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Gospel Wiki Connections 3ne-doc-fire-baptism-lamanites-cited

3 Nephi 9:20 · Helaman 5:45

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Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 9:20
"even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not"
Book of Mormon Helaman 5:45
"the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with fire"

The risen Lord's own citation of a narrated event as the type of the fire-baptism. In the voice from the darkness (9:18-22) the Lord defines the rite -- 'whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost' -- and names its precedent: the Lamanites 'were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.' The corpus's only narrated Lamanite fire-conversion is the Helaman 5 prison theophany, where 'the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven… and they were filled as if with fire' (5:45); the phrase 'filled as if with fire' is unique to Helaman 5:45 corpus-wide. The 'knew it not' detail matches Helaman 5, where the converted were in a cloud of darkness and perceived the encircling fire only once the cloud of darkness was dispersed (5:43); Aminadab's two speeches (5:39 naming the angels, 5:41 the repent-command) both precede the fire's first sighting. The doctrine's own term for the rite is 2 Nephi 31:13/31:17 ('the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost'; 'a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost'), restated within THIS sermon at 11:35 ('he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost'). It is then enacted at Bountiful for the twelve, who 'were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire' and were 'encircled about as if it were by fire' (19:13-14); the children's encircling fire (17:24) carries no baptism or Holy-Ghost language -- imagery, not an enactment of the rite. Those 'encircled about… by fire' phrasings extend the internal Helaman imagery pair registered as hel-nephi-fire-encircled (Helaman 5:23 <-> 5:44) into 3 Nephi (on nephi-helamanson.md); not registered here. Whether Helaman 5 is MEANT as a dramatization of the doctrine's fire-baptism stays an interpretive reading; that 9:20 cites the Lamanites' fire-baptism is the Lord's own statement (textual).