We know little about the prophet Zenos except that he and Zenock, who Nephi also quoted above, were slain because they testified of Christ. “They stoned [ Zenock] to death” (Alma 33:17) and “ Zenos did testify boldly; for the which he was slain (Helaman 8:19). “They testified particularly concerning [the Nephites], who are the remnant of their seed” … and “are not we a remnant of the seed of Joseph” (3 Nephi 10:16–17). Other Nephite prophets quoted them extensively (see Jacob 5; Alma 33:3–17; 34:7; Helaman 15:11). Assuming that Helaman 8:19–20 is a chronological listing of prophets who have testified of Christ, we could place Zenos and Zenock somewhere between the time of Abraham (about 2000 B.C.) and Isaiah (about 740 B.C.).
19 And now I would that ye should know, that even since the days of Abraham there have been many prophets that have testified these things; yea, behold, the prophet Zenos did testify boldly; for the which he was slain.
20 And behold, also Zenock, and also Ezias, and also Isaiah, and Jeremiah, (Jeremiah being that same prophet who testified of the destruction of Jerusalem) and now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed according to the words of Jeremiah. [Helaman 8:19–20]
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has suggested that Zenos was second only to Isaiah among the prophets: “I do not think I overstate the matter when I say that next to Isaiah himself—who is the prototype, pattern, and model for all the prophets—there was not a greater prophet in all Israel than Zenos. And our knowledge of his inspired writings is limited to the quotations and paraphrasing summaries found in the Book of Mormon.”
Zenos prophesied that the Lord God (Christ) would visit all the house of Israel at the time of his death, some with his voice and some with destruction (v. 11). The Bible says that “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51), but it does not tell us of any of the people being destroyed. Based on Zenos’ prophecy there may have been some destroyed. The Book of Mormon records the fulfillment of Zenos’ prophecy among the Nephites. “There arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land;” cities were burned, sunk into the sea, the earth carried upon them, “and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places left desolate.” After three days, “there was a voice heard among all the inhabitants of the earth” (3 Nephi 8:5– 9:1). There were certainly similar things that happened among the ten tribes. We will learn more of these things when “the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words (records) of the lost tribes of Israel” (2 Nephi 29:13). As Mormon abridged the account in Third Nephi, he acknowledged that “it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved … all these deaths and destructions” were “unto the fulfilling of the prophecies … Yea, the prophet Zenos did testify of these things, and also Zenock” that were “written upon the plates of brass” (3 Nephi 10:12–17).
What the kings of the Isles of the sea were moved to say by the Spirit of God must be accepted as truth. Therefore, the designation of Christ as “the God of nature” (v. 12) is another important title for him. He is the God who controls the earth and its happenings. As he spoke to the more righteous Nephites, he proclaimed: “Behold, that great city of Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof” (3 Nephi 9:3). He went on to take the responsibility for the other catastrophic events that had just taken place (see 3 Nephi 9:4–10). He caused these destructions “because of their wickedness and abominations” (3 Nephi 9:12). All of these teachings to the Nephites verify that he is the God of nature. The prophet Amos in the Bible gives us a second witness:
6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.
12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name. [Amos 4:6–13]
The Doctrine and Covenants gives a third witness:
25 How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not! [D&C 43:25]
The Book of Mormon later testifies that the earth obeys the commands of the everlasting God, or the God of nature:
8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.
9 Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake.
10 And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley.
11 Yea, by the power of his voice doth the whole earth shake;
12 Yea, by the power of his voice, do the foundations rock, even to the very center.
13 Yea, and if he say unto the earth—Move—it is moved.
14 Yea, if he say unto the earth—Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours—it is done;
15 And thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun.
16 And behold, also, if he say unto the waters of the great deep—Be thou dried up—it is done.
17 Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, and come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is done. [Helaman 12:8–17]
Zenos continued to prophesy concerning the people of Jerusalem who would crucify their God (vv. 13–14). He foretold of their wanderings (the diaspora), of their becoming a hiss and a by-word, and of being hated of all nations (anti-semitism). It must be remembered that these actions against the Jews were the result of the agency of men, and were not necessarily the will of God. God, knowing they would happen, and, ironically often in the name of religion, foretold them but did not cause them. Those who brought it about will certainly be accountable for their atrocious deeds. Mormon, as he abridged the records of the Nephites, warned the reader:
8 Yea, and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn.
9 Therefore ye need not suppose that ye can turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left, that he may not execute judgment unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel. [3 Nephi 29:8–9]
Nephi concludes his quoting of the prophecy of Zenos with the prophet’s promise that the covenants made to the fathers of the house of Israel will be fulfilled (v. 15). The extensiveness of the scattering of the house of Israel is shown by the promise to gather them from the four quarters of the earth (v. 16). Another Old Testament prophet had prophesied that they would be sifted “among all nations” (Amos 9:9). The reference to the “ isles of the sea” is of the Americas. Jacob, the younger brother of Nephi, later commented that “we are upon the isles of the sea. But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20–21). The Americas are “the land of [the remnant of Joseph’s] inheritance; and the Father hath given it unto [them]” (3 Nephi 15:12–13). As quoted above, Zenos was a descendant of Joseph (of Egypt, 3 Nephi 10:16). Through the gathering of Israel in the latter days, “all the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord … every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall be blessed” (v. 17). Of course those blessings will come from “another angel (Moroni) [flying] in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel (the Book of Mormon) to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6).