Influential Fathers and the Rising Generation
Book of Mormon Notes - Wednesday, August 3, 2023, Mosiah 27
At this point in the Book of Mormon the First Coming of Christ is only a century away. It is important for us to remember this timeline, especially if we believe that the Book of Mormon is a kind of manual for preparation for the Second Coming of Christ (see also here, here, and here) and that it contains parallels to our day that Mormon included for our benefit.
In the previous chapter we learned about the difficulties with which Alma was confronted because of the unbelievers in the rising generation. These difficulties only increased when a small group of these unbelievers made up of Alma’s son Alma and four sons of Mosiah, went about secretly to destroy the Church. While Mosiah was busy with a proclamation for his people to prevent persecution of believers and encourage equality among them, and while Alma was busy dealing with transgressors in the Church according to the revelation that he had received, Mosiah’s sons and Alma’s son were busy trying to destroy the very Church that their fathers had worked so hard to build up.
Again we see a conflict between family duties and relationships on the one hand, and civic and ecclesiastical duties on the other. Mosiah and Alma were not preserved from the trials that many of their fellow citizens and co-religionists endured because of the unbelief and hard-heartedness of the rising generation. In fact, Mosiah and Alma may have suffered the most because their sons were the most active in opposing the work of the Lord.
Why did this happen? Why were Alma and the sons of Mosiah more influenced by their unbelieving generation than their own fathers’ examples? If we recall that the unbelievers lacked faith because they were little children during the time of King Benjamin’s powerful speech and the resulting mass conversion, and their lack of faith led to lack of understanding and to hard-heartedness, we may understand that not even Alma’s son or Mosiah’s sons were immune from the surrounding cultural influence. But the tension between Mosiah’s monarchical duties and Alma’s ecclesiastical duties on the one hand, and their familial duties on the other is brought into the foreground in this chapter.
In reality, the civic and religious duties go hand in hand with familial duties, but I wonder if the transitions from fathers to sons that we read about in the Book of Mormon are meant to teach us something about the importance of relationships between fathers and sons particularly, and between fathers and their families more generally. The transmission of faith from Lehi to Nephi and Jacob, for instance, went very well and in fact we might say that Nephi and Jacob improved upon their father Lehi’s example and heritage of faith. The transition from Jacob to Enos was a little more difficult, but still effective. Enos was a man of great faith who accomplished much good in his life. If we follow these generations we eventually come to Mosiah, Benjamin, and Benjamin’s son Mosiah. The faith of Lehi burned as brightly as ever in the bosom of King Benjamin and of King Mosiah. But as we can see in this chapter of the Book of Mormon, there was a momentary difficulty in the transmission of faith in Christ from Mosiah to his sons, and from Alma to his son.
Perhaps the difficulties in this transition for Alma and his son are more understandable because of Alma’s own past and his conversion because of the testimony of Abinadi. But the intergenerational conflicts between King Mosiah and Alma on the one hand, and the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger on the other seem to be more pronounced and severe than any previous generation. Something peculiar was going on in Zarahemla.
Zarahemla was the large and growing capital of the Nephites, but it was originally established and inhabited by the Mulekites. Recall that Mulek had escaped from Jerusalem when his father, King Zedekiah, had his eyes gouged out and was carried away captive. Zing Zedekiah wasn’t exactly the paragon of virtue and righteousness. He had thrown the prophet Jeremiah in prison. The Mulekite civilization was very different from the Lehites or even the Jaredites. Recall that the Mulekites had brought no records with them, their language was corrupted, and they denied the being of their Creator. I suspect that some of the unbelief that persisted among King Mosiah’s people may be attributed to the influence of the Mulekite civilization that preceded them.
Another factor to consider is that unlike Zeniff, Limhi, Gideon, and Alma who had experienced much tribulation because of the Lamanites, the Nephites in Zarahemla seem to have enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity. Perhaps the people had become too complacent and too comfortable in their circumstances. Even with the righteous influence of their king, Mosiah, and the great missionary efforts of Alma, without serious wars or Lamanite oppression, it may have been easy for the rising generation to forget that it was God who had blessed them with such peace and prosperity.
Alma the Younger, for example, was only one generation removed from the most horrible oppression under the tyrannical rule of Amulon and the tyrannical rule of King Noah just prior to that. But Alma the Younger seems to have forgotten about all of that since he probably wasn’t alive at the time. As astounding as this may seem, when I think of the rising generation today, I wonder how many of them really understand anything that happened more than five minutes ago or anything that happened outside of their phone or computer screens. Do they know anything about the century of horrors before most of them were born? Have they read the Bible? Have they read the Constitution? Do they know anything true about the Founders of the U.S.A.? I wonder.
But rather than pin too much blame upon the rising generation, I really wonder about my own generation and the generations just prior to my own. After all, the radical movements of the 60s weren’t exactly part of a golden age of America. Whatever the case, Mormon has given us an amazing account of two very influential fathers, King Mosiah and Alma, whose sons had lost sight of everything for which their fathers stood for.
I also wonder about the women in Zarahemla. Perhaps a woman who has studied the
se chapters has more insights into the character and role of the women at this time. Alma the Younger’s mother and the mother of the sons of Mosiah must have been sick with worry. Their sons were wrecking havoc upon the Church, and there was nothing that could stop their destructive work except the power and direct intervention of God.
Are there people who, like the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger, devote their time to attempting to destroy the Church? I can think of a handful of very influential people, including therapists, podcasters, bloggers, and so forth who seem hell-bent on doing everything they can to destroy the faith of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and especially the faith of the rising generation. Not all of them have influential fathers like Alma or Mosiah, but I sometimes wonder if anyone has enough faith to pray for some kind of a Divine intervention to offer them the opportunity for repentance.
In any case, conditions in Zarahemla became so intolerable because of the unbelievers and dissenters that the faithful began to complain to Mosiah and to Alma and other leaders. Mosiah attempted to remedy the situation with executive action in the form of a proclamation to prevent persecution and to encourage equality. His proclamation was also a political effort to combat pride, haughtiness, idleness, and other vices. King Mosiah’s efforts proved to be effective for a time. But as Zarahemla and the Nephite civilization continued to grow and prosper, so to did the efforts of unbelievers and dissenters, primarily Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah.
Alma the Younger was a wicked and idolatrous man, a man of many words, and a man who flattered and led away many of the people to follow his iniquitous lifestyle. Mormon informs us that he became a great hinderment to the prosperity of the Church of God, causing much dissension. In our time, John Dehlin, Julie Hanks, and many others have done Alma the Younger like damage to the Church.
But unlike John Dehlin and Julie Hanks who work openly, Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah went about secretly to destroy the Church. There are certainly people like that today who prefer to go about secretly to destroy the Church. But as Joseph Smith boldly proclaimed:
No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (History of the Church, 4:540).
In the midst of their rebellion and destructive work, a miracle occurred. It was the faith of the faithful in Zarahemla, and particularly the faith of Alma the Elder that brought about this miracle:
And as I said unto you, as they were going about arebelling against God, behold, the bangel of the Lord cappeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a dcloud; and he spake as it were with a voice of thunder, which caused the earth to shake upon which they stood;
And so great was their astonishment, that they fell to the earth, and understood not the words which he spake unto them. (Mosiah 27:11-12)
In the past when I have read these verses, I’ve often assumed that this angel was one of the many messengers that the Lord has sent to visit people over the centuries. But notice that “the bangel of the Lord cappeared” unto Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah. Now when I read this, I see an experience that is more akin to the experience of Saul who became the Apostle Paul. Nevertheless, in the following verses it seems clear that this was an angel of the Lord and not the Lord himself. What was the angel’s message to Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah:
And again, the angel said: Behold, the Lord hath aheard the prayers of his people, and also the bprayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has cprayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the dknowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to econvince thee of the power and authority of God, that the fprayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith.
And now behold, can ye dispute the power of God? For behold, doth not my voice shake the earth? And can ye not also abehold me before you? And I am sent from God.
Now I say unto thee: Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of aHelam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them; for they were in bbondage, and he has cdelivered them. And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more, that their prayers may be answered, and this even if thou wilt of dthyself be ecast off. (Mosiah 27:14-16)
Notice that the angel specifically instructed Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah to remember what the Lord had done for their fathers in the land of Helam and the land of Nephi, in delivering them from bondage. Let’s remember this when, later in the Book of Mormon, we read Alma the Younger’s testimonies to his own sons.
Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them. He knows our concerns for and about the rising generation. He might not always send an angel from Heaven in a cloud to speak with a voice of thunder to shake the earth, but He will respond in the way that is best for everyone.
Alma the Elder loved his son very much. He prayed with much faith on his behalf. Alma had already received a promise of eternal life and many other blessings. He was very close to the Lord, and his prayers had a peculiar power. Not only that, but Alma the Elder prayed for a very specific person in a very specific way. He prayed with much faith specifically for his son Alma the Younger, and he prayed specifically that Alma the Younger would be brought to the knowledge of the truth. Are there people whom we love who might benefit from similarly fervent and specific prayers?
To be continued…