To Look Up Boldly

One of the arguments that Korihor made against the church was that the people were forced to hold down their heads under the commandments and ordinances of the gospel.  He said, “I do not teach this people to bind themselves down under the foolish ordinances and performances which are laid down by ancient priests, to usurp power and authority over them, to keep them in ignorance, that they may not lift up their heads, but be brought down according to thy words.”  In his mind, the people were yoked with the law of Moses and commandments of the Lord and therefore they could not lift up their heads in happiness.  He emphasized this again saying, “Ye keep them down, even as it were in bondage, that ye may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands, that they durst not look up with boldness, and that they durst not enjoy their rights and privileges” (Alma 30:23,27).  He seems to have equated the principles of repentance and obedience and humility with bondage. 

For Korihor to “look up” meant to be free to boldly do whatever one wanted for “whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:30).  What he did not understand was that the laws of justice require punishment for sin, something that cannot be changed even by God.  Though he could “look up” for a time enjoying the carnal pleasures of life, without repentance eventually like the Psalmist he would be forced to say at some point, “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up” (Psalm 40:12).  His desire to “look up” in mortality and take no consequence for his actions would eventually lead him to “shrink with awful fear” in the day of judgment when “justice shall be administered” to all (2 Nephi 9:46).  At that day Korihor will “not dare to look up to [his] God; and [he] would fain be glad if [he] could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon [him] to hide [him] from his presence” (Alma 12:14).  To look up boldly as Korihor supposed is not to do whatever one pleases; it is rather to be cleansed from all sin through Jesus Christ so that we can endure in joy the presence of God. 

                In the gospel we learn that we indeed to want to “look up” to God, and to do so with confidence we must become cleansed from sin.  Alma taught that we should seek to “look up to God… with a pure heart and clean hands,” and then we will “look up” with “the image of God engraven upon [our] countenances” (Alma 5:19).  The Psalmist wrote of his desire to look to God: “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3).  In the New Testament the Savior taught that we should await His return and one day we shall “look up, and lift up your heads” and we shall see that “redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).  To look up we must look to the Savior—it is through Him that we can have joy and rejoicing, not in our own strength as Korihor supposed.  The scriptures invite us to “look to God and live” and to “look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit” that we “might live, even unto that life which is eternal” (Alma 37:47, Helaman 8:15).  To truly look up boldly we must “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy” through the Savior, and then we can “look unto God with firmness of mind” knowing that He has redeemed and purified us (Hebrews 4:16, Jacob 3:1).