A Study of the Book of Mormon

Alma 24:1-4 As I reviewed verses 1 and 2 , the thought came into my head that these people (the Amulonites and Amalekites) were deliberately in opposition to whoever had a belief in God. Now that the Lamanites had converted to God and though these former Nephites had tried to escape this influence by moving among the Lamanites, the opposition had come again into their own country. In my Sunday School classes yesterday, we were having a discussion on faith, hope, and charity. Our instructor made an interesting observation about the adversary's counterfeits: fear, despair, and anger. I mention this here because this is what is motivating these former Nephites to take action against the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi. "...[they] were stirred up by the Amalekites and by the Amulonites to anger against their brethren. "And their hatred became exceedingly sore against them, even insomuch that they began to rebel..."  Fear can be a powerful motivator, and has been for much of th...

Alma 23:7-18 We read in verse 7 : For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren. Symbols of conversion to Christ included a name change and they become a "very industrious people." It is a few mornings after the first day that I have read this group of verses. I am now sufficiently humbled to hear the word of the Lord. (How many times has this pattern been repeated? I come to a seemingly clerical set of verses - a set of verses that appear to only be there for housekeeping reasons, or to connect the story lines from one point to another. But time and time again, nothing is in this Book of Mormon without deliberate purpose. Such is this passage.) So we have here a list of the seven lands that were converted to the Lord. The list may seem like just a list of names at first. But do we ever regard converts to the Lord with such superficial, trivial attenti...