Mosiah 26:7-14

⁷ And it came to pass that they were brought before the priests, and delivered up unto the priests by the teachers; and the priests brought them before Alma, who was the high priest. ⁸ Now king Mosiah had given Alma the authority over the church. ⁹ And it came to pass that Alma did not know concerning them; but there were many witnesses against them; yea, the people stood and testified of their iniquity in abundance.

Mosiah 26:7-9 (Emphasis mine)

We have a real problem in the church.  What do you do with the dissenters?  The people brought them before the priests.  They didn’t know what to do.  They then brought them before Alma(1).  Not only wasn’t he sure what to do, he wasn’t all that aware of what was going on.

Hugh Nibley observes:

“[The dissenters] embraced a much more permissive moral doctrine, which became very popular. The popularity of that easygoing church, the religion of Nehor, made it the dominant religion almost to the end of the Book of Mormon. This is no wonder since it allowed them, as we're told, to live in a ‘carnal and sinful state.’

“The numbers of dissenters grew, due to criticism within the Church. There were dissensions among the brethren, while the outsiders kept working on the members to accept the new moral emancipation (Mosiah 26:1—6). What was to be done? Members of the Church who had begun to make trouble were brought by local members before local priests and teachers; but those officers didn't know what to do, except to send the culprits on to Alma, since Mosiah recognized Alma as the head of the Church, the high priest (Mosiah 26:7). Mosiah felt it should be Alma's problem, but Alma didn't know what to do either. In fact, he had no idea of what had been going on. That's very interesting: Alma, the head of the Church, hadn't heard of it at all. He was the only one who didn't know.” [1] (Emphasis mine)

¹⁰ Now there had not any such thing happened before in the church; therefore Alma was troubled in his spirit, and he caused that they should be brought before the king. ¹¹ And he said unto the king: Behold, here are many whom we have brought before thee, who are accused of their brethren; yea, and they have been taken in divers iniquities.  And they do not repent of their iniquities; therefore we have brought them before thee, that thou mayest judge them according to their crimes. ¹² But king Mosiah said unto Alma: Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged.

Mosiah 26:10-12 (Emphasis mine)

Problems like this had not occurred before.  Alma(1) didn’t know what to do.  Since the King had traditionally been the high priest, Alma(1) believed he would know what to do. 

He took them before Mosiah(2) and told him the situation.  These dissenters were causing problems for the church.  They were getting people to leave the church.  They refused to repent of their sins.  Alma(1) wanted Mosiah(2) to judge them according to their crimes. 

The King would have none of this.  We see that he had begun to divest the office of king of responsibilities.  (The king had been the high priest as well as the king.)  Mosiah’s work was so overwhelming, he realized he couldn’t do everything.  He was also laying the foundation eventually to abolish the office of king. 

The problem was placed back into Alma(1)’s hands.  He had to deal with the problem.

Daniel Peterson writes:

“Old habits die hard. Here, Alma—he of the pronounced antimonarchical views—turns to the monarch for assistance in solving a grievous ecclesiastical problem. But he had miscalculated his man, for King Mosiah₂himself was probably Alma's greatest convert to the antimonarchical position. And, at least in this instance, Mosiah was a more consistent partisan of that stance than was the high priest. He refused to become involved in the kind of religious-ecclesiastical issue that he had put onto Alma's shoulders. ‘Behold,’ he said, ‘I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged’ (emphasis in original) (Mosiah 26:12).” [2] (Unless noted, emphasis mine)

What to do?

¹³ And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the sight of God. ¹⁴ And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying:

Mosiah 26:13-14 (Emphasis mine)

He did the only thing he could do.  He took his problem to the Lord. 

“In at least one instance, prayer about a difficult political problem elicits an answer. Unsuccessful in his effort to transfer jurisdiction over zealous apostates to the king, Alma takes his dilemma to the Lord in prayer. ‘And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him,’ saying essentially that ecclesiastical dilemmas require ecclesiastical solutions (Mosiah 26:14).” [3] (Emphasis mine)

The next post will deal with the Lord’s answer.

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[1] Criticizing the Brethren, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 27, 2012.

[2] Authority in the Book of Mosiah, Daniel C. Peterson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 27, 2012.

[3] The Book of Mormon and Dialogic Revelation, Terryl L. Givens, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 27, 2012.