Transcript of Book of Mormon Classes by John W. Welch, 2007 to 2009

Transcript of Book of Mormon Classes by John W. Welch, 2007 to 2009

Alma 49-51. (About 10 minutes of the beginning are missing from the audio.)

The Nephites had in the meantime gone the next step, and were always one step ahead of the Lamanites in terms of technology.

(Student) Alma 49:8 pointed out that Moroni’s defenses were a new kind that had never been done before in their 500 year history.

Yes. The population has now become large enough and armies big enough that they could begin attacking actual cities and, for some reason, as you say, they had not done this before, and it really did come as a surprise to them.

(Student) I am wondering, in the Old Testament, did they not have walled cities? It is easy to see where he got the idea, but now he has the manpower.

They certainly did. He might have read about it. It is a little hard to know. Sometimes they just talk about a walled city or a fenced city, and it does not say how big, so maybe they had smaller ones, but these were really fortified and with a single gate, only one way in and out.

(Student) What was interesting to me is they did it all without bulldozers. I realized how long it would take them. How big of a monstrosity was it that they could throw rocks down...

Imagine digging a ditch piling the dirt up on the other side.

(Student) Then building a fort on top of that.

Then they would put ramparts or pickets up on top of that so they must have worked very hard. Some of the cities had natural areas that were easier to fortify than others were, and I have seen some cities down in the Yucatan where they are built on a river where there is a cliff on one side so you only have to fortify them on part of the sides. However, it is true that when we go into the archaeology, and this is a recent development, we now find evidences of fortification like this, which people did not know about before.

(Student) I think in verse 22 it is so interesting when they tell of trying to dig down the banks of earth that they might obtain a path but that they were swept off by stones. The ditches were filled up in a measure with their dead. That just creates a picture.

That is an amazing picture. Chapter 49. That is because they fought with waves of men coming, and they just kept sending them, and as they were killed with stones, arrows, or whatever, they were collapsing into the ditch and they could not pull them out even to rescue them if they were to trying to save the wounded. So they did fill up.

Now is there something just or some poetic justice in what is happening here?

(Student) Moroni did not brag about his successes.

No. He does not usually, in fact when he wins, what does he do? He says, “Let us get back to work.” And we will talk about that too. But is this a kind of poetic justice. We have seen this on other occasions, where if you want to do justice in the ancient world, the sort of thing that you thought you were trying to do to your enemy will happen to you. So if you dig a pit for your neighbor, you fall in it. That is justice. That is an Old Testament passage rather like this one. Abinadi is burned and he says, “What ye have done to me is going to happen to you.” And we have this in the teachings of Jesus in several places. If you forgive, you will be forgiven, and if you do not you will not be forgiven. Whatsoever measure you use for measuring, that yardstick that is going to be used to measure you. So there is a kind of balance in that.

(Student) I like verse 28 where it talks about God’s matchless power in delivering, and how the Nephites had all power over their enemies, and in 28 they were thanking the Lord for that power.

How do you see that that applies to us?

(Student) The power that we can have in the Lord as we fight our enemies.

Your point is about Moroni not bragging. When they win, they did not say what? We are wonderful. When they win, they take it, give God the thanks, and remember that they had all sworn an oath too. That the Nephites had sworn an oath that they would fight, and if they did not they said, “May we be trampled upon just as we are trampling on our coats” and things like that. Well, any time you swear an oath or make a kind of vow in the Biblical system, you say to God, if you will give us victory, then we will sacrifice or dedicate or do something for you. So when we see them coming back after a victory like this, a very natural thing that they would have is an explicit obligation to come and give God thanks in some way. So I am wondering if this thanksgiving is mentioned here to let us know that they have fulfilled the obligation that they had incurred when they swore their own oath.

(Student) When we think of an oath, we suppose that somebody making an oath would have extreme integrity and honesty, and here we have these [Lamanite] chief captains making an oath to do evil and yet they will do everything just to keep their oath even though it is for an evil purpose.

That is interesting. Yes. Oaths have a lot of power for good or for evil and you know, the Gadianton robbers will swear oaths to each other. Usually the oaths of the bad guys are oaths in which they were promising each other that they will support one another. The oaths of the good guys are usually oaths that they will obey God’s law or do what God wants done, so that may be a bit of a distinction. Remember the oaths of the Gadianton robbers were so vile, so fearful, that what do we learn at one place? They were not acceptable to be published. The brethren did not want anybody to know about those oaths, because there was a wrong way to swear oaths. If you did it wrong, that created all kinds of problems.

(Student) One of the interesting things is that the Lord inspired them to build the fortifications that protected them as long as they were righteous. When they fail to keep the commandments and be righteous then…it turns against them…I just think that is so interesting.

It is. It is very interesting. Remember that these chief captains who have sworn this oath, they are from the Land of Nephi. They were not very far removed from the people who were converted by Ammon. Do you remember the oath that they made when they were converted? They swore that they would never again shed blood. That oath will come up with the stripling warriors because their fathers had sworn that oath and could not go to battle, so the sons have to go. But there you have Lamanites who were taking the oath for the right reason, but the seriousness of their keeping that oath is consistent within the Lamanite culture that we see. And what a wonderful lesson to me. This tells us that we should be just as committed to keeping our oaths.

(Student) I am very interested to hear in verse 30 where it said, “The word of God was declared by Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton as they ….

That is right. Those are those three sons of Alma and Corianton is still on the job. His repentance was effective, complete, and it is interesting that Mormon wants us to know that. He does not just say Helaman and his brothers. He names Corianton and we get the point.

(Student) On oaths, we swore an oath to the Lord when we were baptized and confirmed…

When you are ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood it is with an oath and a covenant, and of course, when we go to the temple, the covenants that we make—that word covenant is just another word for an oath in a way. We just say “yes,” but what does Jesus say about swearing oaths. “Just let your speech be yea, yea, and nay, nay.” That is how we are supposed to swear oaths when we do it right. We say yes, and we mean it. And that is what we do with baptism.

People ask when they ever swore an oath when ordained an elder. I will bet your bishop asked if you would; are you prepared, ready, and willing? And you said yes. Well guess what. You just made an oath. Hopefully everybody understands that.

I thought it might be fun to hear your reaction to this first question about the weaknesses that you think Satan is using right now in your life and your family. These [Lamanite] chief captains knew the territory. They were Zoramites, they knew the lay of the land, and they thought they knew right where the weakest part was. How many of you play Risk? You put all these armies out on the board and you always attack where you are strong and the other guy is weak. Right? You get to roll three dice and they only get to roll one. You usually win. Well the Lamanites thought that was what they were looking at. “Let us just go get some easy pickings.”

By the way, why did they think Ammonihah would be so easy? They had conquered it before and how long before that was it? How many years? Do we know? We do. It is interesting that there are only three events in the whole Book of Mormon for which we are told the day, month, and year of when it happened. The first is the day, month, and year in Alma 16 when the Lamanites attack and defeat Ammonihah when it is wicked, and they obliterate it, destroy it, and leave it as a heap. The second is right here. Seven years and a couple of months later, they were back - close, not bad - seven years is not very long to reestablish a place. The Nephites were probably reluctant to move back into this land. It was defiled with dead bodies; they had heaped them up. They had not been given a proper burial, and there was corpse contamination. They would not have wanted to go there. Disease too, so it has probably only been a short time and already all of this has been rebuilt. I think the dates are given to us so that we know how hard they were out there digging, and how this really is an astonishing thing, that Moroni and his men have put together.

The third date - what is the third one that we know day, month and year? It is the - when the death of Christ is given.

(Student) What kind of a tool did they dig with? Did they have metal shovels?

They did not, but they had good, hard wood in the jungles and in the forests and they mostly had tools that were made out of hard wood.

(Student) Do we have evidence of these tools in our archaeological diggings?

Most of the wooden tools did not survive, so there are not many of those, but there are pictures of them, some drawings. I will see if I can dig some up for you.

Well, anyway, the Lamanites thought they had a weak spot and they were going after it. That did not work out. But does Satan do the same kind of thing in your life? Does he know what your strengths are? Is he going to waste his time on going after them? I do not think he usually does. How have you found that in your life? Do you think he knows your weaknesses well enough that he can head for them?

(Student) Probably one good one is the Word of Wisdom. I do not think any of us in here smoke or have a problem with it, but not many of us feel like we are tempted with that each day? But there are other people for whom that is a huge issue.

Good point. (Student) I personally do not think he can read your thoughts but he can see your actions.

That is a good point. I like that.

(Student) The sly glance that you take at this or that, and then he can tempt you.

(Student) How do we know that he cannot tell what we are thinking?

Well, I believe that myself.

(Student) Where does it say?

Do we have any authority for that?

(Student) We can just say a general authority said one time.

Well, but I do believe there are limits to what he is allowed to do.

(Student) We know that the adversary can be removed from your presence with light, Section 52 of Doctrine and Covenants talks about the pattern of the gospel, and if you understand that pattern, you can chase the adversary away. I think there are ways that your actions and your thoughts will drive him away, whether or not he knows them.

Interesting. When you drive him away, do you think he is just going off to another place where he can maybe have an easier time of it?

(Student) I think that is exactly what he is doing. That is what we learn from the scriptures. He always follows the path of least resistance and I have heard thoughts that the adversary will not spend time with a heart and mindset is in the right direction because he will look for souls that are easily influenced.

So we can put up our defenses like Moroni and it is going to work. It is reassuring to know that there are ways that you can drive Satan away from you. Do you have a story on that?

(Student) When we were in the mission field in Brazil, the mission president came and got my husband and me out of church, and took us out to a city because an Elder was possessed with the devil. They prayed for him and cast the devil out and they got the car to take him back to the mission home for a few days, but it came right back - right back. And then three of them when we got there, tried to cast it out and they could not. We had to call the area presidency and I am telling you, when they came, he just yelled at that spirit to leave, and it did leave but the Elder finally had to be taken from the mission field because he kept allowing it to come back in him.

Interesting. Well, those are some stories.

(Student) You know, to change the subject a little to the original question, what tempts our weaknesses, I live in Gilbert, Arizona, and I have a group of friends that walk together, go to the temple together, and they are in the class that I teach. I have noticed over these past months that so many women are so concerned about what other people think of them, how they dress, what they do, whether they have plastic surgery, and these are wonderful Latter-day Saint women who are very faithful, but…

Do you think that the men do not worry just as much? All right guys, let us be honest.

(Student) But if we would concern ourselves really with what the Lord thinks, then we will be in harmony with the spirit, and if somebody does not like us or whatever, at least we know we are in harmony with the spirit.