Killing...1 Nephi Chapter 4

I don't really like the idea of Nephi killing Laban. I guess now that I'm older it reminds me of those crazy Kolts that kill people in the name of God. So I am going to read this chapter with a prayer of understanding.

Okay so I read the part about him killing Laban. I talked to Robert about it. He made a good point that the Lord knew what would happen if he was not killed and it was bad enough that he told Nephi to kill Laban. Then I read an article out of the New Era which gave me even more clarity.

Some people might claim that by saying the Spirit commanded him to kill Laban, Nephi was rationalizing to justify what was, in fact, murder. They might argue that God would never have commanded Nephi to take a life.

However, Nephi was a righteous man; he was well acquainted with the promptings of the Holy Ghost and knew the difference between his own thoughts and divine revelation. Nephi did not have to include the account of his slaying of Laban in his record. He was not caught in the act, and he might have left his account of obtaining the plates vague. He could even have lied, saying that Laban was already dead when he found him, or providing some other plausible explanation. But Nephi was a truthful man; despite the fact that it was a difficult subject, he wrote it as it happened.

The incident may well have been a trial of faith for Nephi. The Lord could have helped him procure the record in some other way. Instead, the Lord allowed Nephi to struggle with a dilemma: obtain and safeguard the plates as he had been commanded, or let Laban live.

But if Laban had lived, the consequences would have been disastrous. The mission to obtain the plates would have failed, and without the plates, Lehi’s posterity would have perished in unbelief (see 1 Ne. 4:13). The history of Lehi’s descendants would have been far different, and there might have been no Book of Mormon as we know it. Had Nephi not procured the plates, the “keystone of our religion” would be missing.

The rest of his answer was good and talked about the nature of God. I think he made some good points that it was not only to preserve the knowledge of Lehi's people but we may have not had the Book of Mormon and think of how many would have dwindled in unblief. I am still going to pray for spritual confimation of this.