Alma 5-7 Two Sermons, two types of people

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Zarahemla and Gideon were two cities with very different audiences. Zarahemla was a city that, at the time of Alma’s sermon, was showing significant lapses in spirituality. Alma asked these people a series of questions to elicit a response towards spiritual growth.

All of us have times when we get lazy, both physically and spiritually. Alma knew that if he could remind his listeners of the times when they felt the Spirit in their lives that this remembrance would bring them to Christ.

In Alma 5.7 Alma reminds us the power that God has to change our hearts. I see this as a dance- both God and we must work to change our hearts. But in verse 7 Alma gives God this credit when he says, “Behold, he changed their hearts, yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.”

C. S. Lewis wrote that as we begin to become new creatures in Christ, as we mature in the things of the Spirit, “we begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation [against me] was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts; then would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth?”

“If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation [against me] does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am….And if (as I said before) what we are matters even more than what we do—if, indeed, what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are—then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about….I cannot, by direct, moral effort, give myself new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life, we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.”^[1]C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 164-65.

President Benson spoke about how God works from the inside out. He changes us in our hearts. So many of the ills of this world could be fixed if we would simply let God work on our hearts. He said:

Would not the progress of the Church increase dramatically today with an increasing number of those who are spiritually reborn? Can you imagine what would happen in our homes? Can you imagine what would happen with an increasing number of copies of the Book of Mormon in the hands of an increasing number of missionaries who know how to use it and who have been born of God?…The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.^[2]Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, Oct. 1985.

So much of Alma 5 is a reminder of who God is (remembering his acts on our behalf – verse 6-10) and who we must be (being personally converted – verses 14-15). Alma then invites his listeners to imagine the future, what they will become (verse 15-24). Elder Oaks talked about becoming new creatures in the October 2000 conference. He said:

The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.^[3]Dallin H. Oaks, The Challenge to Become, Oct. 2000.

Being or becoming born again is another theme in Alma’s message to both the people of Zarahemla and Gideon. The term “born again” is used 3 times in the Book of Mormon. It is used by Alma in his discourses to both cities in Alma 5.49 and in Alma 7.14 (it is also used in Mosiah 27.25). The term “born of God” is used 8 times in the Book of Mormon, mostly in Alma’s discourses and narratives.^[4]See Mosiah 27.25, 28; Alma 5.14; Alma 22.15; Alma 36.5, 23-24, 26; 38.6. The term is used in Alma 5.14 when he says:

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this might change in your hearts?

It is interesting that both terms are used in the Book of Mormon, both “born of God” and “born again.” In the Greek text of John 3 we read the exchange Jesus has with Nicodemus translated into the King James text this way:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3.3)

In the Greek text of John 3.3 we read the following:

The key I want to show is how the following phrase is translated: Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι = Amen amen/truly truly I say to you

ἐὰν μή= “unless” -this shows us a subjunctive is going to appear 

τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν= someone be born (or become- in the subjunctive mood) from above/again- this is a theme in the Gospel of John, he uses this three times in John 3 alone. the word anothen can mean both “again” and “from above” or in my translation, “of God.” The word can literally mean “from the very highest,” so I think my translation “from God” totally fits here. It is noteworthy that readers can see both uses in the Book of Mormon, even though Joseph Smith has no understanding of the Greek use of this word in 1829.

οὐ δύναται=he is not able/he has not the power 

ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ=to see the kingdom of God

So essentially John 3.3 can be read this way:

ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν  τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ

Jesus answered and said unto him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a certain person is born from above, he has not the power to see the kingdom of God.”

Or another way:

Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of God, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The King James version is a good translation. But the Greek is nuanced with respect to anothen, and the Book of Mormon demonstrates this nuance in a way Joseph Smith could not have produced on his own efforts.

In our podcast of Alma 5-7 we also talked about David O. McKay’s dream. Essentially his dream consisted of a heavenly vision of the Savior and those that love him and are born again.

David O. McKay’s dream:

Toward evening, the reflection of the afterglow of a beautiful sunset was most splendid!

…Pondering still upon this beautiful scene, I lay in my [bed] at ten o’clock that night. …I then fell asleep, and beheld in vision something infinitely sublime. In the distance I beheld a beautiful white city. Though it was far away, yet I seemed to realize that trees with luscious fruit, shrubbery with gorgeously tinted leaves, and flowers in perfect bloom abounded everywhere. The clear sky above seemed to reflect these beautiful shades of color. I then saw a great concourse of people approaching the city. Each one wore a white flowing robe and a white headdress. Instantly my attention seemed centered upon their leader, and though I could see only the profile of his features and his body, I recognized him at once as my Savior! The tint and radiance of his countenance were glorious to behold. There was a peace about him which seemed sublime – it was divine!

The city, I understood, was his. It was the City Eternal; and the people following him were to abide there in peace and eternal happiness.

But who were they?

As if the savior read my thoughts, he answered by pointing to a semicircle that then appeared oboe them, and on which were written in gold the words:

These Are They Who Have Overcome the World – Who Have Truly Been Born Again!^[5]David O. McKay, taken from Cherished Experiences from the Writings of President David O. McKay, pages 59–60.

Alma 7.10 – Born of Mary at Jerusalem

We also talked about the Armana letters. You can read this post where I wrote about them back in 2018. These letters are one way historians work to triangulate history. Seeing correspondences from multiple sources helps historians to determine how events probably happened. The point we made in the podcast that the phrase “land of Jerusalem” did not exist in any literature known to Joseph Smith or his contemporaries in 1829. After the discovery of The Amarna Letters, this phrase was found to exist, lending to the historicity of the text of the Book of Mormon. Gordon Thomasson has done some research on this that you can read here.^[6]Gordon Thomasson, Revisiting the Land of Jerusalem, FARMS Insights, March 1994, p. 2. Jeff Lindsay has also done some great work on this that you can read here.