12 And this Anti–Christ, whose name was Korihor, (and the law could have no hold upon him) began to preach unto the people that there should be no Christ. And after this manner did he preach, saying:
13 O ye that are bound down under a foolish and a vain hope, why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things? Why do ye look for a Christ? For no man can know of anything which is to come.
14 Behold, these things which ye call prophecies, which ye say are handed down by holy prophets, behold, they are foolish traditions of your fathers.
15 How do ye know of their surety? Behold, ye cannot know of things which ye do not see; therefore ye cannot know that there shall be a Christ.
16 Ye look forward and say that ye see a remission of your sins. But behold, it is the effect of a frenzied mind; and this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers, which lead you away into a belief of things which are not so.
17 And many more such things did he say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.
18 And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms—telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof.
Alma 30:12-18 (Emphasis mine)
The Anti-Christ, Korihor, began preaching to the people. There would be no Christ. How can any man know about what the future will bring. Your so-called prophecies are nothing more than foolish traditions. There shall be no Christ.
He called this a derangement of their minds because of the foolish traditions of their fathers. He continued and claimed there would be no atonement. Everything was up to each person. They succeeded because of their genius. Whatever a man does isn’t a crime.
After all they had been through, you would expect the people would reject this, but no. Many bought into Korihor’s preaching, left the church, and began living a wicked life. And, they probably justified to themselves, why not? When we die, that’s it. It’s all over. Wickedness became a part of some people’s lives.
I have a friend who left the Church. He never would tell my why he left. One time we were talking, and he told me “It’s amazing how much fun you can have when you don’t have to live the way your supposed to.” (He did say he didn’t like being told how he should live.) I responded, “I don’t know. I live they way I live because I decided long ago that this was the best way for me to live my life. And, it’s never stopped me from having fun.”
I can only assume that those who turned their back on the principles they once believed were never truly converted to the gospel and understood the joy and happiness one gets by living the gospel.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:22-25 (Emphasis mine)
25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 16:25 (Emphasis mine)
John Clark observes:
“The Book of Mormon preserves statements from three apostates—Sherem, an Amalekite follower of Nehor, and Korihor—who denied the revelations foretelling the coming of Christ because they did not believe that people could know of future events (see Jacob 7:7; Alma 21:8; 30:15). Through much of his dialogue with Alma, Korihor played the role of an agnostic, or one who does not deny the existence of God but believes it is not possible to come to an ultimate certainty about him. He argued that since the future is outside the realm of human experience, it is unknowable, and to believe in something that cannot be tested empirically is to embrace a vain and foolish hope (see Alma 30:13).” [1] (Emphasis mine)
[1] Painting Out the Messiah: The Theologies of Dissidents, John L. Clark, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed November 15, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment