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CHAPTER 24The Lamanites come against the people of God—The Anti-Nephi-Lehies rejoice in Christ and are visited by angels—They choose to suffer death rather than to defend themselves—More Lamanites are converted. [Between 90 and 77 B.C.] |
[Between 90 and 82 B.C.] | |
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1 AND it came to pass that the Amalekites
and the Amulonites and the Lamanites who were in the land of
aAmulon, and also in the land of bHelam,
and who were in the land of cJerusalem, and in fine, in all
the land round about, who had not been converted and had not taken upon them
the name of dAnti-Nephi-Lehi, were stirred up by the
Amalekites and by the Amulonites to anger against their brethren.
2 And their hatred became exceedingly sore against them, even insomuch that they began to rebel against their kinga, insomuch that they would not that he should be their king; therefore, they took up arms against the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.
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2a they began to rebel against their king This rebellion would lead to a situation of 'civil war' except that the people of the Lord would not take up arms to battle. But the nation was divided between those who where the people of God who did support the king of the land and those who were not the people of God, who were lead by the rebelleous one time Nephites who had descented from among the Nephites. Thus it was the wickedness of the Nephites which did lead to the continuation of the conflict between the believers and the non-believers. |
1a
Alma 21:3 (2-4);
Alma 25:7 (4-9) b Mosiah 23:19; Mosiah 27:16; c Alma 21:1 d Alma 23:17; Alma 25:13 (1, 13)
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3 Now the king conferred the kingdom upon his son, and he called
his name Anti-Nephi-Lehi.
4 And the king died in that selfsame year that the Lamanites began to make preparations for war against the people of God. 5 Now when Ammon and his brethren and all those who had come up with him saw the preparations of the Lamanites to destroy their brethren, they came forth to the land of Midian, and there Ammon met all his brethren; and from thence they came to the land of Ishmael that they might hold a acouncil with Lamoni and also with his brother Anti-Nephi-Lehi, what they should do to defend themselves against the Lamanites.
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5a
Alma 27:4
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6 Now there was not one soul among all the people who had been
converted unto the Lord that would take up arms against their
brethren; nay, they would not even make any preparations for war;
yea, and also their king commanded them that they should not.
7 Now, these are the words which he said unto the people concerning the matter: I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of the atraditions of our wicked fathers. 8 And behold, I thank my great God that he has given us a portion of his Spirit to soften our hearts, that we have aopened a correspondence with these brethren, the Nephites.
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7a
Mosiah 1:5 8a Alma 23:18
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9 And behold, I also thank my God, that by opening this
correspondence we have been convinced of our asins, and of
the many murders which we have committed.
10 And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath aforgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the bguilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son. 11 And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do, (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to atake them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
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9a
Micah 3:8;
Hel. 13:26;
D&C 18:44 10a Dan. 9:9 b TG Guilt 11a Isa. 53:6 (4-6)
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12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our
stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our
swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
13 Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords aagain they can no more be bwashed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins. 14 And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our asouls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the bplan of salvation might be made known unto usa as well as unto future generations.
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14a he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us The administration of angels is always for a purpose. Of course the central purpose is to the ends of that great purpose and work of God, and that is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man, which is wrought by the plan of salvation through the atonement of Jesus Chrsit. Along with the message, the angels would administer to the people that the order of the kingdom might be established with all of its necessary ordinances of salvation. This is consistant with the purpose of the administration of angels in respect to the latter day restoration of the gospel to the earth again in our day and age. |
13a
D&C 42:26 b Rev. 1:5 14a TG Worth of Souls b TG Jesus Christ, Prophecies about; TG Salvation, Plan of
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15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as
much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are
made bright, let us ahide them away that they may be kept
bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we
shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained
our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us
and has made us bclean thereby.
16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall ago to our God and shall be saved.
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15a
Alma 25:14;
Alma 26:32 b TG Purification 16a Alma 40:11-15
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 18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they anever would use weapons again for the shedding of man's blood; and this they did, vouching and bcovenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would bgive up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands. 19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to abelieve and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.
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17a
Hel. 15:9 18a Alma 53:11 b TG Covenants c TG Self-sacrifice 19a TG Faith b TG Integrity
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20 And it came to pass that their brethren, the Lamanites, made
preparations for war, and came up to the land of Nephi for the purpose of
destroying the king, and to place aanother in his stead,
and also of destroying the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi out of the land.
21 Now when the people saw that they were coming against them they went out to meet them, and aprostrated themselves before them to the earth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thus they were in this attitude when the Lamanites began to fall upon them, and began to slay them with the sword. 22 And thus without meeting any resistance, they did slay a athousand and five of them; and we know that they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God.
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20a
Isa. 7:6 21a Alma 27:3 22a Alma 26:34
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23 Now when the Lamanites saw that their brethren would not flee from
the sword, neither would they turn aside to the right hand or to the left,
but that they would lie down and aperish, and
bpraised God even in the very act of perishing under the
sword—
24 Now when the Lamanites saw this they did aforbear from slaying them; and there were many whose hearts had bswollen in them for those of their brethren who had fallen under the sword, for they repented of the things which they had done. 25 And it came to pass that they threw down their weapons of war, and they would not take them again, for they were stung for the murders which they had committed; and they came down even as their brethren, relying upon the mercies of those whose arms were lifted to slay them.
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23a
Alma 26:32 b Mosiah 16:7 24a Alma 25:1 b TG Compassion; TG Repentance
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26 And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by
more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were
righteous people, therefore we have no reason to doubt but what they were
asaved.
27 And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many aways to the salvation of his people. 28 Now the greatest number of those of the Lamanites who slew so many of their brethren were Amalekites and Amulonites, the greatest number of whom were after the aorder of the bNehors.
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26a
Isa. 57:1;
Rev. 14:13 27a 2 Kings 5:15; Isa. 55:8-9; Alma 37:7 (6-7) 28a Alma 21:4 b Alma 1:15; Alma 2:1, 20; Alma 16:11
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29 Now, among those who joined the people of the Lord, there were
anone who were Amalekites or Amulonites, or who were of the
order of Nehor, but they were actual descendants of Laman and Lemuel.
30 And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once aenlightened by the bSpirit of God, and have had great cknowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have dfallen away into sin and transgression, they become more ehardened, and thus their state becomes fworse than though they had never known these things.
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29a
Alma 23:14 30a Matt. 12:45 b TG God, Spirit of c Heb. 10:26-27; Alma 47:36 d 2 Ne. 31:14; Alma 9:19; Alma 31:8; D&C 93:19; TG Apostasy of Individuals; TG Holy Ghost, Loss of e TG Hardheartedness f 2 Chr. 33:9; Ezek. 5:6; 2 Pet. 2:20-21
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