“Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?” Alma has some impressive rhetorical skills on display in his interrogative sermon in chapter 5. He encourages his audience to access their past selves, future selves, ideal selves, and imagine dying and standing accountable before God. Class Member Reading: Alma 5-7 Diana and Jacob join the class.… Continue Reading
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More chapters about good guys vs. bad guys! Or is there more to the story? A careful reading of these chapters invite questions about Nephite power and conflict, as well as the nature of motivation, reform, and healthy communities. Who are the “good guys” and “bad guys”, insiders and outsiders? Reading: Mosiah 29; Alma 1-4… Continue Reading
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“Alma … Did Judge Righteous Judgments” Reading: Mosiah 29-Alma 4 In these chapters, we need to challenge the narrator. Mormon assures us that Alma is right and Nehor is wrong, that the Nephites are just and the Amlicites are wicked. But a closer reading challenges, or at least nuances these claims, giving us an opportunity… Continue Reading
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God made Alma the Elder’s burdens light… but it appears Alma the Younger did not have the same experience. Alma the Younger’s conversion experience transformed the most difficult period of his life into the fuel for his ministry. We can act rather than react, even in the most difficult circumstances. And even when we act… Continue Reading
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We all know the story of the conversion of Alma the Younger, but too rarely pause and ask the deeper questions that add richness and applicability to this narrative. Why did Alma want to destroy the Church? If God can send an angel ex machina to convince someone of their existence, why doesn’t that happen… Continue Reading
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God delivers us *in* our trials before God delivers us *from* our trials. It has to be that way. The only choice is whether we choose to submit ourselves from the beginning, as Alma as his people do, or whether we fight the process until we have no other choice, as Limhi and his people… Continue Reading
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“None Could Deliver Them but the Lord” This reading is a study in contrasts–covenantal cooperation vs. exploitation, desperate vengeance vs. trusting submission. Alma’s baptismal covenants teach us to bear each other’s burdens, mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those in need of comfort. The contrasting stories of the enslavement of Limhi and Alma’s people… Continue Reading
