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In rereading the story something stood out to me this time. Here’s the brief recap, taking the story at face value. Korihor is deceived by the devil, who appeared to Korihor in the form of an angel. The “angel” tells Korihor:
Call the people unto repentance – they are worshiping an unknown god.
- There is no god – and I get a chuckle out of that one. An angel shows up, says “Yeah, turns out there’s no god.” “Oh really….
angel.” :think: Korihor goes on to say (excuse me write) that his belief in his experience with the “angel” was bolstered when he saw that spreading the angel’s message was bearing fruit – at least by his reckoning.
Outside the “there is no god” thing there’s really nothing in his experience that is all that different from a true prophet of god. He was called to preach a message that went against the established grain of society. He may have had some initial reservations to overcome but decided to be obedient to the messenger. He would later find some traction within a minority group. That sounds very familiar.
Jumping ahead, we know the rest of the story. He seeks for a sign and his sign is that he is struck dumb. There’s certainly a case for giving Korihor the benefit of the doubt. Wasn’t he just acting on good faith based on
hisinteraction with an otherworldly being? He later becomes a beggar and is trampled to death by the Zoramites. Alma 30:60 wrote:And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.
The Zoramites were the ones that killed him but they weren’t exactly close to god at that time, my focus was more on the Nephites and how they reacted. The Nephite society was more in harmony with gospel teachings but they didn’t appear to do much to help Korihor in his circumstances. He was made a pariah and was reduced to begging among the Nephites. The Nephites may have gotten away with a tremendous chest thump, the claim could have just as easily been “and thus we see that the people of god will not support a wayward soul at the last day, but doth speedily push them down to hell.”
The guy appeared to be in the throes of repentance but he ended up being an outcast. Sad story.
I don’t have a question associated with this and I certainly have my theories as to what doctrines contributed to the story of Korihor and whether they were applied correctly. The intent for me was to perhaps bring this sort of thing up in our SS lessons about Korihor. What’s worse, showing a little mercy and charity toward the people that we don’t agree with or driving them out of our society to be trampled under foot by the world?
I’ve often said that scriptural stories are fascinating if we only would dig in and really think about them – instead of just glossing over them and focusing on the standard, traditional morals of the stories. What you describe about the Korihor story is a great example of that. I LOVE the takeaway that his death is an example of great evil committed by a hardened people. Another one is the account of Nehor and Amlici. I wrote a post in June about that, if you are interested:
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I Actually Sympathize with Nehor and Amlici a Little: or, Not Everything Is as Simple as We Think” ( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-actually-sympathize-with-nehor-and.html This doesn’t really go along with the main idea of your post, but Korihor’s story actually contributed to my faith crisis. I was in the middle of trying to figure out which of my beliefs, if any, were my own rather than inherited uncritically from my culture, and whether I had ever felt the Spirit, when I read the Korihor story. He talks about the people’s beliefs being the product of a “frenzied mind” (I think that’s the term), and I thought YES—not that believers are necessarily psychotic or delusional, but when you consider confirmation bias and how often we act mindlessly (not like zombies, but with a lack of mindfulness), it often seems to me that belief in God, the supernatural, and unprovable things are constructed purely inside our minds rather than received as direct knowledge from God through the Spirit. There are some things that don’t fit with that view, and I’m not really convinced either way, but I really sympathized with some of Korihor’s ideas. My family and friends would be horrified! The story of Korihor itself didn’t contribute but I did recognize that it had implications on my faith crisis for the same reasons as Daeruin. I certainly was open to the idea that I had been deceived and I am still not usually sure if it’s the Spirit, my own emotions, or something else. I always felt that both Korihor and Nehor got a bum rap. Korihor though is a bit nonsensical to me because of the angel / no God thing. Also because he’s struck dumb, but the judge has to write to him. Dumb, not deaf. That seemed like an inconsistency to me.
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