Recently someone asked me what I thought this verse meant:<\/p>\n
And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage. (Alma 24:16). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’ll tell you all what my answer was and you can tell me if you agree or not. <\/p>\n
Alma 24<\/a> has all sorts of references to the voice of the Lord speaking to Alma and his people. The specific question I was asked was what form I thought that voice came in. Was it in the form of some audible voice or was it the still small voice we talk about today? Well, it depends on what you mean when you say audible. If you mean that if a tape recorder was present it would record the voice I suspect that almost never happens. If you mean that a voice or message can come to a person’s mind so clearly that it is as if <\/em>the voice was audible I believe that is much more common. The latter is largely a function of the strength of spiritual ears<\/a> of the recipient.<\/p>\n
Consider the instructions God gave to Joseph and Oliver at the beginning of this dispensation:<\/p>\n
2 Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.
\n3 Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. (D&C 8:2-3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo that’s<\/em> how Moses parted the Red Sea — by listening to the voice of the Lord in his mind and in his heart. And that is what I think it means when we read about the voice of the Lord speaking in the Book of Mormon. <\/p>\n
Now listening to God in our minds and hearts doesn’t sound too hard does it? Plus we can get better and better at it<\/a> over time. If that is the case, maybe all of us with the Gift of the Holy Ghost could be like little prophets, seers, and revelators<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Book of Mormon, more than our other scriptures, is full of narratives where the voice of the Lord gives people instructions. As I mentioned, I suspect that cases where the voice was physically audible are very rare. (I have also been discussing this with Jeffrey Giliam recently at his blog<\/a>). The cases where there were obvious physical aspects to a revelation are often when the recipient is past feeling<\/a> so God had to resort to such physical methods to get their attention. (The appearance of the resurrected Lord to the people in 3 Nephi is a notable exception to this pattern though.) <\/p>\n
So what do you think? Do you believe there were a lot more physical revelations in the scriptures than I am allowing for? Do you think a physically audible voice of God actually spoke with some or all those folks in scripture? If so, was God a tenor or a bass?
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