Mosiah 15: Abinadi's Soapbox, Part IV

Abinadi continues his self-righteous rambling in the court of the wicked King Noah:


Wait, God is WHAT Now?
Here is what we can learn about the nature of God from the first few verses of this chapter:

• God himself will redeem his people—meaning that God is Jesus (verse 1)
• Because he will have a body, he will be called the Son of God (verse 2)
• Because he was conceived by the power of God, he will be called the Father (verse 3)
• He is both the Father and the Son (verse 3)
• The Father and the Son are one God (verse 4)

This is idiotic.  Can Abinadi, a prophet of the Lord, be any more vague?  I'm still not sure if he's talking about two separate beings that are part of the same godhead or if he's talking about one being that has two separate roles. This is scripture?  This is the word of the Lord?

I find it very difficult to believe that an infinitely intelligent god would be unable to find a better way to communicate the details of his identity to his people.  Because this description is useless.  

Maybe we're the first world that our God created.  Maybe we're kind of a rough draft or a trial run.  I'm sure the next world he creates will have more of the kinks ironed out.

Abinadi Teaches Random Stuff...oh, and Repentance
God has sent Abinadi into this sinful society because they need to repent.  But when Abinadi gets in front of the highest government officials, what does he talk about?  He spent the last chapter quoting Isaiah's prophecies of Christ.  In this chapter, he babbles about what God is, enthuses about the awesomeness of Jesus's suffering and intercession, discusses the eventual resurrections in the millennium, delineates who is and who is not of Christ's "seed," and quotes some more Isaiah.

Where's the calling to repentance?

I think I may have found it—Abinadi briefly threatens his audience in verse 26:

But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection.

...and shortly thereafter, we're back to Isaiah.  So much for crying repentance unto the people.


Troll Level:  Maximum
In verse 16, Abinadi says:

And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!

Sound familiar?  Probably because of what the priest asked Abinadi in chapter 12, starting at verse 20:

And it came to pass that one of them [the priests] said unto him [Abinadi]:  What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth; 

So Abinadi is asked a direct scriptural question, which, in his role as a prophet, he completely ignores.  Then, three chapters later, having still not answered the question, he makes a reference to it like it makes perfect sense and proceeds to offer no explanation.

What a dick.

Especially considering that he also quotes the rest of the question in the last three verses of the chapter ("Thy watchmen shall..." "Break forth into joy..." and "The Lord hath made bare...").  What exactly does the Lord's mouthpiece accomplish by trolling his audience?