King Benjamin taught his people to repent and rely on God’s mercy. He declared that salvation comes “through faith on his name.” (Mosiah 3: 9.) Therefore, he testified of Christ coming to suffer, be rejected, killed and rise the third day. (Mosiah 3: 9-10.) King Benjamin’s testimony was that this atonement would allow everyone to repent, and even those who sin “ignorantly” would be forgiven of their sins. (Mosiah 3: 11.)
To King Benjamin’s thinking, the great error was willfully doing what you know was against God’s will. However, even then, King Benjamin invited his listeners to repent and reclaim the mercy God offered. (Mosiah 3: 12.)
His sermon presumes that his audience were sinners, and suffered from a myriad of shortcomings. As King Benjamin explained, “the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3: 19.) This doctrine is astonishing because it:
-makes each person individually accountable to follow the Holy Spirit
-presumes that the Holy Spirit will entice you directly
-puts each person in a position to be submissive to God
-accepts the fact that life will always “inflict” even the best of us
-makes God the one who is responsible for life’s challenges
-bids us to accept these afflictions, because they come from a wise Eternal Parent.
King Benjamin is remarkably democratic in his view of God and His involvement in our lives. God is direct, immediate and involved with everyone. He reminded his audience to “Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.” (Mosiah 4: 9.) This should be self-evident, but how often do we need to be reminded that we do not understand all that God understands. We are inferior in our understanding, we lack wisdom and are more often than not unable to understand what God does or why He does it. Yet we presume to judge whether God is right or wrong in many matters which, to our limited understanding, seem unfair, unequal, unkind and unfeeling. This is a product of our ignorance. God is merciful, kind and seeks to exalt mankind by bestowing His grace upon us. We take His wisdom to be offensive. How often have you heard: “I cannot believe in a God who….” followed by a list of preferences and demands for greater latitude in behavior. Since we don’t (indeed can’t) comprehend all God does, we make ourselves fools when we insist we know better than God, or we are right and God is not.
His message does not focus on man’s failures, but instead focuses on hope through Christ. This hope, he declared, obligated the believers to take care of the needs of their fellow men. King Benjamin made charity to others the hallmark of retaining a remission of our sins: “for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God– I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.” (Mosiah 4: 26.) For him, our assistance to those in need is directly related to retaining forgiveness of sins.
Can you imagine a government led by someone with this outlook?