Lachoneus died and his son, Lachoneus, filled the judgement
seat.
Men were inspired by the Lord to preach to the people. They
went forth and called the people to repentance. They testified of the Savior’s resurrection
as well as His death and sufferings.
“Latter-day Saints would have to add that Christ’s atonement
involves not only his resurrection but also his ascension. Christ suffered both
spiritually (in Gethsemane) and physically (in Gethsemane and on the cross). He
overcame physical death by being resurrected and overcame spiritual death by
ascending to heaven to sit on the right hand of the Father. Thus we read that
the redemption of mankind ‘was to be brought to pass through the power, and sufferings,
and death of Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into heaven’ (Mosiah
18:2).”[1]
It’s no surprise there were those who were upset with the
preaching and call to repentance. The angry people were chief judges (former
high priests). Once again, we see lawyers are angry with these words. Who did
these messengers think they were? The lawyers were smarter and better than they
were. They had not right to call them to repentance.
The Lord told Joseph Smith, “That they may be conferred upon
us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride,
our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the
souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the
heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is
withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man” (D&C 121:37).
The Nephites had a law. A person could not be condemned to
death by a lawyer, high priest, or judge. Only the governor of the land could
order the death of a criminal. There were those who had been preaching the
gospel and upsetting those who were in power. They were put to death secretly,
without the governor’s knowledge. Only after the fact would he know.
Nephite society faced this problem about five decades earlier.
“For behold, the Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the world
that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed;
therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek
to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they
began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get
gain” (Helaman 6:17).
Finally, a complaint was filed with the governor of the
land. It identified the judges who had
had prisoners executed in secret.
Punishment for their sins would come in the destruction when the Savior
was executed. For example, “And behold,
that great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of king Jacob,
have I caused to be burned with fire because of their sins and their wickedness,
which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret
murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my
people and the government of the land; therefore I did cause them to be burned,
to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the
saints should not come up unto me any more against them” (3 Nephi 9:9).
The wicked judges and lawyers were brought before other
judges. This process was established by
King Mosiah. “Therefore, choose you by
the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws
which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given
them by the hand of the Lord” (Mosiah 29:25).
“And thou [Nehor] hast shed the blood of a righteous man [Gideon],
yea, a man who has done much good among this people; and were we to spare thee
his blood would come upon us for vengeance. Therefore thou art condemned to die,
according to the law which has been given us by Mosiah, our last king; and it
has been acknowledged by this people; therefore this people must abide by the
law” (Alma 1:13-14).
Those judges had friends in high places. These friends gathered together and united. Following
the pattern of the Gadianton robbers, they entered into a covenant. This was one they received through the
efforts of the devil to fight against righteousness.[2]
“Part of the problem may have been specific patronage, as
happened 121 years later. According to 3 Nephi 6, there were secret collusions
among the judges, lawyers, and priests who conspired, using their kinship
relationships, to destroy “the people of the Lord” (3 Nephi 6:27–28), setting
at ‘defiance the law and the rights of their country’ (3 Nephi 6:29–30). This
led to the collapse of Nephite government: ‘Now it came to pass that those
judges had many friends and kindreds; and the remainder, yea, even almost all
the lawyers and the high priests, did gather themselves together, and unite
with the kindreds of those judges who were to be tried according to the law’ (3
Nephi 6:27). Following the collapse, society degenerated into large tribal
groups that probably furthered the role of patronage in social interaction (see
3 Nephi 7:1–14).”[3]
“There was a law that every warrant of execution had to be
signed by the governor of the land, so that ‘no lawyer nor judge nor high
priest’ could get rid of inconvenient witnesses or critics …
[T]hey sometimes found it necessary to go beyond the law.
Since that was grossly unconstitutional ‘a complaint came to the governor of
the land against these judges’ (3 Nephi 6:25) … When the time came for the
judges to be brought to trial, their supporters closed ranks, determined to get
them off … This inbred and influential establishment was determined to block
any conviction of those upright judges. They agreed on a coup to get the
release of the guilty parties … They wanted a leader who would not be hampered
by legislative checks and restraints of any kind. The standard solution lay
ready at hand: They murdered the chief executive.”[4]
[2] “Now
behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from
the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into
the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to
partake of the forbidden fruit—Yea, that same being who did plot with Cain,
that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the
world. And he did plot with Cain and his
followers from that time forth” (Helaman 6:26-27).
[3] “And
it came to pass . . .” – The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon
Leading to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges, Dan Belnap, Journal
of Book of Mormon Studies 23 (2014): 113-14.
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