People who don't understand God really need to try to understand Alma 14. In this chapter Alma and Amulek are preaching, but their words anger the people so they are made to watch as the wicked people burn innocent women and children. Amulek can hardly stand the sight and asks Alma why they can't use the power of the Lord to stop the cruelty. Alma responds, "The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day." (11) Another example of this is when Ammon is talking to King Lamoni's father after he has threatened to slay Lamoni, "...if thou shouldst slay thy son, he being an innocent man, his blood would cry from the ground to the Lord his God, for vengeance to come upon thee; and perhaps thou wouldst lose thy soul." (20:18) So God rarely interferes with a person's decision to commit sin, in these cases murder, because the commitment of the act shall put the individual under the condemnation of Godly law. If God stays the person's hand, they cannot be condemned, and have little cause to repent. The Lord does however stay the hand of any who try to take the lives of the sons of Mosiah, because Mosiah was promised they would be protected. I, for one, believe that the Lord has his reasons for doing or not doing whatever he does. I don't even begin to think I am wise enough to discern or understand all of God's reasons for doing what He does, but I trust that he knows the best way to act because of his omnipotence and his eternal perspective, neither attribute of which i am privy to.
In Alma 22 Aaron is teaching the King about the atonement and the plan of salvation. The king in verse 7 says "if thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe." it got me thinking about all the crime committed in the name of God and how many use this as an excuse to believe that God isn't real, or he is not a just God. I believe there exists a great division between the believers and non believers as well as the believers who trust in his plan, and those who don't. I don't really know how to explain this, but the reason people contend against one another in the name of God is because each party wants to be right, and it is with respect to their eternal salvation. I don't think i've made any sense. i can't explain it better than this without some more thought. it's a pretty controversial topic.
At the end of chapter 24 the Anti-Nephi-Lehis have just lost over a thousand souls to the lamanites because they have repented of their sins and would not take up arms against them, but because of this the hearts of the lamanites are softened and the stop slaying them and many are converted. in verse 7, "...thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." The Lord is all-seeing and all-knowing and knows who needs what to be converted unto him. Thus, he is capable of tailoring our trials and experiences to help us grow. We still choose how to respond to those experiences.
In Alma 22 Aaron is teaching the King about the atonement and the plan of salvation. The king in verse 7 says "if thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe." it got me thinking about all the crime committed in the name of God and how many use this as an excuse to believe that God isn't real, or he is not a just God. I believe there exists a great division between the believers and non believers as well as the believers who trust in his plan, and those who don't. I don't really know how to explain this, but the reason people contend against one another in the name of God is because each party wants to be right, and it is with respect to their eternal salvation. I don't think i've made any sense. i can't explain it better than this without some more thought. it's a pretty controversial topic.
At the end of chapter 24 the Anti-Nephi-Lehis have just lost over a thousand souls to the lamanites because they have repented of their sins and would not take up arms against them, but because of this the hearts of the lamanites are softened and the stop slaying them and many are converted. in verse 7, "...thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." The Lord is all-seeing and all-knowing and knows who needs what to be converted unto him. Thus, he is capable of tailoring our trials and experiences to help us grow. We still choose how to respond to those experiences.
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