“I Prayed Unto Him with Many Long Strugglings for My Brethren, the Lamanites.”

Denver C. Snuffer, Jr.

This raises the question of what Enos meant by unshakable faith, and why it appears in his record at this point. The answer to that is contained in Joseph Smith's testimony. Joseph had an encounter with God on a spring morning in 1820. Some years later Joseph was interested in knowing his standing before God. He petitioned the Lord, and "for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one." (JS-H 1: 29, emphasis added.) That is, Joseph would have been more surprised by not getting an answer than by getting one. His faith was "full confidence" or, in other words, unshakable.

Enos also had "unshakable" faith because he had already heard from the Lord. The Lord reiterated the pessimistic news about his people, which Nephi had previously recorded on the Small Plates. The Nephites had no guarantee for their future survival. Everything was conditioned upon their worthiness. So long as they were obedient they would be preserved. As soon as they were not, they would be swept away. As a result, Enos had unshakable faith in two senses. First, he was fully expecting an answer from prior experience and knew the Lord would answer. Second, he had the humility to accept with faith any answer, no matter its content.

Enos tells the next part of his experience with language strongly suggesting it involved more than a single day's retreat to the forest. He writes of "many long strugglings." "Many" requires more than one, perhaps dozens, even hundreds. We cannot know if this was the work of months or years. We cannot be certain if more than a decade passed as he engaged in these "many" struggles. Whatever the time frame involved, they were not only "many" but they were also "long."

There is more going on here than just a single, brief petition to the Lord. Enos is undergoing gradual, internal changes which are significantly difficult. Enos is "struggling" because of an internal conflict over the subject of his prayers. He is confronting the Lamanite issue. His father wrote Yet the "many long strugglings" is followed by calling them "my brethren, the Lamanites." Enos is struggling to accept the ultimate end of his people, the triumph of the Lamanites, and the final conversion of the Lamanites to the faith of the Nephites. This would be many generations in the future. This is the destiny shown in vision to Nephi, foretold by Nephi on these same Small Plates on which Enos was writing, and which Enos finally came to accept.

The result of these many long strugglings was the extension of charity to another concentric circle outside Enos. Now he not only feels the charitable love of Christ for his own immediate brethren, but it has worked its way to bring him also to accept and see even his enemies as his "brethren." Enos is becoming Christlike. He is following his Master. Enos' Lord would endure the brutality of the Roman abuse and while being nailed by them to the cross "then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23: 34.) Despair turns to triumph as anyone begins to accept and trust in God's wisdom. Enos may have endured many long strugglings to get there, but he did arrive. Enos is announcing his own triumph as he refers to these enemies of his people as his brethren!

This is a poignant moment in the record of a real person confronting real personal difficulties. This is not a work of fiction by a backwoods youth. Enos has put on display in a record composed by a fully mature prophet his broken heart and contrite spirit. We are seeing here the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith may have translated this record, but he certainly did not have the wisdom or experience at that point in his life to have composed it.

Beloved Enos

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