One of the YouTube channels I follow is Connor Boyack. For those who don’t know him, Connor is a fairly well-known commentator and activist in Utah, probably of a more Libertarian bent, and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Sometimes I agree with him, and sometimes I disagree but I usually find his ‘Sunday musings’ well thought-out and researched.

Yesterday, he entitled his musing ‘What would a modern Samuel the Lamanite sound like?’ You can watch his musing here.

For those who maybe haven’t heard of Samuel the Lamanite, he was a prophet in the Book of Mormon who appeared amongst the supposedly righteous Nephites, condemning them and calling them to repentance.

Connor’s point was that prophets like Samuel appear regularly in both the Old Testament and Book of Mormon. It seems God’s people have always had a hard time sticking with obedience to God’s laws and, more importantly, having God’s love in their hearts. We tend to find ways to get around commandments – look for loopholes, if you like – so we can claim to be righteous while actually doing whatever we like. It’s why the Lord’s covenant people in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah could believe themselves to be righteous, while simultaneously being compared to Sodom and warned by true prophets that destruction was near.

Connor quoted from a handful of ‘modern prophets’ from the LDS church telling members that we need to improve ourselves, but his point was that even those rare quotes were tame compared to Samuel the Lamanite, Isaiah, etc. As I listened to him, one significant point he didn’t make was that Samuel – like most (though not all) true prophets – came from outside the ruling class. In Samuel’s case, he came from completely outside the community. Jesus Himself came from outside of any ruling class, and He called His 12 disciples from amongst fishermen and others of similarly unexpected places. Not a single one of them was from the Sanhedrin – the ruling religious leaders of the day. In our own LDS history, Joseph Smith, although he had some influential ancestors, was himself something of a nobody.

That’s not the main point I want to make in this post, however. In my last post, I talked about how the sword of Laban serves as a reminder that the two-edged sword of truth means that while we can receive great blessings by making and honouring covenants to take upon ourselves the name of the Lord, if we do so in vain – not taking them seriously and breaking them – we can end up with covenant curses instead. This is precisely the point Isaiah and Jeremiah made to the Israel of their days, and is a constant theme in the Book of Mormon: ‘Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land? And again it is said that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.’ (Alma 9:13) In the end, of course, the Nephites were cut off from the Lord’s presence, and His protection, and were destroyed as a nation.

And last month, I had two posts about how Laman and Lemuel are metaphors for the Lord’s latter-day covenant community – you and me. You can read those posts here, and here.

Indeed, the whole Book of Mormon is written not just to us, but about us. When we read it from that angle, we gain a whole new perspective on what the text is trying to teach us.

So when we read about Abinadi preaching to the wicked King Noah, we should consider ourselves to be the people of King Noah. When we read about Alma teaching the people of Ammonihah or the Zoramites, we should consider ourselves to be those very peoples Alma is preaching to.

And when we read the words of Samuel the Lamanite to the self-righteous in Zarahemla, we should consider ourselves to be those very same self-righteous people. After all, the prophet Mormon saw our day. He couldn’t include even the 1 hundredth part of the events of his people’s history, and so chose those things that were most relevant for us.

It’s interesting to me that Samuel’s words are included in the Book of Helaman, despite the fact that Helaman had died and the current keeper of the sacred records was Nephi – that should tell us something. Helaman is the book in which we see the formation and rise of secret combinations – rife amongst us in the days in which we live.

We may well live to see God raise up a new living prophet to come among us and condemn us, but perhaps we shouldn’t need one. Perhaps we could read Samuel’s words as if he is actually speaking to us. After all, Mormon who recorded Samuel’s words for us, is in fact writing directly to us.

If I read the words of Samuel with honesty of heart, I have to admit that I’m guilty of some of the things he condemns. 

For example, I loved so many of the words of the recently passed Elder Jeffrey R Holland. His talk, Like a Broken Vessel, will forever remain with me. I also have loved talks by Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Kearon. They all spoke/speak uplifting, loving, and inspiring words. And without doubt there is a need for these types of messages. But when pretty much every talk by Church leaders fall into this category or of gentle encouragements for gradual improvement I fear we have become like the Nephites:

‘… as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil. But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet. Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.’ (Helaman 13:26-28)

Do we give these men who speak to us gold, silver, and costly apparel? Consider that as of 2 years ago, all of the then First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were millionaires. President Thomas S Monson’s net worth was estimated at $12 million at his death, this despite the fact that he only ever worked in the Church Education System prior to being called to the Apostleship.

This is difficult for us to hear because it gives us that cognitive dissonance. And I want to make it clear, this doesn’t need to be a reason to leave the LDS church. Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah weren’t telling the people to leave Israel when they said their leaders fed themselves at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. They weren’t preaching that the people should abandon their faith. Instead, they were telling people to repent.

That is their message to us. That is Samuel the Lamanite’s message to us.

Do we consider money more important to us than justice, mercy and compassion? Here is what Samuel said:

‘And behold, a curse shall come upon the land, saith the Lord of Hosts, because of the people’s sake who are upon the land, yea, because of their wickedness and their abominations. And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Hosts, yea, our great and true God, that whoso shall hide up treasures in the earth shall find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land, save he be a righteous man and shall hide it up unto the Lord.

‘For I will, saith the Lord, that they shall hide up their treasures unto me; and cursed be they who hide not up their treasures unto me; for none hideth up their treasures unto me save it be the righteous; and he that hideth not up his treasures unto me, cursed is he, and also the treasure, and none shall redeem it because of the curse of the land. And the day shall come that they shall hide up their treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; and because they have set their hearts upon their riches, and will hide up their treasures when they shall flee before their enemies; because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures; and in that day shall they be smitten, saith the Lord.

‘Behold ye, the people of this great city, and hearken unto my words; yea, hearken unto the words which the Lord saith; for behold, he saith that ye are cursed because of your riches, and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you. Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities. For this cause hath the Lord God caused that a curse should come upon the land, and also upon your riches, and this because of your iniquities.’ (Helaman 13:17-23)

If you don’t see how riches could become ‘slippery’, just consider that in the modern world all money is basically 0’s and 1’s in a computer. Most is tied up with stock-holdings, which can vanish overnight with a big enough shock to the economy. The LDS church is estimated to have investments worth in excess of $300 billion, over a third of which is held in stocks and bonds. All of it can vanish in an instant. Slippery indeed.

Riches in themselves aren’t bad of course. But both prioritising riches and the reasons we should seek them are essential to understand. This was taught best by Jacob: 

‘Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.’ (Jacob 2:17-19, emphasis mine)

Considering how many people vote in elections primarily on the issue of the economy, and the fact that the equality gap between rich and poor is inexorably rising from year to year, it seems to me that we are failing this test miserably.

The solution isn’t complicated. A core part of Samuel’s message was that it wouldn’t be long before, ‘… the Son of God [cometh] to redeem all those who shall believe on his name… And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits.’ (Helaman 14:2, 13)

I don’t know whether God will send another living prophet like Samuel the Lamanite, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, in my lifetime. If He does, I hope I have the ears to hear.

In the meantime, He’s sent me the messages I need to hear – in the scriptures. I hope we can all give them the attention they deserve.

© Copyright 2025 Jeffrey Collyer