Day 76: Alma 46-47

Let us consider Amalickiah as Satan and Lehonti as a member of the church like you or me. We are prepared for battle on a high mountain; standing in a holy place. We know the enemy is coming and are ready for him.

Amalickiah sends his secret embassy to tempt you to lower your standards and come all the way down the mountain. Standing on high ground, you of course refuse. You would never do something that stupid. Yet, Amalickiah persists. Like Satan, he tempts you a second and a third time. Wisely, you decline his offer. Just as your confidence waxes strong, Amalickiah tries one more time. This time, he doesn’t ask for any great thing. Rather, he has come almost all the way up to your camp—pretending to be completely harmless. He guarantees your safety if you just leave your comfort zone for a moment. “Bring your guards!” he says, coaxing you into his lair. You don’t have to come all the way down the mountain, just a short distance. This is the moment of decision for Lehonti. He is completely safe with his armies on top of mount Antipas.

Satan wants us to descend just a little, to make a little compromise, to travel to the edge, to push the limits. Does it matter that we have three times rejected the temptation? Are we really safe because "Amalickiah" presents no immediate threat?

Finally, Amalickiah offers Lehonti something he can’t refuse. He gets power, authority, and strength for nothing. Too good to be true! A temptation wrapped in tinsel. It looks great on the surface but danger and destruction lie in wait. Lehonti falls into the trap like a fly on flypaper. Having made just a small compromise, he left himself open for a large temptation. “It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing… Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 48)

“Those who become followers of the evil one do not generally reach their captive state with one misdeed; they lose their freedom one sin at a time—one error after another—until almost all is lost. Flaxen cords are transformed into awful chains of steel as they allow themselves to follow the downward course. Each easy step away from the line of goodness and truth makes it more and more difficult to recover.” (Elder Carlos E. Asay, In the Lord's Service: A Guide to Spiritual Development [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1990], 74.)