Why doesn't Alma say something less socially awkward and more comforting? Alma 14:11
The wicked people of Ammonihah have been called to repentance by Alma and Amulek. They reject this call in a major way. In fact, it causes them to gather the righteous believers, including their wives and children, and burn them together with their scriptures. As previously discussed, I personally think that Amulek's family were among those brutally murdered in this way.
The murderers take Alma and Amulek to witness the massacre. Amulek pleads to Alma, "Please! Let's use the priesthood power, the power of God within us, to save these people from destruction!"
Alma's response: "God is telling me through the Holy Ghost that I must not stretch out my hand to save them that way, because Jesus Christ is receiving them up to himself in his glory. God is allowing the wicked people to do this terrible thing out of the hardness of their hearts in order for his later judgment upon them to be just. The blood of the innocent will stand as a witness against them and cry mightily against them at the last day."
Amulek's response, "Perhaps they will burn us, too."
Alma: "If it be the will of God, so be it. But our work is not finished yet, so they will not burn us."
Every time I've read this in the past, I've felt a little bit annoyed at Alma. It sounds so callous to say these words to somebody who is watching his family die before his eyes. Kinda like, "Hey, 'sokay. They're going to heaven!" Um, it's not okay. It's definitely, definitely not okay.
Mostly, I felt like it was incredibly socially awkward. "These guys will die, and we won't."
But the fact is, how would Alma have been able to use the priesthood to save those people if it hadn't been God's will for them to be saved anyway? The priesthood is the power of God on earth, wielded by man (that's mankind, not just men, by the way). You can't use the priesthood to do anything you want. You can only use the priesthood to work God's will. It is frustrating because it's a kind of power that you just really don't have control over, at all, in the end. I suppose the only kind of real control you have is your worthiness to execute it, to be an instrument in God's hand. When you live a worthy, humble life, God will manifest his will to you and you can do great things through him.
The other issue at play here is certainly something about the feelings and emotions of the moment being lost in translation, lost in a text version, lost in the abridgment - lost in culture. If I squint very hard in my mind, I can see Alma saying these words through tears, and then it doesn't feel so balky and harsh. I rather like that image, to tell the truth.
This is one of those paradoxes that non-Christians love to torment Christians with. "Why would a loving God let bad things happen to good people?" Perhaps it's even just one of those universal questions that all religions (all theistic religions) attempt to answer, to be honest. Well, the answer doesn't really make sense to us here, now. But there's some kind of connection or promise that has to do with blood crying from the dust, standing as a witness, at the last day. I don't get how that will work, but I trust that it will. I believe that someday, fairness and real justice will be served.
Answer:
If God tells you to say a socially awkward thing, you should say it. Most likely the social awkwardness wasn't even on the radar at that exact moment.
The wicked people of Ammonihah have been called to repentance by Alma and Amulek. They reject this call in a major way. In fact, it causes them to gather the righteous believers, including their wives and children, and burn them together with their scriptures. As previously discussed, I personally think that Amulek's family were among those brutally murdered in this way.
The murderers take Alma and Amulek to witness the massacre. Amulek pleads to Alma, "Please! Let's use the priesthood power, the power of God within us, to save these people from destruction!"
Alma's response: "God is telling me through the Holy Ghost that I must not stretch out my hand to save them that way, because Jesus Christ is receiving them up to himself in his glory. God is allowing the wicked people to do this terrible thing out of the hardness of their hearts in order for his later judgment upon them to be just. The blood of the innocent will stand as a witness against them and cry mightily against them at the last day."
Amulek's response, "Perhaps they will burn us, too."
Alma: "If it be the will of God, so be it. But our work is not finished yet, so they will not burn us."
Every time I've read this in the past, I've felt a little bit annoyed at Alma. It sounds so callous to say these words to somebody who is watching his family die before his eyes. Kinda like, "Hey, 'sokay. They're going to heaven!" Um, it's not okay. It's definitely, definitely not okay.
Mostly, I felt like it was incredibly socially awkward. "These guys will die, and we won't."
But the fact is, how would Alma have been able to use the priesthood to save those people if it hadn't been God's will for them to be saved anyway? The priesthood is the power of God on earth, wielded by man (that's mankind, not just men, by the way). You can't use the priesthood to do anything you want. You can only use the priesthood to work God's will. It is frustrating because it's a kind of power that you just really don't have control over, at all, in the end. I suppose the only kind of real control you have is your worthiness to execute it, to be an instrument in God's hand. When you live a worthy, humble life, God will manifest his will to you and you can do great things through him.
The other issue at play here is certainly something about the feelings and emotions of the moment being lost in translation, lost in a text version, lost in the abridgment - lost in culture. If I squint very hard in my mind, I can see Alma saying these words through tears, and then it doesn't feel so balky and harsh. I rather like that image, to tell the truth.
This is one of those paradoxes that non-Christians love to torment Christians with. "Why would a loving God let bad things happen to good people?" Perhaps it's even just one of those universal questions that all religions (all theistic religions) attempt to answer, to be honest. Well, the answer doesn't really make sense to us here, now. But there's some kind of connection or promise that has to do with blood crying from the dust, standing as a witness, at the last day. I don't get how that will work, but I trust that it will. I believe that someday, fairness and real justice will be served.
Answer:
If God tells you to say a socially awkward thing, you should say it. Most likely the social awkwardness wasn't even on the radar at that exact moment.
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