Monday, April 2, 2018

Alma 47:36 as a Potent "Warning Text" and a Call to Perseverance


While reading the Book of Mormon recently, the following text really stood out to me:

Now these dissenters, having the same instruction and the same information of the Nephites, yea, having been instructed in the same knowledge of the Lord, nevertheless, it is strange to relate, not long after their dissensions they became more hardened and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites-- drinking in with the traditions of the Lamanites; giving way to indolence, and all manner of lasciviousness; yea, entirely forgetting the Lord their God. (Alma 47:36)

Such reminded me of texts such as Heb 6:4-6 and 10:26-29 that state that those who knowingly reject the gospel are in a spiritually more precarious position than those who never accepted the gospel in the first place. Sadly, it has been proven true over and over again, as seen, for e.g., in Heb 6:4-6 in Action. As with the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Book of Mormon provides a warning and sobering reminder to believers to remain faithful to the very end.