Careful What You Wish For

Come Follow Me (Alma 30-31)

We've already talked about spotting the counterfeit doctrines of the world which compete with Jesus Christ for the hearts and minds of humans. (https://www.laureensimper.com/post/spotting-a-counterfeit)

It always seems to start the same way: someone supremely selfish just doesn't resonate with the sound doctrine of time-honored principles, or with laws or commandments which promise an ordered society with maximum use of individual agency. Those laws are seen as restrictive, binding - they're just not his truth.

The only thing for such a person - the law-unto-himself type (D&C 88:35) - is to recruit, thereby assuring himself an eventual majority to stifle the voices of all the buzz kills who oppose him.

Such is the case of Korihor, an ancient social influencer whose only objective seemed to be legitimizing his choices by making them popular and prevalent.

Alma chapter 30 is the most detailed account of anti-Christ thinking and preaching. Mormon explains that there was no crime against a person's beliefs, as that's the only sure way to protect religious liberty. Every person must have the right to conscience - even a person who is only pretending to believe a certain way. And it's clear as the story progresses that Korihor was pretending; his explanation of how he arrived at his ideas makes NO SENSE at all.

An angel told you there was no God? Did you kind of wonder where that angel came from?

The nonsense presented to Korihor really underscores that old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it can't be true. Yet Korihor lapped up the idea - even the possibility of the idea - that he wouldn't be accountable to a higher Being for anything he may do - that there was no sin because of this, and thereby, no need for repentance. This anti-Christ doctrine is like the siren song of the Odyssey, driving Ulysses' men to madness and his ship to crash onto the rocks.

Korihor's teaching attempted to nullify the doctrine of Christ in its most essential characteristics:

• There is no need for a Savior (Alma 30:12, 15) - this eliminates any need for faith in one.

• No one can know what is to come (Alma 30:13); you can only know things based on evidence you see - again - a world view devoid of faith.

• Believing in sin and the need for a remission of sin is the product of a frenzied mind and false traditions (Alma 30:14, 16) - this removes hope that you can ever be more than what you are. Worldly pursuits will simply help you ignore that the need for growth even exists.

• There is no need for an atonement (Alma 30:17) - which follows there is no need for repentance because there is no sin. Again - the loss of hope in anything but the here and now.

• Men just look out for themselves and get ahead based on their own strength and abilities - thus finally removing even charity. (Alma 30:17)

The record explains the loss of faith and hope in the anti-Christ teachings of both Sherem and Nehor, but it isn't until this more rounded out manifesto of Korihor that the loss of charity truly underscores the pernicious nature of this doctrine.

A society without Jesus Christ can never achieve Zion, because without the principles of Jesus Christ - primarily, faith, hope, and charity - the false principles pit men against each other.

This is where the doctrine of scarcity comes from - the complete antithesis of the doctrine of abundance coming from an infinite Creator.

This is where coveting, lying, stealing, and even killing become justifiable, and eventually, can even become legalized. If the highest societal goal is your own desires, then society is full of beings who've created their gods in their own images, and the ones with the most societal power and influence will rule over everyone else.

No wonder a society without the teachings of Jesus Christ becomes one where the love of men waxes cold, and men's hearts fail them.

The rueful, ironic end of Korihor is a lesson for the ages: be careful what you wish for. A community of apostate saints embraced every one of his teachings not far from Zarahemla. Here, among the Zoramites, Korihor found himself mute and unable to ask for help - turned away, and eventually trampled to death. Abandoned, neglected, and he is killed by a society which fully lived the grim doctrine of selfishness antithetical to faith, hope, and charity.

No wonder the prophets of dying societies focus on the most basic part of Christ's doctrine. Faith, hope, and charity can save entire communities - even nations. But when those communities and nations succumb to selfishness, faith, hope, and charity will save individuals from being stampeded down the cliff with the rest of the herd.