Swallowed Up in the Joy of Christ
Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, September 22, 2023, Alma 31
Why did Mormon include this story of Alma and his brethren and their missionary efforts among the apostate Zoramites? What is Mormon’s message for his latter-day audience? Is there something in the Zoramite apostasy and forms of worship that resembles our own? Why did the poor among the Zoramites receive the missionaries while the richer Zoramites did not?
Honestly, when I read this chapter and consider the Rameumptom, the holy stand, I can’t help but think of fast and testimony meetings. Most of the fast and testimony meetings that I have participated in have been great, and very edifying and uplifting. Therefore, the false worship of the Zoramites is not comparable to the average fast and testimony meeting. But I wonder what kinds of things Mormon saw regarding the last days, or what inspiration he received while composing his abridgment of the Nephite records that led him to write specifically about this strange incident.
Alma was grieved because of the wickedness of the Zoramites, and the Nephites worried that the Zoramites would join forces with the Lamanites. In answer to the question “What is to be done?” Alma knew that the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the only real solution to the problem:
And now, as the apreaching of the bword had a great tendency to clead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God. (Alma 31:5)
Therefore Alma continued his great missionary efforts and invited his fellow missionaries, Ammon, Aaron, Omner (while Himni remained in Zarahemla), as well Amulek and Zeezron, and two of his sons, Shiblon and Corianton, to join him in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the dissenting Zoramites.
Alma and his brethren and his sons were astonished by the Zoramite’s apostasy. The Zoramites denied Christ, believed in a false concept of election, and worshiped with set prayers. But a couple of things about the Zoramite apostasy stood out to me as particularly relevant and even common in our time, especially in the United States of America. Mormon records Alma’s response to the situation:
Now when Alma saw this his heart was agrieved; for he saw that they were a wicked and a perverse people; yea, he saw that their hearts were set upon gold, and upon silver, and upon all manner of fine goods.
Yea, and he also saw that their hearts were alifted up unto great boasting, in their pride. (Alma 31:24-25)
Certainly Mormon foresaw that many of us in the last days, particularly in the promised land, would set our hearts upon gold, and upon silver, and upon all manner of fine goods, and that many hearts would be lifted up unto great boasting, in our pride. But I believe that Mormon foresaw another problem that Alexis de Tocqueville also recognized in American democracy, namely, that many people, like the Zoramites, would settle down on Sunday to worship God, and then return to Babylon, worshiping and hoarding wealth during the rest of the week. Tocqueville put it this way:
There is notably a large American city in which, beginning Saturday evening, social movement is as if suspended. You cross it at the hour that seems to invite those of mature years to business and youth to pleasure, and you find yourself in a profound solitude. Not only is no one working, but also no one appears to be alive. You hear neither the movement of industry nor the accents of joy, nor even the confused murmurings that arise constantly within a large city. Chains are hung in the vicinity of the churches; the half-closed shutters of the houses only reluctantly allow a ray of sunlight to penetrate the dwelling of the citizens. Scarcely here and there do you see an isolated man who is passing noiselessly through deserted crossroads and along abandoned streets.
The next morning at the beginning of day, the rattle of carriages, the noise of hammers, the cries of the population begin again to make themselves heard; the city awakens; a restless crowd rushes toward the centers of commerce and industry; everyone stirs, everyone becomes agitated, everyone hurries around you. A sort of lethargic drowsiness is followed by a feverish activity; you would say that each person has only a single day at his disposal in order to gain wealth and to enjoy it.
Mormon records Alma’s observation regarding a similar practice among the Zoramites:
Now, after the people had all offered up thanks after this manner, they returned to their homes, anever speaking of their God again until they had assembled themselves together again to the holy stand, to offer up thanks after their manner. (Alma 31:23)
In recent years, to combat such Zoramite-like practices, President Nelson has led the Church in encouraging a renewed commitment to Christ-centered learning and teaching in the home, supplemented by Sunday worship.
Mormon records Alma’s beautiful and powerful prayer of faith, a prayer that we might each offer in faith when we consider the conditions of the world in which we now live:
And he lifted up his voice to heaven, and acried, saying: O, how long, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that thy servants shall dwell here below in the flesh, to behold such gross wickedness among the children of men?
Behold, O God, they acry unto thee, and yet their hearts are swallowed up in their pride. Behold, O God, they cry unto thee with their mouths, while they are bpuffed up, even to greatness, with the vain things of the cworld.
Behold, O my God, their costly apparel, and their ringlets, and their abracelets, and their ornaments of gold, and all their precious things which they are ornamented with; and behold, their hearts are set upon them, and yet they cry unto thee and say—We thank thee, O God, for we are a chosen people unto thee, while others shall perish.
Yea, and they say that thou hast made it known unto them that there shall be no Christ.
O Lord God, how long wilt thou suffer that such wickedness and infidelity shall be among this people? O Lord, wilt thou give me strength, that I may abear with mine infirmities. For I am infirm, and such wickedness among this people doth pain my soul.
O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul ain Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these bafflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people.
O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul, and give unto me success, and also my fellow laborers who are with me—yea, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and also aAmulek and Zeezrom, and also my btwo sons—yea, even all these wilt thou comfort, O Lord. Yea, wilt thou comfort their souls in Christ.
Wilt thou grant unto them that they may have strength, that they may abear their afflictions which shall come upon them because of the iniquities of this people.
O Lord, wilt thou grant aunto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ.
Behold, O Lord, their asouls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee. (Alma 31:26-35)
Notice that Alma’s faithful prayer was not to change the circumstances but to receive strength from the Lord to endure well, and to lead souls unto Christ. Alma’s prayer reminds me of this great passage in the LDS Bible Dictionary entry on prayer:
As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.
The Lord answered Alma’s prayer. The Lord blessed His servants with His spirit. He strengthened them, and provided for them. Rather than remove or eliminate their afflictions, the Lord did something better for them:
And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of aafflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in bfaith. (Alma 31:38)
The Lord gives us strength and because of Him, our afflictions can be swallowed up in the joy of Christ.