Day 32 Mosiah 18-20

In Mosiah 18, Alma repents of his sins and starts to teach the people about Abinadi's words.  He goes among the people teaching privately because he knows King Noah's men seek to take away his life.  He taught the people about the resurrection of the dead, the Savior's Redemption of mankind by his suffering, death, and resurrection.  The people Alma taught believed him and were baptized at The Waters of Mormon.

In Mosiah 18:8-10, Alma spoke these words,

"Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; 

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— 

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

When Alma spoke these words the people clapped for Joy and said that what Alma shared is exactly what they desired in their hearts.  That day starting with a man named Helam, Alma baptized 204 people at the Waters of Mormon!

They were called "The Church of Christ" from that day on.

Alma instructed the priests he ordained to teach the people to only preach about Repentance and Faith, to not be angry or fight with others, and to love each other.

He went on to instruct the priests not to depend on the people for their support.  He told the people to give to each other according to their needs (this reminded me of the Law of Consecration).  I also see how our faith in this day was modeled after the description of Alma's teachings for setting up God's Church.  We do not have paid clergy, we pay tithing and fast offerings which help others in need, and we try to love and serve one another.  Reading Mosiah gives me such love and warmth for the care Alma took to show the people how to be followers of Christ with each other!

When the King caught wind of where Alma and his people were being taught and baptized he went after them but they were warned and left together in to the Wilderness, all 450 of them!

Mosiah 19 goes on to talk about Gideon who wanted to kill Wicked King Noah, war with the Lamanites and the people of King Noah,  King Noah being killed by fire, the Lamanites promised not to Kill King Noah's people, Limhi became King and established peace.

 In Mosiah 20, Twenty-Four of the daughters of the Lamanites were kidnapped by wicked priests of King Noah, so after 2 years of peace the Lamanites started fighting with Limhi's people thinking it was them and not the wicked priests.

War kept happening until Limhi's people found the Lamanite King and brought him to Limhi.  Limhi asked why they were attacking them, the Lamanite King told him about their kidnapped daughters and how they thought it was Limhi's people who did it, when it was really King Noah's priests.  

King Limhi and the King of the Lamanites came to an understanding and wars stopped.

Likening the Scriptures Unto Me

I feel like I need to relate this to our lives today.  How often do wars and contentions start over misunderstandings and rumors?  Miscommunication and misunderstanding leads to contention and fighting.  We can learn alot from these Chapters in the Book of Mormon about the importance of communication to resolve conflict.  It also goes to show that humans sometimes assume things about others that just aren't true and it can lead to war and contentions even in families, churches, at work, and socially.  

We can learn from this!

Below is a 24 minute video to add to Chapter 19-20 if you have time.