Why didn't they put them away privily? Why is this detail included? Alma 14:3
After Alma and Amulek had called the wicked people of Ammonihah to repentance, they were really upset. They didn't like the way Alma and Amulek were able to confound Zeezrom with plain speech. They claimed Amulek was a liar and had crossed their law, lawyers, and judges. They decided to put them away "privily", but then... they didn't. Instead, they bound them before the judge, accused them falsely, and eventually caused all the believers to be burned in a mass murder!
Why did they start by wanting to put them way privately? It doesn't really say what that means, but it could mean murdering them secretly, or kicking them out of the city, or hurting them, or etc. But always in private.
I think it's kind of like 1 Nephi 16:2, where "the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center." At first, these wicked people still felt some - however slight - degree of shame or guilt, causing them to want to hide their actions from the public eye. Eventually though, they became so enraged and incensed that it no longer mattered whether it was done in secret or not.
I live in a world where sins are constantly being shifted from the private to the public eye - and to be fair, from the public to the private eye, too. For example, a socially unacceptable sin today is rape. Not acceptable. In the past, in some places, it was. But to leave some of the extreme examples, a more relateable one might be public lying. I mean, our culture seems to value transparency more and more. So if you choose to lie, you really need to be sneaky and clever so that nobody thinks you are lying, because lying is much more distasteful today than perhaps it was 100 years ago.
Or maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about and just making up an answer.
Answer:
I don't really know!
Friday, November 8, 2019
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Can you use corpus linguistics to search the scriptures?! Why not!?
Can you use corpus linguistics to search the scriptures?! Why not!?
At some point last year I asked myself this question.
I ended up boldly asking this to Mark Davies, who is one of the most influential people in the entire field of corpus linguistics, having essentially created and developed the idea of massive corpora. He is a professor at my alma mater, BYU. I've heard he will be retiring soon, though.
I had no idea how bold and brazen my email would sound.
He replied to me with some resources for people who have already created tools to do just that. At some future date I would like to compile an annotated list. He was patient with my ignorant question.
Answer:
Resounding, definite, complete and total yes.
Was there an altar in their church? Was it a temple? Alma 15:17
Was there an altar in their church? Was it a temple? Alma 15:17
Alma and Amulek go to Sidom and establish a church there. The people humbled themselves before God and began to meet together in places called "sanctuaries" to worship God before an altar.
Answer:
Yes. There was an altar.
No, it was not a temple. It was most likely something similar to a synagogue. These people were likely practicing some kind of version of the Law of Moses, though it seems that Nephi made an explicit decision wayyyy earlier to not teach his children the "traditions of the Jews." However, there are other clues that hint that they were still obeying many aspects of the Law of Moses, most likely even including ritual animal sacrifice, since Christ had not been resurrected yet.
How did Joseph Smith feel when he remembered that he read this later in Liberty jail? Alma 14:14-17
How did Joseph Smith feel when he remembered that he read this later in Liberty jail? Alma 14:14-17
After the burned out bodies of those who were brutally murdered had been totally consumed (do bones burn?) along with the scriptures, the chief judge stands before the bound Alma and Amulek, strikes them on their cheeks and says, "After what you've just seen, will you dare to tell me and my people that we will be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone? You didn't have the power to save these people. Well? What do you have to say?"
After the burned out bodies of those who were brutally murdered had been totally consumed (do bones burn?) along with the scriptures, the chief judge stands before the bound Alma and Amulek, strikes them on their cheeks and says, "After what you've just seen, will you dare to tell me and my people that we will be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone? You didn't have the power to save these people. Well? What do you have to say?"
Alma and Amulek were hit over and over again, and then sent to prison.
Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, Lyman Wight (my 5th great uncle), Alexander McRae, Caleb Baldwin, and Sidney Rigdon were unjustly imprisoned in Liberty Jail.
I have been there.
After a lot of reading, I was able to learn some of the more disgusting details of this ordeal. When they were in this jail, they were not able to stand up completely. They were fed the flesh of murdered latter-day saints. They endured violent, foul, filthy language and taunting about their wives and families. They were told that they didn't have the power of God to save themselves.
Answer:
I am certain that Alma and Amulek's experience in the Book of Mormon would have been a great strength to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail.
People can be surprisingly evil.
How does spreading the word to previous generations help prepare to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory? Alma 13:24
How does spreading the word to previous generations help prepare to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory? Alma 13:24
Alma is preaching to the wicked people at Ammonihah. He stretches his hand out and says some powerful words.
"Now is the time to repent, because soon the day of salvation will come.
Angels declare the voice of the Lord to all nations this news of great joy. This joyous news is spread among all God's children, including all of those who were scattered across the earth - hence why they have visited us!
The happy, joyous news is made known to us in plain terms so that we will understand and not be able to misinterpret it. Our people has been wandering in a strange land, and we are highly favored of God because the happy news about the day of our salvation has been shared even with us wanderers.
Angels are declaring this news to many right now, right here, for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive him when he comes in his glory.
We are just waiting to hear the joyful news of Christ's birth. We know he will be born. We don't know when. I pray to God that he might come when I am still alive, but whenever it happens, I will rejoice that it will happen."
Alma is not talking merely about the birth of the Savior. He is talking about the entire symbolic mission of the Savior on earth. To Alma, and to me, it is incredibly joyful news that sins can be remitted, hearts can heal, and we can repent! The first part of Alma's speech is declaring that, "NOW is the time to repent!"
It is really interesting to view repentance from the paradigm of rejoicing, rather than feeling miserable and woeful. I have tried to adjust my attitude towards repentance. I have reasons to repent every single day. Hopefully never huge, enormous sins, but I am a human. I have bad thoughts, I make mistakes, and there are definitely ways that I can improve each and every day. The promise that this is possible is Jesus Christ himself. It really is joyful news.
Answer:
Parents who are converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ will teach their children to recognize, serve, and love him. Spoiler alert: Alma did not witness Christ's birth. But through his voice, the voice of many other prophets and angels, and the diligent, daily preparation of righteous parents, the generations that came after him were prepared for Jesus Christ's first coming.
Doesn't this strike you as a little bit similar to how things might be today, as we wait for his second coming?
Why doesn't Alma say something less socially awkward and more comforting? Alma 14:11
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.
Were Amulek's wife and children included among the righteous people in Ammonihah who were burned? Alma 14:8-10
Were Amulek's wife and children included among the righteous people in Ammonihah who were burned? Alma 14:8-10
Alma returns to Ammonihah after he was commanded to do so by an angel of God. He meets Amulek, who is converted. Together they preach repentance to the wicked people of that city. They are rejected in a major way. Actually, it's worse than just a refusal to believe; the people are angry at being told that they need to repent, so they gather up all the believers, including their wives and children, and burn them together with their scriptures.
That's horrible.
Danny pointed out to me once that most likely this included Amulek's wife and children.
I've been thinking about the "very close relation" that Amulek was visiting when he was first visited by the angel, who told him that he should return to feed the prophet of God. I totally know that it is reading too much into the scenario to assume there was some kind of mental illness going on, but I must admit that I imagined a scenario in which Amulek and his wife (since he mentions his "household" it seems logical that he also had a wife) had some kind of major disagreement that was basically destined to remain unresolved due to a mental illness on her end. Maybe this caused her to leave him. Maybe he was traveling to meet her because he was ready to give up or give in to whatever unreasonable demand or whatever it was that she had made on him. Maybe he was stopped by the angel as a sign that his willingness to sacrifice himself for her was acceptable, but that God didn't need him to actually go through with it. Rather, God needed him to finally submit and accept the call that he had been trying to get him to accept for many years previous, which was to become converted in his heart and to share that conversion with those around him.
Later, after this horrible auto-da-fe-style massacre, Alma takes Amulek to his house and ministers to him for a long time. Danny pointed out that this was likely evidence that Amulek was suffering from some severe depression, likely linked to the death of his wife and children.
Answer:
I think it's likely that at least some of Amulek's family was brutally murdered by fire by the wicked people of Ammonihah. This makes Alma and Amulek's forgiveness of Zeezrom, one of the chief instigators of this crime, even more touching.
I've been thinking about the "very close relation" that Amulek was visiting when he was first visited by the angel, who told him that he should return to feed the prophet of God. I totally know that it is reading too much into the scenario to assume there was some kind of mental illness going on, but I must admit that I imagined a scenario in which Amulek and his wife (since he mentions his "household" it seems logical that he also had a wife) had some kind of major disagreement that was basically destined to remain unresolved due to a mental illness on her end. Maybe this caused her to leave him. Maybe he was traveling to meet her because he was ready to give up or give in to whatever unreasonable demand or whatever it was that she had made on him. Maybe he was stopped by the angel as a sign that his willingness to sacrifice himself for her was acceptable, but that God didn't need him to actually go through with it. Rather, God needed him to finally submit and accept the call that he had been trying to get him to accept for many years previous, which was to become converted in his heart and to share that conversion with those around him.
Later, after this horrible auto-da-fe-style massacre, Alma takes Amulek to his house and ministers to him for a long time. Danny pointed out that this was likely evidence that Amulek was suffering from some severe depression, likely linked to the death of his wife and children.
Answer:
I think it's likely that at least some of Amulek's family was brutally murdered by fire by the wicked people of Ammonihah. This makes Alma and Amulek's forgiveness of Zeezrom, one of the chief instigators of this crime, even more touching.
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