Mini-episode for May 11-17

Listen at:
Podbean: https://thesaviorsaid.podbean.com/
Spotify: http://ow.ly/Zpg650uuNjg
iTunes: http://ow.ly/RGeQ50uuNjb
Stitcher: http://ow.ly/H4Lu50uuNja

In case you haven't heard by now, I skipped this week's episode because I was struggling amidst some negative feedback. A big THANK YOU to all those who rallied around me. I love you! 

But I couldn't skip the assignment because one verse from this week wouldn't let me go! So I had to do a mini-episode to get it out of my system. This week I was fixated on Mosiah 21:33 where it says, “And it came to pass that king Limhi and many of his people were desirous to be baptized; but there was none in the land that had authority from God. And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant.” How was he unworthy???

That thought led me on so many rabbit trails. From how the Book of Mormon is translated (and how our culture impacts our reading) to what does unworthy really mean (maybe he just didn't have the Priesthood?) to how we sometimes let self doubt talk us into feeling "unworthy" when we really ARE worthy.

And yes, that IS Thor's hammer on the episode cover. My fellow comic book nerds will get why Mjolnir is on the cover of an episode about worthiness 😂

Technical note: I noticed in this recording I was talking REALLY fast. So I used some technology to slooooow it down. Hopefully that helps!

From an email I recently sent to my dad (that kind of sums up what I was thinking):

I’m reading in Mosiah where we have the two parallel stories of Limhi and Alma’s people. In Alma’s story in Mosiah 18:13 it says, “And when he had said these words, the aSpirit of the Lord was upon him, and he said: Helam, I baptize thee, having bauthority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a ccovenant to serve him until you are dead as to the mortal body; and may the Spirit of the Lord be poured out upon you; and may he grant unto you eternal life, through the redemption of Christ, whom he has prepared from the dfoundation of the world.”

So Alma obviously had the priesthood authority to baptize his people.

But then we get to Limhi’s people and they ask Ammon to baptize them, but he refuses in Mosiah 21:33 where it says, “And it came to pass that king Limhi and many of his people were desirous to be baptized; but there was none in the land that had aauthority from God. And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant.”

So I can think of 3 reasons why Ammon wouldn’t baptize Limhi’s people and consider himself an unworthy servant:

1. He truly didn’t have the priesthood authority

2. He did have the priesthood authority, but was not given direction from his priesthood leader (like if a missionary just started baptizing people on a whim instead of waiting for instruction from a presiding leader)

3. He was personally unworthy.

4. He WAS worthy, but was full of self doubt.

Most of the modern day analysis on the scriptures tend to side with #3, that he was personally “unworthy” in some way. I think we get stuck on that word though and maybe we need to see past it. Because he wasn’t alone, right? There were 3 other guys there with him, Amaleki, Helem, and Hem. So if Ammon was personally unworthy, why couldn’t one of them do it?

I’m leaning kind of towards #1/#2. After all, Ammon and the other guys weren’t sent on a missionary quest, they were sent on a find and retrieve quest. Mosiah wouldn’t have any logical reason to send people with the authority to baptize and tell them, “hey, you have the authority to baptize the people you find” because they would be looking for a city of Nephities who should have had the proper authority and priesthood structure already in place. So maybe Ammon was waiting till Limhi & Co can get back to Zarahemla?

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The article about the Book of Mormon Translation:
Is the Book of Mormon a literal translation from the plates?

https://www.deseret.com/2016/8/18/20594217/