Lesson 34: How Could You Have Forgotten Your God?

Purpose:

To help class members recognize the cycle that leads from righteousness to wickedness and back to righteousness.

Reading Assignment:

• Helaman 6-12

Additional Reading:

• Elder M. Russell Ballard - Learning Lessons of the Past
• Dean L. Larsen - The Lord Will Prosper the Righteous
  

Questions to Ponder:

1. The people are righteous and are blessed with peace and prosperity.

• What characteristics did the Lamanites have that helped them become more righteous than many of the Nephites? (See Helaman 6:1.) How did the converted Lamanites try to help the Nephites? (See Helaman 6:4–6.) What was the result? (See Helaman 6:7–14.)
   

2. The Nephites become proud and wicked. Nephi calls them to repentance.

• Why does prosperity often lead to wickedness? (See Helaman 6:17; 7:20–21.)
   
• What are the characteristics of the Gadianton Robbers? (see Helaman 6:21–24 and Helaman 7:4–5) Which of these elements exist today? How can we appropriately fight evil influences in our communities?
   
• Who was the source of the secret combinations? (See Helaman 6:25–30.) What did the Nephites do as Satan "got great hold upon [their] hearts"? (See Helaman 6:31.)
   
• Why did the Spirit "withdraw from the Nephites"? (See Helaman 6:35.) Why did the Lord "pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites"? (See Helaman 6:36.) What can this teach us about how we can receive the influence of the Holy Ghost?
   
• How did the people react when Nephi rebuked them for their wickedness? (See Helaman 8:1–10.) Why did so many remain unrepentant?
   
• How did the people react after Seantum confessed to murdering his brother, the chief judge? (See Helaman 9:39–10:1.) After the people debated whether Nephi was a prophet or a god, they left him standing alone. What can keep us from listening to latter-day prophets?
  
  President Ezra Taft Benson said: "The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich. The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with them; otherwise, the prophet is just giving his opinion—speaking as a man. The rich may feel they have no need to take counsel of a lowly prophet" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 138).
   

3. The Lord gives Nephi the sealing power. The unrepentant Nephites face warfare and famine.

• The Lord gave Nephi the sealing power, saying that "all things [would] be done according to [Nephi's] word" (Helaman 10:5–10). Why did the Lord entrust Nephi with such great power? (See Helaman 10:4–5.)
   
• What happened to the people after they rejected Nephi and disobeyed God? (See Helaman 10:18–11:2.) What did Nephi pray for in order to help the people remember the Lord and repent? (See Helaman 11:4.) Why did Nephi pray for famine instead of war? (See Helaman 11:4.) How was Nephi's prayer answered? (See Helaman 11:5–6.)
   

4. The Nephites humble themselves and repent.

• What can we learn from the Lord's answer to Nephi's prayer to end the famine? (See Helaman 11:10–17.) What did the Lord require of the people before He would end the famine? (See Helaman 11:14–15.)
   
• How were the people once again blessed for their faithfulness? (See Helaman 11:20–21.)
   
• What was the first sign that the short-lived period of humility and righteousness was ending? (SeeHelaman 11:22.) How did Nephi, Lehi, and their brethren put an end to this contention? (SeeHelaman 11:23.) In what ways can teaching "true points of doctrine" help us put an end to contention?
   
• Following another period of wickedness and destruction by warfare, what helped the people repent and turn to the Lord? (See Helaman 11:28–34.) As we are surrounded by similar conditions of wickedness, what can we do to always remember the Lord?
   
• Two years later, the Nephites "began again to forget the Lord their God" (Helaman 11:36). Why do you think people are so quick to forget the Lord? In what ways might we be forgetting the Lord today?
   
• Mormon said that "the children of men … are less than the dust of the earth" (Helaman 12:7). On what basis did he make this statement? (Helaman 12:1–6, 8.)
   
• What did Mormon say will be the fate of those who disobey? (See Helaman 12:25–26.) What will be the fate of those who repent and obey the Lord? (See Helaman 12:23–24, 26.)
   
• How can people break away from the "pride cycle?" (See Alma 62:48–51; Helaman 12:23–24.) President Gordon B. Hinckley said: "Seek for the real things, not the artificial. Seek for the everlasting truths, not the passing whim. Seek for the eternal things of God, not for that which is here today and gone tomorrow. Look to God and live" (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 494).