Come Follow Me LDS- Alma 30-31 Part 2, Book of Mormon
Jul 07, 2020
"The Zoramites"
- The Zoramites reject the Doctrine of Christ
- Self Esteem is sometimes an artificial copy of The Image of God
- The Rameumpton is like the Tower of Babel
- All of the Nephite dissenter groups reject the Doctrine of Christ
- The Book of Mormon prepare us for the attacks on Liberty and the Doctrine of Christ. The worst attacks, will come from inside the church.
Raw Transcript
so when this come follow me episode
we're going to talk about the zoramites
here we go so in this part ii series
we're going to go into Alma chapter 31
here we talk about another group of
dissenters this happens over and over
again to the Church of God to the
Nephites where groups end up breaking
off and coming back to haunt the
Nephites right both in both
theologically where they have a real
disputation with the doctrine primarily
the doctrine of Christ all of them and
secondly with the liberty of the people
most of these groups not all of these
groups end up fighting the Nephites and
want to take away their Liberty we get
some of the examples where there's small
successes with this where a mule on and
the priests of Noah right end up
corresponding which means trading or or
being an alliance with the Lamanites and
they're put over the people of Alma the
elder right and they take away their
liberties and they don't let them pray
that's what ends up happening with all
of these apostates with all of these
dissenters and they all want the same
thing destroy the Church of God destroy
the doctrine of Christ on the side of
belief and on the side of politics that
want to take away their Liberty
so Alma hears about the zoramites right
which were down further south in the
land of the Nephites closer to Jurong
and closer to the land of the Lamanites
and he's afraid like all of the other
dissenters he's got plenty to pull from
from experience on this that they are
going to go to the side of the Lamanites
and end up politically being a part of
them and they do end up doing this and
they do end up coming back and fighting
against the Nephites trying to take away
their liberty and destroy the church we
start off in verse 4 here says now the
Nephites greatly feared that the
zoramites would enter into a
correspondence with the Lamanites now if
you look at the footnote here - verse 4
where it says correspondence with the a
next to it the footnote here brings us
to a topical guide with conspiracy but
all that's really the way that's
supposed to be portrayed here right the
way correspondence is used we just saw
it with the anti Nephi Lehigh's they
entered into a correspondence with the
Nephites right so it's not really a
conspiracy it's more of an alliance
where there would be trade and they're
politically part of the Lamanites that's
what they're afraid of when the anti
Nephi Lehigh's gave up the name of
Lamanites and wanted to follow the
tradition of the Nephites they opened up
a correspondence with the Nephites they
allied themselves then politically with
the Nephites and they were counted among
the Nephites but Alma is very concerned
about this and he has every right to be
it is what ends up happening and every
other group that is dissented from the
doctrine of Christ they're all religions
right they all separate and create their
own religions such as the order of nee
hoor and they all end up going and
aligning with the Lamanites so he brings
up a point here he says look we we could
work with a sword here coercion force
like the other side tries to do but he
says the most important thing and the
best way to change hearts is through the
Word of God and that's where he is going
to go into the whole idea of the seed
right being the Word of God when we get
to Alma
thirty two so he goes down with a group
has got a couple of his sons he's got a
meal AK and Z's room that go down with
him and they go to see what's going on
here with his or mines and what's
happening in their synagogues now
they're shocked because they've been
building synagogues this is very similar
to the order of nee hoor right again
these are religious groups the dissent
we should stay away from the idea that
everyone's like a core whore whore whore
is the rarity these are all dissenting
groups that have a different theology
and we can even look at it as a
different ideology a different political
ideology and a different theology a
different doctrine they're religious we
can go all the way back again to laman
and lemuel laman and lemuel are
religious now you can define religious
in your own way but they are religious
they just don't believe in the doctrine
of Christ they don't believe what Lehi
is saying they believe what the Jews in
Jerusalem at the time believed so they
build all these synagogues where they
can worship God but what we're gonna
find here with Azure mites is we've been
given two examples here in these two
different chapters core whore who gives
us the arguments of an atheist and then
the zoramites who are going to give us
the argument of sticking with religion
but getting rid of right burying the
doctrine of Christ yeah the anti Nephi
Lehigh's who buried their weapons of war
and that was a statement and a covenant
so to speak
well they do the same thing here there's
or mites do they bury in a sense the
doctrine of Christ and they make a
covenant with God that they're not going
to be like the Nephites who believe in
Christ and believe in repentance and
then way that they get around that well
we're gonna show you here how they kind
of get around that here first of all in
verse 9 a couple of specifics here with
with their practice of religion here
with Israelites but they had fallen into
great errors for the
would not observe to keep the
commandments of God and his statutes
according to the law of Moses this then
we can draw a parallel with King Noah
and his priests right because they were
very religious right and again when I
say religious don't think spiritual
necessarily don't think right just
religious there's a lot of holy wars
that go on in the world and in history
that's what's happening here but just
like King Noah and his priests they
don't follow the law of Moses they might
even preach it but they don't really
follow the statutes of it just as a Ben
and I argued against king knowing the
priests and then down in verse 12 we're
told that they gathered themselves
together on one day of the week which
they did call the day of the Lord I
think it's interesting that he doesn't
specifically say it's the Sabbath well
maybe it was but why doesn't he say that
here it's interesting to think that
maybe they changed the day from the law
of Moses here which day they'd call the
day of the Lord and they need a worship
after a manner which Alma and his
brethren had never beheld when we talked
about the word of worship here in the
Book of Mormon oftentimes what we're
saying is an expression right I mean we
can think about worshipping and we
usually think more of just prayer right
or or taking the sacrament performing
the ordinances but for them in in the
way they use the term worship a lot of
the times they're talking about
expressing themselves in front of others
so for us today they would say that we
are worshipping when we are giving a
talk or a spiritual thought or even
giving a lesson which is a lot like
maybe they would do here that's the way
the Jews used to do it in the synagogues
people could stand up talk about
doctrine have a debate even and that was
worshiping so we're told here that they
had built a place up in the center of
their sinner synagogue for a place for
standing which was high above the head
and the top thereof would only admit one
person so I think the image that we
start to get here with this is I think
of the Tower of Babel
that's exactly what they're doing right
so they build a pulpit
that is high above everyone else and
here when you climb up to that it's a
sign of saying I am above I am special I
am creating a different way to get to
God just like the Tower of Babel and
what does the Tower of Babel represent
it's pride now there's something that's
going to go along with us here that I
think is kind of interesting to follow
the way I see it it really plays into
the philosophies of men today in in my
interpretation so in verse 14 therefore
whosoever desired to worship or to speak
must go forth and stand upon the top
thereof and stretch forth his hands
towards heaven and cry with a loud voice
saying and pay attention to what they
say holy holy God we believe that thou
art God and we believe that thou art
holy and that thou wast a spirit and
that thou art a spirit and that thou
wilt be a spirit forever so this may be
a clue to us about another burying of
the doctrine of Christ where there is
not a separate being who is the son and
that there is not a resurrection that
would make sense and then we get to the
idea here that the kind of is coupled
with this pride I think in 16 holy God
we believe that thou hast separated us
from our brethren the Nephites and we do
not believe in the tradition of our
brethren which was handed down to them
by a lent childishness of their fathers
ok so again this is a big point of
reference and of discussion for Alma is
the traditions of the fathers where the
anti Nephi Lehigh's give up the
tradition of their fathers because
they're wrong and they adopt the
traditions of the fathers of the
Nephites here the zoramites are
rejecting the traditions of the fathers
of the Nephites and starting their own
traditions or mimicking the traditions
of all of the other dissenters and they
say this but we believe that thou hast
elected us to be thy holy children and
also thou hast made it
into us that there shall be no Christ
boom there it is right I mean that's
that's always a part of this again what
do we find it's similar to everyone that
aligns themselves with the Lamanites
it's a it's a it's our denial of the
doctrine of Christ every single group
that denies the doctrine of Christ and
some going to the other side politically
ends up fighting against the Church of
God and ends up trying to destroy the
liberty of the Nephites that's a theme
we should pay very close attention to
and to me it's the real it's it's the
real it's not again something Nephites
and Lamanites so to speak as far as the
layman Lemuel a minute Lamanites right
it's it's it's primarily the narrative
of the dissenters of the Nephites that
go to the Lamanites side and all become
Lamanites and rile up the Lamanites to
come back and fight against the Nephites
now a couple things here in this first
sixteen that I think are really
important first of all they're saying
but we believe that thou hast elected us
to be thy holy children well we see the
term the elect oftentimes what does that
mean right what are the who are the
elect of God well elect means to choose
right when you go to a voting booth in
an election you're going to choose
you're going to elect who you want for
to represent you so we also have the
word chosen so we have the elect who are
they they are the chosen people chosen
by whom well they're chosen by God right
they are the chosen people we can talk
about the Jews which would be really
they're only a part of it but it would
be the Israelites as the chosen covenant
people of God and then everybody else is
supposed to gather into that through
relational covenant so many are called
if you've ever ever wondered about that
that phrase many are called but few are
chosen
there it's talking about the elect of
God right it's those that are
called to do something which we all are
and the elect are the ones that go
through the covenants and live by the
covenants those are the chosen people
now there's something else here that I
think underlines this person and verse
through verse 18 here and and that is
the idea of self-esteem right I think
that we've gone through the last 50
years or so with this idea of really
focusing on people's self-esteem and in
a lot of ways it's not
it seems very artificial to me and
others have said this a lot that you
know we try to build up someone's
self-esteem so to speak we try to make
it all positive we may not for children
for example worried about their
self-esteem so you don't punish them or
you don't give consequences for certain
things or you know it's it's kind of
this protecting over protection over
individuals to help them with their
self-esteem oh what's the problem with
that well that would go right along with
canceling right in our cancel culture
canceling the doctrine of Christ because
what do you need Christ for if you can
say well I'm just elect I'm an
electrician and I don't need to worry
about consequences then I don't need a
Christ but I don't need that I don't
need to go through the hard things of
living a certain way of making and
keeping covenants of dealing with
consequences because of my own decisions
I can put that all aside right and I can
just say well I'm chosen today again
broadly with Christianity are good
brothers and sisters that are Creole
Christians if I just believe right to
some degree I mean there's different
sects have different beliefs on that but
ultimately right it's it's do I believe
do I accept Christ I am saved I'm a
chosen I'm part of the chosen people
well there's a real problem with that
so I think that self-esteem is something
that you look at here you can say that's
something that's very closely tied as an
opposition force a force of opposition
to the doctrine of Christ literally
right I mean it's it's you need to learn
to be stronger you need to learn to
become if I have just focused on
self-esteem instead of I'm in the image
of God and I want to be like God or my
mother in heaven then that's a
completely different approach I can't
just say I am chosen I have to do what
is necessary to be chosen if I
understand that the elect the chosen are
those that make and keep their covenants
now they go a little bit further with
this in this example in seventeen but
thou art the same yesterday today and
forever this is whoever's up on the
pedestal here speaking and thou has to
elected us that we shall be saved there
it is right well all around us are
elected to be cast by the wrath down to
hell for the which holiness oh god we
thank thee and we also thank thee that
thou has to elected us how fortunate
that's that's that's great for them
right how convenient that we may not be
led away after the foolish traditions of
our brethren they put up a wall against
the lamina fights which deaf-blind them
down to a belief of Christ which Duff
lead their hearts to wander far from the
oh god and again we thank thee O God
that we are a chosen and a holy people
amen
all right so we've started to unpack
this a little bit here but we can see
right that that doctrine that idea what
if I've spoken to several converts to
the church and and interestingly maybe
you've had this experience as well if
you're a convert especially if you come
from another Christian or something from
a Christian background but one of the
issues that is a real problem for
Christianity broadly is the idea that
those that never hear the gospel which
is the majority of the entire world
today and the vast majority of all of
human history right that have never
heard the gospel that they are condemned
to hell so God created the vast majority
of his children that never have a chance
to accept the gospel to grow and to gain
exaltation and for them any degree of
glory that's a real problem and so so
that idea is a real issue right that
doesn't seem very just from a just God
there's no there's no opportunity for
for most people so the other doctrine
that is coupled with that that is
soothing to many converts is the idea of
the glories of heaven right it says hey
the vast majority of everyone even when
they have the chance to accept the
gospel the vast majority of the children
of God will attain a kingdom of glory of
some level where they are most
comfortable where they would want to be
so it's not just a black and white you
go to heaven or you go to hell right
that's that's a major issue so those two
doctrines where we know that everybody
gets the gospel preached to them the
preaching to the dead right the temple
work for the dead and the degrees of
glory are what create a just God for all
people but here they're saying the
opposite they're the elect the Nephites
and everybody else are not going to make
it back to to heaven
they're simply condemned to hell and
it's so interesting how things are
always turned on their heads here just
in the back to 17 a little bit the full
of traditions of our brother and which
tough bind them down to a belief in
Christ we've had this theme going out
throughout the Book of Mormon about
being bound right being in bondage of
the chains of hell and the dissenters
want to turn that around right you're
being bound with shackles to this belief
in Christ even
whore whore so the same thing that they
are being these people are being
oppressed and manipulated that are the
the Church of God by their leaders who
want power and money is what he was
saying so everybody goes up and says the
same thing they do the exact same thing
they lift themselves up they're proud
right they they are there is no lowering
yourself because there's no doctrine of
Christ if there's no Christ why do you
need to lower yourself why do you need
to fit yourself into a fluid hierarchy
and they call the place that they go up
to the pedestal the pulpit Rampton which
being interpreted is the holy stand well
the Tower of Babel was in a sense a
temple same idea and then the last point
of their doctrine here is given to us it
says now from this stand they did offer
up every man the self same prayer unto
God kind of this virtue signaling to
everybody out there against the Nephites
those are bad I'm with you guys
thanking their God that they were chosen
of him and that he did not lead them
away after the tradition of their
brethren and that their hearts were not
stolen away to believe in things to come
which they knew nothing about again just
like in the last episode and how I've
said previously prophecy is very closely
it's really a part of the doctrine of
Christ they don't believe in anybody
being a visionary man they can't because
the Nephites have prophecy and of course
if they're giving up the authority if
they're giving up the spirit then
they're not going to have prophecy so
they're going to fight against it and
certainly they're going to fight against
the prophecy of a messiah of the Christ
of Jehovah coming down to earth now what
else does this allow them to do as they
build up their self-esteem and virtue
signal to each other
well Alma says that he saw that they
were a wicked
and a perverse people yeah he saw that
their hearts were set upon gold and upon
silver and upon all manner of fine Goods
so just like the order of Annie whores
and then he gives us the word here and
he also saw that their hearts were
lifted up and do great boasting in their
pride
so again Lehigh's vision the dream of
Lehi you have the Tree of Life on one
side of the chasm of the valley and you
have the great and spacious building on
the other the zoramites are cancelling
The Tree of Life which is the doctrine
of Christ and they are going across the
chasm to the Great and spacious building
to the Tower of Babel
so as Alma talks about this and reflects
on this he brings us into the spiritual
economy and how this works in verse 30
he says although Lord God how long wilt
thou suffer that such wickedness and
infidelity shall be among this people o
Lord wilt thou give me strength that I
may bear within my with mine infirmities
what infirmities its the wickedness of
the people that's the infirmities
that's the sickness he feels sick
spiritually sick emotionally sick
because in a sense that is transferred
onto him right he is the one who is
going to sacrifice he is the one that
loves and cares for them just like
Christ
so those sins are in a sense put onto
his shoulders that he needs to bear so
that he can do something about it if he
can for I am infirm and such wickedness
among this people death pain my soul O
Lord my heart is exceedingly sorrowful
wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ so
he is taking on the infirmities of the
people in a sense right and then to make
it through he needs to pull on something
stronger right he's going through the
hierarchy he needs to pull on Christ on
the future sacrifice I love Jesus Christ
who bore all infirmities all sin so he
is take
that on the transaction so to speak and
then he is reaching out and asking for
this that he can that he can pull from
Christ Oh Lord wilt thou grant unto me
that I may have strength that I may
suffer with patience these afflictions
which shall come upon me he knows what
he's about to go through right he knows
what's gonna he's going to go through in
order to try and teach the word to the
zoramites
and then he talks about those that are
with him right ammon and Aaron and honor
and amalek and zis Rome and his two sons
he says yeah even all these wilt thou
comfort oh lordy a wilt thou comfort
their souls in Christ so as they go
through the afflictions they are going
to turn and pull from Christ to get
strength to do this that's the spiritual
economy so the missionaries here are
trying to create a correspondence as we
saw in the first verse with the
zoramites
and they have a correspondence with
Christ already in place it's like trade
then he says something interesting 35 I
don't quite understand but he says
behold O Lord their souls are precious
and many of them are our brethren well
there's a couple things we could be
thinking about here I know they're
called the zoramites and perhaps they
are these Orleans from Zora from
Jerusalem but they're led by a man named
Zoram but there are some clues also that
might tell us that these are mostly mule
kites so it's hard to know what is meant
by many of them are our brethren is he
saying that some of them the minority of
them are Nephites or more likely is he
saying some of these that are here are
recently from the church and have
dissented have defected out here to be
with Azure mites and to practice their
religion that seems a little more likely
to me so Alma places his hand
on each of hit the members of his
missionary group here of his district
and blesses them that they'll have this
strength to be able to go forth and
teach the Word of God to the sermons and
we get this again I believe this is
something from maybe I'm missing this
somewhere in the Old Testament but we
hear it in the New Testament a lot we
hear it in it with the with the Apostles
we hear it a couple times here in the
Book of Mormon but after this they did
separate themselves one from another
just like the sons of Mosiah taking no
thought for themselves what they should
eat or what they should drink or what
they should put on right so it's the
same example we have that were the sons
of Mosiah the same example that we get
with the Apostles in the Gospels there
they're pulling from something right
from from a concept from something a
prophet is taught in the past from the
brass plates it looks like so here we
have from these two different examples
an atheist in kora whore first
specifically denying that there will be
a Christ that any Christ will come and
secondly with Ozora mites we have a
religious group that deny the doctrine
of Christ and the more we go through
these examples and look at these these
outlines of the theology right of the
debate of different individuals and
groups like shehram like King Noah and a
mule on in the priests like a Maasai
like nee hoor like the Amalekites and
the amulets and here are the zoramites
and soon the Amalekites and the kingman
and the daddy ants and robbers we pick
up these little pieces of understanding
of how they all in one way or another
deny the doctrine of Christ and end up
looking to destroy the Liberty and the
church of the people of the Nephites
that's the story of the Book of Mormon
and knowing that the Book of Mormon is
written for our time I think it would be
very
wise to to understand these arguments to
understand these debates because it
appears to me and it seems a natural
progression that these attacks on the
doctrine of Christ these attacks on the
existence of God are going to get worse
and worse in worse in our day they're
going to be the prevalent theologies and
philosophies of our time so we better
have a strong testimony we will better
give our families a strong testimony
help them develop a strong testimony and
we better be able to respond well to
these problems because otherwise it's
going to affect us and we made-out right
when something gets really developed in
a debate in an argument in an attack in
their rhetoric you want to be prepared
and the other thing to keep in mind here
unfortunately is that almost all of
these examples really outside of cherem
and nee hoor come from the church itself
from dissenters in the church so that's
rather concerning why are we being told
all of this with all of these different
two centers these different groups
throughout the book of mormon hope it's
not really like that but we have modern
prophets who say that that's that's the
way it's going to be if you're
interested in delving into those debates
a little bit more I would recommend you
take a look at the quick study group you
can go to the website and take a look at
that and this week specifically we're
going to go over some of the historical
arguments against the existence of God
and other arguments just against the the
doctrine of Christ
both both from a historical standpoint
and from today this is what we are going
to be fighting against the doctrine of
Christ and the liberty of the people and
so the more versed we get with the Book
of Mormon the clear we have an
understanding of these stories and these
examples if we peel the onion back
further and further to what the Book of
Mormon is really all about we can look
for the signs for the patterns the
parallels and we can prepare ourselves
and our families for a future in
upholding liberty and upholding the
doctrine of Christ
I'll talk to you
Come Follow Me LDS
Book of Mormon Alma
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