Alma 30

I have to reflect on my reading for Book of Mormon this semester, so I'm going to take a shot at blogging about my reading and see how that works. Right now I'll be writing about Alma 30, which as I type this, I have not opened. Basically, I'll be liveblogging the Book of Mormon.




So, let's look at Alma 30.

Verse 1 sets the setting: people of Ammon are settled into Jershon, Lamanites have skedaddled, and the dead are buried.
Verse 2: Lotsa people had died the battle that happened before this chapter. Then the people who didn't die fasted and prayed and mourned and had peace.
Prediction: Bad stuff is about to happen. Whenever there's continual peace throughout the land, bad stuff always starts happening.
Verse 3: People kept the commandments, kept the law of Moses. Prediction not yet fulfilled, let's see what happens in verse four.
Verse 4: No disturbance, 16th year of the judges. Still holding out for bad stuff to start happening.
5: What is this madness? Seventeen years and no mischief?
6: Oh! Hah! End of year 17, an Anti-Christ shows up in Zarahemla, and he does the usual Anti-Christ deal of preaching against the Church.
7: The land had no laws about religion because it was contrary to the commands of God. (Take THAT, all of European history!) In other words, government's hands are completely tied as to this whole Anti-Christ bloke unless he actually commits a crime.

8: The no religion laws thing is based on the part in Joshua that says “Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.”

9: Reiteration of the fact that this place has no established religion.

10: Under law code, murderers still get killed, robbers are still punished, adulterers still punished. Reasonable.

11: Men were punished for crimes, not beliefs.

12: The Anti-Christ is named Korihor. Korihor preaches that there will not be a Christ. Thus the name Anti-Christ.

13: Korihor’s got fancy words, and says that nobody can know the future.

14: Korihor says prophecies are foolish traditions.

15: Korihor says that you can’t know things you can’t see, so you can’t know that there will be a Christ.

16: Korihor says that the only reason people believe stuff is because that’s what their fathers taught them.

17: Korihor says that there can be no atonement and that men are measured by what they do themselves and that they cannot sin.

18: Korihor leads people to adultery and nonbelief in afterlife.

19: Korihor heads over to Jershon.

20: People of Ammon tie Korihor up and bring him to the high priest, Ammon.

21: People of Ammon kick Korihor out of Jershon, and the people of Gideon take Korihor to their high priest.

22: High priest of the people of Gideon asks Korihor what the heck is wrong with him.

23: High priest is named Giddonah. Korihor answers that he’s liberating people from foolish traditions. (Subtext: the entire room snorts with derisive laughter.)

24: Korihor calls Giddonah a liar. (Man, these names are annoying to type.)

25: Korihor uses the “child is not guilty because of its parents” doctrine to argue that men are not fallen.

26: Korihor says that Giddonah can’t know that there will be a Christ.

27: Korihor accuses Giddonah of being the Man.

28: Korihor says priests are abusing people and that they cannot know that God exists.

29: Giddonah & Co. ship Korihor to Zarahemla so that Alma has to deal with him.

30: Korihor says the same stuff to Alma that he did to Giddonah.

Okay, verse by verse is getting a little long and tedious.

Ah, now Alma starts pwning Korihor. The priests do not materially benefit from their ministry. Alma points out that Korihor has no proof that Christ will not come. Alma testifies that Christ will come.

And now Korihor demands a sign if he is to believe in Christ. Brilliant. Nice going, Korihor, that's always a good idea.

Alma points out that Korihor has had loads of signs. Korihor doesn't care. Alma says that it's better for just his soul to perish than for him to bring other souls down with him.

As a sign (I think both Alma and God were getting annoyed with Korihor), Korihor is struck dumb. The priests ask Korihor if he believes in God now, and Korihor says that he does, and, in fact, he always believed in God, but the devil deceived him and made him preach false stuff.

Korihor becomes a beggar, and everyone is told his story as a warning. Then Korihor gets killed by a stampede, like Mufasa, and from this we gain that those who pervert the ways of the Lord will have sucky lives and then die.