Alma 53-63: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam

 Welcome! The story continues over the next 10 chapters. We are going to talk more about the themes we discussed in the last blog post

1. We need to know how much the Nephites were willing to sacrifice for their freedom.

2. We need to learn how to hold fast in hard times.

3. We can see how the spirit of righteousness of the people is more powerful to determining the outcome of wars than weapons or men.    

4. We can get a glimpse of how bad evil can get.

In addition, we get to learn about an army that was invincible

Intrigue and Dissensions

As a precursor to Helaman's epistle, Mormon mentions that the Nephites are also having trouble on the southwest border, forcing the Nephites into essentially a two-front war. At this point the Nephite cause is extremely precarious. The Lamanites have fought all the way to the cities bordering bountiful on one hand and are fighting up the sea shore on the other side as well. Moroni had fortified his western flank earlier to avoid this exact scenario.

What surprises me is that the numerical superiority, while it seems to be a problem once the Lamanites gain a foothold, is not considered as the reason this area fell. The reason is intrigue and dissensions from within. If the Nephites had united in their faith of freedom and God, they would not have lost that area.

There is another aspect that this shows. Moroni had already quashed the king men, right? Well, he quashed one rebellion and lost one part of the land to the Lamanites. It seems like the men who had lost their faith in liberty and God's law were everywhere. While Moroni could put down a rebellion, force of arms was insufficient to put the malice out of his enemy's heart. in just a couple weeks, we will see how the missionaries Lehi and Nephi were able to do this.

Justice of God comes back.

If you were listening to our twitch stream during the lockdown days of the pandemic, you would have heard me talking about the justice of God. What is interesting is that after the stream, my brother told me he wasn't sure where I was going with this concept. I find that so fascinating because I see it as a general reflection throughout church culture that this oft-repeated theme in the book of mormon gets little comprehension and almost no attention. As a theme, it also seems to wane with time. I believe the Nephites knowledge of it was established in Lehi's vision, explained in 1 Nephi 15 (notice, however, that when we talk of Lehi's vision in sunday school, we never mention the gulf that represented the justics of God). The imagery of a flame that ascends forever and ever is repeated at least twice, once at the end of Nephi's teachings, and again during King Benjamin's discourse. While the flame isn't specifically mentioned, the justice of God is brought up again here.

I would love to deep dive on this concept, but I really want to get to the army of Helaman in this post (there are too many chapters to talk about in a week :D). Here is the big take-away for the Moroni/Ammoron discussion: Moroni is not warning Ammoron 'be good or you will regret it one day', he is warning him 'stop what you are doing or your own soul will consume you from the inside'. The awful hell that awaits Ammoron is the hell inside his own soul. The wrath of God is the bar of justice that will find him wanting. The utter destruction is the undoing of his spirit (not the literal disintegration, but the disintegration of his spiritual purpose). Moroni then says that he supposes Ammmoron is a child of hell so saying all this is in vain. What he means is that Ammoron has internalized this destruction, and that he knows enough that he could stop it, but chooses not to. That is a very bad place to be. Let's not go there.

Some things are worth fighting for

Moroni is quite serious in this letter. he literally says that if Ammoron does not give up his prisoners, that he(Moroni) will hunt him down, even if he flees, even if he needs to arm women and children.

Here is the take-away. There are a few things worth fighting for. This is one of those things. Blood for blood. Death for death.

The peculiar wrath of Moroni and Ammoron's perfect knowledge

Moroni writes that he is in his anger, and when he receives the response from Ammoron, he is so angry that he abandons the original plan and takes the prisoners by force.

However. He doesn't just storm into Ammoron's camp, blinded by rage. In fact, rage doesn't seem to fit anywhere here. Also, once he frees the prisoners, he could have killed all the captors. And he just finished writing that he would take blood for blood. Also, news flash, down in the other front, the Lamanites would kill all the Nephites who fell into their hands, leaving only the Chief captains. And yet, Moroni doesn't do this. He captures them instead of murdering them.

Does this sound like a guy who is angry? Not really. Not in the way we use the word angry. Moroni is showing us a pattern for righteous anger. We don't have instructions for how Moroni did it, but we do have a picture of what it looks like. It is a good reminder that if we were like Moroni, the very foundations of Hell would be shaken.

Okay, now to my favorite part!

Once there was an army that was invincible

Whatever conclusions you make of the stripling warriors, the fact is that here was an army who found the secret to invincibility. It wasn't just one battle either. It was entire campaign, end to end, where in many instances, these warriors peformed as the backbone of the tactical operation, and very likely the lynchpin of the strategic esprit de corps on Helaman's front.

Where to begin? Let's talk about what I am sure is a misconception with the stripling warriors.

I think they expected to die for their country on day 1. and when that didn't happen, on day 2. or the next. or the next. In 56:47, it says that they had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them, but I seriously doubt that this passage means they didn't think anyone would die for 2 main reasons:

1. In the same verse, just preceding this passage, it says that they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives. It is possible that that this is a clarification, saying that they didn't really believe it, but that isn't really a clarification in my book, that is a contradiction. I find it much more likely that deliverance here refers to them not dying in vain, and that their cause will prevail. In vs 46 where it says they will not suffer to fall, once again, this almost certainly refers to their band not falling, not them individually being preserved. In 53:17, their covenant is specifically to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives.

2. These sons of Helaman were raised by parents who saw thousands of their fellow believers and kin slaughtered by the more wicked Lamanites. They know that just because you believe in God doesn't mean you live. most of the people of Ammon have seen that first hand.

My main point is that if you think just believe in God, you aren't going to die, you are probably wrong about yourself, and probably wrong about the Sons of Ammon too. If on the other hand, you have faith in God, believe he is just, and covenant to fight for freedom with your lives, then you have a much higher chance of surviving, and a promise that your cause will prosper.

Tying into my last point, I would like to break down some of the qualities of the 2000 (and sixty additional by the end)

 - first point I want to make, they were embarrassed at times, grieved and filled with fear (58:9). They were in a really tough position and it is still incredible that they were able to keep their cause so well. When they arrived, the Nephite army was almost wiped out. Their first battle was miraculous for them, but punishing for the rest of the Nephites. The next battle recorded was an incredibly desperate affair where they literally were the only ones holding the line. Then they get no support whereas the lamanites get continual support. To be fair, their embarrassments were material, not personal, and their grief and fear was not for themselves, but for the judgements of God coming down. this leads me to my second point

 - They knew how to pray. Was this because they were in the midst of affliction? They poured out their whole souls and they got an answer that was so strong, they went on the offensive. their move discouraged ammoron from fighting along THAT ENTIRE FRONT, which is a pretty good endorsement back to the idea that the material deltas between the forces were immaterial (haha) compared to the spiritual power of the people.

- the mother thing comes up over and over again. Who the heck were these mothers? They must have lived through the bloodbath back before they left the land of Nephi. Did this have to do with it? Did the sons go to their hardened warrior dads and see they survived, but when they heard from their mothers, that they understood the power of justice and virtue in the face of obvious physical malice? Also, who of all the mothers of the Christians could match this today? Or of any sect for that matter. In willful blindness, I can imagine zealot wives today whipping up their sons to fight, but this is something altogether different from that scene. These are mothers of incredible meekness and power who taught their sons, and then their sons just believe and covenant of their own accord! In some of these comments I am trying to help us relate more to the sons of helaman, but with this point, I feel like we are farther away than we thought.

- obeying with exactness. This is a theme that comes up over and over. it speaks to their determination and faith. I think this was a key in the power of their preservation as well. There is a certain insane power that comes from obeying with exactness. In our society, we emphasize the bad examples of where this goes wonkey-tonkey wrong, like with the pharisees, and there is no doubt that their 'exactness' earned them nothing. Where we run into trouble is when we then disparage anyone not applying a moderate approach to the gospel. Guess what. A lot of Nephites had the moderate approach and a lot of those poor schmucks died. It wasn't good enough. If you want an insane amount of protection, you probably have to adhere to an insane ethical discipline. If you want to get results never before got (voir invincibility), you need to do things never before done (voir obey with exactness). This may be a bitter pill to American culture, and certainly I have no love for top down authoritariansim myself. But look at it this way. the sons of helaman were a volunteer force that are probably the epitome of fighting for liberty and freedom, and even decided by council on their first battle instead of being commanded that they would fight. And yet they obeyed with exactness. They knew how to wave the banner without being morons or lazy or spoiled. Maybe we who don't obey with exactness but still feel the need to resist authority are Sons-of-Helaman wannabees who just aren't there yet.

-courage, faith, and firmness. This is perhaps repeating all the other points. They had a killer combo here that sustained them through every encounter we know about involving them.

Once again, whatever conclusions you draw from these stories, the Sons of Helaman was an army that was invincible in all their battles, throughout the entire campaign. I don't know if it replicable, but they prove that it is possible.