Korihor answered:
Because I do not teach the foolish traditions of your fathers, and because I do not teach this people to bind themselves down under the foolish ordinances and performances which are laid down by ancient priests, to usurp power and authority over them, to keep them in ignorance, that they may not lift up their heads, but be brought down according to thy words. Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. Ye say that those ancient prophecies are true. Behold, I say that ye do not know that they are true. Ye say that this people is a guilty and a fallen people, because of the transgression of a parent. Behold, I say that a child is not guilty because of its parents. And ye also say that [Messiah]/Christ shall come. But behold, I say that ye do not know that there shall be a [Messiah]/Christ. And ye say also that he shall be slain for the sins of the world—And thus ye lead away this people after the foolish traditions of your fathers, and according to your own desires; and ye keep them down, even as it were in bondage, that ye may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands, that they durst not look up with boldness, and that they durst not enjoy their rights and privileges. Yea, they durst not make use of that which is their own lest they should offend their priests, who do yoke them according to their desires, and have brought them to believe, by their traditions and their dreams and their whims and their visions and their pretended mysteries, that they should, if they did not do according to their words, offend some unknown being, who they say is God—a being who never has been seen or known, who never was nor ever will be. (Alma 30: 23-28)
Here are the modern arguments รก la Korihor:
· Men are fools if they bind themselves to God by “foolish ordinances” (even among some Christians, the need for ordinances, such as baptism for salvation, is denied.)
· Religious leaders only want power: they want to:
- assume authority over people;
- keep them ignorant; and
- make them feel bad about themselves just for doing what they want to do.
· People who believe in Jesus Christ and seek to obey His commandments are slaves in bondage (today they call it “blind faith”.)
· It is impossible for one man to die and save everybody from sin.
· Clergy keep people slaves because they make them afraid to do anything they want to do for fear it will get them in trouble with the clergy or offend some unknown being - a god that never has nor never will exist.
Now when the high priest and the chief judge saw the hardness of his heart, yea, when they saw that he would revile even against God, they would not make any reply to his words; but they caused that he should be bound; and they delivered him up into the hands of the officers, and sent him to the land of Zarahemla, that he might be brought before Alma, and the chief judge who was governor over all the land. (Alma 30: 29)
You have probably noticed how logical and even reasonable his arguments sound! It is easy to see why so many people were led astray. Paul wrote to the Romans, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8: 5) Spiritual things cannot be understood by the rational mind; only by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. To attempt a spiritual explanation to a carnal mind is like trying to explain the passion of the marriage bed to a 5-year-old. That is why Giddonah sent Korihor to Alma. Because Alma had once fought against the Church, perhaps he might have to words that would touch Korihor and soften his heart.
Text copyright September 2013, Gebara Education
Pictures:
Korihor on trial from www.sugardoodle.net
Korihor bound from www.lds.org
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