Priestcraft

Today I moved into the book of Alma by reading Alma 1. In this chapter Nehor starts spreading priestcraft, kills Gideon and is put to death. Alma mentions in this chapter that if priestcraft were to spread to his people it would bring about their entire destruction. And he's right!

Priestcraft does eventually bring about the destruction of the Nephites. But to understand that you have to understand what priestcraft is. Priestcraft is the teaching of doctrine for the sake of money, especially false doctrines. We see this a lot in today's world.

The problem with priestcraft is the desire, the reason for doing the preaching is not pure. You are doing it for money and not out of concern for the well being of the person in question. What's worse, if you get caught in the trap of taking money for preaching, you may find yourself only preaching what those paying you wish, and the doctrine can change to suit the needs of the people being preached to.

The doctrine should never change to meet the needs of the people, the people should change to meet the demands of the doctrine. The true doctrine of Christ is necessary for salvation and understanding the nature of God so we can grow to be like him. Just like all of us, God is bound by laws and He is unable to change those immutable laws anymore than a human can fly without assistance. That is the danger in changing doctrine and why if someone teaches false doctrine I believe that God will hold that person responsible for the salvation of those who might have been saved if not for them.

This one man, Nehor, actually set events in motion which would eventually lead to the downfall of the Nephite civilization. It really is amazing the power one single person can have. Just think how history would change if certain people had not been born or present for certain events. Where would the United States be today if George Washington had not been born? Where would the world be if Winston Churchhill had not bee born? What if Albert Einstein had died as an infant? We can of course never know the answer to these questions but all would agree that these 3 men I just named helped change the course of history for the entire world. So too can one man change the world for the worse, Adolf Hitler immediately comes to mind.

May we all choose to be agents for good in this life and choose to follow the path our Heavenly Father desires for us to follow. May we be that one person who changes our immediate world for the better, or maybe even affects the entire world for the better. Until tomorrow.