The Judges Attack Nephi
After Nephi said these words, some judges got angry. These judges belonged to Gadianton’s secret gang. They yelled out to the people: “Why don’t you grab this man? Bring him here so he can be punished for what he has done! Why do you listen to this man? He speaks badly about us and our law!” Nephi had told them their law was bad. He spoke many things that can’t be written here. But nothing he said went against God’s rules.
The judges were angry because Nephi told them about their secret evil plans. But they didn’t dare touch him. They were scared the people would get mad at them. So they cried out to the people: “Why do you let this man speak badly about us? He says all of you will be destroyed! He says our great cities will be taken away from us. We won’t have anywhere to live! We know this can’t happen. We are strong and our cities are great. Our enemies can’t beat us.”
The People Argue About Nephi
They made the people angry at Nephi. The people started fighting among themselves. Some people cried out: “Leave this man alone! He is good. What he says will happen unless we change our ways. All the bad things he told us about will happen to us. We know he has told us the truth about our sins. We have done many wrong things. He knows what will happen to us just like he knows about our sins. If he wasn’t a prophet, he couldn’t tell us these things.”
The people who wanted to hurt Nephi were too scared to touch him. So he started speaking to them again. He had won over some people. This made the rest afraid.
Nephi Teaches About Moses and the Prophets
So he felt he should speak more to them. He said: “My brothers, haven’t you read that God gave power to Moses? Moses hit the waters of the Red Sea. The waters split apart. The Israelites, our ancestors, walked through on dry ground. Then the waters closed on the Egyptian armies and covered them up. If God gave Moses that much power, why do you argue? Why do you say God hasn’t given me power to know what will happen to you if you don’t change?”
“But you don’t just reject my words. You also reject what our ancestors said. You reject the words Moses spoke. God gave him great power. You reject what he said about the Messiah coming. Didn’t Moses say the Son of God would come? Moses lifted up the brass snake in the desert. The same way, the Son of God will be lifted up. Everyone who looked at that snake lived. In the same way, everyone who looks to the Son of God with faith can live forever. But they must have a sorry heart.”
“Moses wasn’t the only one who taught these things. All the holy prophets did too. From Moses’ time all the way back to Abraham’s time. Abraham saw Jesus coming. This made him very happy. I tell you, Abraham knew these things. But there were many people before Abraham who were called by God. They followed God’s Son. This was done so people could know about Jesus many thousands of years before he came. People could know they would be saved.”
Prophets Who Were Killed
“I want you to know that many prophets have taught these things since Abraham’s time. The prophet Zenas spoke boldly about this. That’s why he was killed. Zenoch taught these things too. So did Ezias, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the prophet who said Jerusalem would be destroyed. We know Jerusalem was destroyed, just like Jeremiah said. So why won’t the Son of God come, just like Jeremiah said?”
“Will you argue that Jerusalem wasn’t destroyed? Will you say Zedekiah’s sons weren’t killed? All of them died except Mulek. Don’t you see that Zedekiah’s children are with us? They were forced to leave Jerusalem. But this is not all. Our father Lehi was forced to leave Jerusalem. He left because he taught these things. Nephi also taught these things. Almost all our fathers taught them right up to today. They taught that Christ would come. They looked forward to his day. They were happy about it. He is God. He was with them. He showed himself to them. They were saved by him. They gave him glory because of what would happen.”
Nephi Warns the People
“You know these things. You can’t deny them unless you lie. So you have sinned. You have rejected all these things. You’ve had so much proof. You have everything in heaven and earth as proof that these things are true. But you have rejected the truth. You have turned away from your holy God. Right now, you should be storing up treasures in heaven. Nothing gets old there. Nothing bad can enter there. Instead, you are building up God’s anger against you for judgment day. Right now you are getting ready for destruction. This is because of your murders, sexual sins, and evil. Unless you change, it will happen to you soon.”
The Judge Is Dead
“It’s right at your door! Go to the judgment seat and look! Your judge has been murdered. He’s lying in his blood. His brother killed him. His brother wants to be the judge. They both belong to your secret gang. Gadianton started this gang. The devil wants to destroy people’s souls.”