Come Follow Me LDS- Amlicites, Amalekites & Amalickiahites. Oh My!

Amlicites, Amalekites & Amalickiahites. Oh My!
- Three groups in the Book of Alma give context to the major conflicts with the Nephites
- The primary enemies in the Book of Alma are Nephites/Mulekites, not Lamanites
- Most LDS Scholars have talked of the commonality of the names of the Amlicites and the Amalekites but not the Amalickiahites.
- The commonality focuses on the Hebrew letter "M-L-K". But there are other possibilities
- All three of these groups have many things in common

 

 

Raw Transcript

all right
amlocites amalekites and amalekia ice
oh my here we go
all right a great way to get context for
the book of alma the largest book in the
book of mormon
and really the rest the balance of the
book of mormon
is to understand the relationship
between
these three groups of people that we
find
in the book of alma you may not have
noticed it before
but they're all very similar in the way
that they are pronounced and the way
that they are written
we have the amylocytes according to the
pronunciation guide in
the study helps although i think it
should be amlekites
even if it's spelled with a c you have
the amalekites
and then you have the amalekia heights
all three of these people are
internal nephite contenders for
power and rule among the nephites
all three of these groups are dissenters
they descend both politically and
religiously
from the nephites all three of these
groups
go into cahoots with the lamanites
and come back to try and battle the
nephites
to take power all three of these groups
want to impose tyranny over
a free government focused on liberty
and representative government and want
to overthrow the church
we're going to see a number of dynamics
play out here
where we have the coupling of a
political viewpoint
of being free again that's
representative government
go vote the people determine their
representatives
along with a christian doctrine
in the doctrine of christ these two
elements the secular and the religious
are the key battlegrounds throughout the
book of
alma and really all the way up through
the time of christ and his visit but we
can understand really the conflicts here
that are going on
sometimes we might think okay well we've
got the nephites and then we've got the
lamanites
and those are the two that battle
against each other that's not even just
too
simple it's just not correct the biggest
problem for the nephites is dissension
it is the amlocites the amalekites
the amalekia heights the king men
and then the gadiantin robbers so let's
go in and look at these three groups
that sound so similar and that are all
found in the book of alma
so that we can get some context as far
as what is going on here with these
conflicts
what is going on religiously what is
going on politically
in order to do that we need to back up a
little bit and start back in the book of
omni
now it's important to understand that in
the book of omni
right this is the last book of the small
plates
the last author in there
is a man named a malachi now we're not
going to go into his name and his life
much here we don't have a whole lot of
information but it is important just to
keep in mind
that he has a name that is very similar
to
our three peoples here a malachi sets
the stage for us
in this these few little verses here as
to how we ought to be looking at things
politically
let's start in verse 12. it says behold
i am a malachi
the son of abinadam aggre again you can
go back and look at
his ancestors and it goes right back
through jacob
to lehi behold i will speak unto you
somewhat concerning mosiah
this is grandpa messiah right who was
made king over the land of
zarahemla so remember
king mosiah or just mosiah comes out of
the land of nephi first
he finds the mulakites in the land of
zarahemla
and he becomes king remember that
he is he and his band there that have
left the land of nephi
are a smaller group than the mulikites
and yet mosiah becomes the king
he has the records he has the priesthood
he has
the relics and the mulakites at this
time
agree to make mosiah
the king over all of them but the
nephites themselves
we can call them the lehites
are a minority group in zarahemla and
then he tells us this about the
mulikites in 15 behold it came to pass
that mosiah
discovered that the people of zarahemla
came out from jerusalem
at the time that zedekiah king of judah
was carried away captive into babylon
so remember that mulik the founder of
the people here
is the son of a davidic king
the king of jerusalem zedekiah
the same king that was had just been put
on the throne
in the first year of his reign when lehi
left
jerusalem so even though there might be
many that feel that
okay we've got these now these brass
plates we see that we
are the rightful heir to the throne of
jerusalem
being the mueller kites maybe we should
be ruling
but regardless they give up the throne
to mosiah
a nephite a lehite another thing just a
small little phrase to keep in mind here
in verse 17
it says that their language had become
corrupted this is the mueller kites
and they had brought no records with
them
and they denied the being of their
creator
so it's hard to know exactly what
is being stated there do they not
believe in a god at all
do they not believe in jehovah who is
jesus christ
a little bit of an issue possibly here
with the whole doctrine of christ
to begin with if they would have come
out of jerusalem at the time of the
deuteronomists
and had an apostasy on the doctrine of
christ
that kind of tradition could very easily
even though it says several hundred
years later
could have remained with the mulekites
now if we go over to the words of mormon
the very next book remember this is
inserted from mormon hundreds of years
later right about 385
a.d we get a little bit of a glimpse
again that we don't have
from the book of mosiah or alma right
that tells us much about this
and just a little bit more it tells us
that in verse 12 and now concerning this
king benjamin
which we don't have the information on
because we lost
the law you know the lost 116 pages
he had somewhat of contentions among his
own people so before
his great speech and the coronation of
his son grandson mosiah
there are major contentions that mormon
feels like he needs to
at least mention here among his own
people they also had
battles that benjamin had to lead
against the lamanites
and he couples this this contention of
his own people in the battle of the
lamanites
with the religious issues
and this is kind of how it goes
throughout the book of mormon here
these contentions again this is the
secular issue
of who's going to rule and what kind of
government are we going to uphold
along with the doctrine of christ and
the church
says here and it came to pass that after
there had been
false christs and their mouths had been
shut and they punished and punished
according to their crimes
and after there had been false prophets
and false preachers now
this is well before his speech
and this is well before
people that come along such as nihor
right that we get at the beginning of
alma and then a chapter later we get
amlasai or amlikai
so are these the same exact issues that
are already bubbling here
even before benjamin's speech
we get the idea because we focus so much
on that speech as we should
that everybody is in unison right they
all speak with one voice
they all agree in covenant and i'm sure
that this was a very strong moment in a
time of
of of commitment but of course a lot of
that's ritual also
but we shouldn't discount the fact
that there were probably a lot of
underground or
underlying resentments and political
plays
as there always are in any group of
people
among the nephites at that time now we
need to distinguish a couple of things
with the term nephites
right there are those that are actual
descendants of
not just nephi but of lehi
right and then those that are mulekites
the majority of the people
in the land of zarahemla take on the
name
of the nephites but of course they have
a different background and a different
ancestry and lds scholars pinpoint this
issue as a reason for perhaps
the names of these three peoples the
amylocytes amalekites
and amalekia heights and they might be
right
they could very well be right and what
i'm building up to so
so far here kind of supports that but
there are some issues with it we're
going to go over that so mormon finishes
off here and talks about how king
benjamin
and the holy prophets that he has there
kind of squelch
this contention and and benjamin is able
to bring about
peace and that kind of leads up to his
speech
now that brings us over to alma one
right where are we at now this is where
mosiah is at the end of the grandson
mosiah
is at the end of his reign and we can
imagine again that there's already been
a lot of turmoil here there's a lot of
problems
there are uprisings there are political
plays remember
that is what is likely just as we saw
with mosiah's father
king benjamin so in chapter one here
we are in a place where king mosiah has
given up the crown
and his four sons have decided that they
don't want it
so it's very possible that mosiah was
thinking well if i don't have one of my
sons
on the throne and there's already
tumult here right there's already
contention for
power that if i don't have a my rightful
heir
that's going to be sitting on the throne
then it's not going to work
and so that might have been a little bit
of a catalyst right to move into
a representative government into a
government of liberty or as
is often cited here in the book of
mormon or the phrase that's given is
a government by the voice of the people
mormon is very careful to make sure that
we see
over and over again that decisions are
brought about by the voice of the people
mormon is very much about a government
of representation
and of liberty it is one of the things
that
frames his entire book the entire
abridgement
of the large plates so here in chapter
one we have
nehor right and we come about with okay
he's pushing priest craft
he's pushing an anti-doctrine of christ
theology
he's establishing a church and so what
he may be doing here is taking
these ideas and ideologies and
beliefs that are already
percolating among maybe a lot of the
mulakites and some of the nephites
and he's bringing it together and
organizing it
into a church that is going to contest
the church of god he states that what he
preaches
is the word of god right it is a
religion but it's an
anti-christian religion and he
introduces priest craft so now there's
money pouring in
to those that are preaching and to the
priesthood of his church
and this gives it a great amount of
strength and we know what happens in
nehor
right he's going to meet up with gideon
and of course as he's losing the
argument
on doctrine what does he do well the
same thing that everybody else we're
going to go over does
they resort to tyranny he takes out a
sword and he kills gideon
it is violence it is character
assassination
it is force that's the point that needs
to be made here
it is liberty against force it is the
doctrine of christ
against those that would be anti-christ
it is the war in heaven that's what this
is all about
and each time one of these new peoples
are are introduced among the
nephites that descent
it is all the same thing over and over
again
so in alma chapter 2 we're introduced to
amla sci
with a c right now it's important to
know
that there were times where this was
spelled with a k if we go back to royal
scouse into work
on the original manuscript and the
printer's manuscript
it looks like mostly it ended up with a
c but based on his work he believes that
that
c even though that's what was supposed
to be there
was pronounced with a k sound
even though we get in the pronunciation
guide a an s
sound like amlacy he believes
that the intent of joseph smith was that
it was
amlikai with a c so being distinguished
as a person and as a people the amulet
kites
from the others perhaps or perhaps not
but given a very similar pronunciation
and that becomes important to understand
because
as you'll see what what a number of lds
scholars believe
is that if we take the names of amla chi
amalek or amalekites right and the
amalekiates they all have some things in
common in their spelling
what they look to in and what helps
support
their hypothesis here of these being
mostly mulekites
a mule kite dissension over and over
again
and perhaps even the same peoples is
that you have the letters
m l k in each of these names
and that could represent something that
was tied to the mulikites
and also to a king they all want to put
a king on the throne
and get rid of the representative
government and the voice of the people
even when we get to the kingman you
could say that could be another name
for a people that were called after the
letters mlk
in some other way but like i said
there's problems with that
now what happens with amisai amlikai and
the amalekites
in chapter two and beyond they
are numerous right within one year
amlissai here
is able to bring enough followers into
the
fold that they are going to contest
the rule of alma as chief judge
and their intent is to destroy democracy
representative government and destroy
the church
again it's tyranny but how can he have
so many people
already willing to listen
right now he is after the order of nehor
and there is a common thread among these
peoples with this
church of nehor and that's why i say it
looks to me like this has been going on
since before
during the time of benjamin and maybe
even his father mosiah
again we don't have 116 pages or
whatever however many pages there are
that are lost
which would probably go into a lot more
detail about these things in these
conflicts
but it's important to remember that this
is one of those groups with that
spelling or pronunciation with a k sound
that wants a king right they're going to
anoint
and make amelica emlassai their king
that they want to destroy the church and
they have an antichrist doctrine
they're after the order of nehor and
they're going to dissent
and join with the lamanites and come to
battle
against the nephites this is what
j christopher conkling says about this
and and about this
the ability for amlacide to go in and
and be able to
raise an army and have followers like
this so quickly says
it is highly unlikely that amlikai
ammosai
could rise to prominence with almost
half the population's support
undertake a lively national election
receive an illegitimate coronation raise
a huge army move major parts of the
nephite population
form alliances with the lamanites and
manage three major battles all in one
year
right there's already something in place
here
there's already a problem one more note
before we move on to the amalekites here
remember that alma goes
to the city of ammonia and they're not
real friendly to him
and he is preaching there
and that's where he runs into ze's room
now zizrah to me
does not appear to be a nehorite
he looks more like an atheist and so we
need to understand that in these cities
where we go
that doesn't mean that everybody is the
same it just means that the majority
there
may have been after the order of nihor
and many will say that this was a city
of
mulikites but of course who's there with
a similar name but is a direct
descendant of nephi
it's alma's companion right and the name
that is the closest
to mulik that we find is
amulek and he is a
nephite descendant so he's not a
mulekite
so that naming doesn't always work
remember we had a malachi
who was a direct descendant of lehi the
lehighs and now we have
amulek so the naming of individuals or
peoples may not always be
because of mulic
there could be other reasons but as he's
preaching he preaches that they are
going to be destroyed
and they eventually are the lamanites
come in
and wipe out the city of ammonia and
they call it what they call it the
desolation of the knee horse
so a large portion of them we know
they're they're judged there their chief
judge there in iomania
was after the order of nehor and
probably many more of them
now were they a mulikite city
how closely do we tie mulakites with the
nihorites
how closely do we tie the mulakites
with these three peoples because here's
another issue
if alma as the as the chief judge during
the time of amlisi
won the election then if you're tying
all of the mulekites together who are
apparently double the amount of the
nephites
or lehites then why does alma retain
by the voice of the people the seat of
the chief judge so you would have had a
number of people that would have been
mulekites you'd have to have
a lot of mulakites that would support
alma and what seems to be happening here
again is you have this political divide
but it looks almost more like it's it's
due to a religious divide so the
mulekites that
are supporting alma would be of the
church of god more likely
right and those that aren't would be of
the church of nehor
now on with the amalekites here our
second group of people
also an mlk name
right from mulik or melek
or a name that could easily be derived
from those three letters which have to
do with royalty which have to do with
kingship
and they all want a king now a number of
lds scholars are going to say
that there's kind of a dispute on this
that the
amla sites or amalekites from the
beginning of the book of alma
and the amalekites that we get later in
the book of alma are the same people
and that there's just uh you know
transcribing here was a problem
now we do know that for example in the
original manuscript
we're missing the first eight
occurrences of amalekites
we just don't have that part of the
manuscript occurrences 9 through 18
show variations of the consonants c
and k and the vowels a e
and i so you think about how this worked
with joseph smith right he's getting the
information whenever he comes to
a proper name he spells it out
that's how they the scribes say he did
it so if it's a
person or a people he's going to give
the letters
one by one and spell it out but even
from there
after that he's probably just saying the
name
and if you're writing down many verses
and you've been doing this all day
it's very likely that you know you don't
remember exactly how he spelled it where
was that looking back in the papers
you don't have time so he writes down
whether it's oliver cowdery or whoever
martin harris writing down these names
and you may not remember how to spell
them so
royal scousen right he does merge the
two peoples amla kites
or amlicites with the amalekites and say
that they're the same people
other scholars say that's impossible
there's a geographic problem there's a
chronological problem and these are all
true
are they the same people are the amla
sites the amalekites
that aaron the son of mosiah teaches
in the land of jerusalem there's
supporting evidence for both sides
i'm going to throw another layer on top
of this based on the names
that says maybe they're not the exact
same peoples
but they're the exact same
type of person for peoples now
here's part of that in all cases
with the word amalekite and the
amalecites
the word begins with aml
so now you have something completely
different
does it have to be the the letters mlk
that we're really looking at that triad
there
of hebrew letters or is it aml
right the mulakites don't have an a in
front of their name
mulik doesn't have an a in front of his
name but the
amalekites the amalekites and the
amalekites
all have an a in the front so that's
something else to consider
now there's always just three
syllables with the amalekites or
amylocytes
and there's always four syllables with
the amalekites
so there seems to be a
definitive distinction between the two
names
but again that doesn't mean that it's
not the same
type of person or the same type of
peoples
maybe he's trying to distinguish each of
them
but giving them the same general name
based on
their dissension from the nephites
we should remember where the original
amalekites come from
right the amalekites in the old
testament
that would have been that the record of
the amalekites are in the brass plates
and remember who they were right the
amalekites in the old testament were the
ones that
as right after moses takes the children
of israel out of egypt
and parts the red sea and goes into the
wilderness
the amalekites are the one that come in
and slay all the laggers behind
and then moses goes to war with the
amalekites
which are a nomadic tribe and remember
he has to have his hands held up his
arms held up
and as they as long as they're held up
they beat the amalekites at war
that's the amalekites the amalekites
are the enemies and the constant
antagonists of the children of israel
and many times over during the reign of
the judges and during
the reigns of david and solomon
they go to battle against the amalekites
so the amalekites are known to the
children of israel
and to th the kingdom of judah
right where jerusalem is where the
mulikites
and the lehites come out of there is a
very very strong tradition no doubt
about
the name of the amalekites as being the
enemy of god in fact today
today the
you know you'll have certain people that
are
enemies of the state of israel or of
judaism
and the jews will call them an amalekite
right it still holds that tradition
still holds today
from their records from the scriptures
even
haman right the enemy of esther in the
book of esther
while the jews were in babylon
was an amalekite so there's a
very strong strong i don't know i'd say
resentment but there's a very strong
wall there for the jewish people and a
clear understanding that the
amalekites are the enemy of the children
of israel
could that have carried over to the
nephites
and does that have anything to do with
the naming of these peoples
that are internally a a an
enemy to the nephites who are the ones
with the record making the record and
the difference in spelling is simply to
distinguish
different groups of these peoples i've
seen a lot written
on these names but nobody brings up that
fact
that they certainly would have known of
the amalekites in the old testament and
what role they played
now if you ask some rabbis some of their
interpretation of
where the name amalek would come from
for amalekites
they will interpret this with the first
three
hebrew letters that would be used right
transliterated letters
which would be aml and what that means
in hebrew
is trouble right or to toil so that's a
thing to look at
and in fact one of the groups that
has a similar background
in theology and politics
and is an ally in battle to
the amalekites and the lamanites is the
amulinites aml remember who amuleon was
he was looks like the chief
priest among the priests of noah
who had a very similar theology to the
order of nihor
so that's something to look at you do
have the amalekites
that are mentioned in alma 24 1 as to
living in the
amulenite cities of helam and
amulon around the 13th year of the reign
of the judges
again there there's some cohesion there
right
these are all dissenters and what do we
get out of that also about the order of
nehor it says
many at all many of the amalekites and
the amuleonites
were after the order of the nehors so
again that's
that plays a part of this you have
political groups
and religious groups and they they
overlap
a lot but not completely and that's why
the names don't always make sense just
to tie them with the muleokites
so before we get to the last group of
people the amalekia heights
let's just recap here right the
amlocites or amalekites
and the amalekites both are dissenters
from the overall
political group called the nephites
comprised of both the
lehites and the mulikites
it appears that many or most of them
are mulekites you would think they would
have to be
in order in order for the nephites to
have enough support
to stay in power both of these groups
along with the ones were about to
discuss the amalekia heights
dissented from the church they taught an
anti-christian doctrine
formed their own churches descended
politically
all groups wanted to overthrow the
nephites
and put a king on the throne of their
own and destroy
the voice of the people and a government
of liberty
and all did so going to the lamanites
and combined coming to battle against
the nephites
and many of these were after the order
of nehor
now with the amalekiah heights we also
get several misspellings in the original
manuscript
again probably the same problem right
just trying to remember how to spell it
as you're hearing
joseph smith dictate to you the words
now the amalekia heights are typically
not part of the conversation
as being the same group of people
perhaps as the amlacites and the
amalekites
but they have a very similar name and
they do the exact
same thing and this is something we see
sometimes in the scriptures where you
have the same
issue right where you have abraham
taking sarah to egypt and
pharaoh wanting to take sarah
and abraham saying that she's my sister
and then later with isaac and rebecca
they go into foreign lands
and isaac does the exact same thing
right the king of the land there wants
to take rebecca
and wants to marry her and take her as
his
isaac says this is my sister and
recovers her
so you know something's going on there
with the story
perhaps ritual and tradition
something's happening there that's
repeated it seems to me that we're
getting the same thing here
we can have the amla kites and the
amalekites and maybe we have
some type of a coincidence but when you
have the
amalekites and the amalekites and the
amalekia heights a third group
and they all are the same type of people
they all do the same thing
that departs from coincidence i think i
think now
it's the onus is on arguing that the
names
do not have something to do with what
they have in common
and the name does not necessarily mean
that what is in common
is the mulikites even though they are
probably mostly mulekites
so here we have with a malachia
something very interesting
a malachia is not a mulikite and there
here's where
this argument about the mulikites
and the mlk meaning that they are
kingsmen right and mulakites and they
have a claim to a davidic
throne and a davidic rule among the
nephites
it it breaks down here because amalekiah
is a descendant of nephi he's a nephite
so and he's the one they're going to put
on the throne but he's not a mulekite
that is not a claim
to the davidic throne and that's what a
lot of you a lot of what you'll see
with the papers that have been written
on this
so that makes no sense but what we get
here is again
this this coupling from mormon to make
sure we understand
that the the idea of tyranny
in government is coupled with an
anti-christian
doctrine from the churches
usually under the order of nehor now why
would he couple those two things
together
i believe it has something to do with
our day right he wants to show us for
our day how these things happen
and how closely a a representative
government by the voice of the people
is going to be tied to the church
and to those that profess a christian
theology here's what's happening at the
time of
moroni and a malachia right remember
that
moroni is going to hoist the title of
what
the title of liberty these things are
being
merged the government a free government
and the doctrine of christ says here in
alma 46
15-16 and those who did belong to the
church
were faithful yea and all those who were
true believers in christ took
upon them gladly the name of christ or
christians as they were called because
of their belief in christ who should
come so that means that those who are
not of that belief
called them the christians and why would
they do that because they don't believe
in christ
right that is the political divide and
the theological divide here
and therefore at this time moroni prayed
that the cause of the christians
and the freedom of the land might be
favored so those are our dividing lines
now with the amalekia ites we're going
to add something else here into the pot
to stir
another rabbinical interpretation of the
name
amalek is divided by
in english the a and the m which would
be yam
right that's people and then the l and
the k
which is lac right and that would be the
people
that lick blood or the people that lap
up blood could it be that those that
have
this name the a the m and the
l and the k is not because of
the mulikites or a desire for kingship
but it's those that are bloodthirsty and
that want to come after the nephites
and put them under tyranny all three of
these groups
came to battle against the nephites
along with the with the lamanites
and then we get this other thing here
that's kind of interesting you know how
in hebrew a lot of times the authors
will play a little bit of a hebreism
right a parallelism in their writing
and i'm not saying that's what this is i
haven't seen this written of before
but let's look at a couple of these
verses about a malachia
and the way mormon writes this he says
here in
alma 49 9-10 and it came to pass
that the lamanites or the amalekiates
were exceedingly astonished at the
manner of preparation for war right the
way moroni had prepared them
now if king amalekaya had come down
remember
amalekiah had taken over the throne of
the lamanites
in very nefarious ways now if king emma
alakai had come down
out of the land of nephi at the head of
his army
perhaps he would have caused the
lamanites to it
to to have attacked the nephites at the
city of ammonia
for behold he did care not for the
blood of his people
right now you might say well that's just
random greg well maybe it is
i don't know but when you see a name
like that and then you see that blood
here is tied together with that it makes
you start to think
let's look down a little bit further by
the way in verse 25 that's where we get
king of malachi
who was a nephite by birth
when that is called out it's because
it's probably more rare it's probably
mostly mulekites
but again he does not have a claim to a
davidic
kingship but in verse 27 of chapter 49
again here's what we get yea he was
exceedingly wroth
being a malachi and he did curse god
and also moroni swearing with an oath
that he would drink his blood
so again in a small little area perhaps
in the same verse or two
we're getting a malachia and blood
combined together
is this on purpose let's go to chapter
51 verse 9.
but behold this was a critical time
for such contentions to be among the
people of nephi for behold
a malachia had again stirred up the
hearts of the people of the lamanites
against the people
of the nephites and he was gathering
together soldiers from all parts of his
land
and arming them and preparing for war
with all diligence
and he says it again for he had sworn to
drink the blood
of moroni so is this a
parallelism here is this a play on words
with the name of a malachia that's three
instances
that we have moroni including blood
somewhere close to the name of malachi
and something else we should notice
in chapter 51 the king men are named
separately
from amalekiah and his followers in
other words why do they start
calling them king men instead of
amalekiah heights if they were grouped
together
these seem to be different groups or a
way to again
separate they might be dissenters they
might even have the same theology
but amalekites amalekites and
melechiates
they might all be grouped together with
this idea of
the old testament of malachites being
the enemies to the children of israel
or those that all sought to lap up the
blood
right they were bloodthirsty against the
nephites
and remember nowhere in the book of
mormon
is the word mulekite even given
so all the forms that we have outside of
the name mulic which by the way
based on don bradley's book originally
was
moloch and even the rlds or now the
community of christ
have in their scriptures in their book
of mormon
it's mulak or mulok
right now not with a ch like don bradley
has it but with a k
m-u-l-o-k so just confirming a few other
things here let's look at alma 24
28-29 now the great number of those of
the lamanites who slew many of their
brethren
this is going back to the amalekites and
amuleonites
right so remember when the people of
ammon
decide that they're not going to raise
the sword right after they've been
converted against the lamanites
the majority of those that actually slay
them are not lamanites
they're politically lamanites but
they're not lamen
and lemuel lamanites they are amalekites
and
amuleonites who are much more hardened
against them
the greatest number of whom of these two
groups were
after the order of nehors mormon make
sure that we understand that again
most of these the great number of these
had that theology an
anti-christ theology and they wanted to
destroy the doctrine of christ
and the church of jesus christ and we
get this in the following verse here
at this time now among those who joined
the people of the lord
there were none who were amalekites or
amuleonites
or who were of the order of nehor but
they were actual descendants of laman
and lemuel
right so it's not just the political
side it's the theological side that
really drives the hate and the divide
here
right it's those that had dissented with
a different theology and a different
political purpose
that are the biggest seekers of the
blood of the nephites
so wrapping this up and looking at this
regardless of what you take out of this
i think you will have a better
understanding of the context of what's
going on in the book of mormon
the political plays the power plays
just how much of the problem with the
contention of the nephites is an
internal struggle
it's the dissenters the amycites
amla or amlakites the amalekites the
amalekia heights
eventually the kingsmen almost who
cause the problems and actually go out
and incite the lamanites to come to
battle
against the nephites that's the major
problem
and the two lines that divide them
the most with from the nephites is both
a secular political line where
these three groups all want to put a
king on the throne
they want to rule with tyranny over the
people of nephi
and then on the theological side they
are against
the theology of christ that is important
to them
and they want to destroy the church so
as we go through the book of mormon they
come all the way up to the birth of
christ and that sign that
the prophet samuel the lamanite goes
over
and then all the way to the time of the
visit of christ
what we see there is a political and
theological struggle
and mormon couples a representative
government of liberty with the doctrine
of christ
so to me the question about all of this
is
how does that apply to us today being
christians investing in
having faith in the doctrine of christ
and believing in
a government of liberty especially
freedom of religion how might we look at
these chapters
in the book of mormon and apply it to
our lives today
i'll talk to you next time

 

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