Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

35:1-9 - This is a short but interesting chapter. Alma and his missionary companions finish up their teachings and “they withdrew themselves from the multitude and came over into the land of Jerson.” The part of the Zoramite society that was well to do and “popular,” I would assume it was those who were welcomed into the synagogues, “were angry because of the word, for it did destroy their craft; therefore they would not hearken unto the words.” The IM references this “craft” as priest craft. And they were interested in how the other people in the land received that information, so they “sent and gathered together throughout all the land all the people, and consulted with them concerning the words which had been spoken.” So they basically took a poll of everyone’s opinions, but being the cowards that they are, they “did not let the people know concerning their desires; therefore they found out privily the minds of all the people… (and) those who were in favor of the words which had bee...

34:18-27 – Amulek now circles around to the topic of prayer, the same topic that Alma spent so much time on, and this must be because of the manner in which the Zoramites had been praying. Ignoring the incorrect doctrine that they spouted in their prayers, there are a few principles that are wrong that Amulek addresses here. First is that Christ is mighty to save and this to counter their ideology that there is no Christ. Second, he says that they must be humble, which is in direct opposition to their profession of superiority over others. Third they should “cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks,” disputing the idea that the only prayers that can be uttered is on top of the Rameumptum. Fourth, he tells them that they should “cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening,” disputing their belief that they can only pray on the Sabbath. The also teaches them to “pour out your souls in your closets, and your se...

34:1-14 - Alma is finished speaking to the people and so Amulek stands up and takes his turn, and it's really interesting because the way that Amulek speaks is so different from Alma and yet they complement each other and it's a throw back to their time in Ammonihah, which I'm sure isn't lost on them. Unlike Alma, Amulek takes a more "in your face" approach with the people saying "I think that it is impossible that ye should be ignorant of the things which have been spoken concerning the coming of Christ, who is taught by us to be the Son of God; yea, I know that these things were taught unto you bountifully before your dissension from us." Amulek calls them on their "we didn't know" act, telling them that he finds their ignorance hard to believe. Recapping what Alma had talked about he put it plainly, and I didn't put it all together until Amulek says this but he tells them "we have beheld that the great question which is in...

33:1-14 - Alma has just finished his sermon about planting the seed of faith in one's heart, and the people have a lot of questions including how many Gods they should believe in, "how they should plant the seed... or in what manner they should begin to exercise their faith." The IM teaches that "Alma used the scriptures repeatedly to address the false doctrine taught by the Zoramites. He first dealt with the false notion that you can only pray on the Raneumptom. Using the scriptures he explained that they could pray and worship God anywhere; in their 'wilderness,' in their 'field,' in their 'house,' and even in their 'closet.' Alma then addressed the fact that all prophets have testified of the coming of a Christ." Interestingly, Alma would understand this principle first hand because of the bondage that he experienced as a child while, I assume, he lived with his father Alma, under the rule of Amulon. Amulon had outlawed prayer ...

Today has been a very interesting day. I've spent much of the time thinking about the concept of being submissive to the Lord and trying to figure out what that meant and how I could go about best accomplishing it. One of my best friends ever sent me a huge 16x20 inch print of an amazing temple picture that she took, it's not this one but I can't find it, so I'm posting this one instead just to get the message across. Anyway, she sent me this amazing print yesterday and I've been waiting for it forever and was so happy that it came and started to think about getting a frame for it, but while I was thinking about being submissive to God, I thought through all my reasons that I was resisting it, coming up with crazy scenarios, but ultimately it came down to me not trusting God to do what's in my best interest. But I thought about that picture and everything that it represented, and really felt in my heart that no God who provided the beauty and peace of a temple...

Before we get into the nitty gritty of tonight's study, I want to first talk about something that the IM put at the beginning of this section that I thought was quite profound. It quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching, "In (the) brilliant discourse (of Alma 32), Alma moves the reader from a general commentary on faith in the seedlike word of God to a focused discourse on faith in Christ as the Word of God, grown to a fruit bearing tree, a tree whose fruit is exactly that of Lehi's earlier perception of Christ's love... Christ is the bread of life, the living water, and true vine. Christ is the seed, the tree, and the fruit of eternal life. But the profound and central Tree of Life imagery in this discourse is love or at least greatly diminished, if the reader does not follow it on into the next two chapters of the Book of Mormon." Maybe I'm reading too much into this but if we take Alma's seed of faith, and plant it in our hearts, and as we nourish i...

31:26-28 - Alma and his companions have seen what the Zoramites have been doing in their synagogues and are deeply disturbed, but they also know what they have to do, they have to go and refute those teachings and set the people straight. Now we get to hear Alma’s prayer and maybe we can compare and contrast it to the one offered by every Zoramite in attendance. He begins by lamenting the way in which the people have had “their hearts… swallowed up in their pride… they are puffed up… with the vain things of the world. Behold, O my God, their costly apparel, and their ringlets, and their bracelets, and their ornaments of gold, and all their precious things which they are ornamented with; and behold, their hearts are set upon them.” In an April 1999 general conference talk entitled “ Greed, Selfishness, and Overindulgence ,” Elder Joe J. Christensen asks, “How do we determine where our treasure is? To do so, we need to evaluate the amount of time, money, and thought we devote to somethi...

31:12-22 - Alma and his companions have finally seen what the Zoramites are up to and "they were astonished beyond all measure." The Zoramites have built synagogues to worship "together on one day of the week, which they did call the day of the Lord," and they offered prayers here to God. So looking at it strictly from the outside appearance, it seems like they were a righteous people, but this is why God doesn't just want us to comply physically but he also wants our hearts. The IM teaches "Even though the Zoramites killed Korihor, they seem to have adopted a similar belief system. Not the following phrases from Alma 31 that describe the Zoramite beliefs: "They had fallen into great errors." There had rejected traditions that they felt were 'handed down... by the childishness of their fathers.' They did not want to 'be led away after the foolish traditions of (their) brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief in Christ.' The ...