Category: Scripture Notes

  • Is your ground good?

    Alma makes a distinction between a bad seed and barren ground. After proving that the seed is good there is no guarantee of receiving the fruit. If your ground is barren the tree will die before you can taste the fruit. The interesting thing is your locus of control – you can’t control whether you…

  • Culture preserved

    Before Ezra the scribe read the law to the people they had abandoned many of the practices that we laud them for today which have preserves their culture over millennia. They had to relearn those things and build the strong and lasting patterns that have since preserved them.

  • With proper authority

    When their neighbors challenged the temple building Jews and tried to convince the Persian king that they were disloyal they invited the king to search the records and see that they had their errand by the command if the previous king. With this reminder from him own official records their neighbors were compelled to support…

  • Good outside the covenant

    As covenant followers we must be careful that we not forget that goodness cannot be confined to covenant keepers. There are good people asking all walks of life as shown by the king of Assyria unilaterally giving decree that the captive Jews could go up to h and rebuild and even supplied them with materials…

  • Getting past expectations

    Alma and his fellow missionaries were surprised by what they found among the Zoramites. They had heard if wickedness but we’re surprised to see synagogues. They were told that the people were viewing to idols but did not expect that they were praying blasphemy to the sky—having a form like worshipping God but with completely…

  • Another anti-Christ teacher

    One of the first things Alma dealt with as the chef judge was an anti-Christ teacher named Nehor. When dealing with Korihor he had already heard the arguments generally.

  • A voice to shake the earth

    I know that feeling of wanting to shake people out of their stupor – if only I could convey this important message on a way that they cannot ignore or misunderstand – but I’ve never realized before that this desire is that same as the one that drive Alma to write these inspired words.

  • Why did they not attack earlier

    If the armies of the landlord followed the people of Ammon into the wilderness i would have expected then to overtake the people of skin before they were settled among the Nephites. Did they wait to see if the neighbors would reject the people of Ammon? With the Lamanites attacking as soon as the people…

  • The defiled temple

    I used to think that the temple of Solomon was defiled when the Babylonians came and removed all the artifacts from it and woke that isa true statement, I realize now that it had already been defined by the Jews before then and was no longer the house of God. The people had abounding Him…

  • Did Hezekiah sin?

    I wonder if Hezekiah sinned in asking for his life to be extended. To that point he had been faithful to the Lord but it appears that he was less careful in those extra 15 years, showing off his wealth to the visiting Babylonians being the remarked failure. The thing that makes me really question…