Helaman was a prophet, a military commander, a keeper of the sacred records, and the leader of the stripling warriors. He lived around 90 to 57 B.C. somewhere in the Western Hemisphere. But, this story begins many, many years earlier in Jerusalem with another prophet named Lehi.
About 600 B.C. the people have become wicked. Many prophets warned of the destruction of their city if they did not repent. While praying to the Lord, Lehi has a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem (1 Nephi 1:6-13). But the people mock him when he testifies of their wickedness and their destruction. Because they seek to kill him, the Lord appears to Lehi in a dream and commands him to take his family, his wife Sariah, sons Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi and depart into the wilderness, which he does (1 Nephi 2:1-5). Later they are joined by Zoram, a servant of Laban from whom Nephi took the Plates of Brass (the sacred records) (1 Nephi 4:35), and the family of Ishmael and his household which includes daughters and sons (1 Nephi 7:6).
After eight difficult years in the wilderness, they are led to the seashore and commanded to build a ship (1 Nephi 17:4-6, 8). During the journey in the ship Laman and Lemuel rebel against Nephi and bind him with cords. By the power of God, Laman and Lemuel repent and unbind Nephi and he guides the ship to the promised land in the Western Hemisphere (1 Nephi 18:21-23).
Some years later the Lamanites (followers of Laman and Lemuel) have become so wicked that they seek to slay Nephi but the Lord warns him and he takes his family, his righteous followers, and all the records of his fathers and flees into the wilderness. After many days they stop, and in that place they build buildings of fine workmanship and call the land Nephi. And they began to “prosper exceedingly” (2 Nephi 5:1-17). However, the Lamanites, because of their iniquity and hardened hearts are cursed by God and become an “idle people, full of mischief and subtlety” (2 Nephi 5:20-25).
At the time of Helaman's warriors (about 74 B.C.), many wars have been fought between the Lamanites and the Nephites. But Nephite missionaries—Alma and the sons of Mosiah—have gone to preach to the Lamanites. In seven lands and seven cities among the Lamanites, thousands are converted to the gospel of the soon-to-come Christ. They become a righteous people; they bury their weapons of war in the ground, and call themselves Anti-Nephi-Lehies (anti, meaning joined with, later called the people of Ammon or Ammonites).
When the wicked Lamanites come upon them again, these righteous souls, who have made an oath with God not to shed blood in war, prostrate themselves on the ground and begin to “call on the name of the Lord” (Alma 24:21). One thousand and five of them are killed “and we know they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God” (24:22). When the warring Lamanites see the slaughter their hearts swell, they stop and throw down their weapons, and repent of their sins. In this way, more than a thousand of those Lamanites were joined with the righteous and brought to the knowledge of the truth of God (see Alma 24). And the wicked Lamanites did not attempt to slay the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi again at that time (Alma 25:1).
The Lord commands Ammon (one of the sons of Mosiah) to take the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to safety in the Nephite land of Zarahemla where they are given the land of Jershon. And the Nephites send their armies to guard them from their enemies. There they become a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord (Alma 27:22, 30).
Now, ten years later preparations for war with the Lamanites and other “ites” are happening again (Alma 53:4). And the people of Ammon have kept their oath “that they never would shed blood more” (Alma 53:11). But because of compassion for the Nephites who protect them, they desire to take up arms in defense of their country. When Helaman perceives their desire he persuades them not to break the oath (covenant) “lest…they should lose their souls” (53:15). But they have many young sons who have not taken the oath and these two thousand young men make a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, to protect the land even unto death, and to protect the Nephites and their people from bondage (53:16-18). And, they want Helaman to be their leader.
These stripling (meaning young) warriors—these men of Ammon—were descendents of Laman, the eldest son of father Lehi (56:3). They were exceedingly strong, active, courageous and valiant—“they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. They were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:20-21). Helaman took his young sons (as he called them) and joined them with the army which had been reduced because so many had been slain. And Helaman said, “Never had I seen such courage, nay not amongst all the Nephites” (Alma 56:45). And they said to Helaman, “Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall” (Alma 56:46). Though these young men had never fought, they did not fear death. They thought more about the liberty of their fathers than they did their own lives. “Yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47).
When Helaman with his two thousand came upon the rear of the Lamanite army and began to slay them, the Lamanites halted and viciously turned on them. This allowed the Nephite army to surround them on the other sides and the Lamanites were defeated and forced to give up their weapons of war. With fear, Helaman numbered all those of his stripling warriors and, to his great joy, not one soul of them had been lost. “They had fought as if with the strength of God…and with such mighty power” (Alma 56:52-56). Later, sixty more of the sons on Ammon joined the two thousand. They obeyed and performed every word of command with exactness and much faith, and remembered the words their mothers had taught them (Alma 57:21). And they fought for their cities; nevertheless the Nephites suffered great losses. Many of the stripling warriors lost much blood and fainted, and all suffered many wounds but not one soul did perish because of their exceeding faith in what they had been taught to believe—“that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power” (Alma 57:25-26).
After the wars were over, Helaman and his brethren went among the Nephites with power to declare the word of God and to convince the people of their wickedness. Many repented of their sins and were baptized into the Church. Now, the people began to prosper again in the land. In spite of their riches they were not prideful nor slow to remember the Lord their God; “but did humble themselves exceedingly before him” (Alma 62:49). And Helaman died about the year 57 B.C.— probably in his forties—one of the mighty men of the Book of Mormon. (See Alma 31 through 62.)
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