9 Now Abinadi said unto him: I say unto you, I will not recall the words which I have spoken unto you concerning this people, for they are true; and that ye may know of their surety I have suffered myself that I have fallen into your hands.
10 Yea, and I will suffer even until death, and I will not recall my words, and they shall stand as a testimony against you. And if ye slay me ye will shed innocent blood, and this shall also stand as a testimony against you at the last day.
Are honest people incapable of compromise? Of course not. It is important and necessary to find common ground with other people and work together toward shared goals. It is possible to do all of this without diluting our commitment to the truths we know. Good people may disagree with one another–we are all subject to the limitations of our mortal state and are influenced by our varied experiences and backgrounds. But good people do not try, as King Noah and his priests did in the passage above, to force other people to contradict their convictions or to impose their beliefs upon other people. As Joseph Smith said:
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, Chapter 29: Living with Others in Peace and Harmony).
Joseph knew something about persecution. As a fourteen-year old boy, he was shocked at the reaction of others when he shared a vision he had seen. But he did not allow this resistance to influence his own commitment to the truth:
I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation (Joseph Smith History 1:25).
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