32 And Ammon said:
Yea, and he looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the
thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from
the beginning.
33 And king Lamoni
said: I believe all these things which thou hast spoken. Art thou sent from God?
34 Ammon said unto
him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God,
and I am called by his Holy Spirit to teach these things unto this people, that
they may be brought to a knowledge of that which is just and true;
35 And a portion of
that Spirit dwelleth in me, which giveth me knowledge, and also power according
to my faith and desires which are in God.
36 Now when Ammon had
said these words, he began at the creation of the world, and also the creation
of Adam, and told him all the things concerning the fall of man, and rehearsed
and laid before him the records and the holy scriptures of the people, which
had been spoken by the prophets, even down to the time that their father, Lehi,
left Jerusalem.
37 And he also
rehearsed unto them (for it was unto the king and to his servants) all the
journeyings of their fathers in the wilderness, and all their sufferings with
hunger and thirst, and their travail, and so forth.
38 And he also
rehearsed unto them concerning the rebellions of Laman and Lemuel, and the sons
of Ishmael, yea, all their rebellions did he relate unto them; and he expounded
unto them all the records and scriptures from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem
down to the present time.
39 But this is not
all; for he expounded unto them the plan of redemption, which was prepared from
the foundation of the world; and he also made known unto them concerning the
coming of Christ, and all the works of the Lord did he make known unto them.
40 And it came to pass
that after he had said all these things, and expounded them to the king, that
the king believed all his words.
41 And he began to cry
unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, have mercy; according to thy abundant mercy
which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people.
42 And now, when he
had said this, he fell unto the earth, bas if he were dead.
43 And it came to pass
that his servants took him and carried him in unto his wife, and laid him upon
a bed; and he lay as if he were dead for the space of two days and two nights;
and his wife, and his sons, and his daughters mourned over him, after the
manner of the Lamanites, greatly lamenting his loss.
Alma 18:32-43
Ammon has been teaching King Lamoni the gospel. After learning about Heaven, he asked if it
is above the Earth.
He taught him all things were created by the hand of
God. “For, lo, he that formeth the
mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness,
and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name” (Amos 4:13).
Lamoni expressed his acceptance of Ammon’s teachings. He next asked Ammon is he was sent from God. “Yet
he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified
against them: but they would not give ear” (2 Chronicles 24:19).
Ammon responded he is a man, created after God’s image. “And never have I showed myself unto man whom
I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own
image? Yea, even all men were created in
the beginning after mine own image” (Ether 3:15).
He was called by the Holy Spirit to teach the Lamanites the
word of God. “And my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing [GR persuasive] words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which
God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to
whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen” (1 Peter 4:11).
Ammon explains a portion of the Spirit resides in him. It gives him knowledge as well as power based
on his faith and desires in God. Ammon
began teaching the King beginning with the fall of man. His teachings were form the Nephite
scriptures.
Speaking of the brass plates, King Benjamin told the people,
“For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all
these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help
of these plate… and [taught] them to his children, that thereby they could
teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even
down to this present time” (Mosiah 1:4).[1]
Alma emphasized their importance when passing the records on
to Helaman1. “Yea, I say unto you, were it not for these things that
these records do contain, which are on these plates, Ammon and his brethren
could not have convinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect
tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and their words brought them
unto repentance; that is, they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their
God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer” (Alma 37:9).
Ammon, speaking to the King and his servants, recounted the
journeys and sufferings of Lehi’s party.
He also explained the rebellions of Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of
Ishmael. He referred to the brass plates
as well as Nephite records that had been kept.
“The written records of the Nephites, which were essential in
maintaining their adherence to the Lord's commandments, consisted of the brass
plates of Laban (specified as scripture) as well as their own written
histories, some of which were also considered scripture (Alma 18:38)."[2]
Ammon now begins to preach the plan of salvation to the
King. He taught him the plan was
prepared before the world was formed. He
also taught him about the coming of Christ.
Having taught all these things, the king accepted the principles taught
him by Ammon.
The Book of Mormon does show the Nephite kings and even some
of the Lamanite kings enacting the appropriate Messianic roles, including
Benjamin's apparent acting as the high priest during the atonement rites and
King Lamoni (Alma 18:41—43; 19:1—16) prefiguring the death and ascent of the
Messiah. Lamoni's story is particularly resonant in this connection.[3]
Having heard and accepted Ammon’s words, King Lamoni cries
out to the Lord, asking Him to have mercy on him and his people. No sooner did he say this, than he feel to
the ground and appeared dead.
His servants took him to his wife. He was placed on a bed and lay for two days
and night. He was mourned by his wife,
sons, and daughters in traditional Lamanite style.
[1] Aaron
followed this same method when he taught the Lamanites. “And it came to pass
that when Aaron saw that the king would believe his words, he began from the
creation of Adam, reading the scriptures unto the king—how God created man
after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of
transgression, man had fallen” (Alma 22:12).
[2] Moses'
Brazen Serpent as It Relates to Serpent Worship in Mesoamerica, Wallace E.
Hunt Jr., Maxwell Institute, accessed May 23, 2015.
[3] "Paradigms
Regained" – Temple Traditions after the Deuteronomist Reform, Kevin
Christensen, Maxwell Institute, accessed May 23, 2015.
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