Handy links: Alma 21 in the 1830 version of the BOM and on LDS.org (I point out significant differences between the two, if there are any), follow my YouTube channel and read along with the Facebook group.

Companion video to this blog post:

Chapter overview: The narrative goes back chronologically to when the four brothers separate, and from chapters 21-25, we focus on Aaron and his two companions, who go to the land of the Lamanites called Jerusalem, where dwell the Lamanites and two people groups called Amalekites and Amulonites (though we’re never given any back-story on them or their name or their history; at times, they seem to be just part of the Lamanites no problem, then at other times they seem to be separate from them). Aaron preaches, the people reject it, he goes to another place where he finds Muloki and Ammah and his brethren; have no greater success there, so they go on to Middoni. At Middoni, a few believe, but the evangelists are still cast into prison, delivered by Lamoni and Ammon, then continued their missionary journey while Ammon and Lamoni go back to Lamoni’s territory, the land of Ishmael.

Verse 4 again with has the anachronous use of “synagogues” (which only came into existence after the Babylonian Captivity, while the ancestors of the BOM peoples left Jerusalem before the Captivity), but actually made worse than prior uses, because now we have the wicked Lamanites having synagogues!

Verse 6 contains the phrase “the thought and intent of our hearts“, plagiarizing Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God… is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Much of this chapter actually reminds me of a conversation that a Christian might have with a Mormon. In verse 6, the wicked people claim to be righteous, saying, “Behold, we have built sanctuaries, and we do assemble ourselves together to worship God. We do believe that God will save all men.” This reminds me of how Mormons claim to be Christians because they believe in Jesus. In the BOM, Aaron points out that it is not what these people are doing, but what they’re failing to do or refusing to do, that keeps them from being among true believers, and just like in conversations with Mormons, they protest that Christians are wrong: “Now Aaron said unto him, Believest thou that the Son of God shall come to redeem mankind from their sins? And the man saith unto him, We do not believe that thou knowest any such thing. We do not believe in these foolish traditions. We do not believe that thou knowest of things to come, neither do we believe that thy fathers, and also that our fathers did know concerning the things which they spake, of that which is to come.”

Verse 11 says that the men “contended with many about the word.” What’s the problem here? Simply that Mormons will frequently say, “contentions are of the devil”. Typically what will happen is that a Christian will push a Mormon into a corner, and the Mormon will step out of the conversation by saying that the discussion has now become “contentious”, and “contentions are of the devil”, so they will stop arguing. I’ve heard that phrase so many times that I thought it was in a D&C somewhere, but it’s actually in 3 Nephi 11:29, which we’ll be getting to in a few months. It says, “he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.” Yet here we have contention being praised and spoken of as a good thing!

Verses 21-22 say that king Lamoni granted freedom to his people, including the freedom to worship God as they chose. This sounds… very American, and very unlike ancient Israel. And since it sounds so modern, it sounds great, until you realize that these people had just been said to be wicked and to believe all sorts of false and wrong things, so basically Lamoni was telling them they had the right to commit idolatry and all forms of blasphemy. Again, that’s fine for a modern, secular state, but not for the religious state that ancient governments typically were.

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