Book of Mormon Week 14

Thought:  Not everything in this life is black and white, but it seems that the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and its keystone role in our belief is exactly that. Either Joseph Smith was the prophet he said he was, who, after seeing the Father and the Son, later beheld the angel Moroni, repeatedly heard counsel from his lips, eventually receiving at his hands a set of ancient gold plates which he then translated according to the gift and power or God-or else he did not. And if he did not...he is not entitled to retain even the reputation of New England folk hero or well meaning young man or writer of remarkable fiction. No, and he is not entitled to be considered a fine teacher or a quintessential American prophet or the creator of great wisdom literature. If he lied about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, he is certainly none of these. (Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Standard unto My People," CES Symposium, 9 August 1994, BYU)

Book of the week -  Nurturing Faith Through the Book of Mormon. Five articles written by Jeffrey R. Holland, Daniel H. Ludlow, Robert J. Matthews, Robert L. Millet, John W. Welch. The article by Robert Matthews lists what the Lord has declared about the Book of Mormon in the D&C: D&C 1:29; 3:9, 12, 16-20; 5:6-12; 10:57-63; 19:26-27; 124:119.

Gary's Green Verses

Date	Chapter	Verse	Comments
April 19	Alma 15	16	Is the Gospel True? Then what else matters?
April 20	Alma 16	16	And so we pray for the Lord to prepare hearts and for us to have the chance to share the gospel with prepared hearts.
April 21	Alma 17	2-3	One of my favorite things is to see old friends who are still faithful.
April 22	Alma 18	32	We need to work on our thoughts and intents of our heart. Progress?
April 23	Alma 19	33	One indication that our hearts have been changed is that we want others  to know.
April 24	Alma 20	26	A heart softened when a father saw a missionary love his son.
April 25	Alma 21	9	Take away the atonement & we have nothing to look forward to.

1. Alma 5:14- One measure of the new birth is the appearance of the new man. Paul described the process of salvation as obtaining “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16); that is, learning to think as Christ thinks, believe as he believes, feel as he feels, and do as he would do. Peter described the same thing as partaking of “the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), meaning that we must acquire the attributes of godliness.  Joseph Smith explained: “The Savior most clearly show[ed] unto us the nature of salvation, and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them- that he proposed to make them like unto himself, and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings; and for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed; and on this hinge turns the door of salvation” (Lectures on Faith 7:16). As a child learns by imitating and emulating parents and those older than himself, so we learn godliness by imitating others who have set an example in righteousness, especially Jesus Christ. Alma appropriately describes this process of becoming Christlike as receiving the image of Christ in our countenances. The heart can be a symbol for the entire soul, the source of life and power in all that we do. To experience a “mighty change” in our hearts is to gain a full and complete commitment to the gospel cause. It is to be filled with spiritual vigor. It is to have a soul consecrated to the upbuilding of the kingdom. (DCBM 3:28-30) "Forgiving ourselves and others is not easy. In fact, for most of us it requires a major change in our attitude and way of thinking—even a change of heart. But there is good news. This “mighty change”⁸ of heart is exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to bring into our lives. How is it done? Through the love of God. When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. (Uchtdorft, General Conference Sunday Morning April 1, 2012)

2. Alma 5 - 41?'s and 17 alls

3. Alma 5:46- How Alma gained his testimony

4. Alma 6:6 - Who are you praying for? If we will pray and ask Heavenly Father who we can help and promise to act on the promptings He gives us letting us know how we can help, He will answer our prayers and we will become instruments in His hands to do His work. Acting in love upon the promptings given by the Spirit becomes the catalyst. As you have listened to these experiences of naturally and normally sharing the gospel with those you care about, many of you have had the same experience that Eileen Waite had. You have thought of someone to whom you should reach out and either invite to come back or share with him or her your feelings about the gospel of Jesus Christ. My invitation is to act, without delay, on that prompting. Talk to your friend or family member. Do it in a natural and normal way. Let them know of your love for them and for the Lord. Missionaries can help. My counsel is the same that President Monson has given so many times from this very pulpit: “Never delay a prompting.”¹² As you act on the prompting and do it with love, watch as our Heavenly Father uses your willingness to act to bring about a miracle in your life and in the life of the person you care about. (David F. Evans CR April 2012)

5. Alma 7:11 - Howard W. Hunter -Think of it! When his body was taken from the cross and hastily placed in a borrowed tomb, he, the sinless Son of God, had already taken upon him not only the sins and temptations of every human soul who will repent, but all of our sickness and grief and pain of every kind. He suffered these afflictions as we suffer them, according to the flesh. He suffered them all. He did this to perfect his mercy and his ability to lift us above every earthly trial. ("He Is Risen," Ensign, May 1988, p.16)

6. Alma 9:20-22 - How the Lord show favoritism

7. Alma 10:6-7 - Who do we fast for?

8. Alma 10:22-23 - Prayers of Righteous prevents destruction!

9. Alma 11:24 - Another lesson on priorities.

10. Alma 12:10-11 - "A person's worthiness to be entrusted with the mysteries of God is directly related to the hardness or softness of his heart. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ, ensures that your heart will remain soft, pliable, and receptive to the greater portion of the word and the eventual fullness of the mysteries of godliness. (Ogden p. 412)

11. Alma 13 - “All these rewards were seemingly promised, or foreordained, before the world was. Surely these matters must have been determined by the kind of lives we had lived in that premortal spirit world. Some may question these assumptions, but at the same time they will accept without any question the belief that each one of us will be judged when we leave this earth according to his or her deeds during our lives here in mortality. Isn’t it just as reasonable to believe that what we have received here in this earth [life] was given to each of us according to the merits of our conduct before we came here?” (Harold B. Lee, in Conference Report, Oct. 1973, 7–8; or Ensign, Jan. 1974, 5).

"Now I think it is folly for one to compare one President of the Church with another. No one takes the place of another President of the Church. Each President has his own place. I had a lesson taught me some years ago when, in company with one of the brethren, I had reorganized the presidency of the Ensign Stake. We had named the bishop of one of the wards as stake president. It was near the end of the year, and he elected to remain as bishop, along with his first counselor, who was a bishop, until they had closed the books at the end of the year. Six weeks after they were sustained, the stake president suddenly passed away. Then I began to receive a barrage of letters. Where in the world was the inspiration for you to call a man whom the Lord was going to let die in six weeks? They invited me to talk at his services, and some seemed to be expecting me to try to explain why I had appointed a man that the Lord was going to take home in six weeks. President Joseph Fielding Smith sat on the stand and heard my attempt to satisfy these people, and he said to me, “Don’t you let that bother you. If you have called a man to a position in this church and he dies the next day, that position would have a bearing on what he will be called to do when he leaves this earth.” I believe that. I believe that every President of this church, every apostle of this church, every bishop, every stake president, every presiding position will have a bearing on what one is called to do when he leaves this earth. And so, when you think of one President taking the place of another, he doesn’t. That President maintains his own place. We shouldn’t try to compare one as being greater than this one or greater than the other, because each one is, in the eyes of the Lord, in his own time the one most needed for that particular time. You may be sure of that." (HBLee, CR, Oct. 1972 o, 129-130)

12. Alma 13:12 - See also 2 Nephi 4:31; Alma 19:33 and Mosiah 5:2; D&C 20:33-34 - President Brigham Young explained what sanctification means to the Saints by declaring: “I will put my own definition to the term sanctification, and say it consists in overcoming every sin and bringing all into subjection to the law of Christ. God has placed in us a pure spirit; when this reigns predominant, without let or hindrance, and triumphs over the flesh and rules and governs and controls as the Lord controls the heavens and the earth, this I call the blessing of sanctification. . . . Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates. Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin. I think we shall more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death.” (In Journal of Discourses, 10:173.)

13. Alma 13:18 - see JST Geneses 14:25-40 and Who was Melchizedek and who was his God? © Dr Margaret Barker 2008.  According to her, Sola Scriptura has hindered rather than helped the understanding of Christianity.

14. Alma 14 - See D&C 122:9

15. Alma 14:14, 20, 24, 25- does this remind you of how Jesus was treated?

16. Alma 15:4-5 - Are Alma and Amulek going to see a friend? What have they just suffered because of Zeezrom?

17. Alma 16:5-6 - Zoram sets a pretty good example for us today.

18. Alma 17: 3 - Again, we must get an idea of what this word fasting means. It's a very old English word. I wrote down the dictionary meaning on the back of one of these. I can tell you easily enough what it is. Fast is the same word as feast and fest and festival, and fasti in Latin. It means to hold fast to something, to observe something carefully. But it means to exercise self-control. Fasting means to hold yourself back. That's what it really is. Fasting is to correct excesses. It's to hold firm. It's self-control. That's the dictionary definition of it, and then it branches off into other things. Fasting is self-restraint. (From an article whose author I do not know sent to me by DeLynn Kirkham.)

19. Alma 17:25 - A great message for anybody called to a church position.

20. Alma 18:5 - Is this false doctrine prevalent in the world today? How do we help people who have been taught false doctrine in their lives? " King Lamoni had been brought up with a belief that there was a God but that whatever the king did was right. He had been specifically taught false doctrine that might have made him impervious to feelings of guilt. Do you remember that when he heard where Ammon was, a feeling of guilt, of fear that he had done wrong in the killing of the servants, came over him (see Alma 18:5)? Remember the effect in Alma chapter 18:“And they answered the king, and said: Whether he be the Great Spirit or a man, we know not; but this much we do know, that he cannot be slain by the enemies of the king; neither can they scatter the king’s flocks when he is with us, because of his expertness and great strength; therefore, we know that he is a friend to the king. And now, O king, we do not believe that a man has such great power, for we know he cannot be slain. “And now, when the king heard these words, he said unto them: Now I know that it is the Great Spirit; and he has come down at this time to preserve your lives, that I might not slay you as I did your brethren” (Alma 18:3–4). I have always focused before on how mixed up Lamoni was in his doctrine, without seeing the miracle. The miracle was that a spiritual need was created in a man, that he might be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. His heart was broken. He felt guilt. And it came from the temporal things that Ammon had done. I bear you my testimony that you can prepare the hearts of your students. Serve them; find little things to do for them. Pay the price of service, and God will honor it. I will make you that promise. Do not worry if your students are not lovable at times. Just do something for them, and they will seem a little more lovable to you. It will be a gift from God. I bear my testimony that the Holy Ghost will prepare your students, as He prepared King Lamoni for Ammon. Never, never underestimate the spiritual value of doing temporal things well for those whom you serve." (Henry B. Eyring, "The Book of Mormon will change your life" Ensign, Feb. 2004)

21. Alma 19:16 -  One of four-Abish the inactive missionary.