The Anti-Christ
In my religion class this past week we talked about a few different Anti-Christs (people who openly rejected and preached against Christ) from the Book of Mormon. We discussed a couple methods that they tried to lead people away from their faith. One method was flattering words. Nehor, in the Book of Mormon, taught the people that all men should have eternal life and be saved simple because God had created them. He also taught that priests and church leaders shouldn’t have to work with their hands, but they should be paid for their preaching (Alma 1). We know through the scriptures that this isn’t the way the Lord has set up his gospel. The Lord doesn’t want his leaders to be paid. Christs apostles were never paid for being apostles. In this case, Nehor was an Anti-Christ because he was teaching something to the people that wasn’t the doctrine of the true and everlasting gospel. He used flattering words to appeal to the people making them believe they no longer had to follow the teachings of the gospel because all mankind would be saved. It was further evidenced that Nehor is an Anti-Christ when he murders Gideon. Someone who is preaching the gospel of Christ wouldn’t openly disobey the truths of the gospel. Time Magazine had an article titled “Infidelity: It may be in our genes.” For the purpose of my religion class, we were not asked to read the article, but rather infer what it would say and relate that to the teachings of the Anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon. I would think that this article tells that because infidelity is so common in our culture, then it is in our genetic make up and we can’t help ourselves from practicing infidelity. We believe quite firmly that the Lord delights in our chastity. God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and one of them was “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). We can see a similarity between the title of this article and the tactics of Nehor in the Book of Mormon. Because of the flattering words that all man is saved and will receive eternal life no matter what we do or believe that Nehor used, and the title of the article implying that we can’t change the fact that infidelity is built into us show that it doesn’t matter if we cheat on our spouse, it will be fine in the last day because everyone will be saved. However, I testify with the scriptures that that is not true. That is a doctrine of the devil using flattery to trick us to believe that it is, in fact, a doctrine of God. Sometimes Satan uses very untrue doctrines that we all know are false, but other times he makes it vary close to what we believe and it tricks very faithful people. That is his design; to trick us to believe his doctrines and lead us to be miserable because he is miserable. There are ways that we can combat the doctrines that the Anti-Christs teach. Alma testified strongly what the true doctrine was and what was wrong with Nehor’s teaching. To follow Alma’s example, I will share my testimony of this topic. I testify that if we each pray about doctrines that are presented to us and ask our Father, even God if they are true, he will answer are prayers and teach us what is true. I further testify that the acceptance of infidelity is a doctrine of the devil, set forth to trick us to believe that God doesn’t care about that commandment anymore. I testify that God lives and delights in us keeping the commandments he has set forth and will pour out blessings on us as we receive his true doctrine.