Helaman 9: Comfronting the truth
Have you ever received an answer from the Spirit, but you wish it wasn’t true? It has happened to me, many times. But after years and vast experiences of neglecting the answers I’ve received, I can share my testimony that the Holy Spirit is real, that God loves us and He knows what is best for us, and that pride is when I think I know better than God.
I felt very related to several scriptures from this chapter that I detail below. But before I continue, please bear in mind that if this has happened to you, you are not alone and it is normal. However, let us not fall in the trap of of feeling comfortable in this situation. Instead, if we strive to accept the promptings of the Spirit, we will become stronger in our testimony, in our prayers to God, and in taking better decisions for our lives.
7 And behold the people did gather themselves together unto the place of the judgment-seat—and behold, to their astonishment they saw those five men who had fallen to the earth.
8 And now behold, the people knew nothing concerning the multitude who had gathered together at the garden of Nephi; therefore they said among themselves: These men are they who have murdered the judge, and God has smitten them that they could not flee from us.
I can’t help but sense a spark of irony in this scripture. These are people that are not following God’s commandments, who are more forcused on their wealth and personal gain, but decide to reacognize “God’s hand” when it is their convenience. Which, for the record, those five men they captured were innocent from the murder of the judge. Later in the chapter, when it turns out that God’s hand had instead intervened by allowing Nephi to prophesy, many considered it conveninent to not see it this way because it wasn’t of their convenience.
19 Nevertheless, they caused that Nephi should be taken and bound and brought before the multitude, and they began to question him in divers ways that they might cross him, that they might accuse him to death—
20 Saying unto him: Thou art confederate; who is this man that hath done this murder? Now tell us, and acknowledge thy fault; saying, Behold here is money; and also we will grant unto thee thy life if thou wilt tell us, and acknowledge the agreement which thou hast made with him.
Ok, it is very easy to connect this to those around us that do not agree on our believes and want to convince us otherwise. However, I want to connect this verse to how we question ourselves instead, whether we do it on purpose or not. In Psychology, there is a term called cognitive dissonance. Since Google does a pretty good job defining it, I’ll copy paste its meaning:
“Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. (McLeod, 2018.)“
Cognitive dissonance is VERY NORMAL for everyone. But it is dangerous when we are not aware of it. In verse 20 we read that Nephi was offered money and saving his life in reward of lying. Sometimes life offers us things that we, consciously or subcinscously, think that we need. And many times, we really do need it. Because of this, we start questioning our “attitudes, beliefs or behaviours” to calm that need that we feel.
Although I’m not vulnerable enough to share the most personal experiences of my life, here are some examples of when I’ve faced these situations in different stages of my life:
-Girls in my school don’t accept me... it’s ok to curse, you’ll have more friends and you’re not offending anyone. (Middle school).
-I don’t like the answer that I received to my prayer...so I start believing that God hasn’t answered my prayers. (High school)
-I feel prompted to not trust my boyfriend because he is being manipulative and seeing someone else... I love him and don’t want to end things with him, so I better believe it’s not the holy spirit, but it’s just me being jealous and insecure. (University)
21 But Nephi said unto them: O ye fools, ye uncircumcised of heart, ye blind, and ye stiffnecked people, do ye know how long the Lord your God will suffer you that ye shall go on in this your way of sin?
If our hearts are hard, we will have much difficulty to learn from above. But if we try to recognize our imperfect human state, and that he have much to learn, we can receive council from God, who knows it all. I have learned a phrase that helps me understand this scripture while trying to be a disciple of Christ:
“When you are living righteously and are acting with trust, God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision. (Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer,” Ensign, May 2007, 10.)”
It turns our that even though I cursed in school, I didn’t make new friends because of it. Yes, more girls were cheering and talking to me, but turns out they were still badmouthing about me. I remember that on a Sunday, a temple trip was announced and it hit me “If I want to enter the temple, I shouldn’t be cursing as much as I am”.
I called my best friend soon after that and told her that I wasn’t going to curse anymore and that I might need her support to stop. She said “I honestly don’t know why cursing should be a problem, but if this is important to you then I’ll support you 100%”. That’s when I understood that I already had precious friends, I didn’t need to be popular among the others, and that I could be myself and still have this treasure in my life.Â
I know this is a very simple example, and that cursing doesn’t make you a bad person... but this simple example taught the 12 year old me that I didn’t have to change my belief about how a disciple of Christ speaks to be happier. Instead, trying to speak as a discilple of Christ helped me realize the precious gift of true friendship. And the accumulation of very simple examples like this one, helped me realize more about how the truth won’t change simply because I change. But that when I try to live up to the truth, I’ll understand it better.
When I decided to change my beliefs because I had dissonance, I was “blind”, and “stiffnecked“, and of course I wouldn’t want to recognize it until I figurately hit a wall and couldn’t deny that I was wrong. But I feel very blessed, because no matter how many times I’ve been blind, stubborn, and specially prideful, I have recognized God’s divine intervention to help me see the light.
I testifiy that there is only one truth. And although I don’t know the truth of all things, and I’m definitely far from knowing it all, there is one absolute truth that helps me stand firm even in times of doubt and trouble:
God lives, He knows and loves us perfectly. And we can also know and love Him more.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37–39)
Living the commandments due to our love for God, will lead us to the path of light. And the more we love God, we will have the power to love others, and this also leads us to more light. Truth is light. Jesus Christ is the source of all light and, therefore, of all truth. I testifiy that the scriptures bring us closer to Jesus Chris, and The Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ, which brings us close to our Savior, and therefore, to more truth and light.
Disclaimer: These notes are thoughts that come to my mind while studying the scriptures. I share them with the hope that they might help someone, but I don’t claim them to be perfect. These are based on my experience and I respect other viewpoints and beliefs, and I hope you can respect mine if they differ from yours. Thank you for reading.
Additional resources:
Move forward in faith
Keep my commandments
Two Great Commandments
