Mosiah 26—“Many of the rising generation . . . did not believe”

A friend, who we were close to some 40 years ago before they moved out of state, recently messaged me to say that she would be visiting our area where her daughter had moved. She reported that her daughter was “on a church break.” Still, our friend said, “I will go to her ward Sunday,” meaning, I assumed, without her daughter.

My friend’s use of the phrase “on a church break” immediately brought to mind the first verse of our recent Come Follow Me study of Mosiah 26, where we read “that there were many of the  rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.” (Mosiah 26:1)

Did these young people “not believe” simply because they were too young to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ that King Benjamin had taught in 124 B.C? To answer this question, a quick review of the history is helpful. Between 24 to 32 years passed between King Benjamin’s valedictory sermon and the time when Alma and the sons of Mosiah, the leading “non-believers” of that rising generation, were wreaking their havoc on the Church.[1] Without doubt King Mosiah and other leaders of the Church of God (meaning the Church of Jesus Christ) taught the gospel continuously during those intervening years, perhaps on a weekly basis as leaders do today. For example, we know that for Alma and his people, who joined King Mosiah’s people in about 120 B.C, “there was one day in every week that was set apart that they should gather themselves together to [be taught the gospel], and to worship the Lord their God, and also, as often as it was in their power, to assemble themselves together” and that their priests and teachers “did watch over their people, and did nourish them with things pertaining to  righteousness” (Mosiah 18:25; 23:19).

The record is clear that these young people had not lacked resources to learn about and gain testimonies of the gospel. “They could not understand the word of God,” and specifically the fundamental doctrines about the “resurrection of the dead” and the “coming of Christ,” meaning the atonement of Jesus Christ, “because of their unbelief.” In short, they “hardened their hearts;” that is, they chose not to believe. They chose not to be a part of, or to be “separate” from, the Church (Mosiah 26:2-4).

Something happened (or more accurately, something failed to happen) between the time they accompanied their parents as little children to the temple to hear the prophet (and, as scholars have pointed out, to participate in the ordinances of the Church in that day, likely including the solemn sacrifices required by the Law of Moses during the Nephite Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement)[2] and the time they reached their maturity. No doubt, if their parents were “practicing” members of the Church throughout the years from the childhood to young adulthood of these Nephite “Millennials,” the members of that generation heard all of the (perhaps weekly) sermons and participated in all of the sacred rituals their parents had participated in during those 25 or so years. Notwithstanding their parents’ best efforts (including the efforts of no less than the prophet and the King), these youth and young adults failed to seek and obtain their own experiences with God. As President Nelson has put it, they failed to “pay the price—through serious study and fervent prayer—to know the eternal truths [of the gospel] and then to abide by them.” (Russell M. Nelson, “Come, Follow Me,” April 2019)[3]

Fast forward several millennia and we see something similar playing out in the Church today. Perhaps the unprecedented dramatic societal changes we Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) have witnessed may not be as unique as we sometimes think? I have wondered while observing these discouraging cultural trends, how do our Gen X (born 1965 to 1980) and Millennial children (born 1981 to 2000) confront ever more rapidly eroding societal norms as they seek to structure activities in which their children (in my case, our grandchildren) can be “taught of the Lord” (3 Nephi 22:13), meaning by the power of the Holy Ghost?

Certainly the answer includes “intentional parenting”[4], which, of course, presupposes “intentional” living. What do I mean by intentional living? Simply put, it is that we as fathers and mothers (and grandfathers and grandmothers) fulfill our divine roles as husbands and fathers and wives and mothers, as outlined in the Family Proclamation, by keeping all of the laws, rites and ordinances of the gospel. Laws or principles, like the principle of daily repentance, and ordinances, like weekly renewing of our covenants in the sacrament, are familiar to all. But what about rites? Rites are simply those ritual or “habitual” practices that are repeatedly taught by the living prophets, practices like “blessings on the food at every meal, kneeling personal and family prayers, family home evening, and regular [personal and] family scripture study,” which help “us feel connected to God and to each other.” (Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, 268-69)

Another key answer to overcoming the influences of the world that President Nelson keeps coming back to is the temple. It is no coincidence that, among the adjustments the Lord has made to temple ordinances in recent years, have been important changes relating to our youth, including: (i) “the organization of ward [and family] youth groups . . . making ‘regular excursions to temples to be baptized for the dead, giving young Church members an opportunity to attend the temple years before they [are] endowed’”; (ii) “in 2017, Church leaders announced that young men holding the Aaronic Priesthood office of priest could perform baptisms for the dead”; and (iii) “in November 2019 . . . the First Presidency announced that ‘any member holding a current temple recommend, including [young women and young men holding] limited-use recommend[s], may serve as a witness to a proxy baptism.’” (Drawing, 113-14) Recent examples this past week in our family of drawing upon the power of the temple to empower the rising generation included a father and son (who had just received a mission call) day-trip to the temple (note that our temple is a two-hour drive each way) and an overnight trip to the temple a daughter's family made (4 of their 5 children are old enough to serve in the temple baptistry), followed by a day at Six Flags.

In his April 2024 General Conference message, President Nelson listed powerful promises the Lord makes to us as we regularly worship in the temple and increase our understanding and appreciation for what we do there, including the promise of help to “hold fast to the iron rod,” protection from “the world’s mists of darkness,” and the strengthening of our testimonies. In short, not only the rising generation, but each of us needs the strengthening, lifting power of regularly worshipping in the temple and applying ourselves to understand temple ordinances to be able to hold fast to the iron rod, to be protected from the very real mists of darkness in our day and from losing our way spiritually. Those who do their best to follow the Prophet's counsel uniformly bear witness that it works! --Slf

[1] According to the chronology in the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin’s address was in 124 B.C. (Mosiah 2:1). Limhi’s people and Alma and his followers united with King Mosiah’s people in Zarahemla about four years later in 120 B.C. (Mosiah 25). The chronology places the conversion of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah between 100 and 92 B.C., 24 to 32 years after King Benjamin’s address. So if Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah had been, say, two years old at the time of King Benjamin’s address, they would have been between 26 and 34 years old at the time of their conversion, the age of many Millennials today (ages 28-43). [2] Daniel C. Peterson, “Priesthood in Mosiah,” in The Book of Mormon: Mosiah, Salvation Only Through Christ, ed. Monte S. Nyman, BYU Religious Studies Center, https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-mosiah-salvation-only-through-christ/priesthood-mosiah (quoting Tvedtnes, “A Nephite Feast of Tabernacles”; Welch, “King Benjamin’s Speech in the Context of Ancient Israelite Festivals”)(note Brother Peterson’s important discussion about the fundamental shift in how the Nephites identified themselves as members of the “church” before and after King Mosiah "granted" to Alma authority to establish the church and "gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church" (Mosiah 25:19)). [3] In citing President Nelson, my intent is not to address why individuals choose to leave or stop attending Church. Our motivations for what we do, including how we choose to react to sometimes horrific behaviors by others beyond our control, are complex, and often difficult to discern, even in ourselves. Rather, my point is to focus on those things each of us can control—including President Nelson’s prophetic counsel to those who struggle with the Church for any reason and those who seek to support them in Christlike, compassionate ways. [4] Valeri V. Cordón, “Divine Parenting Lessons,” Liahona, November 2023, 106.