“It Must Needs Be”

Authors

Eric Dahlin

Keywords

opposition, Book of Mormon

Abstract

After speaking to his son Jacob about Jesus Christ’s redemption of mankind, the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi declares, “It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Ne. 2:11). We often use the word opposition colloquially to explain the difficulties or challenges that we or others encounter. When others experience troubling times, we frequently, as well-intentioned members of the Church, remind them of this sentiment. Our aim is to provide solace for the one who is suffering by pointing out that facing opposition is a common feature of life (even if normalizing the suffering may inadvertently minimize, as the Jewish scholar Rachel Adler puts it, the “agony and grief [of the sufferer] in all their unendurable concreteness”).

Recommended Citation

Dahlin, Eric (2023) "“It Must Needs Be”," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 62: Iss. 4, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol62/iss4/3