The only important thing is spiritual salvation and being reborn as a creature of Christ. 1. Did the people see that as evidence for his motives? Title of . My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. There is the classic example of Pocahontas who mediated as hostage between Native Americans and European settlers. The influx of many immigrants into the Mulekite land no doubt had a lot to do with the turmoil as well. They feel neglected and look for some other source to teach them as a father ought to teach them, but these other sources poison them. The results seem to speak for themselves as to his motive. 2000 stripling warriors. Work. The Lord’s second revelation to Alma Sr. praised them for their “patience” since the first revelation, apparently because they couldn’t flee out of bondage until Alma’s son was returned. Days 2&3: 3 Ne 19-26 There is both a positive and negative side to deliverance, as the Book of Mosiah earlier explained (Mosiah 2:31 vs. Mosiah 11:23-25), and both must happen. He became leader of the barbarians and traveled around uniting Germany as one, until he was betrayed by a German who did not accept him as leader. Mosiah has Alma the older organize seven churches. To tell the history properly, we should start at the beginning. They fall to the earth. Interestingly, this mirrors what Amulon had done with the Lamanites and seems to deliver a similar cultural boom. Disappearance of Alma the Younger. Third Person Grammar With Alma’s People – The text consistently speaks in third-person when referring to Alma’s people up until the point they flee to Zarahemla. So the hostage tactic succeeded. Alma the Younger repeatedly compared his experience to Moses and the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea (see Alma 29:12-13, 36:28, 33:19). Hostages were often “children of vanquished rulers that were used as pawns” in political arrangements. Alma considered himself a murderer (Alma 36:14) for leading people away in his rebellious stage, and if there was hope for him there surely was hope for the Ammonihahites. The moment of their conversion was when Alma had preached to them and had baptized them in the waters of Mormon. That’s four years before the departure of Alma’s people from Helam, so if Alma the younger was ten when they left Helam, that would make him six when King Benjamin gave his address–indeed, too young to comprehend it. Moroni considered that the prophet Alma could “inquire of the Lord” for insight. Preaches and is imprisoned at Ammoniah with Amulek. The moment he returned, they departed. Perhaps they went around traveling to newly established churches to alter the structure, to make it less independent of the government–which they certainly could have done as princes of the kingdom–and to make it less religious indoctrination. Abinadi and King Noah. Returns to Zarahemla. It suggests that Alma was old enough to talk, pray, and worship. Consider the timeline: There was at least 20 years between Alma’s departure from Helam until Alma the Younger’s experience with the angel. (BOOK OF FIRST NEPHI) LEHI'S FAMILY. Nephi builds a ship. He was able to convince the Lamanite king not just to forgive him for abducting Lamanite women and forcing them into marriage, but he also convinced them to make him ruler over an entire region of his kingdom. He convinced him to revise their entire economy and educate everyone in the kingdom whatever he wanted. He may have already lacked confidence in his father for mildly giving up to the Lamanite army. After they were visited personally by an angel and rebuked for their actions, Alma fell into an unconscious state where for three days and three nights he lay unable to move until he felt within that he had been forgiven of his sins. An angel appears to Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah, telling them to "seek to destroy the church no more" (Mosiah 27:16). There were plenty of times the Nephites were in a pinch and the prophet could have been consulted. In another case, Alma the Younger watched as apostate Nephties threw his recent converts in Ammonihah in a fire to painfully die because they believed in God. In this same chapter, the description of Alma Sr.’s position of leadership is in marked contrast with Amulon’s. His father snatched him from the confines of Amulon, and everyone endured a long period of slavery and pain for the chance for him to do it. Fitting timing, as the text describes him as a “man” at this point. Catalog codes are on the back of the catalog, mail promotion, or within an advertisement. This page was last edited on 29 November 2011, at 20:32. It seems like quite a dramatic shift of character for them to be rebellious one moment and then brave and faithful the next if they weren’t men of strong character beforehand. Jerusalem Ether Brother of Jared Coriantumr 600 B.C. The most horrible thing any missionary could witness. But they were stopped by the angle and quickly realized they were sorely mistaken. According to the Book of Mormon, Alma was a Nephite prophet who established the Church of Jesus Christ in the Americas during the reign of the wicked King Noah. Alma was over it, so there was no need to bring it up again. 145-121 BC Lamanites conquer the people of Alma. This would also explain why King Lamoni was so abrupt in offering him his daughter to marriage. Germany entirely transformed under him and the innovation brought from his Roman education. A Manchurian candidate? And Alma and his people departed into the wilderness; and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley, and they called the valley Alma.”. That’s what would have happened to Alma if his father hadn’t snatched him away. The Lord answered the faithful prayers of his people and Alma's father, and Alma was visited by an angel of the Lord who asked him “Why persecutest thou the church of God” (Mosiah 27:13)? They realized the liberal new structure of church and state was good and that the Lamanites were not to be feared. These martyred saints would receive paradise, so there was no need to save them from temporal death. Amulon taught written communication and revolutionized trade among the Lamanites, and a culture of corporate plunder. Alma the Younger in his preaching says when Alma’s people had been delivered from Noah they were spiritually “born of God.” It recalls what Alma the Younger told everybody immediately after waking up from his comatose state: ”. Search popularity. But then Amulon’s actions in response are described in detail: Next, the Lord’s revelation to Alma in response to the prayers is written as a word-for-word prophetic message directly from the Lord. Part II focuses on the First Vision, touches on the four first-hand accounts. His father saved him from spiritual and physical death. Alma preaches and sets the Church in order at Zarahemla and at Gideon. Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah thenceforward seek to build up the church. The period of time is likely when Alma the Younger reunited with his father Alma. Al ma the Younger would have realized with great shock what Amulon had done enslaving and persecuting them and what he had made young Alma do to his own kindred. Amulon and his lackeys are foremost described as “teachers over his people, yea, even over the people who were in the land of Shemlon, and in the land of Shilom, and in the land of Amulon.” Educators? “And in the morning the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon the Lamanites, yea, and all their task-masters were in a profound sleep. The sons of Mosiah carried Alma immediately to his father when they found him comatose, and this would seem unlikely if they were greatly estranged. The Lamanites were to be ministered to, and that’s the task they took upon themselves to do. And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. The persecution that Alma and his followers caused weighed on the church so much so that “the church began to murmur and complain...”. The text says: “Amulon began to exercise authority over Alma and his brethren and began to persecute him.” If he were alive and living with his father Alma, we would expect him to say it differently: “Alma began to be persecuted and subservient to Amulon.” We would expect it to be told from the point of view of Alma’s side. Amulon would certainly have no problem indoctrinating young Alma into hating and persecuting Christians. Along with that, the murderous Nephites were condemning themselves to the lowest hell, and that is the other side of God’s justice which we must allow for. Why don’t other wicked men get an angelic visitation? Awake From Deep Sleep – Alma the Younger experienced this “deep sleep” as well because he identified with Amulon, and then he was taken away and re-united with his father and away from Amulon’s influence. How could people be sure his true motive for rebelling against Egypt? But it is curious that there is more description of Amulon than of Alma. Helaman. If he had been a hardened man it would have made him even worse. Leads Nephite army against Amlici's rebellion. Keep in mind that Amulon was leader of Noah’s priests and very effective at leadership. Alma appointed “just” men through consecration to leadership, while Amulon appointed wicked men who loved to plunder. This remarkable display of love from his father and the entire community led Alma the Younger to remember his father’s words about Christ the Savior (v. 36), and to understand that Christ never gave up on him either. Alma the Younger, after whom the Book of Almawas named, was the son of a prophet of the same name in the Book of Mormon. This moment of deliverance was a major theme in Alma’s preaching. Alma the Younger became well acquainted with the sons of Mosiah in a short amount of time, and considering how closely Alma Sr. worked with Mosiah to reform the government and establish churches, it sounds like Alma the Younger was with him most of the time. 25 6 124 BC King Benjamin addressed his people. Alma Sr. no doubt observed this and applied it to a religious structure of education, resulting in a religious revival. Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames. Young Alma would have had a front row seat to the education and that would have made him a prime candidate for chief judge later in life. Later, when recounting the deliverance of Alma’s people from Amulon in his sermon to the people, Alma the Younger used the same third-person grammar when referring to them, but it switched to “us” as soon as they were about to flee to Zarahemla: And behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness; yea, I say unto you, they were in captivity, and again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word; and we were brought into this land, and here we began to establish the church of God throughout this land also.”. The 63 chapters in Alma cover only 39 years (91 BC – 51 BC) The last 63 chapters we’ve studied (2 Nephi 10-Mosiah 29) covered 459 years. There is nothing that explicitly says what happened–and this is admittedly far-fetched–but what if he was a child hostage? Alma the younger and Amulek preach and are abused at the city of Ammonihah. He did not need to be the saving hero, and he did not need to fight to extinguish evil, as Christ the true hero achieves these things. To me, the flow and consistent style of the book of Mosiah, and how it effortlessly transitions into the book of Alma, suggests same authors, and Alma is clearly authored by Alma the Younger. Aztecs took hostages for human sacrifice, while other Native tribes used them to make smaller tribes subservient, exactly as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Greeks did: Such may have been the case with Alma’s people, after they fled from Noah and were enslaved by the Lamanites.