Transcript for Mosiah 25-28 Part 2 • Dr. Jenet Erickson • May 27-June 2 • Come Follow Me

Well, let's go into 27 and here we're going to get this remarkable instruction about what we might call, I think Joe Spencer calls it the political theology of the Book of Mormon. Mosiah is going to establish the rule of law in a sense that there will be religious freedom. No persecutions, all will be equal, each laboring for their own support, abounding in the grace of God. He's going to recognize that the flourishment of truth and human flourishing cannot happen without establishing religious freedom. That is true around the world. It's interesting. The data on that, how nations that have higher levels of religious freedom have higher flourishing in a host of things, including economically thriving. There's more entrepreneurship. There's more investment. from companies, there's more growth and stability that allows for that growth. You have stronger equality between men and women, the more religious freedom there is. There's a lot to be said for the power of establishing religious freedom and the flourishing of human beings. And certainly our church stands for that. There's Joseph Smith saying, at the core of it all is the need to honor the rights of all in their religious beliefs and convictions.

We're going to get to the next powerful story, verse 8. Now, the sons of Mosiah were numbered among the unbelievers. The sons of the king, and also one of the sons of Alma was numbered among them. And he was at wicked and idolatrous man stealing away the hearts of the people, causing much dissension. And this is powerful. It helps us understand why protecting the church is important. Alma, his father, trying to know what it means to maintain the integrity of the church. because it says, this was a great hinderment. It gave a chance for the enemy of God to exercise His power over them. So it's creating vulnerability among people. How painful to have His own son engaging in that. It appears like it was secretly. He may not even been fully aware of all that His son was doing.

Yeah, that's so interesting.

Yes, and he will stand before Korohore. It's so interesting Alma will towards the very end of his life and see I'm sure in Korohore who he had been.

We're gonna read in verses 14 through 16. I remember as a child reading this and thinking about people I loved and wondering, why does the Lord send an angel to them? He answered Alma the Father's Prayer and I'm sure his wife and the mother of Alma, why does he answer this family's prayer? And I think it's helpful 100% to know the Lord is hearing and answering our prayers. And we heard that reiterated in conference several times in really beautiful ways. But what's happening here is the Lord is not going to allow His church to be destroyed. So we might see this kind gesture to a father who's praying for his son. In fact, the Lord is saying, I'm not sure what Alma the younger is going to do, but I am not going to allow my church to be destroyed. He's going to say in verse 13, Alma, a rise in stand fourth, why percicutus thou the church of God? For the Lord has said, this is my church, and I will establish it, and nothing shall overthrow it. Of yourself, later he's going to say, you may choose of yourself to destroy yourself, but you will not destroy the church. And I think that there's a lot to be said about trusting in God. His will will be done. We can trust him. And if it's not our will, we can know it is his will, and it will be okay. But his will will be done. Now, don't you love that he's going to say to him, verse 15, can ye dispute the power of God? And we're going to hear the sons of Moses say the same thing, what else could do such a thing except the power of God? So in verse 20, and they rehearsed unto his father, all that had happened, and his father rejoiced for he knew it was the power of God. Nothing else could do this.

But we can have that feeling right. And just to know, God will not allow us to destroy the church. You won't. Are you amazed that Alma the Father gathers all the people together? I remember when I younger, reading about this man and recognizing how humiliating, if he were in a place of using his son to validate himself in any way, which is the place that I can often be in. It's natural for parents. My children are a reflection of me, my skills, my capacities. Their goodness is an evidence of my goodness and their failure. It's so human of us as parents to be like their failure is an indication of my failure. It can be shameful to see your own children struggle and then you'll often hear that feeling of, I have failed. There's a feeling that parents might have. I somehow failed. I didn't do because look at this child, they're an indication of my failure. And Alma, he is not in that place. I love it. He gathers everybody together. He's totally unafraid for the whole world to see this is my son who has been going about as the violence of sinners. All I want you to see is the hand of God in this person's life, in my son's life. It's inspiring to me. Not unlike the prodigal, the father, the prodigal son, right? He says, here's my son. He was dead and is alive again. He was lost, was found. There's that beautiful purity in His yearning for them to see the hand of God in His Son's life. John, do you mind reading verse 22?

So beautiful, because sometimes we can be in that space of God, this child's suffering, or they're doing wrong, or they have done wrong, and this is shameful, and Alma's in a space of saying, this is an evidence of the goodness and glory of God, not my own, not this child's goodness, not somehow that I was more successful, but this is God who is manifesting himself here in the life of this son.

John, we're going to come back to that expression. You pulled out not only does he remember that deliverance, but he is going to preach and testify that it's going to be the cornerstone of his testimony, his conversion process. I think from Alma.

That is so interesting. You're recognizing that deliverance may yet come meaning the angel is not the one who creates the conversion for the converts Alma. He's given a choice by what he experiences, but then for all of us who are still yearning for people to come back. for people to know the truth. I was really touched reading Joseph Greene, who works with people who have left prison and are seeking a way out through that the other side is what it's called, that remarkable institution in Salt Lake that facilitates people coming out of addiction. He has seen so many beautiful and also hard stories. People will be changing and then they'll go back and you could wonder, when is this going to happen? And I love how he wrote recently the primary godly creative capacity God is training me for is measured by how long I can hold a vision of righteous longings while no evidence yet exists for their fulfillment and that we become like God as we hold that place hold on to the truth and the assurance that God hears and answers prayers that He will do His work and the lives of those we love. And we hold on to it even when we don't see yet any evidence for the fulfillment of that. That's how we grow into how God is.

And he will hear the prayers of every parent, even if it's answered in a different way from an angel appearing.

He could have been in his fort. I mean, he had 20 years after that. That suggests he wasn't a teenager. It was so beautiful to hear Susan Porter in this most recent general conference, Sister Porter, talk about her father. And I could hear the yearnings of this child wanting her dad to join the church and have their family seal. You hear the heart of this child all through her life. And he dies. He didn't come into the church before he died. President Nelson's parents did. President Hunter's parents did. Elder Benar is all these people who've experienced something like that. And yet they came in before the end. And her dad dies. And then it was so beautiful to think of this childhood prayed for so long within six days of his passing. He is ready to have those blessings given. So you think we cannot know when But we can know for sure he hears those prayers. God will bring about miracles and lives. We can't even anticipate all the ways that he will bring about those miracles.

There is no end, there's no barrier in that sense. I'd want to take us to this story of deliverance, this powerful message of deliverance. Alma is going to say, let's see his testimony. Verse 24, he stands up and bids them to be of comfort. I'm okay. And then he says, behold, I am born at the spirit. And then he tells us the words of the Lord that every person will need to be changed. Every one of us, not just Alma, the vialis of sinners, every one of us will need to be born again and become new creatures. And then he's going to testify, my, I am born of God, the end of verse 28, and verse 9, my soul had been redeemed. And then I love this verse 30. I rejected my Redeemer and denied that which had been spoken up by our fathers. But now that they may foresee that he will come and that he remember every creature of his creating, he will make himself manifest unto all. So I was saying he has done that for me. I rejected him and he has made himself manifest to me. And then he's going to say, it's not just me. It's all every me shall bow and every tongue confessed before him. At the last day, when all shall stand be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God, every single one of us. is going to ultimately know who this God is. And we may choose to reject him. I don't know that very many are going to choose to reject him in the end. But all of us will know, Alma's then going to testify of that beautiful truth. I love that we go to Alma 36. Somebody will do this later, wonderfully, guide us through this. But here's this pattern that we open with at the beginning. where you see the words, Alma 36, he's going to start that kaiasmus that's so beautiful that Jack Welch brought to light as a young missionary in Germany. We're going to see these words, captivity, bondage, none could deliver but Christ, trust, deliverance, born of God. There's the series. And then he's going to end that story where he's telling Heliman his son about his conversion experience. He's going back to what we're reading. He's retelling it in greater detail. And he's going to start with that list in that order and he's going to end in exactly that list. He's going to end with born of God deliverance, trust. None could deliver but Christ bondage and captivity. So that beautiful, chiasstic structure where it's ABCDEFG and then GF that ends in any other order. But when we think about that language, if we went back to Abinidized words, way back that Abinidized says to his father, We're going to see in a binitized words that he prophesies bondage, captivity. This is Mozaia 11 verses 21 and 23. He's going to say there will be bondage, captivity, none shall deliver them except it be the Lord, the Almighty God. Abinitized going to say those words, Alma in Mozaia 24 with his people is going to say exactly the same thing. They had been in bondage and he had delivered them and none could deliver except it were the Lord. They're God, those same words. And John, as you pointed out in Mosiah 25, we're going to hear Alma say that the people should remember that it was the Lord who had delivered them. Then we're going to hear the angel say to Alma, you need to remember that the Lord delivered them out of bondage. And then we're going to hear in Alma 36, Alma tell that whole thing in his story. I was captive. I was in bondage. None could deliver but Christ. I put my trust in him. He delivered me and I was born of him. Alma, his father, is going to talk about it in terms of a physical redemption, physical deliverance. He were brought out of physical bondage. And what we're going to see is the movement from that physical bondage story into the most deeply personal redemption spiritually. That is ultimately going to be expressed in I was born of God. I was changed. Became a new person. We're going to see him tell that story in Alma 36. He's going to do the same thing in Alma chapter five. He's going to talk about how have you remembered their captivity? Have you remembered the need to be changed and born of God and to put your trust in God and in it that song of redeeming love that comes, then brings hope and is born of faith, so charity, faith and hope. It's going to be grounded in that message of captivity, deliverance, none could deliver but Christ. He delivered me and I am born of Him. I couldn't help but think, what does this have to do with all of us? I may not see myself as the vilest of sinners. Am I in captivity? Do I experience bondage? Alma's going to reference. As you mentioned already, he's going to reference in Alma 36. This whole story, the Exodus, that most often repeated story. That's the story of deliverance. Again, do I need deliverance? I think of all the moments every day. when the burdens of the ego, if they will, the fears or the temptations or the anxieties, the worry about am I being noticed, this is uncomfortable, life is uncomfortable, and all the moments throughout every day when we need deliverance from a redeemer. And he promises us, he will do that, he will do it, and the deliverance will take the form of that doctrine of Christ change as we are born of Him through the process of faith, the repentance, renewing that covenant, experiencing the power of the Spirit, and becoming changed, and we will all know ultimate and full deliverance, having been reborn through putting our trust in the deliverer Christ. It's remarkable how Mormon does this for us. Here it is in Mosiah. Abinidized words, here it is in Alma's words, here it is in Alma's words, here it is these same powerful expressions of deliverance from bondage through Christ and none could do it for any of us but Christ Himself.

He had this beautiful description of the soil that we create that allows access to the living water where we pull out the weeds. And you may be wondering, well, goodness, if I made the right soil, I yell at them the spirits not in the home. We didn't do scripture study. We didn't do all of these things. And he ends with, watch the Lord Jesus Christ perform His miracles. John, as you were referencing what Alma's answer is when the Lord says to him, as he's worried about what about these people and what do I do? And he says, we go back to that verse. It is I that have created them. It is I that granted him that believe it and in my name are they called they shall know me. They shall know that I am the Lord their God. His Father's bearing that testimony and Alma the Son is bearing that testimony. Every me will bend and know. President or inviting us to you do what you can do and you are an author of Deamer. He will do his work. And you watch as he brings forth his miracles.

because it's so beautiful that the Lord then says to them, Satan saying, look at your naked, run quick hide, how shameful that you're so imperfect, that you have weakness, and the Lord says, come, come, I will cover you, and you close them, right, in something far better than what they had tried to create, which atonement word could far. When I first became a mom, it was so striking me, I was set up for failure. I'm completely set up for failure is how it felt. I'm still immature. I'm still developing as a person. And I have these very dependent souls who are going to be shaped by me, who are going to be shaped by my lack of development. And it felt like I was going back to Adam and Eve, where there between this place, we're trapped here. We can't keep both these commandments. How do we do it? And here the father says, I will send a Redeemer. What did you think? This whole thing was about your learning and growth, and it's a story, not a perfection. It never was. It was always a story of redemption. for parents and children in their struggle. I'm learning about God. I'm learning to have faith in His redeeming power. I am growing in the ways I need to grow through the very thing that seems so wrong to me. is the catalyst for my own coming to know and trust the Redeemer. And God, He does this so beautifully. He's bringing about their redemption and He's bringing about my redemption in the same story, even though my ego's like, but I wanted to do it perfectly. Wasn't I expected to do it perfectly? And we'll hit ourselves against the wall if we think this is the story of perfection. It has always been a story of redemption, the whole thing for parents and children.

Thank goodness, right? Thank God. Yeah. This is a story redemption. Well, do you know what we get to end with? We get Mosiah 28th. And these incredible men, the violence of sinners, want to do the hardest thing imagine them all. They want to go to a people who have hated them and there's been so much danger and battle and warfare and threat and they want to go share the gospel of Jesus Christ and they can't bear but do it. They can't keep themselves back and not only do they want to go do that they're denying their right as princes. inheritors of the throne who could have had such a life. So beautiful that that belief in Christ is such a catalyst to further saving work. We have to be part and more converted. We can't help but want to be part of his saving work. and they're going to work over marketable miracle miracles we will see for hundreds of years yet be manifest in this remarkable decision to leave all that they had and go help save others.

And don't you think he loved it? I mean, he loves saying, here's this wicked priest that heard those words is converted by that. Has a son who is as wicked as can be? who is converted by Christ and now all of these are going to publish peace. There is the story redemption. What they couldn't have known would be possible, the most magnificent story possible.

Yes, so beautiful.

Yes. They trade it, and you see their father, it's such an incredible decision because not only does it change the whole future and prepare for the Savior's return, that work had to be done for him to come. But then you also recognize that because they refuse the kingdom, Mosiah cannot pass it on, and the entire political structure will change to allow the flourishing of the church, the design of God from the beginning.

It's so scary that King Mosiah is this can't be right. I mean, he has to go before the Lord to say, what do you think about this? And I love how the answer he receives from the Lord is in verse 7, and the Lord said in the Mosiah, let them go up for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life. And I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the layman nights. You can hear the prayer of Jacob and the prayer of the enus and all of this earnest, how do we help them know the truth? How do we bring Lehigh's and Sariah's descendants back? And you see, here it is. And they must have to rejoice to see these young men make this choice to go do that, to start that great work.

Yes, what an act of faith of parents. There's no question. I didn't, I didn't thought about it until myself because our children are 14 and 11. But when we were a Madagascar recently visiting my brother, his family was serving a mission there. I thought, oh my goodness, what if my Peter were called to serve here? And all of a sudden, I could just hear what an act of faith it is for parents to entrust their children literally. to the hands of God with no ability to control what they will experience or the hunger, whatever kinds of things.

Like, oh, yeah.

Yeah, let them go up because you know how much it will mean.

Don't we hear in section 19? It's his way of helping us change.

John, I love that you highlighted that this is torment that's not endless. We might think eternal means, but that is defined by God. But I love how they couldn't bear to think of people suffering without knowing the goodness and the redemption of God, not that they assume they're going to be damned forever. But wanted them to be drawn into the light and goodness of God, couldn't bear for them to experience that suffering. That's beautiful love for our brothers and sisters. They wanted to help their cousins

What a miracle it is. This President Hinkley would say to literally heft in our hands the manifestation of God's love. that he literally in the Book of Mormon breaks through heaven into earth and manifests his hand to say, I will redeem my people. I will gather Israel. I will answer the prayers of the prophets of the past, the husbands and wives and men and women and prophets. I will restore my children. We literally get to carry the emblem of the covenant in our hands. When Enes talks about, he's writing this record and you'd see they keep passing on generation to generation, each generation getting one closer to the fulfillment of the covenant. We hold it in a sense, the emblem of the covenant. What is the covenant? It is that made that President Nelson teaches so beautifully before we even came to this earth that they are heavenly parents would send a Redeemer and he would fulfill his redeeming work. It's not trust in the book, per se. It's not trust in myself as a teacher. It's trust that he is the way the truth in the life and he will fulfill his promise. when we accepted him before this life, when we accepted that he would do that when we put our trust in him. It was well placed trust in the most virtuous being imaginable of being a pure love. And he did it. There's no reason to fear or doubt. It was done. It is finished. He did the will of his father and it is finished. Whatever place they are, we are in the journey. I'm so much in need of being reborn. and experiencing that full process of becoming new and Christ, wherever we are in it. He has done all that is needed, and it is assured for us. I think it's that trust in him, that placement of him.

Oh, it's such a privilege. We're all so grateful for you. Thank you for doing this work.