David Journal

Tag: Helaman

  • Is there anything we can say?

    —

    by

    David
    in

    The five who ran did not believe Nephi but they were willing to believe if his words proved true. The sign was clear enough to them for their conversion. It makes me wonder if there is anything today that we can offer to people who are basically decent but still don’t believe in the danger…

  • Leading from behind

    —

    by

    David
    in

    How often is it that wicked men try to lead from the safety of the back (or operate in the “safety” of darkness? The Gadianton judges who disliked the words of Nephi were unwilling to take him themselves so they tried to rile the people up against him instead and when a portion of the…

  • What kind of prayer?

    —

    by

    David
    in

    I read about people hearing Nephi pray and running to gather a multitude before he is finished and wonder what that prayer was like. Did he hear people gathering but just thought it was the regular traffic on the highway? How long did it take the people to gather?

  • More political parallelism

    —

    by

    David
    in

    I see the way the Gadiantons were embraced by the Nephites and rejected by the Lamanites in a fairly short period of time and I see the takeover of the GOP. Rather than reject someone who went against everything they claimed to value the GOP went from having a loud minority of MAGA faithful to…

  • Delivered up the judgement seat

    —

    by

    David
    in

    Bill and I talked about Nephi giving up the judgement seat the other day. I had always assumed that Nephi decided to step down as Alma had done but Bill believed he was voted out. As I read it now there is no information to differentiate between those two options. We know for sure that…

  • Who were the dissenters?

    —

    by

    David
    in

    Two successive waves of dissenters went from the neighbors to the Lamanites and convinced the Lamanites to attack the Nephites. It makes me wonder who those dissenters were but the word that they had become proud of their riches and had oppressed the poor it makes me think that it was those poor people who…

  • Hinting at context

    —

    by

    David
    in

    Moroni is attempting to provide context to the reader that the people in the land were expansive as were their records without getting distracted from the focus of this record. Throughout the Book of Mormon we get hints of the people spreading over time and sometimes the record here concerns a wider scope of people…

  • Solve the real problem

    —

    by

    David
    in

    The origins of the Gadianton robbers clearly demonstrate that selecting a good leader is not the same as eliminating the underlying problems. Even if we choose (again) to not put trump back in power we still have to do the work to heal the divisions and improve people’s lives and help people increase their capacity…

  • Mitigating a disaster

    —

    by

    David
    in

    Coriantumr capturing Zerahemlah was a disaster for the Nephites. After that it would have been easy to conclude that standing against his army was hopeless but Moronihah kept his head and called upon Lehi and gathered his people so that in the end they surrounded and completely defeated the army of Coriantumr and restored peace…

  • When the Lord does not chasten

    —

    by

    David
    in

    Whom the Lord loves He chastens. When people are struggling to follow Him they may not feel chastened or He may have limited reason to chasten them. When they are beginning to go astray He will chasten them and while they may feel threatened or unloved by this it is a clear sign that He…