A Study of the Book of Mormon

Alma 9:18-24 Alma continues his primary discourse against the people of Ammonihah, explaining that iniquity should not, nay, cannot be an option amongst any of the people of Nephi, if they should expect to continue living peaceably in the land. Verse 19   reminds me that the people of Ammonihah were actually plotting to overthrow the entire nation of the Nephites. Alma states here that if they were to fall into sin and transgression in the face of so much light and truth, that the Lord would rather send the Lamanites upon them to "utterly" destroy them. The light and knowledge to which Alma points has to do with the people's relationship with God and the root causes of their prosperity, namely, prophecy and revelation, the gifts of the Spirit, and deliverance from bondage of every kind: captivity,  famine, sickness, diseases of every kind and battle. All these are blessings from a merciful God. Considering this, I have to ask myself, why do we when we are the recipients o...

Alma 9:14-17 This set of verses presents a interesting observation on the Lamanites in their ignorance. There is a contrasting here of the people of Ammonihah against the Lamanites. While the cause of the ignorance of the Lamanites was their parents' disobedience, which caused them to suffer a spiritual death (separation from God) as a people, their ignorance also was grounds for tolerance at the day of judgement. We also learn something of the merciful characteristics of the Father in prolonging the days of the Lamanites, though they exist in a state of disbelief, until the time that they would believe and repent. Parenthetically, I find a parallel between the promises extended to the Lamanites and those covenants and promises extended to the House of Israel and the Jewish nation.  Then at the end of this passage of scripture, there is this eternal nugget of truth: "Many of them will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name." (emphasis adde...

Alma 9:7-13 After the people's contest of Alma's authority, he immediately turns around and "boldly testif[ies]" against them. After a very striking accusation of their wickedness, Alma gives the reason for the accusation directed towards them: They had forgotten the traditions of their fathers (which were righteous traditions). They had forgotten to keep the commandments of God.  He then goes on to list five instances of God's kindness and mercy towards their ancestors and specifically towards them as a people. Alma draws a very strong case for God's mercy and long-suffering from their nation's family history. Then in verse 12 , Alma returns to his original theme of repentance and this time with a strong warning of destruction if they did not repent. What's interesting about these words is that if one goes beyond the superficial, these are fundamental statements of profound truth: "Behold, now I say unto you that he commandeth you to repent; and ...

Alma 9:1-6 There is a very interesting pattern that is illustrated in these verses, and sets up the wickedness of this town. In just the first six verses of this chapter, the one thing that these verses illustrate clearly is that the people of Ammonihah do not have a relationship with God. That is the cause of their wickedness. Hand in hand with with their failure to have any sort of relationship with God also comes a lack of knowledge of the truth and that which is true. This is hugely significant because it was on a foundation of error and  antagonism, or even animosity, towards God, that the people of Ammonihah had set themselves up for destruction. The footnote on the question "Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man... ? " ( see vs. 6 ) causes me to see that their questions of disbelief are on par with Cain, king Noah, and the Pharoah of Egypt. That kind of hard-heartedness demonstrates wickedness to its fullest extent. Though not mentioned anywhere in t...

Alma 8:29-32 After many days, the word of the Lord came to Alma: "Go; and also say unto my servant Amulek, go forth and prophesy unto this people, saying—Repent ye, for thus saith the Lord, except ye repent I will visit this people in mine anger; yea, and I will not turn my fierce anger away." In subsequent verses, we learn that Alma and Amulek accomplished this commandment of the Lord through "the spirit and power which the Lord had given them." ( vs 32 ) So it is, that those that go about the work of the Lord when called of the Lord to do so , they are empowered to do it through the influence of the Holy Ghost. In other words, they are endowed with power, or they have power given them. Verse 31 takes pains to explain the evidence of that power, in that they weren't able to be confined or thrown in dungeons, nor could anyone kill them. Now later in the account we learn that Alma and Amulek were thrown into prison (and verse 31 makes reference to this), and...

Alma 8:19-28 On the surface, this is a fairly simple exchange wherein Alma returns to Ammonihah by a different way and is taken in by Amulek. There are a couple of notes on these verses that I find significant. Of Amulek, it was required to exercise the Christ-like virtue of compassion and to feed the hungry. That may seem an insignificant side note given that he had also received direction and inspiration from an angel to entertain Alma, and yet I think this is at the very core of why the angel appeared to Amulek, and not someone else. When Alma returns to Ammonihah, he is hungry. We later learn that Alma had actually been fasting for many days. ( vs. 26 ) Upon petitioning an unknown stranger, Amulek identifies himself to Alma as a Nephite and goes further to say that he knows Alma to be a prophet of God. Near the end of these verses , we learn two notable points in this story: 1) that Alma did not immediately return to the task of preaching the gospel, but spent some time in the hous...

Alma 8:14-18 An angelic communication is received by Alma in these verses. What was the purpose of an angel being sent to Alma? First, it was to bring him comfort. Alma took quite seriously the wickedness of the people of Ammonihah. It weighed him down to the point that he felt "an anguish of soul." (see vs. 14 ) The angel commands Alma to be of good cheer, stating that Alma had been "faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him." Then the angel adds an extra bit of encouragement by saying "Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you." ( vs. 15 ) The second reason the angel was sent to Alma was to command him to return to Ammonihah to declare repentance to the people. There was a very specific reason though that was outside of the scope of just the people of Ammonihah that Alma was being sent to Ammonihah. In verse 17 , the angel explains, "For behold, they do study at this time that they ma...