Abinadi foretold this terrible event:
But the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying: He has reviled the king. Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain.
And it came to pass that they took him and bound him, and scourged his skin with faggots, yea, even unto death.
And now when the flames began to scorch him, he cried unto them, saying:
Behold, even as ye have done unto me, so shall it come to pass that thy seed shall cause that many shall suffer the pains that I do suffer, even the pains of death by fire; and this because they believe in the salvation of the Lord their God. (Mosiah 17:12–15)
This is the only recorded event in our Book of Mormon that fits Abinadi’s description. While there is a possibility that a different event occurred but was not part of Mormon’s editorial selections, the fit is good enough to qualify as this terrible prophecy’s fulfillment. However, we might ask how the Ammonihahites could be the “seed” of Noah’s priests (Mosiah 17:15). Although that exact relationship is not spelled out, Noah’s priests affiliated with the Lamanites. It seems unlikely that their descendants were among the Ammonihahites, although there might have been descendants of the priests’ abandoned wives and children. Even that is unlikely because those wives and children united with the Limhites and declared themselves Nephites (Mosiah 25:12).
A more likely explanation is that the Ammonihahites were the ideological seed of Noah’s priests, not their biological descendants. Given the unmistakable parallels between the Nehorites and the priests of Noah, I take the position that the Nehorite beliefs may be traced either to the Noahite religion or that they both derive from a third model.
Of related interest is the mode of execution. Certainly the Ammonihahites did not choose fire to fulfill Abinadi’s prophecy. Why did the deaths of Abinadi, Noah, and these believers all take that form? The Book of Mormon text provides no firm evidence about this concept. However, a combination of possibilities seems reasonable, given Mesoamerican characteristics. Part of its religious culture involved human sacrifice. It is not an obvious influence at this stage of Book of Mormon history, but even this early the text contains hints that would be compatible with a nearby culture that included human sacrifice. For instance, in a later sermon, Alma preached: “For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice” (Alma 34:10; emphasis mine). Alma may be making a simple contrast, but I argue that he feels the need to explain the difference between the Atoning Messiah’s sacrifice and the more common human sacrifices of the Lamanites. Both the Aztec and Maya sacrificed human victims to fire. Although there is no direct textual evidence, there are intriguing connections between the local practice of human sacrifice by fire and these particular instances. The dominance of the order of the Nehors in Ammonihah suggests in and of itself that Mesoamerican ideologies had already been accepted, to some degree, by Nephites who found Nehorism appealing.
Furthermore, Nehorite reinterpretations of their Nephite religious tradition may have played a part in selecting fire as the means of executing those they deemed apostate. Some support for this proposal is found below. (See commentary accompanying Alma 14:14.) Abinadi’s preaching had denounced Noah and his religion; he was put to death for religious “crimes.” The Ammonihahites obviously consider their converted townspeople to be likewise guilty of the religious crime of apostasy from the true (Nehorite) religion.
It is also possible, though admittedly speculative, that these Nehorites misinterpreted Nephite scripture referring to destruction by fire:
And they that believe not in him shall be destroyed, both by fire, and by tempest, and by earthquakes, and by bloodsheds, and by pestilence, and by famine. And they shall know that the Lord is God, the Holy One of Israel. (2 Ne. 6:15; emphasis mine)
For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire. (2 Ne. 30:10; emphasis mine)
Of course, we read those verses as part of the end-times and the reign of the Triumphant Messiah. But perhaps the Ammonihahites had “wrested” these scriptures to justify burning the “wicked,” strengthening their acceptance of a Lamanite form of sacrifice. Significantly, both the believers and their scriptures were burned. This is not a political punishment, but a religious one, an expunging of those considered to be heretical. These forms of execution seem more likely to be the confluence of sociological conditions than a simple coincidence.