While the four sons
of Mosiah are on their mission to the Lamanites, Aaron has this interesting
experience while trying to teach the Amalekites and Amulonites about the need
to repent.
5 Therefore,
as Aaron entered into one of their synagogues to preach unto the people, and as
he was speaking unto them, behold there arose an Amalekite and began to contend
with him, saying: What is that thou hast testified? Hast thou seen an angel?
Why do not angels appear unto us? Behold are not this people as good as thy
people?
6 Thou
also sayest, except we repent we shall perish. How knowest thou the thought and
intent of our hearts? How knowest thou that we have cause to repent? How
knowest thou that we are not a righteous people? Behold, we have built
sanctuaries, and we do assemble ourselves together to worship God. We do
believe that God will save all men.
7 Now
Aaron said unto him: Believest thou that the Son of God shall come to redeem
mankind from their sins?
8 And the
man said unto him: We do not believe that thou knowest any such thing. We do
not believe in these foolish traditions. We do not believe that thou knowest of
things to come, neither do we believe that thy fathers and also that our
fathers did know concerning the things which they spake, of that which is to
come.
9 Now
Aaron began to open the scriptures unto them concerning the coming of Christ,
and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, and that there could be no
redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ,
and the atonement of his blood.
10 And it
came to pass as he began to expound these things unto them they were angry with
him, and began to mock him; and they would not hear the words which he spake. (Alma
21:5-10)
I thought it was
interesting that Mormon included this little conversation between Aaron and the
Amalekite because the rest of the chapter greatly summarizes Aaron’s teaching.
So it seems there was something about the Amalekite’s objections and Aaron’s
responses that Mormon thought worth recording.
I think the Amalekite
represents a pattern of unbelief that is very entrenched and will not receive
the gospel. Perhaps Mormon met people in his day that expressed the same
sentiments. Probably we will see the same in our day, if we haven’t already.
The Amalekite starts
out with incredulous questions about why his people don’t have angelic
visitations, while at the same time he contends his people are as good as
Aaron’s people. Then he asks a bunch
of “How do you know” questions challenging Aaron’s knowledge:
--How do you know the
thought and intent of our hearts?
--How do you know we
have cause to repent?
--How do you know
we’re not a righteous people?
Then the Amalekite
tries to prove the Amalekites’s righteousness on the grounds that they have
build churches and gather to worship God and that they believe God will save
all men.
But when Aaron asks
him if he believes in Christ’s redemption, then the Amalekite spouts a torrent
of “we don’t believe” statements!
--We don’t believe
you know God will redeem mankind from their sins.
--We don’t believe
these foolish traditions.
--We don’t believe
you know of things to come.
--We don’t believe
your fathers or ours knew what they were talking about concerning things to
come.
Then when Aaron tries
to show through the scriptures that there is grounds for belief in the
redemption of Christ, all his listeners get angry, mock him, and don’t want to
hear.
So the Amalekite
essentially answers his own questions, even though he doesn’t realize it: The
Amalekites don’t see angels because they don’t believe in the prophecies of
what’s to come that angels and scriptures would give. (Much of what angels do is quote scripture and prophesy,
after all.) If a person has made
it clear that they don’t believe in Christ when a mortal messenger declares it,
is that message going to be any easier to swallow if an angel gives it? The Amalekite has grounds to
repent because he doesn’t believe Christ will come to redeem men. He’s cut off
from the atonement. His people have cause to repent because their unbelief is
the same.
It is quite
fascinating that the Amalekites believe God will save all men, and yet they
don’t believe Aaron or their ancestors could know of things to come. But then, what grounds for belief do
they have that God will save all men, something that would require revelation
and prophecy to know at all? To
affirm a belief in a future event while denying the future can be known is
contradictory. Beliefs based on
that kind of thought process seem more like wishful thinking.
The Amalekite seems
insulted by Aaron’s teaching the truth, which hints he feels rebuked and
insecure in his own spirituality. So he tries to cover it by painting Aaron as
a sort of religious imperialist and by arguing that church attendance makes the
Amalekites as good as the Nephites.
But if that is all the Amalekite can point to, he doesn’t understand the
full extent of what righteousness is, since it goes far beyond just going to
church. In trying to justify
himself as righteous, the Amalekite actually reveals that he is not. Again, if he doesn’t believe Christ
will redeem humanity from their sins, he is stuck in his sins and can’t escape
them.
There are several
principles that can be got from this exchange.
1) A
dearth of spiritual gifts and privileges arises out of unbelief. We may not even know what we disbelieve
until someone challenges us on it.
2) When
unbelief is challenged, it easily turns into noisy self-justification.
3) Self-justification
tends to be contradictory, and it is obvious to others. (It’s also pathetic.)
4) Self-justification
is not possible. (Christ is the
only one who can justify us through His grace, and that can only happen when we
repent.)
Aaron knew that he couldn’t
force the Amalekite to believe differently, so after trying to present his
grounds for testimony and being rejected, he simply left. Likewise, when people
around us reject our testimonies, we can’t do anything to change that.
But looking at it
from a different perspective, what if we find that in some respect we are like the unbelieving
Amalekite? Thinking about how the
Amalekite should have responded if he
had been meek is an interesting exercise.
How could this Amalekite have turned the exchange into a learning
experience?
What do you think?
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