Alma 30

1. “Atheist do not go to God for the same reason thieves do not go to policemen” (Marion D. Hanks). Korihor Alma 30

2. Alma 30 Have you ever had to defend the church? (My stories: Shakespeare class – Ladies of MacBeth) Read Alma 30:6–11 Boyd K. Packer’s salt

3. Alma 30 After the attorney insisted that since President Packer couldn’t describe how he knew that God lived, “He asked the attorney, ‘Do you know what salt tastes like?’ “Of course I do,” was the reply. “When did you taste salt last?” “Why, just as we had dinner on the plane.” “You just think you know what salt tastes like…” “I know what salt tastes like as well as I know anything,” said the attorney. “If I gave you a cup of salt and a cup of sugar and let you taste them both, could you tell the salt from the sugar?”“Now you are getting juvenile,” was his reply. “Of course I could tell the difference. I know what salt tastes like. It is an every day experience; I know it as well as I know anything...”

4. Alma 30 “…Assuming that I had never tasted salt, could you explain to me in words, just what it tastes like?” After some thought the attorney ventured, “Well…I…it is not sweet, and it is not sour.” “You have told me what it isn’t,” was the answer, “not what it is.” “After several attempts he admitted failure in the little exercise of conveying in words knowledge so commonplace as that. He found himself quite helpless to answer the question...

5. Alma 30 “Elder Packer bore testimony once again. He then concluded the conversation by saying, “My friend, spiritually speaking, I have tasted salt.’ “Young people, do not apologize or be ashamed because you cannot frame into words that which you know in your heart to be true” (Boyd K. Paacker, C.R., Oct. 1964, 128-29).

6. Alma 30 “In a world filled with skepticism and doubt, the expression ‘seeing is believing’ abounds. We want all of the proof and all of the evidence first. It seems hard to take things on faith. When will we learn that in spiritual things it works the other way about—that believing is seeing? “When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith.” (President Boyd K. Packer, Faith, February 1983Ensign, 43.)

7. Some of Korihor’s Arguments… • NATURALISTIC EMPIRICISM • Use the five senses to explain things • HUMANISM • Man prospers by his own power and skill • RELATIVISM • Everything, including commandments, are relative depending on how one interprets the commandments Alma 30:13-18 (notice who he’s preaching to in vs 19)

8. Alma 30 Alma 30:40,43-44 What evidences have you had in your life that “denote that there is a God”?

9. “All things denote that there is a God” (Alma 30:44) “A British scientist has observed the following of our especially situated planet: Just a bit nearer to the sun, and Planet Earth’s seas would soon be boiling; just a little farther out, and the whole world would become a frozen wilderness. …If our orbit happened to be the wrong shape…then we would alternately freeze like Mars and fry like Venus once a year. Fortunately for us, our planet’s orbit is very nearly a circle.

10. “All things denote that there is a God” (Alma 30:44) “The 21% oxygen level is another critical figure. Animals would have difficulty breathing if the oxygen content fell very far below that value. But an oxygen level much higher than this would also be disastrous, since the extra oxygen would act as a fire raising material. Forests and grasslands would flare up every time lightning struck during a dry spell, and life on earth would become extremely hazardous (Alan Hayword, God is, 1980, 62-63, 68). “All of beauty in the earth bears the fingerprint of the Master Creator” (Gordon B. Hinckley, C.R., Apr. 1978, 90).

11. Alma 30 Alma: vv.49, 50 - What’s wrong with signs?

12. Book of Mormon Evidences Alma 30 Speechlessness

13. Book of Mormon Evidences Alma’s curse on Korihor resembles an ancient Greek practice of cursing a litigant with speechlessness. Such curses were common in the ancient Mediterranean world, especially in the legal sphere. In recent decades, more than a hundred Greek and Roman binding spells—curses inscribed on small lead sheets that were folded up and pierced with a nail—have been recovered in wells near the law courts.  These spells are known as defixiones because their words and powers were intended to “defix” (restrain or hinder) an opponent speechless.

14. Alma 30 I recollect a Campbellite preacher who came to Joseph Smith . . . and said that he had come a considerable distance to be convinced of the truth. “Why,” said he, “Mr. Smith, I want to know the truth, and when I am convinced, I will spend all my talents and time defending and spreading the doctrines of your religion, and I will convince all my congregation, amounting to several hundreds.” Alexander Campbell

15. Alma 30 Well, Joseph commenced laying before him the coming forth of the work, and the first principles of the Gospel. The minister exclaimed, “O this is not the evidence I want, the evidence that I wish to have is a notable miracle. “Well,” said Joseph, “what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done.” “That is not the kind of miracle I want,” said the preacher. “Then, sir,” replied Joseph, “I can perform none, I am not going to bring any trouble upon any body to convince you” (Journal of Discourses 2:326). Alexander Campbell

16. Alma 30 You probably have friends that are anti-Christs: • I do not eat with antichrists at Wendy’s during seminary • I do not watch bad movies with antichrists • I do not kiss antichrists • I do not sluffchurch with antichrists • I do not become immoral with antichrists (or anyone else for that matter)

17. They left the Party Alma 30 https://www.lds.org/youth/video/leave-the-party?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

18. Alma 30:51-60 Korihor’s demise How to Respond to Antichrists • —Do not engage in arguments (Alma 30:19–22) • —If they are Church members, hold them accountable (Alma 30:21–22) • —Know the truth (Alma 30:31–35) • —Bear personal testimony (Alma 30:39–40). • —Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost (Alma 30:41–42)

19. Alma 30 “Antifamily media messages are everywhere. Public policies are being made every day that are antifamily, and the definition of family is changing legally around the world.  “Pornography is rampant. Youth are being desensitized about the need to form eternal families. For those who create pornography, their new target audience is young women. “Satan knows that he will never have a body; he will never have a family. So he targets young women, who will create the bodies for the future generations. “Korihorwas an anti-Christ. Anti-Christ is antifamily. Any doctrine or principle our youth hear from the world that is antifamily is also anti-Christ. It’s that clear.” (Sister Julie Beck, March 2011 Ensign)

20. Korihor Alma 30