11 And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
Once again, the king acknowledges that they were the most lost of all mankind. That in the gradation of sin, they were at the far end of the spectrum, furthest from the light. But not in utter darkness! Not too far to be reached by the tentacles of the loving Atonement of Christ. But they were certainly far! They were on the very edge of the unpardonable sin of murder whereby they shed innocent blood. The only thing that saved them was their degree of ignorance brought on by the wicked traditions of their fathers.
Yes. They killed innocent people. They were perhaps like unto today’s Muslim terrorists, who believe they are doing the right thing by killing the infidel in the name of God, even though in my opinion they have been demonized and used as scapegoats for the most part. But that’s a different story. The bottom line is that even though the people were warring against, hating and killing Nephites, they had not committed the unpardonable sin. If they had, they would have been beyond forgiveness, like Cain. Cain sinned completely knowingly, against the light. The Lamanites never had the light. But they did find it! And oh what marvelous light!
And they would not take it for granted. No, they would not risk losing the joy and peace and love they found through the merciful plan of the great Creator— even it it meant giving up their mortal lives. They knew what a precious gift they had been given, even priceless gift. And they knew it was worth more than life itself.
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