Latest / Scripture Central / Mosiah 29–Alma 4| Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource

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Mosiah 29–Alma 4| Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource · Scripture Central

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Hello there. My name is Tyler Griffin and
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this is Scripture Study Insights by Scripture Central.
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Today we're covering Mosiah 29 through Alma 4, and this is a an
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amazing transition period for the history of the Book Mormon,
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the history of the Nephites as far as their government is
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concerned, as far as the church is concerned.
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And it sets the stage for many, many things moving forward, even
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as it becomes a symbolic lens for us to understand things that
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happened in the far distant past.
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You're going to see many, many times in these particular
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chapters variations on a premortal theme.
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We're going to see types of Christ, we're going to see types
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of the devil and these challenges that arise all based
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on a war or these struggles surrounding agency, freedom,
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liberty, the ability for people to choose and to act and to live
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their life how how they feel that they want to according to
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the dictates of their own conscience.
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So the thing I want to focus on for today's lesson as far as the
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lifelong learning overlay or this teaching perspective is
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principles and practices for how we can help activate and empower
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appropriate uses of agency. So there are a million ways you
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can look at this. Here is one of them.
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So the Arbinger Institute has this pyramid of influence and
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there are many, many variations of the pyramid.
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I want to just show you some of the the concepts that help
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empower our use of agency and it involves using the following
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methods to help those we work with appropriately use their
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agency. We correct, teach, listen, learn
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and build relationships with them.
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Now in any of these paradigms that you that you ever see,
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you'll notice there there's a lot of symbolism attached to the
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way they're put together. And in this case, if you look at
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the pyramid, you see the the relative size of each of these
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four categories. The biggest one is the bottom
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one. You build the relationship.
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Now you think about, you think about the Lord Jesus Christ, and
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you look at his ministry in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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You look at his ministry among the Nephites and the Lamanites
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in 3rd Nephi. There's a lot of teaching,
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there's a lot of discipline and correction and direction given,
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but you'll also notice how much time and effort he puts into
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building that connection with those people one by one as well
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as with the whole group, those who are sick and afflicted as
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well as those who are young as well as those who are, are, are
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whole. It's, it's beautiful to watch
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different elements of these patterns that people have come
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up with to try to better understand these, these true
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laws, these true principles of the gospel and see how they play
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out. I like this, this particular
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model because it so powerfully undergirds agency.
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So as we jump into this story or into these chapters today,
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Mosiah 29 is this incredible turning point where if you look
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in verse one, king Mosiah, the son of King Benjamin, the
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grandson of Mosiah the first, he sends this message throughout
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all the land asking what their will is concerning who should be
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the next king. That's I think that's quite
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unusual In antiquity. Most kings would not have asked
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the people who they think should be the next king.
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He would have simply appointed one of his own sons or whoever
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he wanted to take his throne and to carry on his legacy.
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Mosiah, like his father before him, Benjamin is not your
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typical king. He's not your typical leader.
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He's not using the power given to him to take away agency.
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He's using his power to infuse the people with more liberty,
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more freedom, more choice. So right out of the the gates
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here, you're seeing symbol a type, A shadow, if you will, of
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Jesus Christ, especially in that premortal realm.
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He who was the the first born of the Father in in heaven, he who
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was the chosen from the beginning could have exerted
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incredible amounts of of power and forceful influence.
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But he he does his work by empowering agency, not limiting
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the agency, not taking away that freedom and that liberty.
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And you see this repeatedly in how Mosiah and later Elma the
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younger interacts with the people.
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So the voice comes and says, we want your son Aaron to be our
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king. Now there are a couple of
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problems with this. Aaron's already gone on his
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mission. Verse three says he had gone up
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to the land of Nephi. Therefore the king could not
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confer the Kingdom upon him. Neither would Aaron take upon
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him the Kingdom. Neither were any of the sons of
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Mosiah willing to take upon them the Kingdom.
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There's something beautiful about watching those four sons,
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Ammon, Aaron, Amnor, and Hymni, heirs, rightful heirs to the
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Nephite throne. They rejected that.
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They didn't want to to sit on the the King's throne.
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They wanted to go instead and serve their nation's enemies
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previously by teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ and
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trying to activate their agency. You'll notice instead of sending
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an army to try to force the Lamanites or to destroy the
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Lamanites or to correct the Lamanites, they're now down
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teaching the Lamanites. And you'll find in their
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missions, they're going to listen and ask and observe and
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perceive and then teach and give more of the commandments.
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But the whole focus of their mission is rooted in beautifully
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founded relationships as they they model this powerful aspect
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of missionary work that often gets overlooked, which isn't
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just teaching and and baptizing, it's building those meaningful
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relationships based on love, kindness, compassion, and
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service. I like how this wise king, this
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father of these four sons, how he now gives a couple of reasons
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why it would be a bad idea to give the kingship to Aaron.
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Because Aaron with his three other brothers, he's had a
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difficult past. And Mosiah is concerned that if
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he gets that kind of power, he might return to his former pride
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and sins. Not just that, but he says if
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you appoint another in the stead of one of my sons, then Aaron
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might rise up and contend and say, well, the the kingship
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rightly belongs to me and it could cause wars and dissensions
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among the people. And so he's giving all of this
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rationale. Now many of you might be
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thinking, well, why is why is Mosiah all of a sudden trying to
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end this legacy, this reign of the kings there?
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There are a couple of factors that come into play here.
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One, if you look at the chapter right before this Mosiah 28, the
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very last thing that King Mosiah had done before we get to
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chapter 29 is he had translated the 24 Jaredite plates.
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And he discovers this rich history of the people of the
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Jaredites. And he sees generation after
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generation of kings, most of them, the vast majority of them
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being very wicked and enacting terrible laws that attack the
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people's agency and take it away.
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And he's seeing the the dangers of a society that gets into a
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rut with wicked kings. Now granted, the Nephites have
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been very lucky to have King Mosiah, then King Benjamin, then
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King Mosiah, and we don't know the King's previous to them, but
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they seem to have fared pretty pretty well in the in the reign
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of the King's period of their history.
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But then they got the people of King Limhai released from
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bondage and they heard the story of King Noah.
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And you'll see in chapter 29 how King Mosiah refers to King Noah
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as holds him up as this example of this is what happens or can
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happen and is prone even to happen when kings are set up.
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And over time, eventually you're going to get an iniquitous king
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and he talks about how difficult it is to dethrone an iniquitous
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king. So that's kind of the second
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reason. So you've got the Jaredite
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history that's fresh on his mind.
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You've got the the story of King Noah and the bondage that was
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brought upon the people. And then the third possible
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reason is King Mosiah seems very intent on knowing the history in
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the scriptures. And if that's the case, then he
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knows the story from the Old Testament as well.
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He knows how they had the judges after Moses brought the children
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of Israel into the Promised Land.
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And Joshua actually did the the the final deliverance into the
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Promised land. And after Joshua, we get the
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reign of the judges over the people.
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And it was from there that the Old Testament peoples went from
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the reign of judges to the reign of the kings.
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We went with Saul, then David, then Solomon, and after Solomon,
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his son Rehoboam, who was the worst of the the four.
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And that's where the Kingdom split into the Kingdom of Israel
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and the Kingdom of Judah. This would not have been lost on
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Mosiah, even though he doesn't mention it here in chapter 29.
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I wonder if that's, if that's on his mind saying, wow, watch what
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happened when the Israelites went to kings.
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Every single one of them ended up turning, turning iniquitous
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in one way or another. Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam.
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And so he's going to now propose the opposite of that pattern
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from the Old Testament. Instead of going from the reign
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of the judges to the reign of the kings, he's going to flip
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that into the opposite order. He's now proposing, let's have
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judges to rule over the people and to judge the people, not
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have one king. And that's his whole proposal in
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the in his proclamation to the people.
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Look at verse 13, how he he gives us this little insert
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about kings. Therefore, if it were possible
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that you could have just men to be your kings.
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Now there are a couple of keywords in that in that first
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phrase, the most important word to me in that phrase is the
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simple opening word. If it's a very conditional word,
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if you could always have righteous men to be your kings
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or or righteous leaders, who would establish the laws of God
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and judge His people according to His commandments.
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Yet if there it is again, if you could have men for your kings,
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who would do even as my father Benjamin did for this people?
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I say unto you, if there it is again, this could always be the
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case, then it would be expedient that you should always have
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kings to rule over you. You look at the best parts of
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the Nephite nation's experiences and it's usually when they have
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a righteous king, whether it's Benjamin or Mosiah the 1st or
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Mosiah the second, they they, they were able to find great
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peace. Is it any wonder that Isaiah
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said, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
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and the government shall be upon his shoulders.
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That's the difference. A king that is righteous has the
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government on his shoulders. He bears up the Kingdom, He
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lifts up the people, He enables their agency, He undergirds
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their freedom and their liberty, and He shares His power with
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them. Versus most kings have the
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Kingdom under their heel, have the people under their thumb,
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they control them. They take agency away from the
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people towards themselves. Whereas with Jesus Christ, with
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his form of government, it's to have the arrows turned to
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Heavenly Father and to us as a people.
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And that's why in the Millennium, when He comes again,
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all earthly governments will be overthrown and the government
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will be upon his shoulders once again, the ideal form of
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government. So now, since we can't guarantee
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and, and Mosiah talks about that, since since you can't give
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that as a guarantee that you're always going to be able to have
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righteous people, the, the next best thing he proposes is to set
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up this reign of the judges. I I find it very interesting
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that if you look at the way the Lord inspired the creation of,
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for instance, in the United States, the Constitution and the
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government and the Bill of Rights and all of these early
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systems set in place, they're set in place to preserve
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liberty, agency, freedom for as many people as possible for as
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long as possible. So there are checks and balances
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put into place. There are these provisions in
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the government to make sure that no group or no individual takes
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too much power to themselves. Because there are human natural
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fallen tendencies in all of us to start getting puffed up in
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pride, which leads to iniquity, which leads us to then take
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freedoms from other people and take them to ourselves.
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And so you, you see in in many different governments in many
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different nations, these different ways to keep those
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natural tendencies at least a little bit in check or to hold
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those those fallen man propensities at Bay.
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So then you jump down to the end here and he gives the the
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invitation starting in verse 25. Therefore, after he's given all
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the rationale for why it's probably a bad idea to continue
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the reign of the kings among the Nephites.
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Therefore here's the effect. I've given you the 'cause.
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Now here's the effect. Choose you by the voice of the
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people or by the voice of this people, judges that ye may be
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judged according to the laws which have been given you by our
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fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the
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hand of the Lord. Can you see the beautiful
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pattern of what he's doing using this particular pyramid of
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influence? He's not forcing this upon the
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people. He's not correcting them.
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He's not telling them, Kate, you have no choice.
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He's down here teaching them, exhorting them, showing them
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some reasons and some rationale as to why what he's proposing
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for the the adjustment or the correction, why that makes
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sense. So then he goes on further in
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verse 26. It's not common that the voice
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of the people desires anything contrary to that which is right,
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but it is common for the lesser part of the people that desire
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that which is not right. And so he tells him at the
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bottom of 27, do your business by the voice of the people,
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which spreads the responsibility and the agency among the masses
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of the people, rather than taking it to the, to the top, to
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one or a small group of people to make all those decisions.
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And then he gives this safety valve, if there ever comes a
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time when the voice of the people, when the majority of the
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people vote to do that, which is iniquitous, that's when the
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judgments of God will come and there will be great destruction
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that will visit you. And so he's saying you don't,
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you don't have to take the responsibility for all the the
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succeeding generations because God is going to watch over this
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process. So he's putting into place this
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idea of the voice of the people, which is the incredible way to
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visualize the Lord's invitation to us in the premortal realm to
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not be objects waiting to be acted upon, but to be able to
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make choices, make decisions. So in verse 30 it says, and I
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command you to do these things in the fear of the Lord, and I
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command you to do these things and that you have no king.
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He's taught them. And now he comes back to the
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command form. You'll notice that you teach.
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Correct principles let them govern themselves, but you do
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have to establish a law of sorts.
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So now this king is setting up this law, but he's not forcing
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them. Still, just because there's a
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law doesn't mean I lose my agency.
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It just means there's a very clear cut boundary.
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This is what is according to the law and this is outside of the
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law. And then they take a vote, and
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in verse 38 it says, Therefore they relinquish their desires
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for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every
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man should have an equal chance throughout all the land.
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Yet every man expressed a willingness to answer for his
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own sins, and therefore it came to pass.
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They assemble themselves together in bodies to cast in
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their voices concerning who should be their judges to judge
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them. And the the conclusion to that
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verse is they were exceedingly rejoiced because of the liberty
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which had been granted unto them.
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They're feeling this, this liberty which is a synonym for
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agency and freedom. And with that newfound freedom
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comes a newfound responsibility. It's called accountability
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agency, Freedom, liberty are not free.
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They come with a price. You don't.
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You don't just have freedom to do whatever you want.
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There's an accountability attached to it.
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So now we get the passing of the baton from one generation to the
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next as we're making this transition.
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So Alma dies in verse 45. It came to pass that his father
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died. This is Alma the Younger's
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father, he being 80 and two years old.
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And then in verse 46, King Mosiah died, being 60 and three
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years old. So that generation has now moved
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on. And we begin this new chapter
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with the reign of the judges. And the first judge appointed is
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Alma the Younger. So he has two roles.
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He's been the high priest over the church, the the president of
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the church, if you will. He he's been in charge of the
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ecclesiastical side and now he is appointed to be the first
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chief judge of the people. He gets the vote as that first
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leader and you're thinking, OK, now everything's going to go
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smoothly and perfectly. You'll notice how messy it gets
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when all of this freedom and liberty and agency is now given
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to the to the people broadcast it.
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It's it's spread out among the people.
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Things actually get a little more messy and muddy for these
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people. It's kind of like us.
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The more freedom I have, the more opportunities I have to, to
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mess up. And some would say, well, Mosiah
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must not have been very inspired because everything seems to kind
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of implode starting in Alma chapter one and chapter 2 and
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chapter 3 and chapter 4. It's it's a very rough start
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this first 7-8 years of the reign of the judges and you'd
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say, man, that didn't go well. I love the the Lord's trust in
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us when he gives you agency. He he doesn't say now you have
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freedom and then he doesn't squeeze our heart and say, now
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you have to use that agency to love me.
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We literally have agency. We get to choose and that's
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what's going to happen here in Alma.
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As we turn to chapter one, it doesn't take long.
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We're in the first year of the reign of the judges when our
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first major struggle arises. Look at verse two.
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It came to pass in the first year of the reign of Alma in the
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judgement seats. We haven't even completed one
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year when there was a man brought before him to be judged,
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a man who was large and was noted for his much strength.
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So you watch Elma in contrast to Nihor.
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Nihor is going to take on this role of a type or a shadow or a
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symbolic representation of Lucifer and what the Devil does.
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So let's piece together what we know from Scripture and from
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living prophets about the war in Heaven and what Lucifer did to
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try to attack our agency and to destroy the agency of man.
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So the first description of Nihor here was he was a large
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man. He was noted for his much
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strength. This would be much strength.
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These would be two attributes of Lucifer up in heaven.
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He he was not a a lesser known character.
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He would have been very large in spirit, noted for as much
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strength and he had gone about among the people preaching to
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them that which he termed to be the word of God.
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So you can picture the devil in heaven going around like Nihor
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is now shadowing in the immortality, going around
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preaching the word of God, quote UN quote.
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This idea of this is this is the the the best thing that you
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could possibly believe. And he's bearing down against
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the church, declaring unto the people that every priest and
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teacher ought to become popular and they ought not to labour
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with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the
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people. So here's this idea of building
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up these classes of people that are supported by those that are
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underneath, which is the complete opposite of the Lord's
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set up of his Kingdom, which is the higher you get in authority,
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that means you have more people to put upon your shoulders.
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You have more people to lift, more burdens to bear, more
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people to mourn with and sorrow with and and to serve.
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So this is the devil's worldly version of leadership, that you
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should be supported by the people.
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You should be sitting on their shoulders and carried by them
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instead of the other way around. And he also testified under the
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people that all mankind should be saved at the last day.
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Is that sounding familiar? Does that sound like Lucifer's
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message in heaven? That I will lose none of them, I
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will save them all? And it says that they need not
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fear nor trouble, but that they might lift up their heads and
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rejoice. For the Lord had created all men
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and had also redeemed all men, and in the end all men should
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have eternal life. So stop worrying, just make me
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the leader and I'll make sure that everybody has everything
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that they want. And there's no mention of any
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accountability in this plan. It's all about freedom and
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liberty detached from or decoupled from accountability
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and the these consequences that come attached naturally to our
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our beliefs, actions, words and behaviors.
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So he then goes on to say, and it came to pass that he did
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teach these things so much that many did believe on his words,
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Even so many that they began to support him and give him money.
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Now, I don't think that up in heaven people were paying
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Lucifer, but I think they were paying him with the coin of the
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realm in heaven, which was their support, their devotion, their
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loyalty, the the equivalents of our money here.
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And he began to be lifted up in the pride of his heart and to
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wear very costly apparel and even began to establish a church
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after the manner of his preaching.
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So it's important to recognize that whenever, whenever we take
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examples from the Scripture like Nihor and then look through the
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lens of Nihor to try to see principles about the devil or
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Lucifer and his tactics or teachings or techniques up in
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heaven, It's important to recognize that it's not a, it's
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not a perfect comparison. It's no, no analogy is 1 to one.
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It just simply shows us additional views of he who is
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fighting against us. Just like we do the same thing
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with Christ, like people and objects and stories in the
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scriptures. We're looking for different
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attributes of Christ, different parts of his character and his
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teaching so that we can better understand him and better follow
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him. In this case with Nihor, it's so
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that we can better recognize the tactics that the devil has used
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in pre mortal realms through the history of time with people who
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seem to have turned their life over to him and are being
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inspired by him. And consequently, to be able to
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better recognize those adversarial influences and
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tactics and teachings and techniques in our own world
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today, and more specifically in our own families and in our own
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lives. And to better recognize them and
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know how to combat them with the help of the Lord.
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So it's fascinating as Nihor is going around sharing these these
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devilish doctrines that are becoming more and more popular
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and pleasing to the people that he runs into some opposition
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when he meets Gideon. Gideon, this this incredible man
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who about 54 years previous to this story had drawn his sword
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and said, I'm going to go kill King Noah.
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And he went and and fought with Noah and was part of that story
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up in the land of Nephi. But that's been over 5 decades
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in the past, which tells you that Gideon at this point is is
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going to be at least in his mid 70s, we would guess, and and
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maybe even older. And here's this large noted for
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his much strength man who's arguing with Gideon and he can't
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he can't best him in the argument.
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And So what does he do verse 9 because Gideon withstood him
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with the words of God. He was wroth with Gideon and
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drew his sword and began to smite him.
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Now Gideon being smitten with many years, therefore he was not
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able to withstand his blows, therefore he was slain by the
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sword. It's fascinating that Nihor has
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given himself over so much to to his teachings and these false
32:01
doctrines. He believes them so passionately
32:05
that he's willing to, in this case, kill for them.
32:09
And he now comes before Alma the Younger, pleading for himself
32:14
with much boldness. And Alma said, behold, this is
32:17
the first time that priest craft has been introduced among the
32:20
people. And the definition of priest
32:23
craft, if you look at second E Phi 26 verse 29, it's beautiful.
32:29
It's that idea of preaching something as true that isn't
32:35
given by God, setting yourself up to be a light under the
32:39
people to draw people to you instead of having your intent be
32:45
to draw people to Christ. So what can we learn from this
32:49
story of Nihor Gideon? And now he's coming before Alma
32:53
and Elma's telling him you've you've instituted priestcraft.
32:57
So so based on those, some of those definitions from second E
33:00
526, you look at the opposite of that.
33:05
The opposite of priestcraft is priesthood.
33:07
It's God's way of leading and empowering agency.
33:14
And I know of no better place to describe the Lord's techniques
33:20
of leading and teaching and loving and inspiring, even
33:25
building relationships with people that will most likely
33:30
lead to encouraging them to use their agency appropriately than
33:35
what we find in section 121 of the Doctrine of Covenants.
33:40
Verse 41 says no power or influence can or ought to be
33:46
maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion,
33:51
by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love
33:56
unfeigned by kindness and pure knowledge, which shall greatly
34:00
enlarge the soul without hypocrisy and without guile.
34:06
Now you're going to have to correct.
34:07
And he says, reproving betimes with sharpness when moved upon
34:10
by the Holy Ghost, and then showing forth afterwards an
34:14
increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he
34:18
esteemed thee to be an enemy. Now you can see the total
34:23
opposite of that in Nihor's story in everything that that
34:28
Lucifer embodies in the pre mortal realm as well as today in
34:34
his efforts to fight against the Kingdom of God and the building
34:38
up of Zion. So Alma judges Nihor according
34:45
to the law. It's not a personal thing.
34:48
It's not subjective, it's very objective.
34:50
He's judged according to the law and he shed the blood of a
34:55
righteous man and according to their law, verse 14 says thou
34:59
art condemned to die according to the law which has been given
35:03
us by Mosaic Mosiah. So they take him to the hill and
35:08
there he is executed according to their law.
35:12
He suffered an ignominious or shameful death.
35:17
And you're thinking crisis averted.
35:21
Our our first major issue that Alma had to deal with.
35:24
And now, now life is going to going to flow smoothly for the
35:29
people. And the very next word that is
35:34
written is the first word of verse 16.
35:38
Nevertheless, nevertheless implies that in spite of the
35:43
fact or despite the death of Nihor and the passing of this
35:48
Antichrist, who we call him an Antichrist, which is ironic
35:52
because he never once mentioned the word Christ.
35:54
He never once spoke against Christ.
35:58
So why do we call him an Antichrist?
36:00
It's because Nihor set up a system of salvation that is
36:07
different than that which God set up, which is there is no
36:10
other name nor means Norway, whereby mankind can be saved
36:14
only in and through the name of Jesus Christ.
36:19
Any other proposal for salvation that doesn't go through and from
36:26
Jesus Christ is Antichrist at the end of the day.
36:30
And Nihor told the people they don't need to do anything
36:34
because God's going to save everybody.
36:36
There's no need for a Christ in his teaching.
36:39
He didn't need to mention the Christ to be an Antichrist
36:42
because he's setting up an alternative source of salvation
36:47
that doesn't exist. So this Antichrist is now gone
36:52
the way of all the world, so everything should be good.
36:55
But Despite that, nevertheless, this did not put an end to the
37:00
spreading of priest craft through the land, for there were
37:04
many who loved the vain things of the world.
37:06
Human tendency now starts to come out and they have more
37:11
freedom in this form of government and more, more
37:14
liberty to express the those desires, those ideals, and
37:21
they're going to start doing that.
37:24
They went forth preaching false doctrines and this they did for
37:28
the sake of riches and honor because they saw what happened
37:33
with Nihor, that he became popular.
37:36
He rose up in power and you can picture them thinking, well as
37:39
long as we don't kill people like Nihor did, then we can
37:43
benefit from this popularity and we can build our Kingdom.
37:49
As opposed to the more, the more influence, the more power, the
37:56
more authority you gain in the Church of Jesus Christ, in the
38:02
Kingdom of God on the earth today.
38:04
The implication is you're pointing people more than ever
38:10
before to Jesus Christ. You're doing more to connect
38:14
them with Him, not with yourself.
38:17
You're not building your Kingdom.
38:20
You're not building your own dynasty of power and riches and
38:24
popularity so that you can have have all of the the people
38:29
looking at you, but rather looking at him, following him,
38:35
listening to him, coming to him. So the there are a few more
38:43
indications here on the page of of these structures that are set
38:48
in place using the word nevertheless the way Mormon set
38:52
this up is beautiful. So you got nevertheless in verse
38:55
16, you get nevertheless in verse 17, you get another one in
38:59
verse 22 and another one in verse 25.
39:04
And so it's all of these despite this, this happened instead.
39:10
It's it's not always the the expected outcome.
39:14
It's often a counter effect. So his nevertheless in verse 17
39:18
is that all these people are preaching these false doctrines
39:22
to get the riches and honor. Nevertheless they durst not lie.
39:27
If it were known for fear of the law, for liars were punished,
39:30
that's against the law for them. And then you go to verse 21.
39:35
Now there was a strict law among the people of the church that
39:37
there should not any man belonging to the church arise
39:40
and persecute those that did not belong to the church.
39:44
There should be no persecutions among themselves either.
39:47
So you don't persecute people outside or inside the church.
39:50
And then he says, nevertheless, in spite of that going on inside
39:55
the church, there were many among them who began to be proud
39:59
and began to contend warmly with their adversaries, even under
40:03
blows. Yeah, they would smite one
40:05
another with their fists. He's saying in spite of the
40:08
direction, it didn't, it didn't force the behavior.
40:13
It didn't take away the agency. And and the agency is now being
40:17
used inappropriately. Now we get into the second year
40:20
of the reign of Elma in verse 23.
40:23
And it's causing much trial with the church, these contentions.
40:27
And it says in verse 25, Now this was a great trial to those
40:30
that did stand fast in the faith.
40:33
So there's this this faithful core that are firm and
40:37
steadfast. And it says this is a great
40:41
trial to them. Nevertheless, they were
40:46
steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God
40:49
and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped
40:53
upon them. That's a beautiful concept that
40:57
they are refusing to give up their agency and and become
41:01
victims of this persecution to say, OK, well, we're just going
41:05
to join in the fight as well. They, they hold their peace.
41:11
They stay the course of discipleship in spite of what
41:15
other people are choosing to do. They're not choosing to react,
41:19
they're choosing to act. And I love verse 26 it says.
41:24
And when the priests left their labour to impart the word of God
41:27
unto the people, the people also left their labours to hear the
41:31
word of God. And when the priest had imparted
41:33
unto them the word of God, they all returned again diligently
41:36
unto their labours, And the priest not esteeming himself
41:40
above his hears. For the preacher was no better
41:43
than the hearer, neither was the pre teacher any better than the
41:47
learner. And thus they were all equal and
41:50
they did all labour every man according to his strength.
41:54
I love that that Zion oneness that you feel here.
42:00
And when you watch our current prophets and apostles and
42:04
leaders of the Church who have consecrated their whole life to
42:09
building up the Kingdom of God. And they, they, they love the
42:12
Lord. They don't come to us in an
42:17
attitude or in a spirit of you have to obey me because I've got
42:21
this power and this authority or this calling.
42:24
They come to us in the spirit of meekness.
42:27
They're, they're breathing the same air we're breathing,
42:30
they're walking on the same soil we're walking on.
42:33
They're they're in the trenches with us and they're doing
42:37
everything they can to persuade us to come unto Christ, to
42:40
believe in him and to follow the covenant path.
42:44
And it's this, this beautiful pattern, this very Christ like
42:48
pattern that we see all the time that we can apply in our own
42:52
relationships to stop being so controlling with the people that
42:59
we have jurisdiction over and be more loving and help them feel
43:05
that the arm around their shoulder is an invitation to
43:09
walk with them. Rather than to feel like we're
43:12
pushing them down or coercing them or forcing them into
43:17
certain behaviors or to fit a certain mold that we have
43:20
established for them. And I love the effect of these
43:23
people. They impart of their substance,
43:26
everyone according to that which they had to the poor and the
43:30
needy and the sick and the afflicted.
43:33
And they did not wear costly apparel.
43:34
Yeah, they were neat, yet they were neat and comely.
43:38
I love that this, this Zion feeling.
43:41
There was no poor among them. They're of one heart and one
43:44
mind. They're dwelling in
43:45
righteousness in spite of the, the terrible things that are
43:50
going on all around them in their society.
43:53
Now you get to chapter 2 and we get our our second major problem
43:59
in the form of Amlasi. Since Nihor has now been
44:06
executed, Amlasi is going to take this place as the type or a
44:13
shadow for for the devil. Look at these descriptions of
44:17
Amilsi and see how closely you can see through that lens, or
44:23
how clearly rather you can see through that lens.
44:25
The devil, a man was named Amilsi, he being a very cunning
44:31
man, yeah, a wise man as to the wisdom of the world, he being
44:37
after the order of the man that slew Gideon by the sword who was
44:40
executed according to the law. So Amilsi is after the order of
44:44
Nihor. Now this Amilsi had by his
44:46
cunning drawn away much people after him, Even so much that
44:52
they began to be very powerful and they began to endeavor to
44:56
establish Amilsi to be a king over the people.
44:59
So this this desire to take a throne or to take the
45:04
government, it's it's a repeat theme from heaven.
45:08
It's a variation on a pre mortal theme.
45:11
Look at verse four. If it were possible that unless
45:14
I should gain the voice of the people, he being a wicked man
45:18
would deprive them of their rights and privileges of the
45:22
church, and it was his intent to destroy the Church of God.
45:26
Rights and privileges are directly linked to agency and
45:31
liberty and freedom. And it came to pass that the
45:34
people assemble themselves together throughout all the
45:36
land, every man according to his mind, whether it were for or
45:40
against Amlassi, in separate bodies, having much dispute and
45:43
wonderful contentions one with another.
45:45
So they cast the vote, and the vote comes against Amlassi.
45:50
So if he's taking the role of Lucifer, what would he do?
45:54
He lost the vote. He didn't get the voice of the
45:57
people in his favor. So let's watch the response of
46:01
Amilicide verse nine. It came to pass that they
46:03
gathered themselves together and did consecrate Amilicide to be
46:07
their king. Since the whole Nephite nation
46:09
won't vote for him. Well, we'll just secede from the
46:14
nation and create our own little Kingdom, if you will.
46:18
And we'll anoint Amilicide to be our king because we don't want
46:21
to follow the judge and the and the reign of the judges.
46:25
Now when Amolus I was made king over them, he commanded them
46:28
that they should take up arms against their brethren.
46:30
And this he did that he might subject them to him.
46:33
He starts a war variations on a pre mortal theme.
46:39
Once again we're going to fight and contend to try to force the
46:44
issue since we couldn't get it by the voice of the people by
46:47
the vote. And so thus begins this
46:50
incredible battle. Now, Alma being this symbolic
46:58
type of Christ, I love the symbolism in verse 16.
47:03
Now, Alma being the chief judge and the governor of the people
47:07
of Nephi, therefore he went up with his people.
47:10
Yeah, with his captains and chief captains.
47:13
Yeah. At the head of his armies
47:17
against the ammo sites to battle.
47:19
He put himself in the most vulnerable and dangerous
47:22
position possible at the head of his armies to fight against this
47:27
this army of Amylocyte. And it says in verse 17, they
47:31
began to slay the Amylocytes upon the hill east of Sidon.
47:34
And the Amylocytes did contend with the Nephites with great
47:37
strength, insomuch that many of the Nephites did fall before the
47:41
Amylocytes. And you're thinking, Oh no.
47:44
But the next word is nevertheless, in spite of the
47:48
fact that some of the Nephites are falling, we're losing some,
47:51
and losing 1 is too many, but we're losing some nevertheless.
47:57
The Lord did strengthen the hand of the Nephites, that they slew
48:01
the Amnicites with great slaughter, and they began to
48:04
flee before them. Many of you have lost loved ones
48:09
in a symbolic or proverbial battle, and it's painful, it
48:14
hurts, but that doesn't take away our agency.
48:17
It doesn't take away our liberty, our freedom to choose
48:20
how we're going to now act moving forward.
48:24
If other people are lost for whatever reason, it doesn't mean
48:28
we also should give up or become lost as well.
48:33
We turn more than ever before at those points to the Lord and
48:38
plead for His strength, His power, his his grace, his mercy.
48:44
And we, they, they pressed forward in this battle, losing
48:51
10s of thousands of people, 19,000 people are going to die
48:56
between the the two groups in this civil war.
49:00
And then the amlocytes that survive escape southward.
49:05
And there they combine with this invading army of the Lamanites
49:11
and begin to overthrow the land. And we're thinking, wow, this
49:15
really isn't going well. This reign of the judges thing
49:18
is, is backfiring in so many ways.
49:23
You come down to chapter 3, and Mormon now describes these
49:28
amylocytes and a little more detail of that battle and how
49:31
they marked themselves in the battle.
49:34
And there are some very, very difficult verses here in Alma
49:39
chapter 3 that have caused a lot of problems for people to try to
49:44
understand and to wrestle with what the Book of Mormon is
49:47
saying about the mark, about the curse, about a skin of darkness.
49:54
And there have been a lot of people do a lot of very, very
49:59
racist things through the history of the earth.
50:04
I love the the statement in the Church's essay The Gospel Topics
50:11
essay called Race and the Priesthood in the very last
50:18
section of that Gospel Topics essay that can be found on
50:22
Gospel Library once again under Race in the Priesthood.
50:26
In the very last section entitled The Church Today, it
50:30
says today the Church disavows the theories advanced in the
50:34
past. That black skin is a sign of
50:38
divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous
50:43
actions in a pre mortal life. That mixed race marriages are a
50:48
sin, or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are
50:52
inferior in any way to anyone else.
50:56
Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all
51:00
racism, past and present, in any form.
51:04
Instead of ending there though, I love how the last paragraph
51:09
brings the focus back to the positive side and focuses us on
51:14
Jesus Christ. They say the church proclaims
51:18
the redemption through Jesus Christ is available to the
51:22
entire human family on the conditions God has prescribed.
51:27
It affirms that God is no respecter of persons and
51:32
emphatically declares that anyone who is righteous,
51:35
regardless of race, is favored of Him.
51:39
The teachings of the church in relation to God's children are
51:42
epitomized by a verse in the second book of Nephi quote.
51:46
The Lord denies none that come unto him.
51:49
Black and white, bond and free, male and female, all are alike
51:54
unto God, both Jew and Gentile. So when you study Alma 3 and you
52:01
see some of the, the, the difficult phrases and words here
52:06
from a 21st century lens, because of the way certain words
52:10
and and social constructs have been put together, it, it can be
52:15
very troubling until you step back and say God loves all of
52:21
his children. And what we're talking about are
52:24
certain cursings that probably don't have much to do with skin
52:29
pigmentation. There are other things and other
52:32
ways that you can read these if you would like to, to study this
52:36
topic a little further, Jasmine Rapley here at Scripture Central
52:40
put together a wonderful video called What is the Skin of
52:44
Blackness? And she walks you through what
52:48
many, many people have have researched about ways that we
52:53
can interpret and understand these passages a little bit
52:56
better. We don't know which one of the
52:58
theories is right or which combination of them is accurate,
53:02
but it it for those of you who are interested, it will help you
53:04
think outside of the box and look at these passages a little
53:08
bit differently and help us follow the injunction from
53:13
President Nelson to follow the example of Jesus Christ by
53:17
rooting out racism from among us at the end of chapter 3, verse
53:22
27. I love this this little insert
53:26
that Mormon gives us. He says for every man receiveth
53:30
wages of him whom he listeth to obey, and this according to the
53:36
words of the Spirit of prophecy. Therefore, let it be according
53:39
to the truth and thus end of the fifth year of the reign of the
53:42
judges. We've only been in this five
53:44
years and he's, he's showing us you receive the wages from him.
53:50
Who you, who you're following, who you obey, whoever you work
53:54
for, they're going to sign your paycheck.
53:56
The only problem is is the paycheck from the devil leads to
54:01
misery, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
54:04
Eventually, in the short term, it looks, it looks free, it
54:08
looks like nothing but unfettered liberty.
54:12
But in the long term, natural consequences, natural law
54:18
follows those those bad decisions that certain people
54:22
make. And in the opposite side, if you
54:27
serve the Lord, he signed your paycheck and he gives you all
54:31
that He has life and light and love and relationships forever
54:39
that that keep blessing us for eternity.
54:43
What a verse 27 is such a beautiful conclusion to this
54:48
story of the Amlocytes. Now you come to chapter 4.
54:52
And here in verse four, it says they began to establish the
54:56
church more fully. Yeah.
54:58
And many were baptized that they baptized 3500 souls and verse
55:05
five, that's a lot of people and we read that and we think, wow,
55:09
that's amazing. But stop and consider what the
55:14
Lord is doing in these days, the latter days across the world.
55:18
How many people are joining the church every day, every year.
55:23
And the numbers are are beautiful in in contrast.
55:28
Now you go to verse six. It came to pass in the eighth
55:32
year of the reign of the judges that the people of the church
55:35
began to wax proud because of their exceeding riches.
55:40
They've they're, they're prospering.
55:42
So this pride cycle is going to begin to take us down the other
55:46
side as they're puffed up in their pride.
55:50
And you'll notice pride is mentioned at the bottom of verse
55:53
six. Pride shows up in verse eight.
55:56
It shows up twice in verse nine, and it shows up in verse 12 and
56:00
again in verse 19. Pride dominates this page, this
56:04
chapter. And it's fascinating that as in
56:09
fact, let's go back to this. Here you had Alma, who is the
56:14
chief judge and the high priest. He's noticing that the people
56:18
are increasing in iniquity. So instead of passing more laws
56:23
to force them to do things, he says I'm going to judge you less
56:30
and I'm going to serve and teach you more.
56:35
So he gives up the judgement seat to another person to take
56:41
care of that. And he takes on the full time
56:43
responsibility of teaching and working among the people where
56:50
he's going to spend all of his time devoted to the prophetic
56:55
side of trying to persuade people through his loving
57:01
service to use their agency to choose God rather than giving up
57:07
the chief or sorry, rather than giving up his high priest
57:10
position to somebody and saying, I'm going to spend more time
57:13
passing more laws, hiring more law enforcement to go and force
57:18
people to do what I want them to do and building more prisons for
57:22
those who refuse to conform. And I'll scare them into doing
57:26
this. That's the way the the devil
57:29
would have approached this. He's taking this other side,
57:33
which is let's activate more of their agency.
57:39
So look at verse 15. It came to pass that Almah,
57:42
having seen the afflictions of the humble followers of God and
57:45
the persecutions which were heaped upon them by the
57:47
remainder of his people and seeing all their inequality,
57:51
began to be very sorrowful. So this is before he's actually
57:55
given up the judgment seat. And so it says, nevertheless,
58:02
the Spirit of the Lord did not fail him.
58:05
So as he sees these struggles, the Spirit of the Lord still
58:09
didn't fail him. It didn't didn't let him down.
58:13
And so that's when he clearly is inspired by God to select A wise
58:18
man who was among the elders of the church and gave him power
58:21
according to the voice of the people, that he might have power
58:25
to enact laws according to the laws which had been given.
58:27
And so that's Nephiah who is given the judgement seat.
58:31
And now Alma can focus 100% of his attention on teaching and
58:39
activating people's agency to try to choose appropriately.
58:43
And then verse 19. And this he did, that He himself
58:47
might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi,
58:51
that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up
58:55
in remembrance of their duty. That he might pull down by the
58:59
word of God all the pride and the craftiness, and all the
59:03
contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he
59:08
might reclaim them save it, were in bearing down in pure
59:11
testimony against them, instead of passing more laws.
59:16
He saw no way to do this other than to bear down in pure
59:21
testimony. I love seeing that pattern in
59:26
the life of Jesus Christ and in the lives and ministries of our
59:30
church leaders, both general and locally today.
59:35
It's an inspiring thing. And so now some of you may be
59:38
sitting in a home setting wondering, So what?
59:44
What am I supposed to do with this?
59:46
If you don't, most of us don't have big church callings or big
59:50
assignments at work or or big responsibilities in in big
59:54
organizations. So therefore, what I think the
59:57
principle if Elma were here today, I I can't speak for him,
1:00:03
but I would guess that he might say something along the lines of
1:00:07
in any area of influence you have plead for God's help, for
1:00:14
the Spirit of the Lord to guide you in how to activate.
1:00:19
More agency by loving, teaching, expounding, testifying,
1:00:27
encouraging, not coercing, forcing, threatening, attaching
1:00:37
your love to I will only love you if you do what I ask you or
1:00:42
what I insist that you do. Kinds of techniques, but rather
1:00:46
follow those principles from section 121, that long list of
1:00:50
Christ like attributes and that's what will motivate the
1:00:56
agency. The problem in many cases is
1:00:59
that takes time and it takes patience and it takes
1:01:03
long-suffering and it takes multiple rounds of forgiving and
1:01:08
repenting and working together and counselling together.
1:01:12
But at the end of the day, people are more likely to
1:01:16
respond to our loving service and teaching efforts than they
1:01:20
are to respond to our judging and condemning efforts that we
1:01:26
may make. In closing, I know that God
1:01:29
lives. I know that someday He will
1:01:32
return to this earth and take the government upon his
1:01:35
shoulders. That will be a beautiful day.
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But I don't need to wait for that beautiful day to start
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applying these principles in my own sphere of influence, in my
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own areas of, of relationships, to be able to build those
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relationships and listen and observe and watch and learn from
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the people around us and to then teach with love and correct with
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kindness. May the Lord bless us in those
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efforts is my prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ,
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Amen. Know that you're loved.