Where we are
This is the chapter of signs — the great prophecy, given by a Lamanite on a wall five years before it happened, of exactly what the heavens and the earth would do at the birth and death of Jesus Christ. It is one of the most remarkable predictive passages in all of scripture, and it is also far more than a list of wonders. Samuel does not give the signs as spectacle; he gives them, he says explicitly, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men... that whosoever will believe might be saved (vv. 28–29). The signs are an act of mercy — God announcing his Son's coming so loudly, so unmistakably, across the very sky and ground, that no one could honestly say they were never told. And wrapped inside the signs is the deepest doctrine of the chapter: why the Son must come and why he must die, and what his death and resurrection actually accomplish for every human being who has ever lived. The signs point to the Atonement, and the Atonement, Samuel insists, exists to make men free.
Start with the sign of the birth, because it is so strange and so beautiful. Five years out, Samuel says, and then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name (v. 2). And the sign will be a night without darkness: there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness... it shall appear unto man as if it was day (v. 3). A day, a night, and a day, running together as one long day, the sun setting and rising as always but the night between them never going dark (v. 4) — and a new star, one such as ye never have beheld (v. 5). Think about what that sign means, not just what it is. The Light of the World is about to be born, and so for one night the world has no darkness. The sign is a parable of the event: the coming of the true Light momentarily abolishing the dark, the heavens themselves declaring that the night of the world is ending because its Light has come. It is the most fitting possible sign for the birth of the One who would say I am the light of the world.
Then the sign of his death, and it is the photographic negative of the birth-sign. Where his birth brought a night with no darkness, his death brings a day with no light: the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light... for the space of three days (v. 20). And not only darkness — convulsion: thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, the earth shaking and trembling, the very rocks, which ye know at this time are solid, one solid mass, broken up, rent in twain... found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments (vv. 21–22), mountains laid low and valleys lifted up, highways broken, cities made desolate, graves opened and many saints appearing (vv. 23–25). The death of the Creator tears the creation. When the Light goes out, the world comes apart — three days of darkness and earthquake, the solid earth itself fracturing, as if the ground could not bear the death of the One who made it. The signs of birth and death are perfect opposites: light flooding the night when he comes, darkness swallowing the day when he dies, and in both the whole created order responding to its God.
But the heart of the chapter is the doctrine Samuel sets between the two signs — the answer to why. Why must the Son come? Why must he die? And Samuel gives the clearest short statement of the Atonement in the book. He surely must die that salvation may come (v. 15) — his death bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead, which redeemeth all mankind from the first death, that spiritual death, the death of being cut off from the presence of the Lord by the fall of Adam (vv. 16–17). The resurrection of Christ bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord (v. 17) — every soul, all mankind, brought back from the spiritual death the Fall imposed. And then the resurrection bringeth to pass the condition of repentance (v. 18): because Christ has redeemed all from the first death freely, each soul now faces a choice — repent and remain in God's presence, or refuse and be cut off again, a second death that this time is self-inflicted (vv. 18–19). The whole machinery of salvation is here in a few verses, and it ends exactly where the chapter ends — on freedom. Ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for... God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free (v. 30). The signs, the coming, the death, the resurrection — all of it exists to set men free to choose, and the final word of the chapter is that the choice, and therefore the outcome, is genuinely, terribly theirs.
The chapter has four movements.
- The sign of his birth (vv. 1–8). Five years more, and the Son of God comes; the sign is a night with no darkness — a day, a night, and a day as one day — and a new star never before seen; whoever believes shall have everlasting life.
- Why he comes and why he must die (vv. 9–19). Samuel declares the purpose: that men might know Christ and the conditions of repentance; he must die to bring the resurrection, which redeems all mankind from the first (spiritual) death and brings them back to God's presence, and sets the condition of the second death for those who will not repent.
- The sign of his death (vv. 20–27). Three days of darkness, thunderings and lightnings, the earth shaking, the solid rocks rent into seams and fragments, mountains and valleys exchanged, graves opened and saints appearing.
- Ye are free (vv. 28–31). The signs are given that there be no cause for unbelief; and Samuel closes on agency — whoever perishes perishes unto himself, for God has made men free to know good from evil and to choose life or death.
The verses to carry are these. Verse 3 names the birth-sign — in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness... as if it was day. Verse 17 names the doctrine — the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind... and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. And verse 30 names the purpose — ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves... he hath made you free. The chapter exists to announce the signs of Christ's birth and death so that no one could say they were not told, and to reveal that the whole purpose of his coming, his death, and his resurrection is to redeem all mankind from the death the Fall imposed and to make every soul free to choose life.
The sign of his birth: a night with no darkness (verses 1–8)
And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day. — Helaman 14:3
Samuel sets a clock: five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name (v. 2). A specific number, a specific promise — and a specific, verifiable sign, so that when the night comes there will be no doubt. And the sign is one of the most poetically perfect in all of scripture: a night with no darkness. In the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness... it shall appear unto man as if it was day (v. 3). The sun will set and rise as it always does, so everyone will know a night should have come — ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting (v. 4) — but the night between will simply not go dark. A day, a night, and a day, joined together as one long unbroken day. And a new star, one such as ye never have beheld (v. 5).
Sit with the meaning of that sign, because it is a sermon in itself. The Son of God who is about to be born will one day say, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness (John 8:12). And the heavens announce his birth by abolishing darkness for a night — as if the cosmos itself cannot keep the dark while the Light of the World is entering it. The sign is not arbitrary; it is the event in miniature. The coming of the true Light into a dark world, the night that cannot stay dark because dawn has come — this is what Christ's whole birth means, and God writes it across the sky the night it happens. There is also a deep mercy in giving the sign five years out, with a definite shape. God is making belief easy — telling them exactly what to watch for, so that when the impossible night comes, those who were told can remember and believe. And note the universality of the promise riding alongside the sign: whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life (v. 8). The sign is for the eye; the promise is for the soul. The lightless night will prove the prophecy; faith in the One it announces will save the believer.
Why he comes, and why he must die: the two deaths (verses 9–19)
Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual. But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. — Helaman 14:16–17
Between the two signs Samuel sets the doctrine that gives them meaning, and it is one of the clearest statements of the Atonement in the Book of Mormon. He has explained that he came so they might know of the coming of Jesus Christ... and of the signs of his coming, to the intent that ye might believe on his name (v. 12), and that 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 (v. 13). Belief leads to repentance; repentance, through Christ's merits, leads to remission. But then Samuel goes deeper, to the why beneath it all: he surely must die that salvation may come... it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead (v. 15). Why must the sinless Son die? Because his death is the thing that breaks the power of death — this death bringeth to pass the resurrection.
And then Samuel names the problem the resurrection solves, and it is the deepest problem in the human condition: the first death — that spiritual death. By the fall of Adam, he says, all mankind... being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual (v. 16). This is the heart of it. The Fall did not only bring physical death; it brought spiritual death — the cutting-off of all humanity from the presence of God. The word study below traces the Hebrew karat, "to cut off," the same verb used for both the covenant cut and the soul cut off — and that is exactly what the Fall did: it severed mankind from God's presence, so that every human being is born, in this sense, already cut off, already spiritually dead, exiled from the presence of the God who made them. That is the universal human predicament — not merely that we will die, but that we are born on the wrong side of a separation we did not choose, cut off from God by Adam's fall.
And here is the gospel Samuel preaches: the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord (v. 17). Christ's resurrection reverses the Fall's cutting-off. It redeems all mankind — universally, unconditionally — from that first spiritual death, and brings them back into the presence of the Lord. The separation Adam caused, Christ heals; the cutting-off the Fall imposed, the resurrection undoes. Every soul that has ever lived will be brought back into the presence of the Lord by the resurrection of Christ. That is pure grace, given to all, asked of none — the unconditional gift that answers the universal wound.
But then comes the conditional part, and the second death. The resurrection that brings everyone back into God's presence also bringeth to pass the condition of repentance (v. 18): now that all stand again in God's presence by grace, each soul faces a choice. Whosoever repenteth the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness (v. 18). The first death — the cutting-off — was Adam's doing, imposed on all, and Christ reverses it freely. The second death is the soul's own doing: having been brought back into God's presence by grace, the soul that will not repent cuts itself off again, and this time the cutting-off is chosen, self-inflicted. Samuel's whole point is the difference between the two. No one chose the first death; everyone is redeemed from it freely. But the second death must be chosen — it falls only on those who, freely restored, freely refuse to stay. Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation (v. 19). The grace is universal; the refusal is personal. And that distinction is exactly why the chapter ends where it does — on freedom. The whole Atonement, Samuel is showing, exists to take a humanity that was cut off without its consent and restore it freely, so that the only death that can finally hold a soul is the one that soul chooses.
The sign of his death: when the Light goes out (verses 20–27)
Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth... which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up. — Helaman 14:21
The sign of his death is the exact inverse of the sign of his birth, and the symmetry is surely intended. His birth brought a night with no darkness; his death brings a day with no light — the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light... for the space of three days (v. 20). When the Light of the World was born, the dark could not hold; when the Light of the World dies, the light itself fails, and darkness covers the land for three days. The two signs frame his mortal life like bookends of light and shadow: the world flooded with light at his coming, plunged into darkness at his going. And the darkness at his death is not peaceful; it is violent. Thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, the earth shaking and trembling (v. 21). And then the detail that is geologically astonishing in an ancient text: the rocks, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth (vv. 21–22). Samuel says the solid rock of the earth will be fractured at Christ's death and ever after found in seams and cracks — a permanent scarring of the planet's stone at the moment its Maker dies.
The convulsion is total: many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and valleys which shall become mountains (v. 23), highways broken, cities made desolate (v. 24), and — most wonderful — many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead; and many saints shall appear unto many (v. 25). The death of Christ shakes the world apart and begins to open the graves, the destruction and the resurrection breaking out together, because his death is the death that ends death. Why does the creation convulse so violently? Because, as the doctrine just established, this is the death of the One by whom and for whom all things were made — the Creator of all things from the beginning (v. 12). When the Creator yields up the ghost, the creation cannot stay composed; the solid earth itself fractures, the mountains move, the graves crack open, as if the whole physical order is wrenched by the death of the God who holds it together. The sign of his death is the creation's own grief and the creation's own response — torn at his dying, beginning to rise at his rising. And Samuel adds that the angel told him many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe... that there should be no cause for unbelief (v. 28). The signs are not given to terrify but to remove every excuse — so that when the darkness and the earthquake come exactly as foretold, no honest soul could deny that the God who announced it five years before had come, and died, and was about to rise.
Ye are free: the whole point was choice (verses 28–31)
And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, 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. — Helaman 14:30
And here the whole chapter — the signs, the coming, the death, the resurrection, the two deaths — resolves into a single word: free. Samuel says the signs are given that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment might come upon them (v. 29). And the righteousness of that judgment rests entirely on freedom — for a judgment is only just if the one judged was genuinely free to choose. So Samuel makes the freedom explicit, and he frames it with the book's great word: remember, remember... 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 (v. 30). The same remember, remember that opened Helaman 5 returns here at the book's spiritual climax, and what they are to remember is their own freedom.
This is the doctrinal capstone of everything, and it is why the chapter spent so long on the two deaths. Look at the logic. Christ's resurrection redeems all from the first death unconditionally — that part is not chosen, it is given. But precisely because the first death is reversed for everyone freely, the second death becomes a matter of pure choice: the only way to be lost now is to choose to be lost, to be cut off again by one's own refusal to repent. God has gone to the infinite trouble of the Atonement, Samuel is saying, not to compel anyone into heaven but to clear the ground for a free choice — to remove the inherited death that was no one's fault, so that the only death left is the one each soul decides for itself. Whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself (v. 30). No one can blame Adam anymore; no one can blame God; the redemption is universal and the knowledge is given and the freedom is real, and so the outcome is genuinely, finally, yours. The word study below traces Samuel's choose life or death back to Moses' great charge — I have set before you life and death... therefore choose life (Deut. 30:19) — the same offer, the same freedom, the same plea. He hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good... or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you (v. 31). The chapter that began with signs in the heavens ends with the most important fact about a human being: that he is free, and that his freedom is the whole reason the signs and the Savior were given. God did not write the lightless night and the three-day darkness across the sky to overwhelm anyone's choice. He wrote them to inform it — to make sure that when each soul chooses life or death, it chooses knowing, freely, with no cause for unbelief and no excuse for the choosing. The signs are mercy; the Atonement is mercy; and the deepest mercy of all is that, having done everything, God still leaves the choice in your hands.
How the chapter is built
Helaman 14 is built as a frame of signs around a core of doctrine, and the architecture preaches that the signs exist for the sake of the truth they announce. Mormon (through Samuel) places the sign of the birth at the front (vv. 1–8) and the sign of the death at the back (vv. 20–27), and sets between them the explanation of why — the purpose of Christ's coming and the doctrine of the two deaths and the resurrection (vv. 9–19). The two signs are deliberately built as mirror opposites: the birth brings a night with no darkness, the death a day with no light; light floods the world when the Light is born, darkness swallows it when the Light dies. This symmetry is not decoration; it is theology made visible — the heavens themselves declaring that the One being born and the One dying is the Light of the World, whose presence the dark cannot survive and whose absence the day cannot endure. And by placing the doctrine of the Atonement between the signs, Mormon ensures the reader cannot take the signs as mere wonders: they are bracketed by their meaning, pointing inward to the death-and-resurrection that is the whole reason the heavens convulse.
And the chapter is built to land, finally, on freedom — and the placement of agency at the very end is the structural argument. Everything before it has been God's action: God sets the clock, God gives the signs, God sends the Son, God works the Atonement, God redeems all mankind from the first death unconditionally. The reader could be forgiven for thinking salvation is entirely God's doing, the human being merely a recipient. And then verses 28–31 turn the whole thing on its hinge: all of that divine action exists to make men free. The signs are given that there should be no cause for unbelief; the Atonement reverses the death no one chose so that the only death left is the one each soul chooses; the knowledge is supplied that ye might choose life or death. Mormon builds the chapter so that the climax of God's overwhelming initiative is the establishment of human freedom — the paradox at the heart of the gospel, that God does everything precisely in order to leave the final choice genuinely ours. By ending Samuel's great prophecy on remember, remember... ye are free, echoing the opening charge of Helaman 5, Mormon closes the doctrinal arc of the whole book: the answer to the unsteady, forgetful, dust-and-vapor human heart of Helaman 12 is a God who redeems it freely from the death it did not choose and then, having cleared every obstacle, sets life before it and says choose. The signs in the heavens are loud; the doctrine is deep; but the last and quietest word is the most important — he hath made you free — and on that freedom the whole weight of heaven and earth, and every sign Samuel gave, finally rests.