How do we know a voice inside us is the Spirit of God and not a temptation from Satan? The first test should be, does it command us to transgress the Law? The murder of Laban in order to steal his plates breaks two of the Ten Commandments.
No because Laban sought to destroy Nephi's life.
An angel appeared to Nephi, Laman, Lemuel and Sam.
1 Nephi 3
29 And it came to pass as they smote us with a rod, behold, an
angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them, saying: Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a
ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will
deliver Laban into your hands.
1 Nephi 4
3 Now behold ye know that this is true; and ye also know that
an angel hath spoken unto you; wherefore can ye doubt? Let us go up; the Lord is able to deliver us, even as our fathers,
and to destroy Laban,
even as the Egyptians.
........
7 Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was
drunken with wine.
8 And when I came to him I found that it was Laban.
9 And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.
10 And it came to pass that I was
constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.
11 And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the
Lord hath
delivered him into thy hands. Yea,
and I also knew that he (Laban) had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.
12 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands;
13 Behold the Lord
slayeth the
wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is
better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in
unbelief.
14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that:
Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my
commandments, they shall
prosper in the
land of promise.
15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the
law of Moses, save they should have the law.
16 And I also knew that the
law was engraven upon the plates of brass.
17 And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause—that I might obtain the records according to his commandments.
18 Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own
sword.
19 And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body; yea, even every whit; and I did gird on his armor about my loins.
Subduing the land of Canaan required a military invasion. This has never been interpreted as murder. We don't contemplate life in prison for the President getting us into Iraq, unless we are from the far left.
Nephi slaying Laban was an act of self defense, even though he (Laban) was drunk. If Laban had been sober he would have commanded his guards to kill Nephi. The Lord had to create a circumstance in which he could access Laban to get the plates which had the law (most likely the first five books of the Old Testament or parts of the Old Testement) on them.
Laban would have commanded his army to defend these plates (the law) for whatever selfish reasons he had, maybe for the monetary value of the gold, but really it was Satan working behind the scenes to keep the law (Old Testament) from the people. Catholics tried to do the same by not allowing/forbidding the common man to read the Old and New Testament.
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