Two thoughts that I had from reading this chapter. The first was, once again, my mind being drawn to absolute language. Here Mosiah states that the arm of mercy is extended towards those who trust Him – in all cases. Not to those who are righteous, or diligent, or persuasive, or intelligent, or any of the other things we look to from time to time. In order to get His arm of mercy extended towards us, all we need do is trust Him. There is more required, ultimately, for our salvation but mercy is offered under this price only – that we seek it and believe He can give it to us.
The other thought that I had was on the subject of the majority of people choosing iniquity. Every person and every party thinks that this is happening all the time – if others don’t agree with your version of good government, you secretly believe in your heart that they are choosing iniquity. Sometimes, in fact, that are expressly choosing iniquity (see, for example, some votes on abortion). But even when they are voting for something iniquitous, that does not mean that they are choosing iniquity.
When a people choose iniquity, they have abandoned all desire to select the better part. What we typically have falls well short of that. We may see a group of people voting in a corrupt politician and claim that they are choosing evil. But they really are not. After all, if that politician engaged in certain evil behavior, in most cases they would be thrown out of office. They are still constrained by the love of virtue in the voting population (however weakened it may be). I think it is very, very uncommon for a population to have become so corrupt that they actually choose iniquity. It may happen, but far less than we might be inclined to try to convince ourselves.
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