Helaman 14
Reading Assignment: Helaman 14
Learning Activities:
1) Study Helaman 14:3–6, and mark in your scriptures the signs that would accompany the birth of Jesus Christ.
2) Study Helaman 14:20–27, and mark the signs that would accompany His death.
3) In your scripture study journal, write about how you think you would have responded if you were there and had heard Samuel make these prophecies. Of all the signs given, which one do you think would most impress upon you the need to repent?
4) These signs are both instructive and symbolic. When Jesus Christ came into the world, light increased. When He died, darkness increased. The same happens in our lives when we either allow Him to enter our hearts or prevent Him from entering. What will you do to allow more light and more of the Savior into your life?
5) Read Helaman 14:28–29, and look for why the Lord provides signs and wonders. One truth we learn is: The Lord provides signs and wonders to help people believe in Him. Ponder the signs (evidences) that you feel help you to believe in Jesus Christ.
6) Study this diagram to help you with Helaman 14:15-19
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Helaman 14:15–19. Because of Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we will overcome death
Samuel the Lamanite described the difference between physical death, the first spiritual death, and the second spiritual death, as well as how the Savior’s Atonement helps us overcome these deaths. Prophets and other Church leaders have also taught these truths.Physical death. While serving as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Earl C. Tingey taught:
“Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the physical body. Because of the Fall of Adam, all mankind will suffer physical death” (Earl C. Tingey, “The Great Plan of Happiness,”Ensign or Liahona, May 2006, 73).
The first spiritual death. Spiritual death is being “cut off from the presence of the Lord” (Alma 42:9).
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) explained that physical death and the first spiritual death are results of the Fall of Adam and Eve:
“Our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God. By eating the forbidden fruit, they became mortal. Consequently, they and all of their descendants became subject to both mortal and spiritual death (mortal death, the separation of body and spirit; and spiritual death, the separation of the spirit from the presence of God and death as pertaining to the things of the spirit)” (Spencer W. Kimball, “The True Way of Life and Salvation,” Ensign, May 1978, 6).
Spiritual death was introduced into the world by the Fall of Adam and Eve. As we are born into a fallen world, we inherit this condition—we are separated from the presence of God. Samuel the Lamanite referred to this condition as “the first death” (Helaman 14:16).
Samuel the Lamanite taught that all of Heavenly Father’s children who lived in mortality will overcome physical death and the first spiritual death through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ (see Helaman 14:17). Many other scriptures also testify of this truth (see 2 Nephi 2:9–10; 9:15, 22, 38; Alma 11:43–44; 12:12–15, 24; 42:23; 3 Nephi 26:4–5).
The second spiritual death. The second death is an ultimate or final spiritual death—being cast out of God’s presence forever because of unrepented personal sin (see D&C 76:37).
The Savior has also provided help to overcome this second spiritual death. He suffered for our sins so He could offer us the opportunity to repent. But to those who do not repent, “there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness” (Helaman 14:18). This means that a person with unresolved sin cannot remain in God’s presence after he or she is brought back to Him for judgment.