense or excuse (see Mosiah 3:22).[4]
M. Catherine Thomas further observes:
Benjamin says, quoting the angel's
words to him, "When thou shalt have taught thy people the things which the
Lord thy God hath commanded thee, even then are they found no more blameless in
the sight of God" (Mosiah 3:22). In addition, it may be that Benjamin's
words were especially binding on the people, because he had a degree of the
same power that the later Nephi did, who ministered with such power and
authority that it was "not possible that [the people] could disbelieve his
words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did
minister unto him daily" (3 Nephi 7:18; cf. 3 Nephi 7:17).[5]
And now I have spoken
the words which the Lord God hath commanded me.”
John Welch explains the importance of Benjamin’s oral
testimony.
The Hebrew legal system, which
depended primarily on verbal communication and oral testimony rather than on
written documentation, placed particularly high value on the accuracy and
faithfulness of such deliveries by messengers, spokesmen, witnesses, and
officials. In reading King Benjamin's
speech and other texts in the Book of Mormon, one senses that the same
principle continued to operate in Nephite legal religious practice. In Mosiah
3:23, for example, Benjamin certified that he had faithfully and precisely
delivered the words given to him by the angel of the Lord: "And now I have
spoken the words which the Lord God hath commanded me."8 Similar
certifications of messengers are found in Mosiah 11:20 and 12:1.[6]
“King Benjamin bore similar testimony that his words ‘shall
stand as a bright testimony against this people, at the judgment day’ (Mosiah
3:24). Interestingly, the book is true to its ancient origins, even down to
this concluding element, for it is a long-recognized principle of Jewish law
that a person cannot be convicted unless he has been warned in advance.”[7] We will be judged based on our works, be they
good or be they evil.
If we reject Christ and His offer of salvation, we will
stand before Him and we will view our guilt and sins. We will know we are unworthy to stand in His
presence. It’s obvious King Benjamin had
access to Jacob’s words. “Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge
of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous
shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness,
being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness … Prepare
your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the
righteous, even the day of judgment, that ye may not shrink with awful fear;
that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness, and be constrained to
exclaim: Holy, holy are thy judgments, O Lord God” (2 Nephi 9:14, 46). Our sins and wickedness will “cause [the wicked] to shrink from the
presence of the Lord.” We will find ourselves in a state of misery and
torment. We cannot return; “therefore [we will] have drunk damnation
for their own souls.”
John Hilton examines Benjamin’s use of the words of Jacob.
In speaking of the wicked, King
Benjamin, quoting the Lord, also says that they will have a state of "endless
torment," and that "their torment is as a lake of fire and
brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose
smoke ascendeth up forever and ever" (Mosiah 3:25, 27). Jacob uses the
concept of God's justice to explain why the wicked will receive endless
torment.18 Unlike
other instances in which King Benjamin uses Jacob's phrases in differing
contexts, in this case he employs them exactly as Jacob does (see Mosiah 3:26).
This demonstrates that King Benjamin was not simply trying to be creative in
his use of Jacob's material. Rather, he was willing to accept the content,
wording, and intent of Jacob's words. We, as readers, are thereby treated to an
interesting textual and doctrinal cohesion, even though these discourses are
separated by centuries.[8]
Alma2 echoed Benjamin’s words in his confrontation with
Zeezrom.
14
For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not
be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful
state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we
could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to chide
us from his presence.
15
But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and
in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our
everlasting shame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his
works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all
power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit
meet for repentance.
Alma 12:14-15
Because of a person’s wickedness, they will drink from the
cup of the wrath of God. “For in the hand
of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he
poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth
shall wring them out, and drink them” (Psalms 75:8). Through the fall of Adam, mercy could no
longer claim them; they would have to meet the standards of justice. “Behold,
he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus
Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption
of man” (Mormon 9:12).
M. Catherine Thomas explores the cup of the wrath of God.
Giving them the name forever is
equivalent to causing them to be born again into the family of Christ. Because
of the greater responsibility inherent in the formal taking of the name,
Benjamin prefaced this spiritual endowment with warnings that if they proceeded
with taking the name but then turned away in disobedience, they would have to
drink of the cup of the wrath of God (see Mosiah 3:26) and they would
drink damnation to their souls (see Mosiah 3:18, 25).[9]
The wicked will suffer torment. The torment will be like a lake of fire and brimstone, whose smoke ascendeth up forever and
ever.”
Again we see Benjamin falling back on the words of Jacob. “And
assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his
eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous
still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are
filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting
fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone,
whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end” (2 Nephi 9:16). “And
according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go
away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and
whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless
torment” (Jacob 6:10).
Allen Christenson writes:
Benjamin continued his prophecy by
declaring that the death of Jesus Christ was only temporary and that he would
rise again after three days (Mosiah 3:10) to bring salvation to his people. The
evil spirit would thus be expelled. Benjamin stressed that during his life
Jesus Christ would have great power to "cast out devils, or the evil
spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men" (Mosiah 3:6) and
that his atoning blood was the only means of salvation (Mosiah 3:27).[10]
Benjamin ends his words with his oral testimony that he was
commanded by the angel to give the people the word of the Lord.
[2] Last
Call: An Apocalyptic Warning from the Book of Mormon, Hugh Nibley, Maxwell
Institute, accessed July 28, 2014.
[4] Benjamin's
Speech as a Prophetic Lawsuit, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed
July 28, 2014.
[5] King
Benjamin and the Mysteries of God, M. Catherine Thomas, Maxwell Institute,
accessed July 29, 2014.
[6] The
Trial of Jeremiah: A Legal Legacy from Lehi's Jerusalem, John W. Welch,
Maxwell Institute, accessed July 29, 2014.
[9] Benjamin
and the Mysteries of God, M. Catherine Thomas, Maxwell Institute, accessed July
29, 2014.
[10] Maya
Harvest Festivals and the Book of Mormon, Allen J. Christenson, Maxwell
Institute, accessed July 29, 2014.
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