Alma 24

(April 5, 2010)
I have always emotionally had a problem with this chapter, even though I could intellectually wrap my head around it.  After all, aren’t they abandoning their wives and children to their aggressors?  What about their righteous posterity?  The children they would have had, but will now go down to mortal life among those who do not believe?  It seems to me that there are problems here.

But this time, I realized that I was doing just what the speaker yesterday warned of – applying material judgment on a spiritual matter.  Yes, I can logically make the argument that even accepting the assumption that the Gospel is true (which, of course, I do) that it would still be better for the individual and the collective for them to defend themselves.  But that would be applying material judgment.  Using only spiritual judgment, the question was what would the Lord have us do?