To All Those Who Have Been Chosen… to Govern

Alma 60

The Spirit of the Lord bids me to consider this passage:

But behold, great has been the slaughter among our people; yea, thousands have fallen by the sword…

Alma 60:5

This is the motivating cause for which Moroni so strongly comes out against the leadership of their government.

But why did I just gloss over it when I first read it? A great slaughter among our people… thousands have fallen by the sword. What is the weight of loss that is described by Alma here?

What is the real value of a soul being slain? What is the value of one soul being saved? Then when we compound that number by 10 or a 10,000, I can’t comprehend one.


New reading: this letter is not exclusively to Pahoran, but ” also to all those who have been chosen by this people to govern and manage the affairs of this war.” (vs. 1) I always looked at this as a letter between Moroni and Pahoran, but he uses the pronoun “ye” throughout; Moroni knew who his audience was.

This falls into the category of “strong reproof with sharpness when moved upon by the Holy Spirit”.

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