Influences - Deuteronomy 13

The main concept covered in chapter 13 is pretty standard that we’ve heard before but for some reason spoke to me a little bit more forcefully this time. The concept is that anyone who tried to lead you away from worshipping God should be put to death, even if it is your brother, son, daughter, wife, or best friend. Just saying it like that sounds a little bit weird and it’s not meant to just be like “if you think someone is a bad influence on you then kill them,” that’s obviously not it. This first part is that it doesn’t matter who it is, anyone trying to lead you away from Christ can not, under any circumstances, remain in your life. This is a hard concept because cutting family and friends out of your life is very difficult. And again, this doesn’t mean that if someone you know leaves the church then you cut them out of your life, but it’s about boundaries. In the chapter specifically it says if this person raises themselves up to be a “prophet” or “a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or wonder,” that isn’t someone who just is stepping away from the church or asking questions or decides to believe something else. This is a person who is actively “saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.” Anciently, that’s going to look different than it will for us now, not it’s very important to keep a careful watch on how other people make us feel, does this person help me grow closer to Christ, either through their own strength or through their own journey, or does this person bring me down spiritually. And then enacting boundaries with them, whether that’s just not talking about religion with them, or avoiding certain topics, or just removing them completely. There’s a difference between having a productive conversation with someone who has questions but wants your perspective and someone who just wants to fight about stuff. Even though in the chapter it makes it sound like the person in question is trying to lead others astray, in our lives it might be that noticeable of a purpose, but it also might be more subtle.

As far as that person being killed, it doesn’t’ say it specifically but there are some words that indicate that it’s not just a command to “kill” anyone who anyone else thinks is “leading others astray” because that would get tricky really fast. There will almost always be an organized system established to prove guilt and carry out a death sentence, it won’t be a free for all. Verse 5 says that person “shall be put to death” they are commanded “neither shalt thou conceal him” but also that “you” would be the first to put him to death but then the whole community of people would participate as well. So there was to be a set structure of events that would have to happen before the death sentence was carried out. It wouldn’t be any of this like “honor killing” stuff where individual family members would deem what behavior was acceptable and then kill a family member because they think they violated it, nothing like that. The whole community participating in the execution was the way that all the people signified to God that they were rejecting this false teaching and committing to only worship God.

All this begs the question, especially in how it relates to us, everyone has the right to believe whatever they want to believe, and no one should be punished for believing something different, in fact that’s an article of faith that we have. So why is death prescribed for the person who “believes” differently and tries to teach that to other people in Israel at this time? I got the answer when I was listening to Alma 9:19 -23which says, “for he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God… if this people, who have received so many blessings from the hand of the Lord, should transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they do have, I say unto you that if this be the case, that if they should fall into transgression, it would be far more tolerable for the Lamanites than for them.” What I took from this was that once someone had the light and truth of the gospel, then if they turn against it, they would be so much more of an influence turning other people away from Christ, that it would be better for them to be killed rather than to turn away any others from God. This is anciently of course, not explicitly applicable in our day, people aren’t (and shouldn’t be) killed by the general citizenry for having differing beliefs. But when this was given, right before the Israelites were going to enter the promised land, God deemed it necessary for religious compliance to be enforced by the sword metaphorically speaking. In our own day, this command more looks like ensuring that we keep ourselves surrounded by those who help us grow spiritually, in the various forms that that takes, and limit contact with those who would destroy us spiritually. And sometimes that distinction is only indicated to us by the Spirit.