Category: Book of Mormon

It’s the evening of the 4th of July so the holiday is almost over but I have to write about Alma. As I studied Alma this year I noticed, more than before, that the long war between the Nephites and Lamanites teaches us the importance of liberty and freedom. In Alma 46:12-13 Moroni makes and raises the Title of Liberty. While Amalickiah was rallying his troops with flattering words Moroni was rallying his troops with a reminder of what the Nephites need to fight for and one of those things was freedom. There are so many verses about liberty and freedom I could go on forever. I will cite one more verse because this one caught my attention more than the others; that is Alma 61:15.

Therefore come unto me speedily with a few of your men and leave the remainder in the charge of Lehi and Teancum; give unto them power to conduct the war in that part of the land according to the Spirit of God which is also the Spirit of freedom which is in them.

I never caught this before that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of freedom and that the Spirit of freedom is in us. We are also taught many of the schemes of Amalickiah in getting both Lamanites and dissident Nephites to join them in his fight to destroy the Nephites and subject them to himself.

This got me thinking. Didn’t we fight for freedom in the pre-existence? Didn’t Lucifer fight to subject us to him in the pre-existence? He continues to fight to subject us to him, he’s been fighting the same battle all this time. The saying ‘freedom isn’t free’ is no joke. We must always fight for our freedom from the devil. Pahoran told Moroni something else I like in Alma 61:14.

Therefore my beloved brother, Moroni, let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church, and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God.

The anti-Christs all used the same tool which is flattery. Amalickiah flattered the lesser judges with promises of governorship in exchange for their support. Korihor flattered people with teachings that were pleasing to the carnally minded. All the evil guys use flattery. I’ve always wondered how to combat flattery when it is so appealing. The plain truth never seems to be appealing yet here in verse 14 we learn that we must resist evil with our words which are words of truth. We may never have to fight evil with weapons but we have to fight with our words. We did it in the pre-existence, where we had no weapons, and we must continue here on earth or risk becoming subject to the devil. Then in the end we can say we fought the good fight and defended the faith. Happy 4th of July, Happy Independence Day!!!

I was reading the arguments and reasoning of Korihor in Alma 30:23-28. In verse 53 he confesses that his arguments, which came from the devil disguised as an angel, were pleasing to the carnal mind. That’s why he had success. And when you look at what he taught it’s the same old same old stuff that people argue today. Some people never learn. But his arguments are really slick. If I were carnally minded I would believe him, too.

1. Foolish ordinances and performances are meant to usurp power over the people and keep them ignorant.
2. People are not free, they are in bondage(because of the commandments).
3. The ancient prophecies are false.
4. We are all guilty because of a single parent’s transgression(not taught by the prophets)
5. No one knows that Christ will come.
6. The prophets and priests were leading the people away because of foolish traditions and their own desires so that they could live off of their labors and keep them from enjoying their rights and privileges.
7. They were using foolish traditions, dreams, whims, visions, pretended mysteries to keep people afraid of offending an seen and unknown god.

My sister said she was watching George Carlin on Youtube and he made the exact same arguments. Carnally, this is common sense. I saw a video on Youtube where a former member of the church said he left the church because of tithing. He claimed we need our money more than the church does, that he got sick and tired of paying tithing and he is all the more richer for leaving the church and keeping all of his money. Carnally, the making and keeping of sacred covenants through sacred ordinances in temples sounds secret society-ish or even cultish. Carnally, anybody with charisma can get up and claim to be a prophet of God and know of future events and convince people to follow them. But spiritually we know that through the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things. He said he had a lot of success.

What this tells me, I’m only speaking for myself, is that the church members who believed Korihor and followed him were not using their gift of the Holy Ghost to learn God’s truth. Either they were not fully converted unto Christ in the first place or they followed the prophet just because he said so and never sought any confirmation from the Holy Ghost. At that time they were living the Law of Moses which required many animal sacrifices. I can see how that could get old fast especially when they had to give their best first born animals that they could keep for themselves. But the Anti-Nephi-Lehis were so much more firm in the gospel than the Nephites.

When we use our gift of the Holy Ghost to learn truth from error God becomes our anchor. If an anti-Christ comes along and starts preaching we can know he is false by the power of the Holy Ghost. If the prophet tells us something we can know whether or not it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. Otherwise we just believe the next good-sounding thing, being tossed to and fro with the wind. Or am I missing something?

The other day I was reading Alma 37 and I noticed something I’ve never noticed before. In verse 12 it says that God’s paths are straight and his course is one eternal round. Huh? A couple of other verses in the Book of Mormon teach us the same thing. 1 Nephi 10:19 and Alma 7:20 say that the Lord’s course is one eternal round. Alma 7:20 says that he cannot walk in crooked paths or turn from right to left or vary from what he has said. But then I continued on to Alma 37:41-42 and I think I get it.

In chapter 37 Alma is counseling his son Helaman. Starting in verse 38 he teaches him about the Liahona and how it worked according to the faith and diligence of Lehi and his family. Then in verse 41 he tells Helaman that because they were not always faithful to the Lord the Liahona did not always work for them and they were halted in their journey progress through the wilderness. Verse 42 says, “Therefore they tarried in the wilderness or did not travel a direct course and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.” It took Lehi and the gang eight years to make their way through the wilderness. It didn’t have to take that long.

My understanding of God’s paths are straight and his course is one eternal round is this: The paths he sets for us are straight. The Plan of Salvation is set and all we have to do is follow it. The Atonement is in place for us to use and all we have to do is use it. The commandments are laid out clearly for us and all we have to do is keep the commandments. The required covenants are clearly laid out for us and all we have to do is make them and keep them. But his course is one eternal round. He is exalted and if we read in the Doctrine and Covenants the blessings of exaltation, they are endless. Abraham was shown God’s creations in the universe and he said he could not number them. This tells us that Heavenly Father goes through this process over and over again of creating worlds, having children, giving them physical bodies that they have to learn how to master, life never ends, creation never ends. For us, currently, we have to follow the straight path back to Heavenly Father. Then we can be on an eternally round course.

Every time the question is asked, ‘What are some main themes of the Book of Mormon?’ or ‘What are some of the lessons we learn from the Book of Mormon?’ I always say, ‘Record keeping.’ And then I get weird looks from some people or questioning looks or insulted looks. Maybe record keeping doesn’t seem like an important lesson in comparison with the atonement, faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, prayer, etc. Or maybe I’m overreacting. But the more I read the book the more I see record keeping popping out of the pages.

When Lehi and his ohana left Jerusalem the Lord told him to go back and get the records kept by Laban. It was so important to retrieve these records that they were worth killing for. Nephi was told it was better for one man to perish than an entire nation to dwindle in unbelief. Right there we are taught the importance and power of those brass plates. Then when Lehi examines them in 1 Nephi 5:11-16 we find they contained what we have in the Old Testament down until king Zedekiah and we know there were many other things which we do not have today. These plates were to serve as their scriptures, history book, and genealogy book. I love verse 17 which says, ‘And now when my father saw all these things he was filled with the Spirit…’ Studying scriptures fills us with the Spirit.

Later in Mosiah 1:3-7 king Benjamin teaches us that because of the brass plates we can know the mysteries of God, the commandments of God, things will not be forgotten because they are written down, we will not dwindle in unbelief. But what he said in verse 5 caught my eye this time reading. He said that without the brass plates, “we should have been like unto our brethren the Lamanites who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them because of the traditions of their fathers, which are incorrect.” ZAPP! When we teach our children things contrary to what the scriptures teach us we make it hard for them to believe the truth when it is taught to them. Every time the Book of Mormon talks about the traditions of the Lamanites’ fathers that’s Laman and Lemuel who had the brass plates in their faces but chose to teach their children something else. This makes me worried about what I’m teaching my Sunday school class.

The book of Omni certainly teaches us the dangers of not having records in verses 17-18. The Mulekites brought no records with them and because of that their language became corrupt, they had many civil wars, and they completely forgot about God. I wonder why they were not commanded to bring records with them or even to keep records. Maybe it’s because God would later send them the Nephites. Who knows? By the time everyone is gathered together in Zarahemla the people have a plethora of records. They have the brass plates, the plates of Nephi, the record of Zeniff, the record of Alma and the Jaredite record.

In the Book of Mormon record keeping is a commandment. In the Bible it is mentioned throughout the Old Testament, especially, that records were kept but not by way of commandment. I wonder if that is one of the plain and precious truths that was taken out of the Bible through its many translations.

In the beginning of the record of Zeniff he said that when he found the land of Nephi and observed the Laminates, he saw good among them(Mosiah 9:1). His original intent was to use force to kick them out but after what he saw he changed his mind. He figured they could be reasoned with. In these verses in Jacob we find out what that good was. They kept the commandment to have only one wife and no concubines or prostitutes. The Nephites, on the other hand, were not keeping this commandment and Jacob had to give them verbal cracks for this sin. But even more than that the Lamanites had loving families. Verse 7 tells us that husbands loved their wives, wives loved their husbands and together they loved their children. And before that in verse 6 we are told that because of their obedience to this one commandment that the Lord would bless them and preserve them. That’s how important families are. My question now is, is that why the Lamanites were always so much more numerous than the Nephites? The Nephites are always outnumbered by Laminates and even Mulekites. Who knows…

This is my Easter post. Anybody else wanna make an Easter comment? Go fo’ broke! Anyway, this is when Alma is baptizing people at the waters of Mormon and he is about to baptize the first convert, Helam. Verse 9 is where the old YW theme came from, the whole thing about standing as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places.

I love how Alma tells them the sacrament prayer without saying the sacrament prayer. In the sacrament prayer we partake of the bread as a witness to God that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. What religion are we? We are Christians. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are NOT Mormons, nor are we members of the Mormon church. Alma asks the people in verse 8, “…and now as ye are desirous to come unto the fold of God and to be called his people…”. President Nelson has asked us to call ourselves what we truly are and he reminded us in this past conference that when we take Christ’s name out of His church we take Him out of the picture, as well.

The second reason why we take the sacrament is to witness to God that we always remember Him. Does this mean we merely remember Him without being inspired to do anything about what we remember? After we take upon ourselves the name of Christ I think the next big question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘do I think, speak, and act according to what I remember of Christ’s teachings?’ The primary song, “If The Savior Stood Beside Me”, asks all of these questions. In verse 9 Alma continues, “Yea and are willing to mourn with those that mourn: yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death…”. Always remembering Him means we think, speak, and act according to Christ’s teachings so that when we declare that we are members of His church people will say, “That makes sense.”

The third reason why we take the sacrament is to witness to God that we will keep His commandments. In verse 10 Alma continues, “…if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?” And this is exactly how the sacrament prayer ends with the promise to always have his Spirits with us. In this day and age how can anyone survive without the guidance of the Holy Ghost?

I don’t know why I think these verses are really cool, but I do. Verse 11, for me, was the real kicker. It says the people clapped their hands and joyfully declared, “This is the desire of our hearts.” And then Alma began to baptize everybody. This got me thinking about my attitude when I take the sacrament. I’ve been doing it all wrong. Getting baptized is exciting. Getting baptized was my first meaningful spiritual experience that I can remember. Taking the sacrament is the time for us to renew and remember our covenants we made with Lord at baptism and in the temple. But how many times have I taken the sacrament and remembered the joy I felt when I first made these covenants with the Lord, and how many times have I taken the sacrament and remembered the desire I had to serve the Lord and keep the commandments? How many times do I take the sacrament with joy in my heart because of my desire to keep these covenants? Seriously, zero, I’m always grouchy and stressed, not to mention tired and hungry. Today, these verses taught me that sacrament should not only be a reverent time for us to reflect on our spiritual progress and remember the atonement but it should also be a time of joy. I’ve got my work cut out for me.

I love this. In the New Testament Christ talks about people who have ears that cannot hear and eyes that cannot see. But in this verse Jarom mentions ears that cannot hear and minds that cannot see. I think that is more accurate. Just because eyes can see doesn’t mean that the brain gets it.