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Book Of Mormon Stories: Chapter Analysis

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When I was a kid, my mother would read me short excerpts from the children’s book, Book of Mormon Stories. Each chapter provides a simple story that explains the happenings at the time of the prophets of old. To appeal to children, the stories are simple and explain the important gospel principles such as following the commandments, and being kind to others. I remember my mother would always read my siblings and me the story of Korihor each year before we started a new school year. When I was younger, I will admit that this did not come across as having any significance. As I have studied the scripture in far more depth, the parallels between Korihor’s influence and the influence of the adversary in our day are shockingly clear. After studying …show more content…

This principle stated a little less directly within the scriptures but I gathered it between the lines. The chapter explains how there were many laws regarding what the people could and could not do in the cities, but none of them ruled against preaching opinions to the public. Although it was a disruption to the peace of the city, no officials in the land of Zarahemla had any authority to punish Korihor for his actions as is stated in Alma 30 verse 12, “and the law could have no hold upon him.” As a result, I drew a parallel to today’s society. We act on faith that everything we learn is true, but we have no grounds to say that our beliefs are more credible than those of anyone else. Because of this, these scriptures really served as a reminder to me that we all must be accepting and respectful of what other people might believe if we expect to get any sort of equal recognition. I have found that the biggest mistake we can make as members of the church is being the source of contention during a conversation regarding religion, and this almost always comes as a result of being defensive or slow to accept someone else’s point of view. 3 Nephi 29 explains that when we act with contention, we are being led by the adversary, “he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up …show more content…

The devil literally took over Korihor in this chapter and acted through his mortal being, using many deceptive techniques and strategies as Elder Benson and Mormon warn of. I think the most effective argument that the adversary used against the people of Zarahemla was that they were in bondage to the Lord, their prophets, and the church. Now, thousands of years later, the devil uses the same argument against Christ’s followers and he still has success. The main parallel I make to the “bondage” we are now in, would be the Word of Wisdom and some of the commandments. A huge source of the confusion people have for why we are members of the church is from the misconception that restricting rules and guidelines bind us from doing what we want. Most members can bear testimony to the fact that we are far from bondage, and instead more free because of the guides prophets give us. In the story, Korihor was successful in turning the hearts of many people away from the Lord as he confused them into

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