#21 "Alma...did judge righteous judgments"

#21 “Alma…did Judge Righteous Judgments”
Mosiah 29 and Alma 1-4

So the lesson starts in Mosiah 29 and talks about the Government set up among the Nephites, and tells us it’s about to change. Let’s get some definitions on the board that will put all this into perspective for us.
Monarchy: Gov’t under leadership of 1 ruler (king)
Republic: Rule by a group of elected representatives
Democracy: Gov’t by the people with majority rule
Theocracy: Gov’t guided by God through revelation to prophet

In the USA we have Republic/Democracy gov’t
The Nephites at this time have a Monarchy (King Mosiah II) and Theocracy (Alma the Elder)

It’s a great system but Mosiah is sensing that his time is coming to an end and feels the need to change the system of gov’t. Instead of Kings he feels that it should change to judges-with people deciding, or rather a Republic/Democracy/Theocracy (29:11) All three, he gives reasons why a king is bad and even uses king Noah as the perfect example of why they are bad (29:17)

I wanted to focus on why he thought the other way would be better, at least for the 1st part of the lesson.
29:12 Judge by God’s law because He is merciful and just
29:25 Judged by laws that are correct
29:26 Voice of the people judge (At this time the majority of the people are Righteous)
29:32 every man will enjoy rights and privileges
29:34 every man bare his part-no one to blame but themselves for bad rulings
29:41-42 They-people elect judges- Alma the younger was made Chief judge and was also High Priest over church
29:46 Alma the Elder died @ 82 yrs. and Mosiah II died @ 63 yrs. old

This bring us to the Book of Alma, the new gov’t gets set up and with it free speech-so in creeps priestcraft- Which is false preaching by Nehor Alma 1:3 He taught the following: bear down against church, every teacher should be popular, ought to be paid (v4), and all men saved.
1:5 people believed and began to give him money.

*Now we look at that and say boy were they idiots-I could see right through that right away. But we to in our day have priestcrafts that we let into our lives and just don’t call it by that name. We pay lots of money to it so that we can get more priestcraft, we are willing to pay more money the more popular the item-does anyone know what example I’m thinking of? “Hollywood” The biggest priestcraft business there is! Go in give people what they want-action, conspiracy, romance, they slip in non-truths such as live with a guy 1st and then you’ll know if he is right for you-or it’s okay if it’s violent it isn’t real.
I am passing on a story I thought was rather informative. My friend has a guy in her ward that just moved there and had quit his job. He was a cartoon illustrator for Disney. He was working on a movie (chicken little) and he and his team had the movie completely done. The big wigs came in and said Now rewrite the movie with the mother taken out! You see it was 1st written with chicken little having a mother and father. Their reasoning was the people want a movie that they can relate to and they’d done studies that showed that there are many single parent households and they want to implement that, to touch a different class of people. This guy fought it but lost and was so irritated that the movies were going that direction he made the choice to quit a rather high paying job.

This story has stuck with me since several more movies have come out and the subliminal messages that come out of them. This knowledge makes me so thankful that our church came out with the Proclamation to the Family! There is no question what the churches stance is and they will never change or deviate from that to accommodate popularity in the world.
*My point in telling this story is that we shouldn’t judge these priestcraft stories and the Nephites who fell for them because whether we know it or not we have priestcrafts too.

The story with Nehor going about to preach the priestcrafts brings in Gideon- remember Gideon from King Limhi’s days? He withstands Nehor (Alma 1:7&9) Nehor didn’t like being “schooled” so he killed him.
1:10 Nehor is brought before Alma and tries to convince Alma he’s right, Alma sees right through it and says something we could all learn from
1:12 “were priestcraft to be enforced among this people it would prove their entire destruction”-How powerful can priestcraft be then?
It can dictate what we where, how we act, who we are, what is acceptable.

* capital punishment is issued-Nehor is killed because he killed Gideon (1:14) Unfortunately that was just the beginning of priestcraft.
1:19 those nonmembers started to persecute the members but
1:25 there were those who stood fast in faith- steadfast and immoveable in commandments.
Kind of like the guy who stood up for what he believed to the point of quitting his job-Now that doesn’t mean you all have to go out and quit your jobs but we can take stands a different way can’t we?

*As is always the case, people of God keep commands and 2:29 they began to prosper.
In Alma chapter 2 we meet Amlici- another Priestcrafter (who wanted to be king)
He was very powerful and led away many 2:11 so many that they were confident in taking up arms and calling themselves Amlicites
2:18 Lord strengthens Nephites. 2:19 Nephites slayed 12,532 amlicites and there were 6,562 souls killed of Nephites
2:20 Amlicites leave-followed by Alma’s spies who saw them go join up with Lamanites.
2:28 Nephites still strengthened by Lord
2:31 Amlici killed by Alma
3:23 Lamanites drove out of Lands
Chapter 4:3 they were awakened to duties because of afflictions. Many were baptized
4:6 didn’t take long and people getting proud again
4:10 here’s a scripture meant for our day if ever there was one. The stumbling block of nonmembers in becoming member was the wickedness of the members!
We need to look at this verse and check ourselves. “Am I doing anything in my life that might be a stumbling block for nonmembers or inactive members?” If so- fix it ! Put yourself on the Lord’s path-if not-carry on! Keep up being great!

Alma can’t stand by any longer, he sees that the word of God is the only thing that will correct these peoples lives so he gives his chief judge position to Nephihah (4:18) and he preaches full-time (4:19)

I have a testimony that we each have the power to make a difference by standing steadfast and immoveable when it comes to worldly pursuits and that with our testimonies we can conquer priestcrafts and be an example for good in name of Jesus Christ Amen!