Alma 30-31 Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam

Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! We have two chapters this week. One is korihor the anti-Christ, one is the folly of the Zoramites and a prayer for them. We'll see how Korihor is a really sneaky man, like a nibbler trying to eat the foundation. Hopefully we can use this to see more clearly.

Korihor the bore

Korihor is an anti-Christ of the vanilla kind. People like him have been wandering the earth since the days of Adam with basically the same arguments. If you look at Korihor's arguments, they actually seem inconsequential and childish. I believe he is using a disorienting trick that I will get into later. For now, look at what he puts.

He says the people are bound down under a foolish and vain hope, why do you yoke yourselves?

Notice how he is basically making assertions and selling them as pre-built assumptions. Binding down under a foolish and vain hope isn't really the deal. It is not what we are going for. If you told that to Abinidai, he would say, wow, you don't really get what I am saying, do you? A large part of Abinadai's message is that there is a way of life that transcends simple pleasure. Korihor is basically saying, why are you following a way of life that cuts out the simple pleasures? This isn't an attack on religion. It is a distraction by someone who doesn't understand religion.

He says Why do ye look for a Christ? For no man can know of anything which is to come.

This gets a little closer to the heart of the matter. But look at what he is doing again. He is dodging the meaning of Christ by focusing on the fallibility of man and the indeterminate nature of the future. Going back to Abinidai's message, he wasn't arguing when he said that God should come down, that the event itself separated from what it meant was important, it was the meaning. We can go back (again :) to Mosiah 7

27 And because he said unto them that Christ was the ^aGod, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the ^bimage of man, and it should be the ^cimage after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of ^dGod, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth

Remember that this is the one truth that Satan will do anything to stop from being voiced - that man has the spark of divinity in him (created in the image of God) and that God will dwell among men. Telling people they cannot know the time is a distraction from the relationship. We are going to get to this more, but it is true that these people didn't know the exact time, or many of the details of the coming of Christ. So that could eat at them. But what they can know is that the words of the prophets are true and the word of God is true. If they keep going back to the change of heart and the words of God, they won't get turned around. Also, to the first point, they need to make sure their hearts aren't on vain things to begin with (notice how Korihor tries to get them their hope hope is vain, so that they can pursue things which are vain. sneaky little man)

He says prophecies handed down by prophets, and you can't know what you cant see.

Closer still. Notice how he started with something that was ridiculous and highly distracting, and he uses it to plant seeds of doubt so that he can start taking you out on the bigger things. Here he is trying to undermine the seed of their faith. The problem is he doesn't understand what the scriptures really are. They are not 'traditions' per se. That is, they weren't written as 'traditions'. They were written as the words of God to bring people to Christ. It is about the relationship, that is the purpose. Moroni (and I believe Mormon) were very worried about miracles ceasing. They said if miracles (points where heaven touches earth) cease, it is over. They didn't say that if people didn't believe traditions it was over (that is an effect, not a cause). Nephi preached forever about rejoicing in Christ, and following the law to point to Christ. Laman and Lemuel could only see the law. So can Korihor. Notice how he tried to take out Christ to say that the scriptures don't point to anything, therefore, they should be reduced down to 'traditions', not the road map to build a personal witness or rapprochement with the heavens. very sneaky. But he simply does not understand what religion is about so he keeps attacking in a way that doesn't have anything to do with the actual important things.

He says many more things, most of which are along the lines of materialism. materialism isn't bad in itself, it is the focus that is wrong. materialism focuses on things (chase objects, not hope), and misses anything that is not a thing. No wonder he believed only in what he saw. If you are distracted by things, then these kinds of arguments can get you, because you are looking in the wrong spot. If you understand the layers of meaning in the the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, these can be slightly disorienting at first, because they don't map to your way of life, but as you begin to see that they don't map because they are blind to it, they almost become funny to see.

Twisted little man

Korihor has another trick in his book, complementing these disorienting arguments. He lies. Notice he first lied to himself. After he lied to himself, it looks like it came easy to lie to others. Dumping assertions and accusations is very powerful to knock people off balance.

He asserts you can't know the truth of prophecies

He asserts the poeple are in bondage

He asserts that children are not guilty because of their parents.

I'll speak to this for a bit. Notice the twist in this one. We don't actually believe that children are guilty because of parents either, but we do believe that consequences exist from the choices of parents! He gets us to chase a red herring by putting words in our mouth that are close to the truth, but not what we actually believe. If the Nephites think for two seconds about Lehi's last discourse to his children, this falls to pieces, so hopefully they are reading and thinking about their scriptures.

He asserts that they do not know that Christ will come. 

another quick note, this is especially sneaky because most of the time, we as members are the ones that can tell the world that we know x thing to be true, but they do not. For example, most arguments against the book of Mormon are 'we don't know this, we don't have evidence for that', etc. etc. but we can say we do know some things about the book of Mormon. I believe the counter for this is to remind them (Korihor and friends ) that THEY do not know, but they cannot make a truthful statement like that for someone else , because that someone can know. (notice how if anyone doesn't know, it is Korihor, but as long as no one calls him on it, he can get away with not knowing by accusing others. Also, he knew anyway)

He says they do no enjoy their rights and privileges or make use of that which is their own.

I think this argument is the one with true malevolence. If you think too hard about this one, you realize that he is saying we should be able to take whatever we want according to our own power. I think he is really showing his hand here, and it is as black as the hell on earth he would make if he could put this doctrine fully into practice. There is nothing nice about what he is saying.

Alma says tell the truth

Alma confronts him directly on the labor issue. This begins to unravel Korihor's web of lies. You'll notice that sometimes this is the right thing to do, other times, it is not. For example, Giddonah the high priest stopped answering at a certain point. I believe that for Korihor's weavings, we shouldn't address head on. For his lies, we should address and correct. My opinion. Really, just listen to the spirit and He will guide you what to do for the situation.

The holy prophets and the scriptures and desire.

When Korihor asks for a sign, Alma reminds him that all the things witness there is a God, and that it would be most unwise to ignore them. Isn't it interesting how it ties back to Alma's psalm in chapter 29 where he says that God grants unto each person the desires of their heart?

the farce ends.

Korihor gets struck dumb by the power of God. What happens next is the most interesting part for me. Korihor says that he was completely deceived, that he saw the devil in the form of an angel, and that he knew deep down that he was preaching lies.

Wow. This is why it is really important to be as truthful as you can to yourself and others.

Korihor goes among the Zoramites and gets trampled to death.

Isn't this interesting. I believe that both Korihor and the Zoramites were of the order of the Nehors. Why didn't the Zoramites help him out? Why was there nothing left for Korihor? I think it really says something about the spiritual level of the community. Speaking of which...

Zoramite pride vs Anti-Nephi-Lehi thanksgiving

I mentioned in my last blog post that different cultures sometimes praise God in different manners and that these are still acceptable to God. Well, here is a third culture that praises God in another manner, but it is definitely not good, nor is it accepted by God.

Notice that the Zoramites use thanks a lot as well, but it is inward thanks, not outward thanks. Gratitude is a way to connect, it always reaches outward. Somehow the Zoramites used thanks but to look inward instead, and to disconnect from the rest of the believers. They also cast people out of the places of worship, among other things.

One of the greatest sins is ingratitude, do you think that every time the Zoramites said thanks, they actually became less and less grateful?