Alma 30
Alma 30
The devil does not support his children. He uses all kinds of tactics and techniques to get us to follow him, and yet the only thing he can deliver is pain, sorrow and hell. Harsh words, but true.
I found it interesting, in verse 53, the pattern that was used by the adversary to ensnare Korihor.
The devil does not support his children. He uses all kinds of tactics and techniques to get us to follow him, and yet the only thing he can deliver is pain, sorrow and hell. Harsh words, but true.
I found it interesting, in verse 53, the pattern that was used by the adversary to ensnare Korihor.
- He came to Korihor in an appealing way
- He disregarded truth and replaced it with lies that please the carnal mind
- He instructed Korihor to repeat those words until
- Korihor grew to believe them himself.
This verse tells me that Korihor didn't believe what the devilish "angel" told him up front, but it was appealing to him, so he followed it and taught it to the point he actually believed it himself.
There is a term in psychology called cognitive dissonance. It is the unsettled feeling we have when our actions do not align with our beliefs. To get rid of that feeling one of two things must happen:
- We change our behavior to match our beliefs or
- We change our beliefs to match our behavior.
Korihor chose option two. That is actually not uncommon. That's why many fall away from the church. They commit sin, big or small, and rather than changing the behavior (repentance) they change their beliefs to match/justify the behavior- ie, it can't be a sin if there is no God saying it's wrong, etc.
Korihor was too evil, to stubborn, to wicked- and too late.
Option one is the more difficult of the two- but it is the only way (in a gospel sense) to obtain Salvation. Anything less might make the immediate unsettled feeling disappear, because may have successfully (in our minds) justified our behavior by changing what we believe- but it does nothing for our eternal salvation.
Interesting chapter. Sad- but one that makes me think.
What did you think/learn today?
There were lots of good things in this chapter to help us think about what we need to do.
ReplyDeleteBut the simplicity of "Choose you this day, who ye will serve" is the sentence that speaks to me.
It is about choice. Everything is about making choices. If we align our choices with the Lord's standard and will for us, then we will be blessed.
If we do not, we will still be blessed. Blessed with opportunities for learning. Unfortunately some learning opportunities are hurtful, hard, or down-right painful.
I always tell my kids... you have the free agency to choose. But you don't always get to choose the consequences. Korihor tested the Lord, he made that choice. But the consequence was not reversable. It's sad to see people put themselves through similar situations and recognize the path they are taking but not be able to stop it.
In the last verse where it talks about how the devil does not support his children, I had this picture in my head of the devil realising that the plan he was trying to accomplish through Korihor had come to an end, and that Korihor was of no use to him anymore, so he just threw him to the kerb, so to speak, and left him there to rot. Such evilness.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking to non-believers about God, verse 44 is always helpful. People can say, oh the scriptures are all made up stories and not true, but they can't say much about the creation of this beautiful world staring them in the face every minute of the day. The big bang theory is way too outrageous to believe. I know some people don't choose to think about how the world became, they just take it for granted that it is there, but if they really thought about it, I know they would believe in God.