Alma 11:1-37
11:1-20 – We make a weird transition here from the people being furious with Amulek, and vowing in their hearts to hold his words against him, to setting forth the Nephite currency. There really is no good transition into the topic. We learn that “it was in the law of Mosiah that every man who was a judge of the law… should receive wages according to the time which they labored to judge those who were brought before them to be judged.” I know that the standard for church leaders is for them to administer the church but labor with their own hands for their support, but there’s an interesting separation of church and state here because, Mosiah recognized that in order to administer in the government, those civil servants had to be compensated for their time. This indicates that the Nephite society was evolved enough to move from the basic hunter gatherer, everyone fends for themselves society into a more advanced system of barter and trade, and professionals, including the administration of their laws. There’s an interesting concept in verse 2 that deals with borrowing, owing, and thievery. In contrast to other societies where stealing was punished by cutting off body parts, Mormon gives an example of a more subtle dishonesty that is quite common among many people, it’s not straight up intentional stealing, but more a passive type of thievery, stating that “if a man owed another, and he would not pay that which he did owe, he was complained of to the judge; and the judge executed authority, and sent forth officers that the man should be brought before him; and he judged the man according to the law and the evidences which were brought against him, and thus the man was compelled to pay that which he owed, or be stripped, or be cast out from among the people as a thief and a robber.” Consequences of violence vs. banishment, that’s a very interesting concept, I wonder how much I can read into that. With that illustration, we can see that the judges must have been fairly busy, and then Mormon continues to set forth the Nephite currency, so that we could have some sort of reference for later in the chapter, when bribery is brought up. I tried to make this elaborate chart with “this equals two of these, which buys this,” but it got to be too much so I am just going to mention what the IM has to say about all this. The IM teaches “an onti was the greatest monetary value in Nephite society. One possible purpose for the inclusion of the Nephite coinage in Alma 11 is to demonstrate the extent of the bribe Zeezrom offered if Amulek would ‘deny the existence of a Supreme Being.’ It appears that six onties of silver was the equivalent of 42 days wages for a judge in the society of the people of Ammonihah.” I then tried to calculate what 42 days’ worth of wages for a judge today would be, but that got to be too much; my guess is that it would be more than $25k. I’m just going to just skip the whole currency part then. Mormon brings us back to the fact that when the judges brought contention with A&A, “it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them.” I stand by my earlier assessment that revolting against the prophets for financial gain is way worse than revolting against the prophets because your guilt is tugging at your spirit. Interestingly, I read the scriptures with my kids every day, well, we listen to them in the care on the way home from school and talk about what was said, and we are in Alma 9, and my daughter was disturbed that Jesus had Alma tell the people that if they did not repent that they would be destroyed. Why would God kill people? Didn’t he tell us not to kill people? And we talked about basically what I wrote in here about the people of Ammonihah wanting to hurt the righteous and Jesus protecting the righteous like he promised to do. But then it occurred to me how two faced and selfish Satan is, because he’s stirring the hearts to wickedness of the people of Ammonihah, but at the same time planting the idea of destroying the people of Ammonihah in the hearts of the Lamanites. There is no loyalty to anyone, whoever obeys him is on his own. Kind of like saying, “who gave the people of Ammonihah the idea to be wicked? Satan. But who also gave the Lamanites the idea to kill the people of Ammonihah? That’s right also Satan.” So basically, his only intention is to get people to destroy each other, physically, through killing, hurting, etc. or spiritually, through sinning together, negative influence, abuse, etc. This is an excellent example of Satan’s true character. Jesus gives us commandments, blesses us when we keep them, and protects us as his flock. Satan tells us we can do whatever we want, he makes people promises, and then does everything he can to make them unhappy and hope that they die. How crazy is that?
11:21-33 - One of the Book of Mormon manuals gave the suggestion of having 2 different students read the parts of Zeezrom and Amulek, and I thought that this was an excellent suggestion. So Zeezrom just throws it out there, “here are six onties of sliver, and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being.” Ok, that’s a strong start. This reminds me of when Satan was tempting Jesus and the third proposition was to “sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Again, a strong start. This is an interesting concept, one that I never understood. And interestingly enough, I just saw a couple of little pictures on Instagram that is the perfect illustration for this point, I’ll see if I can post them.
Sure, offering the money to deny God is a matter of principle, but let’s take that out of the equation, what makes Amulek think for even a second that if he did deny God that Zeezrom would actually pay up. That’s like when people get into business with drug dealers, the mafia, gangs, corrupt politicians, etc. to make money or have privileges or anything like that, what makes them think that they will keep their promises? And if they are evil enough to make some back alley deal with you, they are evil enough to put a bullet in your head the second that it benefits them in any way. Like I like to say, “if they’ll do it with you, they’ll do it to you.” Amulek calls Zeezrom on his shenanigans, asking him “knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations? Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him.” Just as a side note, the word “lucre” is only mentioned twice in the Book of Mormon, once here by Amulek and once by Mormon. As with the others anti- Christs such as Sherem, Nehor, and now Zeezrom, we can see a pattern of people engaging in horridly wicked practices, but still knowing deep down that there is a God and that what they are doing is inherently wrong, and here Amulek tells Zeezrom that he knows that Zeezrom knows that there is a God, just like Alma and Jacob told Nehor and Sherem, who later recanted their lies and professed a knowledge of God. The feeling of “why would I trust you to pay me if I did what you asked,” is in Amulek as well, and he calls Zeezrom out for “thou hadst it in thy heart to retain them from me; and it was only thy desire that I should deny the true and living God, that thou mightiest have cause to destroy me.” No doubt Amulek received this knowledge from the Spirit, but the revelation that Zeezrom in fact did not plan to give Amulek any money no matter what he did probably wasn’t earth shattering, seeing as how Zeezrom is a selfish and evil man, that news probably wouldn’t have shocked the people who heard it. Zeezrom and Amulek go back a forth a few times Zeezrom asking questions, and Amulek testifying that “there is a true and living God.” It’s interesting the questions that he asks, clearly these demonstrate that he has a pretty expansive knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel.
11:34-37 - Maybe it’s because I’m not a lawyer, maybe it’s because I’m tired and can’t really think right now, but Zeezrom turns to the people and said, just like happens in the court room on TV, “see that ye remember these things; for he said there is but one God; yet he saith that the Son of God shall come, but he shall not save his people- as though he had authority to command God.” Odd that Zeezrom would accuse Amulek of trying to command God, when he in fact says that the doesn’t even believe in God. Another point is that Zeezrom (I’m going to call him Z from this point on because typing his name is giving me carpal tunnel,) accused Amulek (now represented by AM from now on,) of saying that God won’t save his people while conveniently leaving out the part “in their sins,” makes a big difference. But the comeback AM makes is quite effective, clean and simple, “and I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins.” I love the “if A = B, and B = C, then A = C,” logic, I find that I do that quite a bit here and I really like it. So if we can be saved, but not in our sins, and yet we all sin, then how can we be saved? In the April 2013 general conference address entitled “The Savior Wants to Forgive,” Elder Craig A. Cardon teaches about the Savior healing the man who’s friends had brought in into His presence by lowering him in through a hole in the roof, by forgiving him of his sins. Elder Cardon teaches “By this miraculous physical healing, the Savior confirmed to all of us the infinitely more powerful spiritual truth: The Son of Man forgives sins! While this truth is readily accepted by all believers, not so easily acknowledged is the essential companion truth: the Savior forgives sins ‘upon earth’ and not just at the Final Judgment. He does not excuse us in our sins. He does not condone our return to past sins. But when we repent and obey His gospel, He forgives us.” This gives us a little bit of perspective, we can be forgiven in life, not just the last day of judgment, and that we cannot be forgiven while we wallow in our sins still, we must repent and move forward in order to truly secure the Lord’s forgiveness. In an April 1998 general conference address entitled “Have You Been Saved?” Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught “We are not saved in our sins, as by being unconditionally saved through confessing Christ and then, inevitably, committing sins in our remaining lives. We are saved from our sins by a weekly renewal of our repentance and cleansing through the grace of God and His blessed plan of salvation.” I like that Elder Oaks taught that the sacrament is essential for us to be continuously saved from our sins. I kind of imagine the difference between “in” and “from” as being chased by a swarm of bugs or quick sand, let’s use quick sand. We are all stuck in quick sand, we can’t move, we can’t free ourselves and we all are facing our impending demise. If the Savior were to come, how could he save us from the quick sand, while we are still IN the quick sand? He couldn’t, he could say that we were saved, but since we are still in the quick sand we still can’t move, we still can’t get out on our own, and we will still die. No, the only want for the Savior to actually save us is for us to be removed from the quick sand. It’s like he’s holding out to each and every one of us, a stick, if we grab it and hold on for dear life, then he will pull us out. But if we refuse to grab the stick, then he physically cannot save us from the quick sand. There is no possible way for us to pull ourselves out of the quick sand, we can only be helped out by one who was never stuck in it himself. He is mighty to save, he has the strength and the tools (the stick in the example and the Atonement in real life,) to pull us out of the quick sand, but we have to do what we can, as much as we can, even if all we can do is turn a grab the stick. This is an interesting concept, the quick sand idea, there is no way for us to be saved unless we do what the Savior says. Like the ancient Israelites who only had to look at the stick Moses made to be cured, it was so easy, all we have to do it grab the stick, all we have to do is believe and repent, and we will be saved. But it is not possible for us to be saved from spiritual death while we are unrepentant of our sins. We all die physically, and there’s nothing that we can do to prevent that, so that’s why the resurrection is a free gift to all. But we can be spiritual alive and prevent our own spiritual death. We cannot be saved from spiritual death while we are still actively engaged in the sins that started to kill us spiritually in the first place. How interesting. It’s like trying to be cured from a poisonous snake bite, while still having the snake attached to your leg. Or it’s like receiving a blood transfusion with an untreated severed artery. The snake has to be removed, the artery has to be clamped, the sins have to be forsaken for true healing and forgiveness to occur.
11:21-33 - One of the Book of Mormon manuals gave the suggestion of having 2 different students read the parts of Zeezrom and Amulek, and I thought that this was an excellent suggestion. So Zeezrom just throws it out there, “here are six onties of sliver, and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being.” Ok, that’s a strong start. This reminds me of when Satan was tempting Jesus and the third proposition was to “sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Again, a strong start. This is an interesting concept, one that I never understood. And interestingly enough, I just saw a couple of little pictures on Instagram that is the perfect illustration for this point, I’ll see if I can post them.
11:34-37 - Maybe it’s because I’m not a lawyer, maybe it’s because I’m tired and can’t really think right now, but Zeezrom turns to the people and said, just like happens in the court room on TV, “see that ye remember these things; for he said there is but one God; yet he saith that the Son of God shall come, but he shall not save his people- as though he had authority to command God.” Odd that Zeezrom would accuse Amulek of trying to command God, when he in fact says that the doesn’t even believe in God. Another point is that Zeezrom (I’m going to call him Z from this point on because typing his name is giving me carpal tunnel,) accused Amulek (now represented by AM from now on,) of saying that God won’t save his people while conveniently leaving out the part “in their sins,” makes a big difference. But the comeback AM makes is quite effective, clean and simple, “and I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins.” I love the “if A = B, and B = C, then A = C,” logic, I find that I do that quite a bit here and I really like it. So if we can be saved, but not in our sins, and yet we all sin, then how can we be saved? In the April 2013 general conference address entitled “The Savior Wants to Forgive,” Elder Craig A. Cardon teaches about the Savior healing the man who’s friends had brought in into His presence by lowering him in through a hole in the roof, by forgiving him of his sins. Elder Cardon teaches “By this miraculous physical healing, the Savior confirmed to all of us the infinitely more powerful spiritual truth: The Son of Man forgives sins! While this truth is readily accepted by all believers, not so easily acknowledged is the essential companion truth: the Savior forgives sins ‘upon earth’ and not just at the Final Judgment. He does not excuse us in our sins. He does not condone our return to past sins. But when we repent and obey His gospel, He forgives us.” This gives us a little bit of perspective, we can be forgiven in life, not just the last day of judgment, and that we cannot be forgiven while we wallow in our sins still, we must repent and move forward in order to truly secure the Lord’s forgiveness. In an April 1998 general conference address entitled “Have You Been Saved?” Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught “We are not saved in our sins, as by being unconditionally saved through confessing Christ and then, inevitably, committing sins in our remaining lives. We are saved from our sins by a weekly renewal of our repentance and cleansing through the grace of God and His blessed plan of salvation.” I like that Elder Oaks taught that the sacrament is essential for us to be continuously saved from our sins. I kind of imagine the difference between “in” and “from” as being chased by a swarm of bugs or quick sand, let’s use quick sand. We are all stuck in quick sand, we can’t move, we can’t free ourselves and we all are facing our impending demise. If the Savior were to come, how could he save us from the quick sand, while we are still IN the quick sand? He couldn’t, he could say that we were saved, but since we are still in the quick sand we still can’t move, we still can’t get out on our own, and we will still die. No, the only want for the Savior to actually save us is for us to be removed from the quick sand. It’s like he’s holding out to each and every one of us, a stick, if we grab it and hold on for dear life, then he will pull us out. But if we refuse to grab the stick, then he physically cannot save us from the quick sand. There is no possible way for us to pull ourselves out of the quick sand, we can only be helped out by one who was never stuck in it himself. He is mighty to save, he has the strength and the tools (the stick in the example and the Atonement in real life,) to pull us out of the quick sand, but we have to do what we can, as much as we can, even if all we can do is turn a grab the stick. This is an interesting concept, the quick sand idea, there is no way for us to be saved unless we do what the Savior says. Like the ancient Israelites who only had to look at the stick Moses made to be cured, it was so easy, all we have to do it grab the stick, all we have to do is believe and repent, and we will be saved. But it is not possible for us to be saved from spiritual death while we are unrepentant of our sins. We all die physically, and there’s nothing that we can do to prevent that, so that’s why the resurrection is a free gift to all. But we can be spiritual alive and prevent our own spiritual death. We cannot be saved from spiritual death while we are still actively engaged in the sins that started to kill us spiritually in the first place. How interesting. It’s like trying to be cured from a poisonous snake bite, while still having the snake attached to your leg. Or it’s like receiving a blood transfusion with an untreated severed artery. The snake has to be removed, the artery has to be clamped, the sins have to be forsaken for true healing and forgiveness to occur.
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