Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

17:1-3 - This is a super content heavy chapter so I'll do my best, but I think that this is going to be slow through here for a while. We remember that Alma and the sons of Mosiah, in their youth were wicked, but then an angel appeared to them, at the request of their fathers, and they turned their lives around. The sons of Mosiah went to teach the Lamanites the gospel, and Alma took over the leadership of the church, and even the government for a while. They were really good friends in their wickedness, then they were really good friends as they turned their lives around, and now, they meet up again, after 14 years apart. Their meeting is truly one of those events that is amazing and could in no way be "coincidence," because "as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of Manti, behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla." After Alma has his dealings with the people in Ammo...

16:1-11 - It's a couple of months since Alma has returned to Zarahemla with Amulek and "the armies of the Lamanites had come in upon the wilderness side... (and) the had destroyed the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, and also some around the borders of Noah, and taken others captive into the wilderness." It might seem from the casual observer to be a coincidence, but we know that it's not. The IM teaches "Alma pleaded with 'great anxiety' from the 'inmost part' of his heart for the people of Ammonihah to repent. As their prophet, Alma warned them to repent or be utterly destroyed 'from off the face of the earth.' The Lord has promised to fulfill all the words of his prophets. Alma 16... documents the fulfillment of the words of Alma by recording the destruction of those who rejected the prophets and executed the innocent." Executed the innocent... that's a very powerful way to put it, accurate and tragic. The people of Am...

15:1-5 – Alma and Amulek have just prayed and had the prison they were contained in collapse around them killing most of the corrupt leadership that ruled in the wicked city of Ammonihah. And now we find that after everything that has happened in that city, their imprisonment, torture, the horrendous murders of righteous women and children and the banishment of the righteous men, after all that A&A “were commanded to depart out of that city; and they departed, and came out even into the land of Sidom; and behold, there they found all the people who had departed out of the land of Ammonihah, who had been cast out and stoned, because they believed in the words of Alma.” I’m assuming that Sidom is the closet city next to Ammonihah and that that’s why all the people who fled went there. But here comes the tragic part, when the men were chased out of town with rocks, I’m sure that they were concerned about the safety of their families, but I doubt that any of them even fathomed that the...

14:14-22 - It's so sick that the wicked people murder the righteous women and children, and verse 14 is particularly disturbing, "now it came to pass that when the bodies of those who had been cast into the fire were consumed, and also the records which were cast in with them..." It's like a continuation chapter from the horrid, chaotic scene of screaming, burning flesh, dragging, undoubtedly there was blood, but now it's like a more peaceful, like the smoldering bodies and books, and the carnage can settle and be assessed. After the fires were smoldering and the people were dead and their bodies charred, A&A, who were bound, were slapped around, beat up, and taunted as those same wicked people who had just murdered innocent women and children, mock God saying "after what ye have seen, will ye preach again unto this people, that they shall be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone? Behold, ye see that ye had not power to save those who had been cast into ...

14:7-13 - We last saw Zeezrom (Z) as he was beginning to have his "Alma the Younger" experience, and was truly seeing for the first time "his own guilt." I have to admit, Z is a really interesting character when we see him in the light of how outspoken he is when stirring the people up, but then also how outspoken he is once he's shown that he's wrong. There are many people who, once shown publicly to be wrong, shrink away and go into hiding, but not Z, he's quick to "cry unto the people, saying: Behold, I am guilty, and these men are spotless before God. And he began to plead for them from that time forth." We can see that unlike many of the people that he taught to be wicked, Z is not so far gone that the Spirit can not penetrate his heart and send him into the gulf of misery. So there's Alma, Amulek, Zeezrom, and all the people who believed on the words of A&A and began to turn to study the scriptures, but the vast majority of the ci...

Driving into work today and listening to the Ensign, as usual, the Lord thoroughly yet gently chastened me. I started reading a really good book this weekend and was about half way through and totally enveloped in the awesome story line when suddenly a racy scene came up and totally caught me off guard. But then it was over just as fast as it started and I was like "ok..." and kept reading. Then there was ANOTHER racy scene 3/4 of the way through the book, and I should have known better that if there's one, there's usually another, but I was so caught up in the non-racy storyline that I totally rationalized to myself that "it's not a big deal, I'll just skip over those parts." It sounds practical, but it's really not, I'm single and getting caught up in crazy stuff like those types of books, even though I went into it totally unwittingly, is really just a slippery slow down hill. Then it turns out that the book isn't even finished and the...

14:1-6 - Alma and Amulek finish speaking to the people and "many of them did believe on his words, and began to repent, and to search the scriptures." If we think back to when Alma left Ammonihah the first time, ready to write them off forever, when he's told to go back, I think that it was to go back and to get these people out of the city, or at least to get those who want to be righteous to designate themselves as such. Many people desired to repent, "but the more part of the were desirous that they might destroy Alma and Amulek." It takes a really wicked people to not only not repent, but then want to physically harm others. This chapter is honestly sick, one of the worst, and the tragedy is only spoken of for a few verses and then moved on. The people take A&A, bind them and take them "before the chief judge of the land," and distort what they had actually said to make crazy accusations against them. And we see that Zeezrom (Z) "was aston...