It’s true, sometimes it just comes down to it, just do it. I know I have waffled about many things in my life, but really, spiritually (and in other ways)just “doing it” is what is needed to be done.

if you believe …

This is really a contract.
If you believe then just do these things.
If you don’t believe, well …
Hmmm…
Bad things will happen to you.
Sounds a bit like coercion.

There’s also the fact that the audience was not really given a choice of whether or not they could believe, since in the verse preceding king Ben has said,” Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things …”

Later he goes on to say,”But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, … ye must perish.”

Not much room for the skeptic really.

Will they? After all, bad things happen to good people all the time. More specifically, bad things happen to believers all the time.

Can we say unequivocally that unbelievers will be punished? Perhaps those who fight against the Church, but all unbelievers across the board?

Believe, and ‘just do it’ or else you’ll perish.

That’s pretty unequivocal.

Sort of like members of the Church today.

If’s are one of the great things about life. If’s remind us we have a choice. Their is no force or bullying. You are the captain of your destiny…for better or for worse. Choice does not assume that a few wrong turns will doom you. It is a scripture inviting the sinner as well as the saint.