Helaman — Chapter 15
Samuel continues to preach to the Nephites.
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, if you don’t repent, your families will be destroyed.
2 Yes, if you don’t repent, your women with babies will cry and weep, because you will try to run away, but there won’t be any safe places. And woe to those who are going to have babies, because they won’t be able to run away. They will be run over and left to die.
3 Yes, woe to the people of Nephi, unless they repent when they see the signs and wonders which will be shown to them (because they have been one of the Lord’s chosen peoples). The Lord has loved the Nephites, and he has also punished them. Yes, he has punished them when they have sinned because he loves them.
4 But, my brothers and sisters, he has hated the Lamanites for doing evil all the time because of their ancestors’ false teachings. But salvation came to them because the Nephites taught them, and this is why the Lord has let them live.
5 I want you to know that most of the Lamanites are righteous before God. They keep his commandments and the Law of Moses.
6 Yes, most of them are doing this, and are working very hard to bring the truth to the rest of their brothers and sisters. More and more are joining them every day.
7 You yourselves know (because you have seen it) that all who learn the truth, and learn about their ancestors’ wicked teachings, and believe the scriptures and what the holy prophets have written, and are led to have faith in the Lord and repent, and whose hearts are changed —
8 You yourselves know that those who have done this are strong in the faith which has made them free.
9 You also know that they have buried their weapons, and are afraid to ever use them again, in case they sin. Yes, you can see that they are so afraid to sin that they will let their enemies kill them, and will not fight against them, because of their faith in Christ.
10 Now, because they believe so strongly, and because they are so strong to do what is right once they know it, the Lord will bless them, and will let their people live in this land, even when they begin to sin again.
11 Yes, even when they don’t believe in the Lord anymore, he will let them live until the time our ancestors and the prophet Zenos and other prophets talked about. This will be the time when our brothers and sisters, the Lamanites, will learn the truth again.
12 Yes, the Lord’s promises have been given to our brothers and sisters, the Lamanites. Even though they will have many troubles and will be scattered all over the land and hunted, and hurt, and will have no safe places, the Lord will have mercy on them.
13 The prophecy will come true which says they will learn the truth about their Savior, the true shepherd, and be counted with his sheep.
14 So it will be better for them than it will be for you, unless you repent.
15 Because, you see, if the miracles you have seen had been shown to those who do not believe because of their ancestors’ false teachings, they never would have stopped believing the truth. You can see that for yourselves.
16 So the Lord says: “I will not completely destroy them, but they will come back to me at the right time.”
17 But this is what the Lord says about the Nephites: “If they do not repent, and keep my commandments, I will completely destroy them, because they did not believe even when I did great miracles among them.” And as the Lord lives, this will happen.
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