KnoWhys

Recommended Resources

Learn about the Book of Mormon with verse by verse commentaries from renowned Book of Mormon scholars like John W. Welch and Brant A. Gardner in the ScripturePlus app. Read this week's KnoWhy connected with the Come Follow Me curriculum, and watch a video elucidating an insight in this week's scripture reading.

John W. Welch Notes

Helaman 13–16

Come Follow Me (Insights into Helaman 13–16, August 31–September 6)

Book of Mormon Central

Come, Follow Me with John Hilton III (Helaman 13-16)

Book of Mormon Central

KnoWhy 576

How Are Samuel the Lamanite and the Biblical Prophet Samuel Similar?

Reading Plan

Structure your personal scripture study by following a multimedia, day by day plan. Each day's assignment includes the required scripture passages from the Come Follow Me curriculum, as well as suggestions for additional resources to bring context and understanding to your study.

Monday

• Scripture: Helaman 13:1-20
• KnoWhy 284: What Does the Book of Mormon Teach about Prophets?
• KnoWhy 184: Why Did Samuel Make Such Chronologically Precise Prophecies?

Tuesday

• Scripture: Helaman 13:21-39
• KnoWhy 327: How Can People Today Avoid Being Destroyed Like the Nephites Were?
• KnoWhy 539: Why Did Samuel Say the Wealth of Some Nephites Would Become “Slippery”?

Wednesday

• Scripture: Helaman 14:1-13
• Quote: “The pivotal occasions when Christ has come to the earth, meaning both his first and his second comings, have been preceded by signs, so that the faithful may know and be blessed. Signs help the Lord’s people to be prepared and, because they know what to watch for, to avoid deception. [See also Helaman 14:28-29.]”
  Parry, Donald W., and Jay A. Parry. Understanding the Signs of the Times. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book , 1999. 1.
• KnoWhy 185: Why did Samuel Rely So Heavily on the Words of Past Prophets?

Thursday

• Scripture: Helaman 14:14-31
• KnoWhy 300: How Does the Book of Mormon Help Date Christ’s Death?
• Quote: “Heavenly Father has organized our journey through life to be a test of our character. We are exposed to both good and evil influences and then given the moral agency to choose for ourselves which path we will take. As the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Samuel taught, ‘Ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.’
  “Heavenly Father also understood that due to our mortality we would not always make the correct or righteous choice. Because we are not perfect and because we make mistakes, we need help in returning to His presence. The necessary help is provided through the teachings, example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Savior’s atoning sacrifice makes possible our future salvation and exaltation through the principle of repentance. If we honestly and sincerely repent, the Atonement can help us become clean, change our nature, and successfully endure our challenges.”
  Maynes, Richard J. “The Strength to Endure”, General Conference October 2013

Friday

• Scripture: Helaman 15:1-17
• KnoWhy 186: Why Did Samuel Say the Lord “Hated” the Lamanites?
• Quote: “Understanding that divine love and blessings are not truly ‘unconditional’ can defend us against common fallacies such as these: ‘Since God’s love is unconditional, He will love me regardless …’; or ‘Since “God is love,” He will love me unconditionally, regardless …’
  These arguments are used by anti-Christs to woo people with deception. Nehor, for example, promoted himself by teaching falsehoods: He ‘testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, … for the Lord had created all men, … and, in the end, all men should have eternal life.’ Sadly, some of the people believed Nehor’s fallacious and unconditional concepts.In contrast to Nehor’s teachings, divine love warns us that ‘wickedness never was happiness.’ Jesus explains, ‘Come unto me and be ye saved; … except ye shall keep my commandments, … ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.’Does this mean the Lord does not love the sinner? Of course not. Divine love is infinite and universal. The Savior loves both saints and sinners. The Apostle John affirmed, ‘We love him, because he first loved us.’ And Nephi, upon seeing in vision the Lord’s mortal ministry, declared: ‘The world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.’ We know the expansiveness of the Redeemer’s love because He died that all who die might live again.”
  Nelson, Russell M. "Divine Love." Ensign, February 2003.

Saturday

• Scripture: Helaman 16:1-9
• Quote: “Has the world ever seen a more classic example of indomitable will, of faith and courage than that displayed by Samuel the Prophet: ‘One of the Lamanites who did observe strictly to keep the commandments of God’. Visualize, if you can, this despised Lamanite standing on the walls of Zarahemla and while arrows and stones were shot at him, crying out to his ... accusers that the sword of justice hung over them. So righteous was he that God sent an angel to visit him. His predictions were fulfilled in due time relating to the early coming of Christ, his ministry, death and resurrection, and the eventual destruction of these Nephite people. So great faith had he that the multitudes could not harm him until his message was delivered and so important was his message that subsequently the Savior required a revision of the records to include his prophecies concerning the resurrection of the Saints.”
  Kimball, Spencer W. “Who is My Neighbor?”, General Conference April 1949
• Quote: “Prophecies are given, in part, that we ‘might know and remember’ that these things ‘had been made known … beforehand, to the intent that [we] might believe’. Today’s inattentive people will be like an earlier, desensitized people who ‘began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished, … and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen’. If faithful, brothers and sisters, we lose nothing, even if, happily, like the ancient Ninevites, today’s mortals were to repent.”
  Maxwell, Neal A. “For I Will Lead You Along”, General Conference April 1988

Sunday

• Scripture: Helaman 16:10-25
• KnoWhy 187: Why Does Mormon State that ‘Angels Did Appear unto Wise Men’?
• Quote: “This account of wickedness and contentions among the Nephites prior to the Lord's birth in the meridian of time is duplicated in the wickedness, contentions, and deceptions of our day as we approach the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Prophecies concerning these days are also being fulfilled and Satan is stirring up the hearts of men to do iniquity continually; and to thwart, if possible, faith in the great event of Christ's second coming to earth, which I testify is sure to come to pass. Satan is alert and active. We must be more alert and perceptive of the false and insincere schemes of his agents among us.”
  Stapley, Delbert L. "Beware of Conspiring Men," General Conference October 1961

Additional Resources (Bibliography)