Iron Rod vs. Liahona: The Case of Nephi

Regarding the comments received on a recent post by Ronan, I am somewhat disturbed. Certainly, in a perfect world, there is never any contradiction between what the commandments command us and what we are inspired to do. But there are cases where the right choice simply did not fall within these parameters. The most obvious example is the moral quandary of Nephi in 1st Nephi 4. He is a case where a righteous man is receiving an inspired command to do something that appears to directly contradict the commandments he has received prior. What do you do when God tells you to kill someone? It is interesting that Nephi, of all people, tries to argue with God here. He doesn't want to do it. He has to work it out between himself and God (eventually drawing on other commandments that he had received) in order to justify his killing of Laban. Perhaps it is the fact that Nephi had doubts and overcame them that make him a prophetic hero here. Certainly, he did not blindly go where the Spirit told him to go. But it does seem that people can, on rare occasion, be given commandments by inspiration that contradict their understanding of previous commandments. How to handle that type of situation is a trial I would just as soon not face.