Independently Inspired

 I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this evening. As we were reading Alma 61, I noticed that Pahoran, the chief governor of the land of the Nephites, twice used phrases related to "stand[ing] fast in that liberty in the which God hath made us free." That phrase sounded familiar, so I looked back and saw that Helaman said that the 2000 stripling warriors were known to " stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free."

I wondered where those two had gotten that phrase, so I looked by farther and found that (as far as I can tell) the first instance of that phrase in the Book of Mormon came from Alma the Elder, who was Helaman's grandfather and also the man who passed the leadership of the Nephites down to Nephihah who felt it to Pahoran. It's possible that both Helaman and Pahoran got the phrase from Alma the Elder.

However, it's worth noting that a similar phrase is found in Galations, written by Paul: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," (Galatians 5:1). Sine Paul and the Nephites weren't in contact with each other, I must conclude that the phrase was inspired independently in at least two people, who then shared the message with everyone else, mostly through letters to either the Galatians or to Captain Moroni.

You know a message is important when God inspires multiple people with that message, with the intention of sharing it. I plan to dig into this phrase and its meanings tomorrow, but for tonight, I just wanted to point that the phrase was inspired independently in both Paul and Alma the Elder and that it spread out to the Galatians and to the Nepthites from there. I thought that was interesting. I hope you will too.