If you are well familiar with the chronology of events in The Book of Mormon, skip down to the bottom. If not, here's my mildly muddled recap:
I'll begin with Zeniff, a guy who led a bunch of people (Nephite people) to inherit a land he felt was rightfully theirs. They got permission from the Lamanite king (i.e. the enemy) to peacefully have that land. But when Zeniff and his people work hard and prosper, the Lamanites are intimidated by their growth and prosperity, thinking that these new folks in the neighborhood could become more successful/stronger than they themselves. Against their word, the Lamanites drop battle on these hard working Zeniff-ans. But the Lamanites lose. In time, after more prospering, Zeniff confers the kingdom on his son, Noah. Noah was a guy who thought there was really no such thing as wickedness. (His dad, Zeniff, probably realized conferring the kingdom on his son was a poopshoot, but hope springs eternal for some parents.) To Noah, morality and honesty were virtues wide open to interpretation. He surrounded himself with people who thought like him and they: Lived. It. Up. The people in his kingdom- these Zeniff-ans- followed suit. They were probably sick of working so hard and being so productive. (A feeling I can relate to.) But then a guy called Abinadi comes and rains on everyone's parade telling them that there is such a thing as righteousness and wickedness. He even told them about Jesus Christ. This sounded like a fairytale to these Zeniff-ans and was easy dismiss. They were having fun and enjoying life so there really was no reason to believe in this fairytale. Abinadi was forced to go into hiding because the people hated him and his stories so much. But after a couple years, he came back and said the same things. This really got Noah's goat. He became worried that if people started listening to Abinadi, it would diminish his own power and ability to do whatever he wanted. So, Noah had Abinadi put to death. BUT one of Noah's inner posse, Alma, believed Abinadi's stories. This made Noah doubly mad and frustrated. Alma had to hide from him and spread Abinadi's message to the Zeniff-ans in secret. But a lot of people came to believe it. They changed their lives and committed themselves to this Jesus Christ Abinadi had testified of. When Noah found out, he sent an army to take out Alma and the followers. This message Abinadi brought was like a rodent problem no exterminator could get a handle on! But Alma's people escaped the army and found a place to throw down roots. When Noah's army came back, a lot of people were bugged how extreme Noah had become. They probably missed their friends who went with Alma and were worried about them. One of these people was Gideon. Gideon was a big deal among the Zeniff-ans. He was kind of like a body builder. He didn't subscribe to what Alma taught, but he hated Noah. He thought Noah was the worst leader ever and not only incapable of his duties as king but immoral and dishonest. Maybe it was the fact that Noah sent an army to kill some of his friends that made him snap, but Gideon knew Noah had to go. So he pursued him, caught him, and just as he was about to push in the sword and end Noah's life, he freed him instead! ...Only because, ironically, just at that moment they both saw the Lamanites approaching town fit to give battle. Chaos ensued. The Zeniff-ans were scattered and many were slaughtered. Women and children were left to defend themselves as their poor-excuse-for-husbands ran and hid. (Those men probably forgot what it meant to be a man at about the time they quite believing in such a thing as right and wrong.) It was a huge mess. Ultimately, the Lamanites made a deal with the Zeniff-ans to stop killing them for 50% of everything they had, payable once a year. Since Noah was killed in the skirmish, his son, Limhi, took on leadership of the Zeniff-ans in their new life of half-freedom-half-bondage. (Limhi was more like his granddad, Zeniff. Although he loved his dad, he also realized he was a complete dud of a king.) Things in his kingdom went as well as could be expected when you're in half bondage. But in time, the Lamanites attacked them. And things just got worse for the Zeniff-ans. Their life of half-freedom-half-bondage became mostly just bondage. The people begged Limhi for permission to go to battle against the Lamanties. Limhi knew they didn't stand a change but the people wouldn't let up so he finally agreed to it. As expected, the Zeniff-ans were slaughtered. They didn't go down easy, returning to battle again and again until almost every woman in town was a widow and every child fatherless. This is where they gave up and bawled their eyes out. That's when Ammon found them and helped them escape back to Zarahelma, where the Zeniff-ans originally came from. What happened to Alma and the Zeniff-ans that followed him? They settled and farmed and grew but then the Lamanites found them and put them into bondage. That story is kind of ironic too because Alma's friend from Noah's inner posse had joined the Lamanites and they set this guy, Amulon, to rule over Alma and his band. Small world. Alma eventually escapes to Zarahemla with his people. But that's just one exhausting story, right? When they are all together in Zarahemla, they confess their miraculous escape. The Zeniff-ans are all baptized (except the one's that already were by Alma). Things are great. A few people create some waves, but generally things are good. A guy, Nehor, comes at introduces priestcraft to the people. He kills Gideon because Gideon stood strongly in defensive the gospel of Jesus Christ!'
When we (or I?) look at the stories in The Book of Mormon, we see people who just keep forgetting on the miracles they've seen and all the times they've been delivered. We sometimes see these people as verifiable dummies who can't recollect miraculous things that have happened to them and who repeatedly deny witnesses they've had of Jesus Christ. But as I've been reading, I've seen something else.
When I close my eyes and put myself among them, my life is mostly just surviving. A shallow study of early colonial American life reveals just how much work staying alive is. If these native people had as good a life as early colonial Americans, life was still extremely tedious. From the time you woke up and felt the elements and hunger, you spent your day running from them. In the case of these native Americans, they hated each other and had frequent wars. So not only was it offensively exhausting, life was a defensive battle as well.
In The Book of Mormon, there are moments when the prophet calls his people together and reprimands them and then inspires them. They become on fire in their testimony. But they go home and life happens. They suffer to make relationships work. Being honest and kind is a challenge, just like it is for us. And somewhere, they set aside their spiritual fire and are solely surviving again. And whose to say that they all experienced the same level of conversion secondary to King Benjamin's address? I'm sure some were on fire by what he said. Others were impressed and motivated a bit. Others may have accepted it but felt no strong fire for it.
I see their challenge to maintain their testimony no different then what a Latter-day Saint experiences. I may quickly conclude that I, unlike Alma, have never seen an angel. Or that I've never been passing through a street and been called to repentance with the power of King Benjamin. I may declare that I've never had a innumerable army of men about to fall on me and then been miraculously spared by the power of God. I may conclude that my witnesses of Christ have been less than those we read about in The Book of Mormon. But this would not be true. I've stood within feet of President Hinckley and felt something so powerful I don't even have words for it. I've stood in the room when a child was born and felt something tangible completely envelop me that I cannot describe. I've been miraculously saved from illness. I've had hands placed on my head and been given blessings so perfectly tuned into my needs that I knew as sure as I knew I was sitting there in that chair that they were inspired of God. And that's the thing: We've all had those moments of absolute knowing- knowing more surely than even knowledge through reason has ever yielded for us. But there is life too. The offensive drudgery of survival that so often feels like a defensive battle as well. And somewhere along the way, we start listening to Nehor, or that thing that asks us to contradict what we know. Or what we knew. And realizing this, and seeing these people in The Book of Mormon who are so much more entitled to get distracted with survival than me, I feel more anxious to cling desperately to the things that I know.
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