How Gloriously Different Are the Saints
Book of Mormon Notes - Tuesday, August 22, 2023, Alma 13
This is a marvelous chapter from the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.
Alma had searched the scriptures diligently and learned much about the great Melchizedek. Alma seems to have identified with and drawn much inspiration from the great Melchizedek. They had a lot in common, and Alma’s wish was to establish peace and to lead even the wicked Ammonihahites into the rest of the Lord.
Alma spake many things to the people of Ammonihah, but Mormon chose this particular message about the Order of God and Melchizedek out of everything else that Alma had spoken. Why?
It seems to me that Alma was trying to do the same thing that Melchizedek had done among his people. But of course Alma’s writings were not meant just for the people of Ammonihah, because by the time that he wrote them, the city of Ammonihah had already been destroyed. Alma recorded these things for the benefit of a future audience, and Mormon selected these particular passages by inspiration in order bles and instruct his latter-day audience, namely us. And this particular portion of Alma’s record teaches many things about the Priesthood of God.
The Order of God is the Priesthood Order, which is called the Melchizedek Priesthood:
Why the first is called the Melchizedek Priesthood is because Melchizedek was such a great high priest.
Before his day it was called the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God.
But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood. (D&C 107:2-4)
The purpose for which the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, was to teach of Christ, repentance, the Plan of Salvation, and the commandments in order that the people might know in what manner to look forward to Jesus Christ for redemption. Alma teaches that men are called as high priests because of their exceeding faith and good works, that they are to teach the commandments, and that through righteousness they are sanctified and enter into the rest of the Lord:
And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being acalled and bprepared from the cfoundation of the world according to the dforeknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to echoose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great ffaith, are gcalled with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
And thus they have been acalled to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and bblindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great cprivilege as their brethren.
Or in fine, in the first place they were on the asame standing with their brethren; thus this holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared—
And thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his arest—
This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being awithout beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from beternity to all eternity, according to his cforeknowledge of all things—
Now they were aordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end—
Thus they become ahigh priests forever, after the order of the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of bgrace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen.
Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this ahigh priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding bfaith and crepentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish;
Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were asanctified, and their bgarments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb.
Now they, after being asanctified by the bHoly Ghost, having their garments made white, being cpure and spotless before God, could not look upon dsin save it were with eabhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God. (Alma 13:3-12)
Because of Jesus Christ we can repent, be made pure, and enter into the rest of the Lord. Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years. He is full of bgrace, equity, and truth. His Order or His Priesthood, like His Atonement, is also from the foundation of the world, awithout beginning of days or end of years. It was prepared from beternity to all eternity, according to the cforeknowledge of God.
Alma teaches that the Lord prepares, calls, and ordains men to His Order because of their faith, repentance, and righteousness. Alma learned from Melchizedek especially because he was such a great high priest, even so great that Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed to him.
We don’t know much about Melchizedek from the King James Version of the Old Testament, but thankfully the Joseph Smith Translation shed further light on the greatness of Melchizedek:
And Melchizedek lifted up his voice and blessed Abram.
Now Melchizedek was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire.
And thus, having been approved of God, he was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch,
It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor the will of man; neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God;
And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name.
For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course;
To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world.
And men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven.
And now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of peace.
And his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world;
And hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so as by fire.
And this Melchizedek, having thus established righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace.
And he lifted up his voice, and he blessed Abram, being the high priest, and the keeper of the storehouse of God;
Him whom God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor.
Wherefore, Abram paid unto him tithes of all that he had, of all the riches which he possessed, which God had given him more than that which he had need.
And it came to pass, that God blessed Abram, and gave unto him riches, and honor, and lands for an everlasting possession; according to the covenant which he had made, and according to the blessing wherewith Melchizedek had blessed him. (JST Genesis 14:25-40)
Just think of how great Melchizedek was! Who was this great man?
He was a man of faith
He wrought righteousness
As a child he feared God
As a child he stopped the mouths of lions
As a child he quenched the violence of fire
He was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch
He was approved of God
He had power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course, to put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God, to do all things according to God’s will, according to His command, to subdue principalities and powers, and even to be translated and taken up into Heaven
He obtained peace in Salem
He was called The Prince of peace
He inspired His people to work righteousness, obtain Heaven, and seek for the city of Enoch
He established righteousness
He was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace
He blessed Abraham and received tithes from him
He conferred the Priesthood upon Abraham (D&C 84:14)
The LDS Bible Dictionary entry on Melchizedek helps us to learn more about him as well:
King of Righteousness. A notable prophet and leader who lived about 2000 B.C. He is called the king of Salem (Jerusalem), king of peace, and “priest of the most High God.” Unfortunately, information concerning him in the Bible is relatively scarce, being limited to Gen. 14:18–20; Heb. 5:6; 7:1–3. Mention of the priesthood of Melchizedek is given in several other instances, primarily in Psalms and in Hebrews. However, latter-day revelation gives us much more about him and his priesthood (see JST Gen. 14:17 [Gen. 14:18 note d]; JST Gen. 14:25–40; JST Heb. 7:3 [Appendix]; Alma 13:14–19; D&C 84:14; 107:1–4). From these sources we realize something of the greatness of this prophet and the grandeur of his ministry. See also Jebus; Jerusalem; Melchizedek Priesthood.
Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Hebrews sheds even more light on this great man:
For this Melchizedek was ordained a priest after the order of the Son of God, which order was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life. And all those who are ordained unto this priesthood are made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually. (JST Hebrews 7:3)
That’s why we are here. Heavenly Father wants to make us like His Son, and He accomplishes this through His Priesthood. I think that C.S. Lewis was onto something when he wrote about something similar in his classic book Mere Christianity:
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose…
… The more we get what we now call "ourselves" out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of "little Christs," all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented—as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to "be myself" without Him…
… It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own…
…At the beginning I said there were Personalities in God. I will go further now.
There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.
I love that. How gloriously different are the saints. How gloriously different Melchizedek was. How gloriously different Alma was. And how gloriously different we can become as we seek Jesus Christ and follow Him in the manner that Mormon, through Alma invites us to do:
And now, my brethren, I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth afruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest.
Yea, humble yourselves even as the people in the days of aMelchizedek, who was also a high priest after this same order which I have spoken, who also took upon him the high priesthood forever. (Alma 13:13-14)
In this chapter we have the solution for all of the world’s problems. In these passages from the Book of Alma, Mormon helps to prepare his latter-day audience for the establishment of Zion, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
We live in a time like that in which Melchizedek first lived, a time when his people had waxed strong in iniquity and abomination, when they had all gone astray, and they were full of all manner of wickedness. It is a time like that in which Alma lived, with more cities like Zarahemla and Ammonihah than cities like Gideon or Melek. But the solution is the same for us as it was for Melchizedek or Alma:
aNow is the time to repent, for the day of salvation draweth nigh… (Alma 13:21, and Alma 13:22-30)