The Book of Helaman was not written to entertain. It was designed to change lives and hearts, to clearly delineate the benefits and joy tethered to a life well lived. It shares a message of our Father’s love. It teaches the principles of growth and happiness, then models how to implement those principles in daily living. It speaks of God and heaven, of who we are, and what we might become.
The book also counts the costs of complacency, wealth, and a self-centered life. Though it reports the ease with which people slip into sin and the ruin left in sin’s wake, it repeatedly shows that people can and do change; and it documents the relief that comes as people rise from sin’s corrosive filth and turn again to a patient, loving Father.
Though packed with drama and intrigue, wars and assassinations, this book wasn’t written to entertain. It was written to map the path of safety in times of fear and uncertainty—a way through life’s misery and grief.
Its words “smash in pieces all the deception, traps, and tricks of the devil.” It marks the path through a sea of endless sorrow and calls it by name. That name can open a way through the darkness of shame and guilt. That name cuts through the blackness of death. That name heals. That name saves. That name is Jesus Christ.
The people, the places, and the events in this book are all real. Though those events occurred over 2000 years ago, and the exact locations are unknown, the joy these people shared and the pain they endured was no less real for them than the joy and pain we feel in our lives today.
The people in this book acted with faith. They struggled with the hollowness of grief after losing loved ones. They celebrated the return of prodigals. They faltered. And they arose from their failings. Some lived well. Others did not.
This book meticulously reports the choices these people made, both good and bad, with the relationship between cause and effect carefully documented. This allows us to learn from the lessons they lived. Because the events actually occurred and were accurately recorded, we can cut through the everchanging web of popular opinion and expert advice and clearly see the consequences of the choices made. Then equipped with these insights, we can better navigate our own uncertain futures with greater certainty.
