“Ye Are Called of God to Preach”

Brant Gardner

At the end of a very long admonition, Alma tells Corianton that he is called as a missionary! This seems a little unusual. How is it that someone who has been an apostate, and violated the law of chastity, can be a missionary? First, we must expect that this calling will come to Corianton as a result of his repentance process, not before. As far as the apparent contradiction of calling a missionary so recently out of sin, this may be difficult for us to understand, but we must remember that the one who makes the calling is Alma the Younger, a man whose missionary efforts began after his own period of apostasy, and of leading the church astray.

We can certainly understand Alma’s parental pride in the “good” brothers, Helaman and Shiblon, but we must understand the absolute empathy that Alma must have had for Corianton. Corianton had left the Nephite gospel, and led others astray. Alma in his youth had also left the gospel, and fought against the church. From his perspective of a man transformed by the Spirit, he must have not only understood well where Corianton was, and where he could be. Just as Alma preached after the transformation of the Spirit, so will Corianton. When the change of repentance is finished in Corianton’s soul, he (like his father) can be a strong example and an empathetic teacher of those who had fallen to a similar error in their understanding of God.

Textual: The conclusion of the blessing to Corianton concludes the section on Alma’s blessings to his sons, and concludes a chapter in the 1830 edition.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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