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CHAPTER 4Alma baptizes thousands of converts—Iniquity enters the Church, and the Church's progress is hindered—Nephihah is appointed chief judge—Alma, as high priest, devotes himself to the ministry. [Between 86 and 83 B.C.] |
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~ 86 B.C. ~ |
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1 NOW it came to pass in the
*sixth year of the reign of the judges over the people of
Nephi, there were no contentions nor wars in the aland of
Zarahemla;
2 But the people were afflicted, yea, greatly afflicted for the aloss of their brethren, and also for the loss of their flocks and herds, and also for the loss of their fields of grain, which were trodden under foot and destroyed by the Lamanites. 3 And so great were their afflictions that every soul had cause to mourn; and they believed that it was the judgments of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abominations; therefore they were aawakened to a remembrance of their duty.
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1*
[86 B.C.] a Omni 1:12-19 2a Alma 2:19; Alma 3:1-2, 26 3a 1 Cor. 15:34 (33-34)
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4 And they began to establish the achurch more
fully; yea, and many were bbaptized in the
cwaters of Sidon and were joined to the church of God; yea,
they were baptized by the hand of Alma, who had been consecrated the
dhigh priest over the people of the church, by the hand of his
father Almaa.
5 And it came to pass in the *seventh year of the reign of the judges there were about three thousand five hundred souls that united themselves to the achurch of God and were baptized. And thus endeth the seventh year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and there was continual peace in all that time.
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4a Alma, who had been consecrated the high priest over the people of the church, by the hand of his father Alma Priesthood line of authority, that linage, is of importance to insure that the proper authority had been handed down from generation to generation. Thus Alma I, who had been give authority from God was he who consecreted or ordained his son unto his priesthood office. |
4a
TG
Church Organization b Mosiah 18:10-17 c Alma 3:3; Alma 6:7 d Mosiah 29:42; TG High Priest 5* [85 B.C.] a Mosiah 25:22 (18-23); 3 Ne. 26:21
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~ 84 B.C. ~ |
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6 And it came to pass in the *eighth year of the
reign of the judges, that the people of the church began to wax proud,
because of their exceeding ariches, and their
bfine silks, and their fine-twined linen, and because of
their many flocks and herds, and their gold and their silver, and all manner
of precious things, which they had obtained by their
cindustry; and in all these things were they lifted up in
the pride of their eyes, for they began to wear very costly
dapparel.
7 Now this was the cause of much affliction to Alma, yea, and to many of the people whom Alma had consecrated to be ateachers, and bpriests, and celders over the church; yea, many of them were sorely grieved for the wickedness which they saw had begun to be among their people. 8 For they saw and beheld with great sorrow that the people of the church began to be lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and to set their ahearts upon riches and upon the vain things of the world, that they began to be scornful, one towards another, and they began to persecute those that did bnot believe according to their own will and pleasurea.
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8a they began to persecute those that did not believe according to their own will and pleasure Today this unique situation has again arose. It is quite one thing to up hold the law and to hold those accountable who break those laws whether they be civil or religous in nature. With the division of church and state there are 'church laws' of moral living which the church is left to administer to their own particular congregations and then there is the law of the land and its set of hopefully moral laws which the state inforces such as against murder, robbery, so forth and etc. Today however there are those who are in the process of making up laws according to their 'own will and pleasure' and when those 'made up' biased laws are being put into force they are being found to be in conflict with one's right to worship God and hold to God's commandments, rules and statutes. God's law stands against sexual immorality while today's society is actually in the process of forcing upon its citizenry the obligations of living by amoral norms of the society. School teachers are allowed to force exposure of immoral conduct and behavior upon their students, forcing them to read and be exposed to immoral literature and training them in immoral conduct, that it is 'good' and 'acceptable' behaviors and practically expected of the common person to so behave and accept that immoral life style. And with the IMMORAL LIBERAL LEFT in control these are only growing and expanding in their natures and enforcement upon the general public whether it is according to those person's religious beliefs or not. Particularly there is movement afoot which discriminates against moral conservation Christians and the absolute moral laws taught by the Bible by the word of God. And thus are the signs of the times where 'good' is being deemed 'evil' and 'evil' is being called 'good'. When the state begins to enforce by law the acceptance and even encourages it as normal acceptable behavior then the time of the Lord is at hand. |
6*
[84 B.C.] a TG Riches b Alma 1:29 c TG Industry d TG Apparel 7a Mosiah 6:3; TG Teacher b TG Church Organization c Alma 4:16; TG Elder 8a TG Pride; TG Vanity; TG Worldliness b Alma 1:21
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9 And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there
began to be great acontentions among the people of the
church; yea, there were benvyings, and
cstrife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to
exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God.
10 And thus ended the eighth year of the reign of the judges; and the wickedness of the church was a great astumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress.
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9a
TG
Contention b TG Envy c Alma 16:18; TG Strife 10a TG Stumblingblock
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~ 83 B.C. ~ |
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11 And it came to pass in the *commencement of the
ninth year, Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the
aexample of the church began to lead those who were
unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the
destruction of the people.
12 Yea, he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the aneedy and the naked and those who were bhungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted.
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11*
[83 B.C.] a 2 Sam. 12:14; Alma 39:11; TG Example 12a Isa. 3:14; Ezek. 22:12 (6-13); Amos 3:10; Jacob 2:17 b Mosiah 4:26
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13 Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people,
while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of
their succor, such as imparting their substance to the
apoor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all
manner of bafflictions, for Christ's
csake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy;
14 Looking forward to that day, thus aretaining a bremission of their sins; being filled with great cjoy because of the resurrection of the dead, according to the will and power and ddeliverance of Jesus Christ from the bands of death.
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13a
TG
Almsgiving b TG Affliction c 2 Cor. 12:10 14a Mosiah 4:12; Alma 5:26-35; D&C 20:32 (31-34) b TG Justification c TG Joy d TG Deliverance
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15 And now it came to pass that Alma, having seen the afflictions of
the humble followers of God, and the persecutions which were heaped upon them
by the remainder of his people, and seeing all their
ainequality, began to be very sorrowful; nevertheless the
Spirit of the Lord did not fail him.
16 And he selected a wise man who was among the aelders of the church, and gave him power according to the bvoice of the people, that he might have power to enact claws according to the laws which had been given, and to put them in force according to the wickedness and the crimes of the people.
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15a
2 Cor. 8:14;
D&C 49:20 16a Alma 4:7 b Alma 2:3-7; Alma 50:39 c Alma 1:1, 14, 18
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17 Now this man's name was aNephihah, and he was
appointed bchief judge; and he sat in the judgment-seat to
judge and to govern the people.
18 Now Alma did not grant unto him the office of being ahigh priest over the church, but he retained the office of high priest unto himself; but he delivered the judgment-seat unto bNephihah. 19 And this he did that he ahimself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might bpreach the cword of God unto them, to dstir them up in eremembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure ftestimony against them.
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17a
Alma 27:20 b Alma 30:29; Alma 50:37 18a TG High Priest b Alma 7:2 19a Alma 7:1 b Alma 5:1 c Alma 31:5; D&C 11:2 d Enos 1:23 e 2 Chr. 35:6; Alma 16:16; D&C 108:7 f TG Testimony
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~ 83 B.C. ~ |
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20 And thus in the commencement of the ninth year of the reign of the
judges over the people of Nephi, Alma delivered up the judgment-seat to
aNephihah, and confined himself wholly to the
bhigh priesthood of the holy order of
Goda, to the
ctestimony of the word, according to the spirit of
revelation and prophecyb.
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20a the high priesthood of the holy order
of God This priesthood which Alma did hold was the Melchizedek
Priesthood, that 'high priesthood' after the order of the Son of God.
20b according to the spirit of revelation and prophecy That which guides and directs the priesthood of God is the Spirit of the Holy Ghost. That is the Spirit of Revelation and the Spirit of Prophecy. Those who lead and direct the Church do so by that spirit from God. And it lead line by line, precept by precept in all things that is expedient for man to do. With the administration of angels accompanying it to the end that all is done according to the mind and the will of God. Angels administer by the power of the Holy Ghost. Men speak with the voice of angels by the power of the Holy Ghost. Ordinances are authorized and performed by the power of the administrations of the power of the priesthood as administered, guided and directed by the Holy Ghost. It is mans communicative link with heaven. And those who turn their backs and deny the power and operation thereof have lost all communicated powers with heaven and have cut themselves off from the power of the presence of God. |
20a
Alma 8:12 b Alma 29:42; Alma 5:3, 44, 49 c TG Preaching
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| * Verse 1 [86 B.C.]; Verse 5 [85 B.C.]; Verse 6 [84 B.C.]; Vers 11 [83 B.C.]. | |||
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