The difference between then and now:

• In 1939, some moviegoers reportedly ran out of theaters with their hands over their ears after viewing the movie “Gone With the Wind” and hearing the leading man say, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a d***." Today, it would seem laughable to have such a reaction to hearing that word, and we have in fact “advanced” to the point where there are no words that are off limits when it comes to entertainment, regardless of the venue.
• In 1960, people were afraid to take a shower after witnessing the brutal murder of the female star in the movie “Psycho.” Today, that scene is considered extremely tame; on-screen murders are now commonplace and are depicted in increasingly graphic ways.
• In 1997, the TV show “Ellen” ended its fourth season with the lead character coming out as a lesbian. The fifth season’s ratings were so poor that the show was cancelled. Today, it seems that virtually every TV series has a gay character and story line as well as some poor misguided oaf (or religious person) who needs to be straightened out.

Each of the above illustrates how people become desensitized over time. Something that is shocking or draws a strong emotional reaction today becomes less shocking and even commonplace as time passes and as we are exposed to it over and over again.

In Mosiah 11, Zeniff retires as king and names his son, Noah, as the new king. Unfortunately, Noah was nothing like his father:

• He did not keep the commandments of God.
• He had many wives and concubines.
• He was lazy and levied a 20 percent tax on the people to support his lavish lifestyle.
• He fired all the priests of his father and replaced them with men who were like him.

Under the leadership of King Noah, the people also became sinful. It got so bad that God sent a prophet to preach repentance to the king and his people, but the words fell on deaf ears, and they threatened to kill the prophet.

In Mosiah 10, Zeniff provides some explanation of why the Lamanites despise the Nephites. He explains that it goes back to the original Laman and Lemuel who always felt that they were wronged by their brother Nephi. As a result, it seemed like everything that Nephi did made his brothers “wroth” (or angry) with him. Verses 14 to 16 make the following statements regarding Laman and Lemuel:

• They were wroth with Nephi because they didn’t understand how God was working (and Nephi did).
• They were wroth with Nephi when he instructed them how to behave during the voyage to America.
• They were wroth with Nephi when he was recognized as the leader of the people.
• They were wroth with Nephi when he took his followers and departed.

In the last couple of chapters, we read about Ammon discovering the people of Limhi, who'd inhabited a separate city since the time that they were separated from the Nephites some years earlier. We discover in Mosiah 9 that these people were actually separated for quite a few years — it was Limhi’s grandfather, Zeniff, who led the original expedition to the Lamanites that resulted in his people not being able to return to Zarahemla.

Chapters 9 to 22 of Mosiah bring us up to date on the story of Zeniff, his son, Noah, and eventually his grandson, Limhi. This is why the date indicator at the top of the pages of our Book of Mormon appears to go backward from 121 B.C. for Chapter 8 to between 200 B.C. and 124 B.C. for Chapter 9.

Mosiah 8 introduces a couple of new pieces of information that are key to the story:

The 24 Gold Plates

Limhi tells Ammon that his people discovered an ancient, extinct civilization, including 24 gold plates with engravings that appear to tell the story of the people who had inhabited the ancient city. The engravings are in a different language, so nobody can read the story at this time. We later discover that this civilization was the Jaredite nation, and some of the information contained on the 24 gold plates is included in the Book of Ether.

Assume: To accept as true without proof

We all do it. We hear someone say something, and we fill in the blanks as to what the statement means, even though the additional words were not spoken. Or we observe someone do something, and we immediately think we know the reason why, perhaps based on our knowledge of the person or perhaps based on reasons why other people have done the same thing.

Sometimes our assumptions are correct. The better we know a person, the higher our success percentage will be for accurately determining the person’s meaning or motivation for certain words or actions. (My wife is right about me so often that she says, “I know you better than you know yourself.”)

In Mosiah 6, King Benjamin makes a request to all the people who agreed to enter into a covenant to serve God — to put their names on a list of believers. It is happily mentioned that the resulting list of servants of God (a precursor to the church's RIP System) contained the name of every adult who had listened to King Benjamin’s address — a 100 percent conversion rate!

Why did King Benjamin have the people provide their names for this list? Wasn’t it enough that they accepted Christ? Does God need a written list to keep track of His followers? No, of course God doesn’t need a written list kept on earth. God maintains His own list which is referred to as the Lamb’s Book of Life — this “book” contains the names of all people who will inherit eternal life.

If you cut yourself, then you put on a Band-Aid. If your nose is running, then you use a Kleenex. If you have a headache, then you take a Tylenol. If you work in an office and you need to make copies, then you use the Xerox machine.

All of the above sound like common-sense things that we all do; however, many of us who cut ourselves may use an adhesive bandage that is not the Band-Aid brand and therefore does not have the Band-Aid name on it. Our tissue box may or may not have the Kleenex name on it. We may keep generic ibuprofen in our medicine cabinet rather than the official Tylenol brand. And, of course, there are many brands of copy machines that do not carry the Xerox name.

As King Benjamin concludes his address in Mosiah 4, he touches on the subject of providing assistance to the poor and needy. This is a familiar subject in scripture — Jesus taught the same thing — and it’s certainly consistent with the concept of Christian living.

As was mentioned in an earlier chapter, Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-46 that if we feed or clothe people who are in need, we are doing it to Him. He told the rich young ruler that if he wanted to be perfect, he should sell all he had and give the money to the poor. James writes that if we encounter someone without food or clothes and we just give him kind words and no other assistance, we haven’t really helped him.

There are many other passages that teach the same thing. Scripture is all about helping the poor.

The term “Judgment Day” generally conjures up an uncomfortable image of the end of the world or something similar. There have been several movies with this title and the idea is the same — the end is coming, prepare for the end, etc. If the term is applied to a courtroom, it is still uncomfortable, as it indicates the day you find out if you’re judged innocent or guilty, with your future existence riding on the outcome.

In Mosiah 3, King Benjamin describes Judgment Day as the time when all “shall be judged, every man according to his works, whether they be good, or whether they be evil” (Mosiah 3:24). It’s basically everything described in the paragraph above except it’s your future eternal existence riding on the outcome of this judgment.

In Mosiah 2, King Benjamin begins his farewell address to his people. So many people come to hear his words that a tower needs to be erected for him to stand on as he speaks. Even then, many of the people are sitting too far away to hear him — no PA system, obviously — so his words need to be written down and distributed to the multitude.

As King Benjamin reviews his reign, he reminds the people that he didn’t burden them with taxes but rather worked to support himself and even to serve others. He then stresses that he is not telling them this to boast but rather to teach them that serving others is part of serving God. His statement is one that is quoted often in sermons today:

"I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)

One of the traditions associated with the Olympic games is that a torch is carried from the ancient site of Olympia in Greece (where the Olympic Games were originally held in ancient times) to whatever city in whatever country the Olympics are taking place that particular year.

Needless to say, the journey, which can encompass thousands of miles and even cross continents, is way more than a single person can accomplish. So, there are designated points where the torch bearer passes the torch to another person who then continues the journey with the process continuing until the journey ends with the torch being placed at the site of the games.

OK, who is Mormon and why do we care about his words?

Is Mormon the founder of the Mormon church? No, he’s not.

Is he the author of the Book of Mormon? Well, sort of, but not exactly.

Mormon is best described as the historian of his time, the keeper of all the various books and writings of men like Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, etc.

The Book of Omni (similar to the preceding books of Enos and Jarom) consists of only a single chapter. However, the title of this book is actually misleading. Omni, the son of Jarom, refers to himself as a wicked man with no relationship with God and, as a result, adds only three verses to the record before passing it on to his son, Amaron.

Amaron, also with nothing to say regarding a relationship with God, adds a mere five verses and passes the record to his brother Chemish, who wins the prize for the shortest “book,” writing just a single verse — and using that verse to call out his brother for waiting to write his part until the day he passed the record over!

Similar to the Book of Enos, the Book of Jarom is also only a single chapter as Jarom, the son of Enos, continues the Nephite record. Jarom records that during his lifetime the Nephite people “became exceeding rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things” (verse 8) in accordance with the word of the Lord which had said, “Inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land” (verse 9).

If you read the entire Book of Mormon, you find that there are many occasions when the Nephite people become prosperous as a result of keeping the commandments of God. However, on almost all of these occasions, what follows the period of prosperity is an attitude of pride such that the Nephites drift away from God and are no longer prosperous in the land. Eventually, they get themselves right with God and become prosperous again, only to be lifted up in pride again, turning away from God again. The cycle repeats itself over and over again.