The prophet Moroni made the observation that “it was the
faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they
were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (Ether 12:14). The record of
this event is found in Helaman 5. That account tells us that the brothers Nephi
and Lehi (great-grandchildren of Alma the Younger) went on something like a
preaching tour to both Nephites and Lamanites. They preached with “such great
power and authority” (Helaman 5:18) that thousands of people were convinced to
repent and be baptized. After arriving in a certain region controlled by
Lamanites, they were “cast into prison many days without food” (Helaman 5:22).
At this point, a mob or perhaps an organized army of about 300 angry Lamanites
went into the prison to execute Nephi and Lehi. At some point in this operation
of trying to slay the two brothers, and it might have been before they had even
touched Nephi and Lehi or it might have been when Nephi’s and Lehi’s heads were
on the chopping block, “Nephi and Lehi were encircled about as if by fire, even
insomuch that they durst not lay their hands upon them for fear lest they
should be burned. Nevertheless, Nephi and Lehi were not burned; and they were
as standing in the midst of fire and were not burned.” (Helaman 5:23). Nephi
and Lehi then started preaching to the mob and there was an earthquake right at
that moment. Then the mob was “overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an
awful solemn fear came upon them.” (Helaman 5:28). Then they heard a voice from
heaven that pierced them to the soul telling them three times to stop the
operation of executing the brother prophets and to repent. For added dramatic effect,
God caused some more earthquakes that were big enough to be felt but not so big
that the prison building would fall over.
God certainly had the attention of the mob and they were
in a frame of mind where they were willing to make some drastic changes to
their attitudes and belief structure. One of the members of the mob, Aminadab, a
Nephite dissenter, happened to see Nephi and Lehi through the cloud of awful,
solemn, and fearful darkness. He saw their faces shining and he saw that they
were talking to someone, but he couldn’t see who they were talking to. The
narrative doesn’t tell us how much time passed by from the moment that the
cloud of darkness descended to the moment that Aminadab shouted to the rest of
the mob to look at Nephi and Lehi. It could have been a few minutes, it could
have been hours, it could have been an entire day or even longer. Well, the
rest of the mob was impressed when they saw Nephi and Lehi’s shining faces. They
asked Aminadab what to do to get rid of the cloud of darkness. He recommended,
with certainty, that they “repent, and
cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught
unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud
of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you.” (Helaman 5:41).
All the members of the mob “did begin to cry unto the
voice of him who had shaken the earth; yea, they did cry even until the cloud
of darkness was dispersed.” (Helaman 5:42). The narrative does not tell us how
much time they spent in prayer. I imagine that it was not just a couple of
minutes, probably somewhere closer to an hour or more. I wouldn’t be surprised
if three days went by from the time the cloud of darkness descended to this
time when it dispersed because that would match the three days that Alma the
Younger was in hell, the three days that Jonah was in the belly of the whale,
the three days that Jesus was in the spirit world, and the three days of
darkness in the Americas after Jesus was crucified. However long the mob was
under the cloud of darkness, it was long enough for them to go from having
every intention to carry out two murders to offering a sacrifice of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit to God and Christ. After his crucifixion, Christ
told the surviving Nephites and Lamanites that “whoso cometh unto me with a
broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the
Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of
their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they
knew it not.”
The baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost that the reformed
mob members experienced included the following elements:
§ A
pillar of fire encircled each of the men
§ The
entire prison looked like it was on fire, but it didn’t burst into flames
§ They
were “filled with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory” (Helaman
5:44)
§ Their
hearts were filled with the Holy Spirit and with fire
§ They
were able to speak with the tongue of angels and spoke marvelous words
§ They
heard the voice of God saying “Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith
in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world.” (Helaman 5:47)
§ Angels
come down from heaven to minister to them
The point is that the 300 Lamanites were baptized by fire
and the Holy Ghost because, according to Moroni’s commentary, of the faith of
Nephi and Lehi. Christ explained that it was because of their own faith in him.
Putting the two together, I would say that it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi
in the first place that provided the setting for the Lamanites to exercise
their own faith to be baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost.
Faith is a covenant where God dictates the terms, defines
the objective, and provides the evidence that the covenant exists. Then it is
up to the individual to do the work and undergo the trials of the covenant.
After that, God fulfills his part of the covenant. The account in Helaman 5
does not specify the faith-covenant given to Nephi and Lehi. However, it was very
likely that they were acting within the framework of a faith-covenant. The
elements of that faith-covenant would possibly have been:
§ The
objective was to baptize the Lamanites by fire and the Holy ghost
§ Nephi
and Lehi were instructed by God to go to a particular city to preach the
gospel; they were told that they had to be willing to lay down their lives for
this covenant and they knew that they would be required to suffer and sacrifice
themselves in some way even if their lives were not ultimately required
§ The
evidence was a revelation consisting only of words to their minds, a vision, or
an angelic message, along with a witness from the Holy Ghost
§ Nephi
and Lehi showed their faith by works by going to the city in question to preach
§ God
did his part by allowing Nephi and Lehi to be put into prison where they would
be in contact with the group of people that God wanted to baptize with fire
§ Nephi
and Lehi endured the trial of near failure by being put into prison, starved,
and then nearly executed
§ After
the mob attempted to kill them, they had a visit from either Christ himself or
an angel and had a conversation with that being; the conversation included
Nephi and Lehi asking for the whole faith-covenant to be a success so that in
spite of the murderous disposition of the mob and the suffering that they had
received in prison, that the members of the mob would be baptized by fire and
the Holy Ghost
§ Nephi
and Lehi’s works, sacrifice, suffering, obedience, and intercession created the
conditions for the members of the mob to exercise their own faith and reach a
state of being of having a broken heart and contrite spirit
§ The
covenant was fulfilled by God when he baptized the reformed mob members by fire
and the Holy Ghost
All of this information is nice to know. But what does it
mean for me? How action can I take with this understanding? My question is this
– is it possible for me as a priesthood holder to enter into a faith-covenant
with God where I can facilitate the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost for
other people? The answer coming to my mind right now is “yes, it is possible.”
I’ll have to ponder on this to understand how to put it into practice, test it
out, and write about it later.
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