A Study of the Book of Mormon

Alma 21:18-23 Now there is a curious thing that transpires in these verses. In returning to the affairs of his own kingdom, Lamoni subsequently establishes the rule of a free people through his land. It is an interesting sequence of events: The king Lamoni and his household is converted to the gospel of Christ. (chapters 18-19) Ammon and Lamoni are confronted by Lamoni's father, king over all the land, which results in Lamoni obtaining full freedom and autonomy to govern over his own kingdom as he pleased. (chapter 20) Lamoni subsequently (in these verses) returns to his own land, and declares freedom for all in his kingdom.  In considering this freedom, a footnote has brought me over to Doctrine and Covenants 134:1-4 , which reads in part: We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience , the right and control of property , and the protection of life ... We believe th...

Alma 21:15-17 What surprises me about this set of verses is that in a sense, nothing had changed. Their external circumstances had not changed. After Aaron and his brethren had been released from prison, they went back to the synogogues of the Amalekites and into any assembly of the Lamanites that would let them come in. The venues did not change. What did change was this: "And they went forth whithersoever they were led by the Spirit of the Lord," ( vs. 16 ). I went back and looked for any reference to the Spirit of the Lord guiding their previous efforts, and there was none. Imprisonment and the subsequent sufferings that resulted seems to have been the humility catalyst needed to prepare this particular set of missionaries for the work that lay ahead of them. Now verse 17 states that: ...the Lord began to bless them, insomuch that they brought many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, they did convince many of their sins , and of the traditions of their fathers, which were...

Alma 21:1-14 At the beginning of the chapter, Aaron and his brethren first arrive at a land named Jerusalem, named by the Lamanites in remembrance of the land from which they came. The Lamanites built this city with the help of those who had dissented from among the Nephites, the Amalekites and the people of Amulon (making the city then probably less than 50 years old at the time that Aaron and his brethren visit it). Now an interesting phenomenon is observed here. For the Lamanites were already of a hard heart, but these other groups which had only recently dissented from the Nephites, were even more hardened in their hearts. I suppose this is because for the Amulonites and the Amalekites, they were this way of their own choice, whereas the Lamanites had inherited their hardheartedness as a tradition from their forefathers. The mixture of the two seems to have had a more damaging effect, causing the Lamanites to be more wicked. (see vs. 3 ) Aaron discovers that in the span of one gene...