Premise: Suppose you were doing fairly well in life. Maybe you didn’t have all the money that you would like, but you lived a fairly comfortable life. You loved your spouse and your children. You attended church. You faithfully fulfilled your duties and responsibilities in Church. You read your scriptures, prayed, and even occasionally went to the temple. You fasted and donated to help the poor. You even had Family Home Evening and taught your family from the teachings of your church leaders.
So what would you do if a man like Abinadi came among you and told you that you were living lives of idolatry and not worshiping the true and living God? Worse yet, what if he told you that your “saving ordinances” (as you called them) didn’t save you at all but that they were symbolically an “invitation” to connect with heaven and get the “real” thing?How would you respond? Would you do? Would you consider this guy a crackpot? What if your local church leaders told you not to listen to him? Or worse, told you that they know him to be a rabble rouser, a wild man, and one that is creating confusion among the peace and prosperity of the people?
What if he had no other authority than to say that he had a message from God? Could you tell if he was a true messenger? How would you know for sure?
Patterns - A Key of Knowledge: When the scriptures say "God is the same yesterday, today, and forever" – does that mean He always does things the exact same way, every single time?
No, what it means is - He follows patterns. If you study the scriptures and know the “words of Christ” your ability to discern whether something is happening according to one of God’s patterns is unfolding should be greatly increased. However, if you don’t study the scriptures then your ability to discern can be darkened by your ignorance.
One of the patterns to look at in all of scripture is that of how prophets have been sent. Whenever God has sent a true messenger to call a people to repentance that person has NOT come from within the institutional hierarchy. They have always come from outside – with one scriptural exception – the prophet Samuel.
Have you ever stopped to consider this pattern? Why is this the case?
Let’s think about it.
- Enoch was considered a “wild man” and a “strange thing”.
- Noah was hunted by giants for offending them with his message.
- Abraham came from outside the hierarchy and was set to be killed by the king’s priests when he called the king and kingdom to repent.
- Moses came from outside the hierarchy. He may have once been part of it, but had been separated from them by nearly 40 years when God called him to go back and face off with pharaoh.
- In the Old Testament, as soon as the Israelites decided they wanted to be a kingdom with a king rather than be led by a prophet, every prophet, who was a true prophet came outside of the king/priest line – you have Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lehi, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc. They were all called "mad" and the people sought to kill them.- In the New Testament you had John the Baptist, who when he was 8 days old was ordained by an angel to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews.
- Even Jesus Christ came with no earthly ordination or being sustained by a congregation; He did NOT have any credential or certificate of priestly authority to teach; He was NOT sustained by the regularly ordained heads of the church; He was NOT part of the established hierarchy.
- What about His disciples, they did not have the sustaining and blessing of the priestly hierarchy. In fact, after Saul was converted to Christ, he became the “hunted” rather than the “hunter”.
- In the Book of Mormon, we see immediately that a man who was concerned for the welfare and salvation of his family was called to preach repentance – i.e. Lehi.
- We see Abinadi coming among the people of King Noah and being put to death for his calling them to repentance.
- We see Nephi and Lehi (sons of Helaman) calling the people to repent.
- We see Samuel, a Lamanite, being told to call the Nephites (those who were supposed to be the righteous followers of Christ) to repent.
- We see the Brother of Jared seeking to preserve His family from the impending doom and confusion of their language.
- We see Mormon and Moroni crying and trying to get their people to repent so they won’t be destroyed.
- Joseph Smith came outside the hierarchy of any church.
I think those few examples should suffice to show that God prefers to bring in someone who is not under institutional control. Only someone who’s heart is softened to God and His voice will recognize when He is speaking to them.
Conclusion: While the picture of the crazy man above is designed to provoke you and break your false beliefs that prophets should be well-groomed and wearing a business suit. The real question for us all is: What would you do if a modern Abinadi came among us? Could you recognize him as a true messenger from God? Would you hearken to his message? Out of the many who heard his painful message, he only had ONE convert - Alma. That ratio of those who heard to those who actually listened and did something about it is VERY LOW.
They are critical questions in the development of your faith. Do you have "eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that is soft" to the Words of the Christ? Would you, like Alma, be willing to stand up for the man and be threatened with your life, or salvation, by similar false priests and leaders? Your answer will be very telling. It will let you know clearly whether you are open to knowing the true and living God or if you prefer a place among the Babylonian men of this world.
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