If Ye Wrest the Scriptures

When Alma taught the people of Ammonihah he warned them in these words: “Behold, the scriptures are before you; if ye will wrest them it shall be to your own destruction” (Alma 13:20). The word wrest means “to twist or turn from the proper course, application, use, meaning, or the like,” so to wrest the scriptures is to use them for evil or in a way contrary to that which was intended by the prophets who wrote them. This was said by Alma to an apostate people who clearly had some experience with the scriptures. For example, Zeezrom knew enough to ask Amulek, “Who is he that shall come? Is it the Son of God?” He further questioned, “Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?” (Alma 11:32, 38) Later when Alma and Amulek were in prison they were mocked with words like these: “After what ye have seen, will ye preach again unto this people, that they shall be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone?... How shall we look when we are damned?” This understanding of spiritual things was clearly twisted, and they did exactly what Alma taught them not to do: they did wrest the scriptures. Perhaps the ultimate way they did wrest the scriptures was in this physical act: “They also brought forth their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be burned and destroyed by fire” (Alma 14:8, 14, 21). Their mistreatment of the holy word—including physical destroying it to try to hide from its consequences—led to exactly what Alma prophesied: their destruction. That came shortly thereafter when the Lamanites attacked and wiped out the whole city.

               We have another example of someone who did wrest the scriptures in the story of Jared and his daughter recorded in Ether 8. Jared was sad because he had lost his kingdom that he had stolen from his father, and so his daughter came up with a plot to get it back. Moroni recorded, “Now the daughter of Jared being exceedingly expert, and seeing the sorrows of her father, thought to devise a plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom unto her father. Now the daughter of Jared was exceedingly fair. And it came to pass that she did talk with her father, and said unto him: Whereby hath my father so much sorrow? Hath he not read the record which our fathers brought across the great deep? Behold, is there not an account concerning them of old, that they by their secret plans did obtain kingdoms and great glory?” (v8-9) We do not know exactly what she read in the scriptures, but whatever story it was she certainly took the wrong message from it! She subsequently got Akish to commit to kill her grandfather in order to have her hand in marriage, and perhaps it was the story of Cain that inspired her because Moroni commented on Akish’s secret combination this way: “And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning” (v15). Omer, on the other hand, understood the scriptures and the promises of the Lord: “And the Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land; wherefore Omer departed out of the land with his family” (Ether 9:3). Despite Akish’s promise, Omer’s life was spared and the rest of society essentially destroyed themselves. This story is a powerful reminder to follow the word of God in the right way and live according to both old and new revelations.