SPIRIT OF DIOTREPHES IN AMMONIHAH

It was lovely to read of Alma's beautiful experiences in Gideon and Melek. Even his work in Zarahemla ended on a positive note. Alma's mission in Zarahemla takes up two chapters.  His mission to Gideon, one chapter.  By the time he gets to Melek, Mormon recorded simply 4 verses.  Then  Alma goes to Ammonihah. Mormon chooses to spend a great deal of time and space on the plates talking about Alma's mission to Ammonihah - six full chapters!

What kind of people did Alma meet in Ammonihah?  Complete apostates? Persecutors of the Saints? Wicked proselytes of Satan?  A righteous people need very little in the way of teaching doctrine because they know and understand the doctrine of Christ and are living it.  But an evil people need to be taught with great power.  They don't fully know or understand the doctrine and they are not only not living it themselves, they ridicule and persecute those that do. 

I can just picture Mormon, reading back over Alma's records and deciding which verses and teachings to include. Engraving on the plates was not a simple process, as I discovered when I first started writing about Nephi's plates. The engravers must first make the plates and prepare them for engraving.  Then, using a hand tool called a Dremel, he carves his message into the metal, one character at a time. So for Mormon to write six full chapters on the events in Ammonihah would have been a huge commitment for him.  Knowing that he was writing for our day, he chose those things he knew we would need to hear.

Looking for patterns in the writings of prophets and apostles helps me see the consistency of God's work.   The Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos wrote to the seven Churches.  There would first be a compliment; then an admonition; finally, a promise.  It is easy to take the spiritual temperature of each area by watching where John deviates. 

For example, when John writes to the church in Philadelphia, there is only a compliment and no admonition, for these people are keeping their covenants. I know they works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut if: for thou hast . . . kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3: 7-8)

In his letter to the church in Laodicea, there is no compliment, only a reprimand.  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, . . . I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3: 15-16)

I think that the people in Gideon and Mulek must have been much like the Saints in Philadelphia, whereas those in Zarahemla were lukewarm like the Laodiceans.

We are now poised at the beginning of Alma's mission in Ammonihah.  The only comparison I can make between John and Alma is with John's treatment at the hand of Diotrephes, who not only preached false doctrine, but threw the righteous out of his congregation and refused to receive John, the only living Apostle and high priest in the Church, to come to his church to preach.(See 3 John 1:9) Likewise, Alma as the high priest of the Church in the Nephite nation was reviled and spat upon and thrown out of the city of Ammonihah.

Is there not room in the Inn amongst the wicked?

© June 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson