(January 20, 2015)
It is
always amazing to me the things that are undercurrents in the Book of Mormon
– the things which color everything but are never explicitly mentioned because
they would just be assumed by their author. The best example is the constant
tension between the people of Zarahemla and the Nephites, but second on that
list has to be the conflict between Laman on one side of the Deuteronomic
Reforms and Lehi/Nephi on the other.
Reading
this chapter, it is clear that Nephi’s goal is to persuade Laman and Lemuel
that they have picked the wrong side. I
think that, if we were to meet Laman and Lemuel in Church on Sunday, we might
be hard pressed to recognize them as apostate rebels. They believed in things that were part of the
culture around them, but by so doing they lost track of the central premises of
the faith. It is all over this chapter,
and countless other points in 1 Nephi.
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