Come Follow Me LDS- Alma 53-63 (Aug 10 - 16)

'The Law of Liberty'
- The Stripling Warriors fight bravely and are miraculously preserved
- Ammoron, Moroni, Helaman & Pahoran all write epistles
- Moroni & Ammoron contend with doctrine in their war epistles
- As Irenaeus explains, the Law of Liberty (Agency) is a part of Christianity
- Ezra Taft Benson states that Liberty in government is a basic part of our religion.

 

 Raw Transcript

all right
all right in this come follow me episode
we are covering
alma chapters 53 to 63
11 chapters that we're going to try and
put into one episode here
what we're not going to do is cover the
details of all of these battles i think
that that's
something that's pretty common out there
and you can probably get that at other
sources
what i want to focus on are some of the
themes of
mormon and helaman here that come
through
in what they've written and in these
epistles
that come from helaman and
moroni and pahoran
we can glean some principles from from
these things
as a follow-up to what we've already
gone through here with
moroni and the title of liberty so here
in 53 we continue with the
theme of oath covenant and blood we can
go down here to verse 11 and this is
where we get
a beginning and it's kind of setting the
stage for the 2000 stripling warriors
and in verse 11 it says and because of
their oath they had been kept from
taking up
arms against their brethren this is the
anti-nephi lehi's
for they had taken an oath that they
never would
shed blood more and according to their
oath they would have perished yea they
would have suffered themselves
to have fallen into the hands of their
brethren
so the anti-nephi lehi's are seeing all
of the bloodshed they're seeing all of
the
war efforts of all the nephites while
they
sit comfortably being protected by
everyone and not
participating in this defense
and so they're about to break their oath
right this this
whole idea here is about these oaths and
they're about to break
their oath but helaman persuades them
not to
so you can imagine here helaman is the
high priest
over all the land of nephi he's
concerned
about the freedom of their religion
and of course the lives of the nephites
and it would be really nice to have this
additional
group here that would help fortify their
troops but he doesn't do it
he wants them to keep their oath to god
but he talks with the anti-nephilihis
and they have a number of sons
who have not made this covenant
and again we get this idea of these
political groups here
in verse 16 it says as many of these
young men here that were able to take up
arms
they called themselves nephites
i think that's important i think the
authors are are
trying to let this be known to us that
these are political groups and
theological groups but we naturally try
to make this about
race in a sense now there are 2
000 of these young men these stripping
warriors and what do they do
what are we told here in verse 18 now
behold there were 2
000 of those young men who entered into
this covenant there we get covenant
again we're
something here that that mormon and
helaman are trying to get across to us
and they took their weapons of war to
defend their country
as you can see here in in the throes of
war in defense
here we can see this idea of
as we've talked about here this dual
message between
the doctrine of christ and liberty
we can see how liberty really is a big
part of their religion and we're going
to move into that point more and more
it's not just a political stance
it is part of their religion the
doctrine of christ really in a sense
requires freedom and really again this
is all
a continual play out of the war in
heaven
where you had a tyrant with restrictions
on liberty on one side
so that he could quote unquote save
everybody right
and on the other side you had christ the
doctrine of christ
and liberty but that there was going to
be judgment
you are going to be held responsible for
your choices
that goes along when we think of the war
in heaven and we think of this plan
right the father's plan that was
represented by christ
we can't think of that without the idea
of agency
and judgment that war in heaven is what
that's all about right because on the
other side of that
instead of christ you have a tyrant
again you've got the doctrine of christ
on one side here and tyranny on the
other
and what is the whole doctrine of christ
about well the doctrine of christ makes
no sense without
agency without liberty but
liberty requires judgment just as we get
in in second nephi
chapter two which means that there are
going there's going to be
a punishment or consequences for
bad choices and on the other side
of that under tyranny right it's
it's something that says no we're not
going to allow punishment
we're not going to allow these
consequences because you're not going to
have
the same agency and we can see that play
out here amongst the nephites and the
lamanites
so liberty is literally a
part of the doctrine of christ and that
means
politically that means in government
that means in representation of the
people here's a quote that we get from
ezra taft benson he says our stand
just like moroni here our
stand for freedom is a most basic
part of our religion this stand
helped us get to this earth and our
reaction to freedom in this life
will have eternal consequences man has
many duties
but he has no excuse that can compensate
for his loss of liberty and he
really brings this in ties it in
right the most basic part of our
religion because
it's all anchored in
agency so here again in 17 and they
entered in this is the
2000 stripping warriors they'd entered
into a covenant to fight for liberty for
the liberty of the nephites
and they wanted helaman to be their
leader this is really interesting
because you get
if you think back about these spiritual
leaders these prophets
they are warrior prophets right they are
very well trained it appears in
war and in in battle
here you're going to have helaman
leading
these young men and helaman is the high
priest of the church
his father alma the younger was also a
warrior
and fought in battles and led armies
his father elma the elder also fought in
battles
and king mosiah and king benjamin
and his father king mosiah they all
fought in battles and led armies
and then as we move over to chapter 54
we get these epistles between
amiron who is the brother of amalekiah
now the new leader the new king
of the lamanites and captain moroni
and amron writes an epistle requesting
that there be an exchange of prisoners
and moroni's response again is
interesting right again we're
laying down this idea of this holy war
he says here in verse 8 but as ye have
once rejected these things
these things are the things of
the church especially the doctrine of
christ
and have fought against the people of
the lord
right and he's saying you are no longer
of the people of the lord
remember amron and his brother malachia
would have rejected the doctrine of
christ
would have rejected the church and
they're trying now to destroy the church
moroni says we will maintain our
religion
and the cause of our god so again what
is that cause it's the cause of the
christians that we've heard before it is
liberty that is a big part of their
cause
of the cause of god the cause of their
religion
and he says to amiron look if you don't
accept these things with these
exchanges here where the lamanites had
taken women and children also
as prisoners and the the nephites had
only taken
the soldiers and so he wanted an
exchange where
he would offer one soldier up of the
lamanites back to amiron and that
and that in return amiron would give up
a soldier and his wife and his kids
the malachi says look you have murdered
my brother remember tiankim put the
javelin into his heart
and i will avenge his blood
and then this gets really interesting
what he's saying here we can apply this
to today in groups today
and where their sympathies lie right
because there's always
this is always nuanced it's not just
black and white
not on the surface anyway in these
movements
these ideas there are sympathies
where do you put your sympathy and how
do you use that
right how do you stir things up with
that sympathy
look at what it says here in verse 17
for behold this is amiron speaking to
moroni
your fathers did wrong their brethren
in so much that they did rob them of
their right to the government
when it rightly belonged unto them now
why do these groups dissent and go to
the lamanites
there is sympathy toward them right not
a sympathy
that the sons of mosiah have where they
are there trying to preach to them and
support them
and help them remove the shackles
of victimhood and hate and free them
with the principles of the gospel and
the doctrine of christ
right obviously there's a massive amount
of sympathy there for them
to risk their lives and to go do this
hard
very difficult work among the lamanites
but instead the sympathy is this
you wronged their fathers it is an issue
of victimhood
right there is a sympathy there from
these dissenters it appears to me
from the nephites as they go over to the
lamanites
they sympathize with this hatred
they sympathize for this drive for
revenge
they sympathize with the idea of
oppression
not in a good way right but in a way of
hatred not in a way of relational
covenant
lifting each other up but in a way of
division
now why do i say this because amiron is
not a lamanite by birth
and he's also not a nephite as far as
descendants of nephi jacob or
joseph his brothers nephi's brothers
he is a right he is
descendant from zoram and again we get
this break off there
of of those who are not of the lineage
of
nephi jacob and joseph who are the ones
that rule
in the land of zarahemla so these things
are very nuanced right these
power plays and the dynamics that are
going on here these this politicking has
a lot to do
with let's cast stones at those who are
in charge
and you can see how it would be easy to
rile certain people up
if they're not in charge and if those
that are in charge are all about the
doctrine of christ
and of the gospel it's easy to see
how people are going to go against that
or a lot easier to see how they're going
to go against that now of course there's
there are spiritual reasons why they
would go against it as far as not having
to have judgment
on yourself that's that's
that's pretty tempting right to believe
in that
no judgment you shall not surely die
but it's also a part of the idea of
politics
and so they reinforce each other and
these divisions between the dissenters
of the nephites
and the remainders the remaining people
of the nephites
and amiron tells nephi in his epistle
here look we're going to wage a war
which shall be eternal either to the
subjecting the nephites to our authority
right there's the tyranny or to their
eternal
extinction and then we get this as far
as a theological
difference here a doctrinal difference
he says and as concerning that god whom
he say we have rejected well that would
be
christ that would be jehovah as
the savior of the world the messiah
he says behold we know not such a being
and neither do ye see how again and
again
the doctrine comes into play here
they're writing epistles about a war
against each other
and they're both talking about doctrine
in these epistles and then he follows up
with this which is very common of all of
those that
are of or are similar to the order of
nehor
that would be all the nephi dissenters
he says and if it so be that there is a
devil
which he would not believe in right no
hell if there is a devil and a hell
behold will he not send you there to
dwell with my brother
whom ye have murdered whom ye have
hinted
that he hath gone to such a place right
so again
they don't believe in a hell they don't
believe
in judgment they don't believe in
consequences
this is the war in heaven when you think
about the war in heaven and the idea of
lucifer saying that there is no devil
right himself why would he be saying
that
he's saying that because he's saying the
same thing he said in the war in heaven
there is no judgment
so moroni is furious over this attitude
from
amiron because he knows that their soul
objective
is to conquer them and to put them under
tyranny and to destroy their church
you know amiron can say all these things
about his brother he can talk about
these wrongs that have been made to the
fathers by by nephi and joseph and jacob
in sympathy aligned with the lamanites
but again all he's doing is pulling up
these sympathetic causes
as he's out trying to conquer them and
you see how those two things are
conflated we see that all the time even
today
right it is a wolf in sheep's clothing
and so moroni decides on a strategy here
and by the way this is interesting
because moroni
over and over and over again goes to
strategy
real sound strategy to fight off the
lamanites and if he wouldn't have done
this
it would have never worked right they
never would have
fought off the lamanites and amaleki and
amron
without strategy we might apply that to
ourselves
how is it that we would use strategy to
fight off
attacks on our faith on our
church i think that's a good question
now the nephite prisoners were were held
in a place called
gid and they had these lamanite guards
surrounding them and watching over them
and so moroni's strategy here is to send
over one of those servants of the king
of the lamanites
that were chased out at the time of a
malachia
when amalekiah's men killed the king
and said it was one of the servants
remember they all ran over to
the people of anti-nephi lehi and joined
with them
and this servant this servant of the
king of the lamanites
his name is layman and they send him
over
to the guards of the city of gid
and by the way why are they sending him
well because he's going to know their
ways he's going to be able to talk to
them
in a way that you know hey this really
is one of our guys
right so they sent him over with wine
and and we might think to ourselves
sometimes this just seems
too easy that they're able to do this
come on they bring them over wine and
they get drunk and then they're able to
get everybody out
but we want to go over a couple things
here to consider
so he's able to kind of rub shoulders
with these guards
and talk to them and he might bring up
things from the past and history
and then the guards say look we're
really glad you brought this wine
because we are weary
now why would wine be an important thing
if you're weary think about this these
are
there's a high stress level every single
day
they are exhausted every single day on
both sides of this battle
of this war and so wine is a way
to increase morale
it would right wine would increase
morale
wine gets rid of some of the pains
emotional physical everything and it's a
very important part of war anciently
you would never anciently go into war
without alcohol you just wouldn't do it
so
a little reverse psychology here layman
says to the guards no let's just hold on
here
until we go to battle against the
nephites what an interesting statement
why would you need the wine when you go
to battle let's continue here
but this saying only made them more
desirous to drink of the wine
for said they we are weary therefore let
us take of the wine and by and by we
shall receive
wine for our rations this is from
their leaders in the army in the
lamanite army
which will strengthen us to go
against the nephites they're saying look
we'll get
when we go to battle we'll get our own
rations then anyway
we want this now so
they're going to receive rations see the
lamanite army has the wine
for rations already so think about when
you're getting ready to go to battle
you're riling up your troops
right you're going to want them to have
a little bit of alcohol
why because in so many ways it's going
to remove
and i'm not talking about a moral issue
here i'm just talking about history
in so many ways it's going to remove
your inhibitions
your fear as you go into battle
and so you're going to be not that
you're drunk that wouldn't work but
if you have some alcohol in you enough
to
reduce the level of pain of stress
of fear right then that's going to
embolden the whole army
and get them really ready to go as long
as you don't overdo it
and and again this is very common in
fact some
anciently in the northern areas of like
scandinavia they would give
drugs that would kind of make you
completely crazy or
berserk and that's where that term comes
from
berserk is from the northern armies
that would go into battle after taking
drugs
natural drugs and they would just be
going
berserk so wine here is not just some
strange thing like oh yeah well they
just really
like the wine and which they do
but it it makes all the sense in the
world
how this happens so they drink a lot
they're completely drunk they fall
asleep
and in the meantime over the overnight
the
moroni's army throws in weapons into the
prisoners
inside the walls and so when the
guards wake up they're there with the
prisoners and
and the roles have changed right they've
switched
the guards are now the prisoners
and they're surrounded by the army and
they have
inside the nephite prisoners
have weapons and so they get these
prisoners without the exchange even
through strategy and then he takes those
prisoners and he has them labor
right he puts them to work and they're
the ones that dig the ditches and
throw up the mounds of dirt and build up
the fencing
all around the cities he's going to have
him work
then the next epistle we get is that of
helaman right who's leading the
strickland warriors
and he's writing this to moroni to tell
him what's going on with all of their
battles
and with these new stripling warriors
and so we kind of get this account which
seems just all historical but i want to
bring out just a few points here and
again i'm not going to go into a lot of
the depth of
of these battles we're going to see
new names that are brought in both place
names
and personal names so for example we get
antipas
antipus is who the stripling warriors
are going to join
in battle but we have the word anti here
and then
pus right p u s
and it's almost like p a so that's the
first name to notice here we're going to
get
all these new p pa names which i think
is interesting because they all
you know not all of them but they seem
to join together here all in these
few chapters and then when we get down
here to a list
of many of these cities that the
lamanites have taken possession of
one of those cities is kumanai right
c-u-m-e-n-i we get these
new names that are similar to kumani
in these few chapters another one of
them
is anti-para we had the person antipas
now we get antipara right that pa again
and this is where we get the famous
battle right of
the city of antipara where helaman and
his stripping warriors act as a decoy
and they
run right and draw out the largest
army of the lamanites out of antipara
because they see that they can easily
conquer them well
helaman and these young men they run
and they are moving marching for their
lives
as the army of the lamanites pursues
them
and very quickly they see that is the
lamanite army sees that antipas and his
army is
are pursuing them and so they've drawn
them out
of antipara and we're told that helaman
and the stripping warriors are not going
to turn left they're not going to turn
right they're just going forward they
know that if they get
they know that if the lamanites catch
them that they're going to die
right because they're going to be
overwhelmed by the pure number of the
lamanites
and the lamanites don't go left to right
because they don't want to get caught by
antipas behind them and so eventually
helaman and the stripping warriors
realize that they're not being pursued
anymore
and so helaman has to ask these young
men
what say ye my sons will ye go against
them to battle
right in other words if they turn and
antipas has not
caught the lamanites they're going to
their deaths
and helaman is saying look if antipas
has caught them then antipas probably
cannot withstand
on their own the lamanite army and so
the stripling warriors say to him father
they see him as a father figure behold
our god is with us
and he will not suffer that we should
fall then let us go forth
we would not slay our brethren if they
would let us alone
therefore let us go lest they should
overpower the army of antipas
so regardless of the risk that they're
looking at they take courage
in their faith in god and he's they say
here
and helaman says look they've never
fought yet they did not fear death
and they did think more upon the liberty
of their fathers
than they did upon their own lives yea
they had been taught by their mothers
that if they did not doubt god would
deliver them and obviously an incredible
lesson here
and so the stripping warriors rehearse
unto
helaman all the words of their mothers
and they said we do not doubt our
mothers
knew it in other words
what they're saying is true that they
will be delivered
and so they return they see that antipas
is starting to fall he's actually been
killed
and the army of antibus is starting to
fall to the lamanites
the stripping warriors come to the rear
on the lamanites
and they end up beating them in battle
and helaman finds out when everything's
done
but behold in my great joy there had not
one soul of them
fall into the earth definitely a miracle
ye and they had fought as if with the
strength of god
now i want to go back to this point
again about liberty
right they're willing to give up their
lives and and we're told from helaman
that they thought more about the liberty
of their fathers
than they did of their own lives right
this is a noble cause this is not just a
noble cause
it is a religious cause to them this
liberty
and again it naturally goes with the
doctrine of christ
if we go to james in the new testament
james chapter 2 this is where we hear
about
faith without works is dead and we're
talking a lot about be
doers of the law right not just speakers
of the law
and your behavior matters and your
choices matter
and we get this in in in verse 12 so
speaky and so
do as they that shall be judged by the
law
of liberty what is the law of liberty
this is something that
is very foundational to christianity
the law of liberty is saying that we are
given agency
that god gives us agency and that it is
precious
it is not something that is forced now
you have seen in
other religions where religion is forced
onto others you have seen
christianity in history forced
onto others this is not
the law of liberty but over time
the law of liberty and the doctrine of
christ
has taken more and more hold especially
in the west
well let's go over this law of liberty
just a little bit
irenaeus was a father who lived in the
second century
bc he actually learned from polycarp
who very possibly learned from john
himself
john the beloved john the revelator
and in his work called against heresies
this is what he says
he focuses on the idea found in matthew
23 37
of how often would i have gathered thy
children together
and ye would not right as a hen would
to her children now joseph smith
interestingly enough talks about this as
a
temple phrase
but what irenaeus here is saying
is that look how often would i have
gathered thy children in other words
i'm not forcing you i am always
extending my arm there
and it is always there for you but you
have your own decision
so irenaeus is going over how this is a
crucial part of the gospel
the law of liberty is not a law politic
a political law
it is secondarily but it is a
law of religion it is a law of
christianity just as
ertaff benson says liberty is a
basic part of our religion as latter-day
saints
and darenaeus expounds on this he says
god made man
free from the beginning we think about
the garden of eden
right you get your own choice you choose
for god never uses force he placed in
man the power of election
even as in the angels
glory and honor he says to all who do
good
and it is due them because they could
not because they
could have done evil so again going back
to the war in heaven
if you can't do evil then you really
can't do good
you have to be able to do good and those
options have to be there for you
you have to have agency you have to have
opposition in all things
now if god made some men good
and some bad simply by nature
which some believe there would be
nothing praiseworthy in their future
their virtue or blameworthy in their
vice
for that being their nature they could
not do otherwise
right if if god says hey i'm making this
good person and they're just going to be
acting good
why is there a reward for them that's
not really
true righteousness because there's no
choice for them
so there has to be choice and there has
to be
the ability to choose evil you have to
have that
but since to all is given equally
the power of doing good or bad exactly
as they
choose they are rightly praised
or blamed for what they do
that is why the prophets appeal to men
to do good
and to shoe evil and again we get back
to this point of like with those that
are the dissenters of the nephites that
follow the idea of the order of nehor
there's no judgment right you can't do
bad
well of course if you can't do bad then
you can't do good
there's no righteousness and there has
to be
consequences for our actions good or bad
again this goes back to our discussion
that we've had about all of the
tragedies in the world
that god allows to happen it's a must
so this is the law of liberty
and from the time of the war in heaven
and
every conflict since then in all of our
politics
and dissensions
this law of liberty is grounded
in the doctrine of christ now that
doesn't mean you have to be
christian or even religious to believe
in liberty that's not what i'm saying
that's certainly not the case but
ultimately
that truth of liberty
is grounded in the doctrine of christ
it is the way it is supposed to be
which is why it is so hard to hold on to
in this world now the epistle of helaman
continues over in chapter 57
and they have a battle over the city of
kumanai
and in this battle he says about the
2000 now
2060 stripling warriors he says and they
did obey and observe
to perform every word of command with
exactness yea
and even according to their faith it was
done unto them
and i did remember the words which they
said unto me that their mothers
had taught them we see obviously that
for boys and for girls the incredible
influence
that a mother can have over their
children and we could probably
say that without those mothers
the nephites may have never won this war
right or at least they would have
certainly lost
a lot of their land in a lot of these
cities now we do get this after this
battle also going into blood
here again it's i think it's again it's
just interesting that this is mentioned
in 25 it says and it came to pass that
there were 200 out of my 2060
who had fainted because of the loss of
blood to me this is a
reference not that it didn't happen i'm
sure it did but it's a reference to
their covenant
it's a reference to their covenant that
they made when they went to battle
nevertheless according to the goodness
of god and to our great astonishment
and also the joy of our whole army there
was not
one soul of them who did perish so
they're spilling their blood
over there into the covenant and they
are protected because of the covenant
that was made
by the lord in a sense through their
mothers
in chapter 58 we just get some reminders
about what they're doing and what their
cause is here in the battle it is
to maina to maintain our lands and our
possessions and our wives and our
children
and the cause of our liberty
now while they're fighting for this
cause of liberty
they are concerned because they're not
getting reinforcements
and so it says here in verse 36 and if
it is not so behold we fear that there
is some faction
in the government right that they do not
send more men to our
assistants because we know there's more
men now why would they have that fear
well the reason they have that fear is
because
of what they've gone over previously
right with the kingman and with all of
the dissensions that happen
over and over again there are factions
political factions
inside of the government that are vying
for power
so in 59 moroni is very happy
with the success of helaman and seeing
that these stripping warriors
had been preserved and they had been
able to go back and get all of these
cities
back into the possession and rule of the
of the nephites
but then he loses another major city
nephija
and seeing that helaman was not getting
reinforcements he's
furious with the government and i think
it's interesting that mormon
includes this epistle because it's
brutal it's not true
what's happening here but mormon seems
to want to show moroni's feelings on
this and he is going to go after the
chief
judge on this whose name is another pa
name
pahoran and he does not hold back
and he says look if you have decided
because of your own choices
to hold back our troops so that we can
die
while you are sitting comfortably in
zarahemla then i'm going to take my
troops
and come into zarahemla and battle all
of you and slay you
he says i don't fear you at all i fear
god
so once pahoran receives this epistle
from moroni he responds with his own
epistle
and he says look i am holed up here in
this city of gideon i've been chased out
by who by those king men
right again those that want tyranny
and are against the descendants of nephi
and are against the church so they've
got problems from without and
problems from within right now and these
king men have appointed a king
and he sits now on the throne in
zarahemla
so moroni keeps some of his troops there
to guard these cities
and then he takes others and he marches
into zarahemla
so moroni leaves some of his troops
there to guard these cities
and then he takes others and he marches
towards zarahemla
and on his way he raises again the title
of liberty
that josephite banner and he gets a
number of more men
gathered together as he goes to all
these villages and cities
to go to war against the king many in
zarahemla
and he makes his stop in gideon which is
where pahoran
is and gathers all of the troops there
to add to the strength of what he has
gathered
and he heads to zarahemla and the man
that was made king there is another pa
name here it's
pacus and pockets is slain in the battle
along with a number of the king men and
a number of the other king men were
executed according to the law what law
is that well that's a law of treason
that is still the law today in many
countries
right death for treason including the
united states
but we're told here by helaman or mormon
in verse 10 of 62 and thus it became
expedient that this law should be
strictly observed
for the safety of their country yea and
whosoever was found
denying their freedom was speedily
executed according to the law
so that can be very controversial today
but if you're trying to take freedom
away from the people
and you are treasonous their their
penalty was death
so with this battle being won over
the kingman there's a little bit of a
respite with war
for some time and remember we're
marching toward
the time of the birth of christ here
we're now moving all the way down to
by the end of this chapter about 52 bc
so as we're going through this think
about the history of what has happened
here
as we get to that moment where surprise
surprise remember the conflict is the
doctrine of christ
surprise surprise the minority of the
people are going to be put to death
right if the sign of the birth of christ
doesn't show
we shouldn't be surprised by that at all
that is not a
recent phenomenon as far as the hatred
at that point at the birth of christ
for those that believe in the doctrine
of christ it's throughout the entire
book of mormon that we see this
and so with this time we get helaman
reestablishing the church again
he's able to go out leave the
battlefield and go to the spiritual
battlefield
of again reestablishing the church and
why does he need to do that because
the dissensions are not just political
the dissensions are from the church
he's constantly battling with this
and this is where we get the short story
of hagoth here who
leaves and creates a boat we tell that
he's an exceedingly curious man remember
what we
said curious meant it means very
skillful
right and so he makes boats and and they
head off
we even get some leaders of the church
saying that this was
where some of the polynesians come from
and we can't
end here even in this time of peace
without talking about more dissension
down here in 63 14 it says and it came
to pass also in this year
that there were some dissenters who had
gone forth under the lamanites this is a
continual stream and they were stirred
up again to anger against the nephites
right so the dissenters do this again
and the lamanites come down to war
against the people of
moronica and they're beaten and driven
back
and this ends the 30th and 9th year of
the reign of the judges
over the people of nephi so again we've
got almost 40 years here
since nihor in year one of the reign of
judges started to cause
problems this just never ends how do you
bring a people together of different
backgrounds and heritages
and beliefs it's hard
and so this is the end of the account of
alma and his son hilman
and to me as i go through this again i
can't help but see that this is not a
message of just
how do we individually become stronger
spiritually although that's
definitely there or how do we
create a metaphor about how the strategy
of captain moroni worked
for fortifying these cities and how do
we apply that to our individual
spiritual lives i think that's a really
important point
but the over writing theme the message
consciously given by alma
helaman and mormon are that of the
doctrine of christ
and liberty and liberty being
a crucial basic part
of the church and of the doctrine of
christ
i'll talk to you next time

 

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