A Study of the Book of Mormon

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...

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...

Alma 19:12-13 At the appointed time, king Lamoni awakens from his deep sleep, and there is his wife, the queen, waiting for him. The first words out of his mouth are these: "Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou." The first part of this statement makes sense. King Lamoni had just received a powerful witness of the reality of God, but he then gives the same blessing to his wife. Why? I am reminded of the statement of Nephi's brother Jacob, "Behold, the Lamanites your brethren... their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children... and one day they shall become a blessed people." ( Jacob 3:5-7 ) King Lamoni goes on to testify that he had seen his Redeemer, and then emphasis three points: "and he shall come forth," "and be born of a woman," "and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name." ( vs. 13 ) These are curious points of testimony for ...

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...