Why was the prophet Abinadi killed?

Thomas R. Valletta

The prophet described in verses 26–28 is Abinadi. He testified that “God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man” (Mosiah 13:34). “It was for that testimony and for that doctrine that the wicked King Noah ordered Abinadi killed. … Abinadi plainly taught … that Christ was the God of the Old Testament.” Another reason for his death “is the power associated with truth and the terror it strikes in the kingdom of darkness. The very foundations of hell tremble when a fourteen-year-old boy goes into a grove to pray or a humble prophet like Abinadi bears his simple testimony in the streets of the city of Nephi” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary, 2:186).

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