Alma 5 contains one of the most powerful sermons in the Book
of Mormon. Alma(2) has a serious problem.
Wickedness is invading the church.
Members are turning away from gospel principles and enjoying their
riches. Religion is less important to
them.
In this sermon, Alma(2) begins with a tribute to his
father. He challenges the people. He confronts them, asking them to reflect on
their lives and the eternal consequences of their decisions.
Who was this Alma(2)?
Why is he preaching to us? You
can almost hear the people questioning him.
Alma(2) makes it clear. He is the
high priest, “having been consecrated by my father, Alma, to be a high priest
over the church of God, he having power and authority from God to do these
things” (verse 3). He clearly has
authority to represent the Lord and preach his word.
There were probably people in his audience had either been
freed, or had a family member who was delivered from King Noah and the Lamanite
bondage. They were delivered, standing
there, through the power of God.
Alma(2) begins to question the people. He wants them to think about and realize just
what happened. He asks, “have you
sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?” (verse
6).
He continues. “[H]ave
you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in
remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained
in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?” (verse 6).
Then Alma(2) tells them that, not only had they been freed
from physical captivity, the Lord had delivered their “souls from hell.” They were spiritually captive to the
devil. Through Alma(1)’s teachings, and
the people accepting his teachings, they were released from their spiritual
captivity and their souls were delivered from hell.
This was done because “their souls were illuminated by the
light of the everlasting word” (verse 7).
They had been “encircled about by the bonds of death and the chains of
hell and everlasting destruction awaited them” (verse 7). Were they destroyed? No!
The “bands of death [were] broken and the chains of hell” were loosed
(verse 9).
Their souls “expand[ed] and they did sing redeeming
love. And I say unto you there were
saved” (verse 9). Alma(2) goes on,
asking, “on what conditions are they
saved … [on] what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed form
the bonds of death, yea, and also the chains of hell?” (verse 10). The answer is in verse 11.[1]
A Did not my father Alma believe in the words which were
delivered by … Abinadi?
B Was he not a
holy prophet?
B Did he not
speak the words of God,
A and my father Alma believe them?
There was a “mighty change” in Alma(1)’s heart. He preached the word of God “unto your
fathers.” Through his preaching, Alma(2)
explained, your fathers had a mighty
change of heart. They “put their trust
in the true and living God … they were faithful until the end, therefore they
were saved” (verse 13).
Verse 1-13 consists of Alma(2)’s great tribute to his
father. Alma(1), as a priest of Noah,
was most likely a wicked man. Fortunately,
the Lord touched his heart. He repented
and became a great leader and prophet.
As hard as it was to see his son’s wickedness, I can’t help but believe
Alma(1) understood. He knew something
had to happen to wrought a mighty change of heart in his son. He prayed, trusted in the Lord, and received
a powerful answer from the Lord.
Alma(2) understands that, what he is today, he owes to his
father. He is reminding the people that
his father was a great man and they all (himself included) owed him much.
In the next post, we’ll continue reviewing Alma(2)’s sermon.
[1] Verse
11 is a chiasmus. I have written it in a
format the will show the structure of the verse..
