Survivor’s guilt versus the Lord’s assessment on sin in 3 Nephi 8-9

When the destruction among the Nephites happens at Christ’s death, there is a curious contradiction between the people’s cries of mourning and regret and the Lord’s words about where the fault lay.

The people say one thing and Christ says another.

24 And in one place they were heard to cry, saying: O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and then would our brethren have been spared, and they would not have been burned in that great city Zarahemla.

25 And in another place they were heard to cry and mourn, saying: O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and had not killed and stoned the prophets, and cast them out; then would our mothers and our fair daughters, and our children have been spared, and not have been buried up in that great city Moronihah. And thus were the howlings of the people great and terrible. (3 Nephi 8:24-25)

The people exclaim that if they had repented and not stoned the prophets, their brethren and families would have been spared.  It is as if they claim it is their fault and that innocent others were destroyed in punishment for that guilt.

Christ has something different to say.

2 Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen!

3 Behold, that great city Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof. . . .

5 And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them. . . .

12 And many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land, and upon this people, because of their wickedness and their abominations.

13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? (3 Nephi 9:2-3, 5, 12-13)

Christ, on the other hand, tells them the people slain had been wicked and those who were spared were more righteous, although they still needed to repent.

I think this shows us several things.  First, people tend to attribute responsibility to themselves for the destruction of their family members, even if those who were destroyed were wicked.  (“If we would have repented, these family members would have been spared.”)  We know from the D&C that parents are responsible for the guilt of the children if the children are not taught right, but when those who sin do it in full knowledge of their rebellion, it is another story.  To the survivors it can feel like a punishment when it is actually more of a deliverance.  So when Jesus says those who had been spared had been more righteous, He absolves them of the guilt they don’t deserve to feel, though He still tells them they need to turn to Him and repent.

I think Satan would love people to feel responsible for sins they didn’t commit because then he can destroy their peace. Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to be free from guilt. He put the responsibility where it really belonged so they could be free of undeserved guilt, and He also extended the invitation to repent of their sins so they could become free from deserved guilt.  

It is also interesting to see who is mourned in the city of Moronihah and who is left out.  They mourn for their mothers, fair daughters, and their children, but there is no mention of fathers, wives, or fair sons, so it is possible those were saved. 

It is peculiar that mothers, fair daughters, and children were killed because usually we’d think of these groups as being some of the tender and innocent.  But because of Christ’s statement about the destruction falling on the iniquitous and abominable, we must conclude that He was just and they were corrupted.  I could speculate a good long time on why the families were divided along those particular lines, and I can think of at least three plausible scenarios about how this happened, but ultimately it’s not terribly important.  The important thing was that it shows us that the Lord has the power to save or destroy very specifically, even with large disasters.

Other observations can be made about what Christ told the people about the destruction.  A lot of cities are listed that were destroyed, but there were also a lot of cities we’ve heard of in the Book of Mormon in other places that were not mentioned in the list, so we can probably assume that the damage to them wasn’t so horrific that all the people died in them too.

There is also a range of severity in the destruction and condemnation. Zerahemla and Moronihah had great destruction, but they also had people associated with them that remained alive to mourn the loss of those who died there.  There is no such thing recorded of the other cities – Moroni, Gilgal, Onihah, Mocum, Jerusalem, Gadiandi, Gadiomnah, Jacob, Gimgimno, Jacobugath, Laman, Josh, Gad, and Kishkumen.

Also, all of the cities mentioned have it noted of them that the inhabitants were slain “that the blood of the prophets and saints shall not come any more unto me against them,” but the cities of Laman, Josh, Gad, and Kishkumen come in for especial condemnation for 1) casting out and stoning the prophets and those sent by God to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and abominations (3 Nephi 9:10) and 2) casting ALL of them out so there were no righteous among them (v11) and they were destroyed so that the blood of the prophets and saints “might not cry unto me from the ground against them.” (v11)

So, some cities just had the righteous blood come up to God, but the extra wicked cities had righteous blood crying to God against them. To me this implies degrees of violence, one perhaps being abuse and injury, but the other implying murder, much like Abel’s blood cried to God against Cain.  It also seems like most of the cities still allowed the righteous to stay among them, but the extra wicked cities kicked them all out.

The Lord mentions that prophets and others had been sent to those cities Laman, Josh, Gad, and Kishkumen to declare their wickedness to them, which makes me think those cities had no local people to tell them. They needed imported prophets and warnings. I wonder if those were cities formed by Gadianton robbers for the purpose of having their own special enclave, or whether the robbers had just taken over a place and gradually got rid of everyone who dared to warn them of their perfidy.  Kishkumen  could easily be a city of just Gadianton robbers, since it is stated elsewhere that cities were named after their first founder.

Jacobugath also comes in for special condemnation because in addition to the blood of prophets and saints, they also 1) committed murders, 2) had secret combinations, and 3) destroyed the peace of the people and the government of the land. It is very significant that He calls their wickedness “above all the wickedness of the whole earth” (v9).   This is probably because the secret combination created such a synergy of coordinated, corporatized evil greater than just individuals and it affected the whole land by destroying the credibility of government and causing the government to be destroyed. (Yet another reason to avoid secret combinations or group-organized evil…) 

The way the Lord says multiple times that He destroyed these places “to hide their iniquities and abominations from before my face” is a great reminder that even if we think our sins are secret, the Lord can still see them.  We can’t hide them from the Lord; apparently only death does that.  And even if they are hidden from the Lord for His relief, they still exist and have to be repented of and had to be atoned for.  And it reminds me that as Christ is the one who atoned for all of our sins and even the worst of what these people did, He would not let them continue to go on in it indefinitely. He removed them from life to stop them.  And we see that He had warned them all, even the worst of them.

After all the tale of destruction has been told, I love that Christ says to those who remain, “Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.” (3 Nephi 9:14)  Maybe they didn’t feel like they had more chance to repent and all this destruction was a punishment, but Christ still extended mercy in the middle of it.  Their lives were extended and that was a mercy. The invitation to repent and return was given, and that was extended mercy. They were not beyond help.

I’ve noticed and Elder Bednar pointed out in the recent Christmas devotional that Christ saved a bunch of Christians among the Nephites simply by being born, but I think it could also be said that He saved a bunch of Christians through the signs of His death as well.  We don’t have the accounts of all the circumstances whereby those who were saved were guiding to remove them from danger in those natural cataclysms while the wicked from the same families were destroyed. But it is evident that His death saved many, not just spiritually, but temporally.  With every major event of His life, Christ was the means of saving those who believed in Him, and His second coming will be another event of salvation for the righteous.

The Sign in the Questioning of Seantum for His Brother’s Murder, Helaman 9:25-38

In Helaman 9 when the prophet Nephi gives the second sign to the unbelieving judges, there are some very odd features about it that have puzzled me more and more.

25 And now behold, I will show unto you another sign, and see if ye will in this thing seek to destroy me.

26 Behold I say unto you: Go to the house of Seantum, who is the brother of Seezoram, and say unto him—

27 Has Nephi, the pretended prophet, who doth prophesy so much evil concerning this people, agreed with thee, in the which ye have murdered Seezoram, who is your brother?

28 And behold, he shall say unto you, Nay.

29 And ye shall say unto him: Have ye murdered your brother?

30 And he shall stand with fear, and wist not what to say. And behold, he shall deny unto you; and he shall make as if he were astonished; nevertheless, he shall declare unto you that he is innocent.

31 But behold, ye shall examine him, and ye shall find blood upon the skirts of his cloak.

32 And when ye have seen this, ye shall say: From whence cometh this blood? Do we not know that it is the blood of your brother?

33 And then shall he tremble, and shall look pale, even as if death had come upon him.

34 And then shall ye say: Because of this fear and this paleness which has come upon your face, behold, we know that thou art guilty.

35 And then shall greater fear come upon him; and then shall he confess unto you, and deny no more that he has done this murder.

36 And then shall he say unto you, that I, Nephi, know nothing concerning the matter save it were given unto me by the power of God. And then shall ye know that I am an honest man, and that I am sent unto you from God.

37 And it came to pass that they went and did, even according as Nephi had said unto them. And behold, the words which he had said were true; for according to the words he did deny; and also according to the words he did confess.

38 And he was brought to prove that he himself was the very murderer, insomuch that the five were set at liberty, and also was Nephi. (Helaman 9:25-38)

Take that first question, “Has Nephi, the pretended prophet, who doth prophesy so much evil concerning this people, agreed with thee, in the which ye have murdered Seezoram, who is your brother?”  The question is technically a loaded one about on par with “Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?”  The question Nephi tells them to ask presupposes that Seantum has murdered Seezoram, and an innocent man would object to that presupposition, as would a guilty man who wished to conceal his guilt.  Yet it is very strange that with all the other emotional and physical reactions that Nephi prophesies that Seantum will have later, this first question doesn’t seem to raise anything besides a simple “No.”  What is he saying no to?  We can observe that the simple “no” can be taken as a denial of both agreement and murder or an ambiguous denial of one of those.  This doesn’t seem to get anyone anywhere.

I really didn’t understand why Seantum was not worried until the second question, “Have ye murdered your brother?” and not when the first is asked.

What I finally realized was that the judges questioning Seantum were also part of the Gadianton robbers.  This may seem obvious, but as I thought about the true implications of this, I began to realize that this brought into the dialogue a subtext that Seantum would read differently than he would have if the questioning had been done by someone outside the Gadianton robbers.

We have to keep in mind that the Gadianton robbers protected their own from suffering for their crimes or from being exposed to Nephite justice, so the Gadianton judges probably thought that if they did the questioning, they could protect Seantum and that Seantum would easily deny any charge against him.  What they didn’t realize was that the line of questioning that Nephi laid out for them was inspired by God with the purpose of using the Gadianton’s own association and culture of wickedness against them, using questions that would seem almost absurd.  It is likely that if the Gadianton judges suspected any particularly pointed question, they would have altered it or softened it.  That they didn’t alter it meant that they thought there was no way that it would succeed and therefore wasn’t much of a danger to them or Seantum.

What the Lord designed that first question to do was give Seantum the impression that his questioners were speaking to him confidentially about Gadianton business, merely to find out who was involved in a particular caper.  “Has Nephi, the pretended prophet, who doth prophesy so much evil concerning this people, agreed with thee, in the which ye have murdered Seezoram, who is your brother?”  It makes it seem like they were uninformed the murder was supposed to happen and they just want to get the real facts of the matter.  Again, an innocent man would immediately have been worried by this question, but a Gadianton would not, if talking to other Gadiantons.

The second question was, “Have ye murdered your brother?”  The Gadianton judges thought it would be easy for Seantum to make a confident show of denying his involvement and bold-face his way through it.  They fully expected that Seantum would deny it, but they didn’t realize that the question carried subtext to Seantum that they perhaps didn’t mean.  In Seantum’s eyes, that question would reveal that they were not asking in the role of fellow-associates, but as investigators.  Investigation implied they didn’t approve of the murder.  (They may have approved, but the question made him think they didn’t.)  Thinking they didn’t approve might lead Seantum to think that somehow he had run afoul of a particular Gadianton faction that favored Seezoram over him and was angry at what he had done.  He might worry, not about Nephite justice, but Gadianton “justice.”  Or he might begin to wonder if his questioners were going to throw him under the bus and betray him for their own advantage.  It is here that he begins to fear, to not know what to say (since he no longer is sure these questioners on really on his side), and to deny his guilt and declare his innocence.  But his denials are too delayed.. and they are desperate.

Then, they examine Seantum and find blood on the skirts of his cloak.  This puzzled me for a long time because it seemed incredibly stupid that Seantum didn’t get rid of his cloak or have it washed or something.  I mean, really!  You’d think he would be smart enough to notice he had blood on him, right?  It kept bothering me until I noticed it talks about “the skirts of his cloak,” and not “skirt.”  It may have been multiple panels of cloth that made up this cloak, not just one, possibly to indicate status.  The more cloth involved, the more difficult it would be to catch and clean blood spatters.

The next questions the Gadianton judges asked –“From whence cometh this blood? Do we not know that it is the blood of your brother?”—might sound to them like they are making a wild assertion, especially since for all they know Seantum could have killed other people since killing his brother.  But to Seantum it would sound like his questioners had seen his animosity and jealousy against Seezoram building for a long time and had predicted that it was only a matter of time before he struck.  It would make him wonder, “Am I that transparent?”  This would make him worry that other Gadiantons saw it too and disapproved.   This made him tremble and look pale as he worried he would have to deal with the anger of other Gadiantons.

The next thing the Gadianton judges say seems even more strange.  “Because of this fear and this paleness which has come upon your face, behold, we know that thou art guilty.”  It seems odd to tell someone they are guilty just because of the fear they manifest.  It is contrary to all our ideas of justice!  People are supposed to be pronounced guilty because of direct evidence or a collection of circumstantial evidence that strongly supports an inference they committed the crime over other options.  The blood on Seantum’s clothes could be called circumstantial evidence, but they don’t really have a way to say with scientific certainty that it is Seezoram’s blood.   And yet, this wacky line is enough to put the fear of God into Seantum and make him confess everything!  So what is it about that observation that scared Seantum even more?

To the judges making those statements, it would sound like another bold assertion that was full of hot air.  To Seantum, it sounded different—menacing.  Why?  As I pondered  and prayed about this, my mind fastened on the words “thou art guilty,” and I remembered another verse earlier in Helaman:

And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadianton and Kishkumen. (Helaman 6:24)

Seantum thought he was being pronounced guilty by Gadianton law in an impromptu trial and that he was about to be punished for his crime.  If he had been innocent, being called guilty just because of his fear and paleness would have made him angrily declaim against the injustice of it, but Seantum was too well acquainted with Gadianton trials to see that declaration as meaningless.  It is possible he himself had condemned other Gadiantons under similar groundless causes with flimsy or nonexistent evidence.  Further, he thought he was being condemned for revealing Gadianton doings to the prophet Nephi, thus his fear, his confession, and his violent insistence that Nephi knew nothing about the matter except it were given by the power of God.

So, the miracle of Nephi’s second sign is that even with Gadiantons trying to protect their own in the questioning process, the questions that looked harmless and laughable forced them to condemn one of their own and prove Nephi’s innocence.  It is a prime example of how the Lord takes the wicked in their own craftiness. 

“I of myself am a wicked man”: Re-examining Omni

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Omni, being commanded by my father, Jarom, that I should write somewhat upon these plates, to preserve our genealogy—

 2 Wherefore, in my days, I would that ye should know that I fought much with the sword to preserve my people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of their enemies, the Lamanites. But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done. (Omni 1:1-2)

Omni is mostly remembered these days as one who admits his own wickedness and we take his statement pretty much at face value.  I for one have surmised that he was at the end of his life staring into the face of eternity and feeling the pangs of regret.  However, there is a subtlety in the text that I noticed recently that gave me pause and made me realize that judgment of Omni is not so simple.

Notice that he writes, “I of myself am a wicked man..”  I wondered what the difference was between “I of myself am a wicked man” and “I myself am a wicked man.” There has to be a reason that of was inserted in there.  So, I went searching the scriptures, and I found out the phrase “of myself” is used often when a speaker refers to themselves in the natural man without the help of God’s grace or godly wisdom. 

Consider the following elsewhere in the scriptures:

Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. (2 Cor 12:5, emphasis added)

I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man. (Mosiah 2:10, emphasis added)

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Alma 26:12, emphasis added)

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. (Alma 29:9, emphasis added)

31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

32 ¶There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. (John 5:31-32, emphasis added)

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17, emphasis added)

Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (Joh 8:28, emphasis added)

There are other instances when a speaker says they know things “of myself,” (possibly meaning they know for themselves), but the above instances denote speaking on one’s own authority or to refer to the natural man.  

Further, Omni’s own admission may be an argument that he is better than he says he is.  Those given over to wickedness tend to think they are okay when they aren’t, whereas those given to righteousness often are bothered by their own faults and how they are not living up to their view of righteousness.  We have Nephi’s agonized cry of “Oh wretched man that I am!” and his detailed record that when he wanted to rejoice he found himself sorrowing over the sins that so easily beset him.  It may be that Omni’s brief admission, “I of myself am a wicked man and have not kept the statues…as I ought to have done” is a lament in that vein, however brief.  He gives no testimony of Christ, so we don't know if his sense of guilt was swallowed up in faith in Christ or not.

It is too bad there is not more in the record about Omni.  One thing he says is that he wants us to know that he fought much to keep his people safe from the Lamanites, so we know that he was a valiant and courageous warrior.  Perhaps it is his way of saying he is a man of action rather than a man of many words.  Because there is so little of his record, we really can’t make a good assessment of Omni as a person.  We can say that he had a poor opinion of his own virtues and we can make small comments about what little he wrote, yet we know so very little context about what he says that our conclusions are still highly tenuous.  Even what I have said here can only be classed as speculation.

The Spiritual Perils of Going Through Foreclosure

Whether or not you have noticed, there is a movement among a number of people who say that if homeowners are underwater they should just walk away and allow their house to go into foreclosure to get out from underneath the debt. There are others who say that the homeowner should try to get a loan modification.

Please consider the article “How Banks View Loan Modifications.”

When I read this article, I was very disturbed that the writer seemed to say that a homeowner should not feel guilty and ashamed. The subtext seemed to be “The banks are trying to emotionally manipulate you to think that you are the bad guy, so get back at them by determining to not feel guilty about going through foreclosure.”

This is wrong on so many levels.

I know by sad experience (though not with foreclosure) that when a person makes a conscious decision to not feel sorry for something they have done wrong, they are deadening their conscience. It is refusing to sacrifice a broken heart and contrite spirit. Unless they realize what has happened and speedily repent, the Spirit will cease striving with them and they will become as the Nephites of old in Mormon’s day—good for nothing but to be hewn down and cast into the fire.

I can’t emphasize enough how DANGEROUS this spiritual state is.
Repenting of it requires:

• Praying for forgiveness for the decision to not feel sorry
• Praying for forgiveness for all other sins committed which caused the decision
• Praying to overcome all temptation to shrink from the pain of a broken heart

I’m not talking about a few sporadic prayers. Constant prayer is required. It’s a very hard and painful process. You DON’T EVER want to go there.

Back to the foreclosure issue. Please don’t misunderstand me; I am not making any kind of judgment of people who have their house foreclosed. There are all kinds of ways people get into this predicament. I just want to point out the spiritual dangers and consequences of going through it. To not do what you promise to do in a contract is a sin, but there is a difference between deliberate delinquency and being forced into something by circumstances. Having nothing to pay is one thing, but deliberately withholding payment while possessing the means to pay is another.

Either way, the Atonement of Christ covers all sins and transgressions. God can forgive and God can provide. But of course we have to do everything in our power to avoid sin first.

If you happen to be getting the phone calls and letters from the banks that the article describes, realize that it amounts to spiritual abuse.

14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts. (Isaiah 3:14-15)

Fortunately Christ has told us how we should act if we experience this type treatment.

43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (Matthew 5:43-47)

By doing this, the unfortunate experience of foreclosure can be transformed from an embittering, confidence-destroying, and spiritually dangerous experience into a refiner’s fire that yields greater charity and a godly character.

Resistance is NOT futile, and I WILL NOT be assimilated!!!

I’ve made a discovery which I probably should have made long ago, but which is finally sinking in. The self-defeating thoughts that come to my mind are not from God. They’re from the devil. The thoughts that come into my mind that buffet me about my past sins which I have already repented of are not from God. They’re from the devil. The thoughts that try to make me think that I’m worthless are from the devil. The thoughts that insist that I have screwed up my life and that nothing good I try will work are from the devil.

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:11-12)

The principalities and powers that Paul talks about in this verse belong to Satan, the prince and ruler of darkness.

I’m beginning to learn the difference between how Heavenly Father talks to me about my past sins I’ve repented of and how Satan talks to me about my past sins I’ve repented of. Heavenly Father reminds me of the past only to gently warn me from future mistakes, and He’s very mild about it so I’m not pained. Satan knocks me down with past mistakes and beats me with a nail-spiked board until the guilt pools like blood.

It’s Sunday and you’d think I’d be able to rest right? Wrong.

3:30pm and I have been brought to tears by some gritty thoughts that I have no worth. (Even after those fabulous Ensign articles about the worth of souls!) I cry in my husband’s arms for a few minutes.

6:55pm. I am finishing my dinner and thinking about the lesson I taught the CTR 8 class and I find myself worrying that I was not talking enough to people in church. Soon I am feeling that I am too selfish. Then thoughts begin to come to my mind about a difficult stage I went through a year and a half ago. My past mistakes (already repented of) start replaying in my mind and I am beginning to feel like a terrible person. (Resistance is futile…) Then somehow it comes to me that I don’t deserve the torture since I’ve already repented, and I think to pray. Heavenly Father, PLEASE help me resist the bad thoughts! Peace comes immediately.

7:00pm. I am sitting on the couch thinking about how nice it was to be in primary today. The children were so happy and innocent. Then some bitter thoughts creep in and I find myself wishing I could be back at that age again, before I ruined my life. (Resistance is futile….) WHAT?! I haven’t ruined my life! This is Satan again, trying to make me think I have done something wrong when I haven’t. I pray again for Heavenly Father to help me resist the bad thoughts and I immediately feel peace again.

I’m sure it sounds very much like I have done something terrible, that I’m suffering guilt that is deserved, and that I’m denying that I deserve it. I want to tell you that it is possible to be buffeted by Satan even when you are guiltless. I think Paul knew about this, which is why he wrote about wrestling with Satan and about putting on the armor of God. (If you want to see read about someone else in the scriptures who had to deal with "thought ambushes" from Satan, check out Nephi in 2 Nephi 4 with his "oh wretched man that I am" ruminations.)

In particular, I want to call attention to one of the items Paul listed—the helmet of salvation. (teacher voice) Class, where does a helmet go? (On the head!) Very good! Class, where do thoughts happen? (In the head!) Very good! So when Satan directs vicious fear-choked thoughts at our mind that tell us that we are lost forever (when we have repented), we must remember that we have repented and that Christ has already covered our sins. We’ve been saved! * pa-TING! * Hear that? That’s the sound of a fiery dart bouncing off the helmet of “I’ve-already-repented-so-I’m-safe”, which is commonly known as the helmet of salvation.
How can I be sure that I don’t deserve suffering from these nasty deprecating thoughts? This is why I need the rest of the armor.

Loins girt about with truth. Knowing correct principles and following them takes care of a lot of doubt that I am in the wrong. Also, being honest and telling the truth to myself and to others “covers my butt”.

The breastplate of righteousness. Living the correct principles I know to be true gives even more conviction and firmness to my living. Further, since it is impossible to commit a bad act and a good act at the same time, living righteously all the time means there is no room in the inn for wickedness.

Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. There are principles that I am imperfect at living, but I am preparing to do better, and I know Heavenly Father will help me, so I can have peace knowing that I will become a better person by following the gospel.

The shield of faith. Heavenly Father won’t give me more than I can handle. It may be more than I think I can handle, but it won’t be beyond my capability. For every doubt, there is a shield of faith that can meet it.

The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. As it has been pointed out in the Doctrine and Covenants so many times, the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow. But this isn’t a sword that you commit hari kari on. It’s for cutting to the heart of a problem. It’s for morally dissecting temptations as if they were a fetal pig in biology class.

To conclude, we must be aware of the source of the opposition we face and realize that Satan is behind it. It takes time for awareness to come, and we don’t know from what quarter we’ll be hit next. So, we must be sure we are..

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints (Ephesians 6:18)

Image from Children of Narcisus, http://www.arachnoid.com/ChildrenOfNarcissus/media_portrayals.html

Guilt has to be dealt with

I ran across this verse recently:

Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever. (Mosiah 2:38)

I thought it was very significant that the demands of justice awakes a lively sense of guilt in unrepentant spirits; even though they have done their best to put their conscience to sleep and quell feelings of guilt during their mortal life and bury the memories in oblivion, they will get hit with a divine justice in the end, with a clear, awakened memory of everything they did and then guilt will attack. (Yikes!)

Which is why we need to repent in this life.

Don't buy society's "just move on with your life and forget about it" mantra. Guilt has to be dealt with and healed through the Atonement of Christ. Whether it is our conscience legitimately reproaching us or whether it is Satan trying to buffet us by imputing guilt where none exists, it needs to be dealt with and healed through the Atonement of Christ.