Elder Theodore M. Burton served as mission president in the West German Mission during my time there as a young missionary. The last part of my service was spent in the mission home in Frankfurt where it was my great honor to get to know President Burton and his wife well. One of the choice blessings that came with that opportunity was to spend the first part of each morning in gospel study with the mission home staff, learning from President Burton, an eminent student of the scriptures. I shall never forget the day he offered his insightful commentary on Abinadi, in particular on those passages that dealt with Isaiah’s compelling question concerning the Savior: “and who shall declare his generation?” (Mosiah 14:8). President and Sister Burton had an adopted son who accompanied them on their mission. Because they were familiar with the complex legal process by means of which an adoption is consummated, it was natural for President Burton to relate his personal experiences to the doctrine of adoption into the kingdom of God whereby we can become part of the family of Christ, as King Benjamin explained: “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).
During our scripture study sessions and in a celebrated speech delivered to various congregations in our mission, President Burton amplified this doctrine by explaining the exceptional transition through which adults go in adopting a child. They must appear before the court and answer the sobering question (in effect): “Are you willing to take upon yourself all responsibility for the welfare and well-being of this child, to nurture and care for the child under all circumstances just as if the child were your natural-born child?” To answer yes to this question, and to complete the legally binding covenants relative to the adoption, brings about an extraordinary change in the status of the adopting adults: the man becomes a father, the woman a mother. Later, as a General Authority, Elder Burton expressed it this way: “When we are baptized, we actually make a new covenant with God the Eternal Father to take upon us the name of his Only Begotten Son. Jesus Christ thus becomes by adoption our covenant Father. Thus, though he was, and is, our Elder Brother, he is also now our covenant Father, and we have become his covenant sons and daughters. We desire to be respectful and show our gratitude to him for the opportunity we have to become members of his royal family” (“To Be Born Again,” Ensign, Sept. 1985, 66ff; taken from a devotional address delivered at Brigham Young University, 26 October 1982).
It was in reference to this exalted process of the Savior’s transformation to covenant Fatherhood that Abinadi, citing Isaiah, raised the question: “and who shall declare his generation?” (Mosiah 14:8; compare Isaiah 53:8). Expressed in another way, the question might read: Who shall be able to identify Christ’s children, His seed, since He was “cut off out of the land of the living” (Mosiah 14:8)? The answer to that question is given succinctly by Isaiah, as quoted by Abinadi: “when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin [i.e., when we accept the Atonement and keep the covenant commandments], he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
Abinadi, as President Burton reminded us, expanded on this doctrine before the incorrigibly hard-hearted priests of Noah, driving home the acute need for their repentance. “And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed? Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 15:10–11). Similarly, all of God’s holy prophets since the world began are Christ’s seed: “And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!” (Mosiah 15:14).
In a powerfully ironic echo of the very words of Noah’s wicked priests, who had earlier condemned Abinadi for failing to prophecy of such “good tidings” and how the Lord was to comfort his people (Mosiah 12:21–22), Abinadi gives this magnificent portrait of the righteous harbingers of true peace and comfort: “And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people” (Mosiah 15:15–18).
Because Christ is the founder of peace, and because “he became the author to eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:9), He brought to completion His role as the most exalted adopting figure of all existence and became, in that sense, the Father of the faithful. Before the supernal court of justice, Christ became the adopting covenant Father: “Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion toward the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice” (Mosiah 15:9). In effect, the Savior took upon Himself the responsibility to be our eternal Caregiver and to assure that we, as His sons and daughters, enjoy everlasting vitality and nurture, being born again through a royal adoption into the family of Christ.
Thus Abinadi exhorts his recalcitrant audience to teach the truth about the doctrine of eternal adoption that applies to all of the faithful and obedient: “Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen” (Mosiah 16:15). Shortly thereafter Abinadi completes his prophetic mission through the process of martyrdom whereby he seals his testimony with his life, having left a legacy of truth concerning the dual role of the Savior, “being the Father and the Son” (Mosiah 15:2), and having explained with unmistakable clarity the essence of what Paul would later refer to as “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). (Richard J. Allen)