In Alma chapter 43, the Nephites (good) are battling the Lamanites (evil). The Nephites have surrounded the Lamanites and are soundly defeating them when suddenly Captain Moroni calls out to his men to halt the massacre and certain victory. Captain Moroni knows that good is prevailing, and he attempts to persuade the evil Lamanites to surrender.

What he doesn’t realize at first is that evil never surrenders. Captain Moroni knows the adversary is in his hands and then he begins to negotiate with the devil, who in this case is Zarahemnah. Negotiating with evil appears to be a bad practice. As the battle is stopped, Captain Moroni shares some very profound thoughts. He tells Zarahemnah, “that ye are in our hands” (Alma 44:1). He then teaches Zarahemnah some powerful principles: “But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith. Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith” (Alma 44:3,4). I love these doctrines that God will support, keep, preserve and protect the righteous, and not allow their faith to be destroyed. There is also something absolutely reinforcing about having the Lord with us.

Captain Moroni continues to negotiate with his adversary, and as he does he learns some valuable lessons. He asks Zarahemnah to “deliver up your weapons of war” and to “come not again to war against us” (Alma 44:6). Valuable lesson number one: the adversary is not willing to “come not again to war.” Valuable lesson number two: the adversary doesn’t want good people to understand the true power of real faith and the power of deliverance promised by a loving God to the righteous.

Here are some additional valuable principles from Moroni and Zarahemnah’s verbal negotiations. First, you cannot negotiate with or trust the adversary. Second, you must contend and defeat evil rather than compromise your position of strength. Third, even if the adversary lays down his weapons of war for a time, he will find more in the future. Fourth, a battle must be fought and the adversary must be soundly beaten.

After Zarahemnah finishes speaking, Captain Moroni evaluates his adversary’s response and then reassesses what he should do. He realizes that his adversaries are staggering, falling, wounded and nearly beaten, but not willing to surrender. Captain Moroni then speaks boldly to Zarahemnah with one of the most powerful sentiments in all of scripture as he says, “Behold, we will end the conflict” (Alma 44:10). Those words are filled with power, wisdom and insight into the war against evil we are in today. With an even more powerful resolve, he essentially says, the only way to defeat evil is not half-heartedly, mildly or weakly, but aggressively, powerfully and completely with the strength of God. He realizes that he must defeat evil so soundly, “that they never would come to war again against them” (Alma 44:19).

Those powerful words spoken by Moroni-- “behold we will end the conflict”-- teach us in greater depth of the proper approach to battling evil. We as members of God’s church must take an aggressive approach knowing that evil will always be a threat to our eternal destiny. We must act against evil definitively.