“As Though He Had Authority”

Brant Gardner

Rhetorical: Zeezrom now springs the trap. It consists of two admissions by Amulek that Zeezrom considers to be sufficiently contradictory to what the people believe that they will agree that Amulek should be detained.

The first of these is to contrast the belief in one God with Amulek's admission that there is a Son of God. Although Zeezrom does not explain his reasoning here, it is easy to read between the lines, particularly as he picks up this line of reasoning in verse 38. Zeezrom is saying that while Amulek believes in one God, he nevertheless believes in two Gods because he believes in a Son of God, and therefore must believe in a Father for that Son. Thus there would be two Gods, and Amulek has lied.

The second accusation is that Amulek has like about the mission of the Atoning Messiah. Amulek claims that the Son of God is the "coming one" and yet he is not coming to save us in our sins. Zeezrom claims this a another contradiction in Amulek's logic, an Atoning Messiah who doesn't atone.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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