By Degrees

Alma 47:
Referencing verses 10-18

The scriptures contain many types and shadows of Christ, and my conviction is that the story of Amalickiah provides us with the opposite – a type and shadow of Satan. Think of the parallels! Amalickiah wanted to be king, he was cast out, and he took his followers with him. Similarly, Satan wanted to “exalt [his] throne above the stars of God (2 Nephi 24:13), was cast out, and took his followers with him. Amalickiah is described as cunning, flattering, and a murderer. Satan is also described as cunning, flattering, and a murderer. Amalickiah poisoned Lehonti “by degrees.” Satan leads us “carefully” or “by degrees” down to hell (2 Nephi 28:21). Amalickiah did “not care for the blood of his people” (Alma 49:10). Satan will “not support his children at the last day (Alma 30:60). Amalickiah succeeded in persuading the king of the Lamanites to attack the Nephites, but a large part of the Lamanite army refused to fight the Nephites. They found refuge on top of the mount Antipas and appointed Lehonti to be their leader. Three different times, Amalickiah invited Lehonti to come down from the mountain. Lehonti refused each time. Eventually, Amalickiah went up, nearly to the camp of Lehonti, and persuaded Lehonti to come down “just a little.” Amalickiah convinced Lehonti that he was not really an enemy, but a friend who only wanted to be second in command. Eventually, Lehonti agreed to Amalickiah’s scheme, and was unknowingly poisoned “by degrees” until he died. As Latter-day Saints, we have gone up to the “mountain of the Lord” and made covenants. Satan continually invites us to come down. We refuse. So he invites us to come down just a little. If we do, we subject ourselves to his power where we will eventually be poisoned by degrees. If we are wounded by a gunshot, or a sword, we know about it! But if we are slowly poisoned, we might not even realize it’s happening. Poison is a perfect metaphor for Satan’s tactics, because a victim of poison may not even realize what’s happening, and may still believe he’s in control up until the moment he dies. The spiritual message is powerful and chilling – Don’t come down from your mountain! Keep your covenants!
Satan wants us to come down so he can poison us by degrees. (It’s interesting to note that Jesus was invited to come down three times from the pinnacle of the temple, but he never did. See Matthew 4:1-11). -John Bytheway


36 Now these dissenters, having the same instruction and the same information of the Nephites, yea, having been instructed in the same knowledge of the Lord, nevertheless, it is strange to relate, not long after their dissensions they became more hardened and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites—drinking in with the traditions of the Lamanites; giving way to indolence, and all manner of lasciviousness; yea, entirely forgetting the Lord their God.


Joseph Smith:
“Strange as it may appear at first thought, yet it is no less strange than true, that…apostates after turning from the faith of Christ, unless they have speedily repented, have sooner or later fallen into the snares of the wicked one, and have been left destitute of the Spirit of God, to manifest their wickedness in the eyes of multitudes…When once that light which was in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 67)