Talk:Alma 29:6-10

I'm changing the wording in the exegesis Matthew posted, from "what he knew he was asked to do" to "what he knew he was called to do" for the following reason: I think "ask" makes it sound too much like Alma's sin was simply desiring to do something he wasn't directly commanded to do. But D&C 58:26-29 suggests that this wouldn't be a sin (esp. v. 26 & v. 29: "it is not meet that I should command in all things . . . he that doeth not anything until he is commanded . . . . the same is damned"). I think the wording of v. 6 is important in this respect, "[W]hy should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?" I think call has a much broader connotation in the scriptures than command or ask, and that this connotation is important in understanding Alma's sin. Alma's calling isn't explicitly given here (is it given more explicitly elsewhere?), but presumably it's something to the effect of proclaiming the gospel as a mortal. It seems that Alma's sin is in aspiring to something more, or at least different, than this.

As a counter-argument, v. 9 seems to use the term commanded as parallel/synonymous to called in v. 6.... --RobertC 13:26, 25 Sep 2005 (UTC)