Alma 15

Where we are

Alma 15 is the quiet aftermath of one of the most violent chapters in the Book of Mormon. The fire and the prison-collapse of Alma 14 are over. The believers who fled Ammonihah have gathered at Sidom, and Alma and Amulek are sent there to find them. The chapter has the feel of a long exhale.

What happens in Sidom is small in scale but immense in pattern. The lawyer Zeezrom — the same man who, only a few chapters earlier, tried to trap Alma with his hypotheticals on lawyer's pay (Alma 11) — is now lying sick in a stranger's house, eaten by his own conscience. He believes Alma and Amulek have been killed because of him. He hears they are alive and within reach, and his first impulse is the right one: he sends for them. Alma asks one question — Believest thou in the power of Christ unto salvation? — and on the strength of Zeezrom's answer, heals him and baptizes him the same day. The persecutor preaches before the sun goes down.

Then the chapter turns toward Amulek. The Alma-14 chapters had said almost nothing about what Amulek personally lost when he sided with Alma. Now, in a single understated verse, we are told. Amulek has forsaken his gold and silver and precious things. His former friends have rejected him. His father and his kindred have cast him off. He goes to live in Alma's house, in Zarahemla.

The chapter has five movements:

1. The prophets' departure from Ammonihah and the believers' gathering at Sidom (vv. 1–2).
2. Zeezrom's sickness of conscience (vv. 3–6).
3. The healing and baptism (vv. 7–12).
4. The establishment of the church at Sidom (vv. 13–14).
5. Amulek's costly discipleship and the editorial close (vv. 15–19).

Four verses carry most of the weight:

1. v. 6 — if thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed.
2. v. 11 — Zeezrom leaped upon his feet, and began to walk.
3. v. 16 — Amulek having forsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God.
4. v. 18 — Alma took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations.

The departure and the gathering at Sidom (verses 1–2)

And it came to pass that Alma and Amulek were commanded to depart out of that city; and they departed, and came out even into the land of Sidom; and behold, there they found all the people who had departed out of the land of Ammonihah, who had been cast out and stoned, because they believed in the words of Alma. — Alma 15:1

The chapter opens not with vindication but with a departure order. The walls have fallen, the mockers are dead, the city has fled — and the Lord tells Alma and Amulek to leave. The pattern is the one Jesus will later give to the Twelve: when a city refuses, shake the dust from your feet and go (Matt. 10:14). Vindication is not permission to linger.

But departure is not abandonment. The Lord has been making a place for the displaced. The believers who fled Ammonihah are already at Sidom — already gathered, already waiting. The prophets are not sent to retrieve a scattered flock; they are sent to a flock that is already in its appointed place. This pattern recurs throughout scripture, from the gathering of Israel at Sinai to the Latter-day-Saint doctrine of the place of refuge. The Lord gathers first and sends prophets to those he has gathered.

And they related unto them all that had happened unto their wives and children, and also concerning themselves, and of their power of deliverance. — Alma 15:2

The first thing Alma and Amulek do at Sidom is tell the story. The believers there have lost loved ones — wives and children who chose to stay rather than flee, and who were burned for it. The prophets do not arrive with a sermon; they arrive with a witness. They rehearse what happened in the fire, what happened in the prison, and what the Lord did. This is the same form Israel keeps at every Passover, the same form Paul uses in Acts when he comes to a synagogue — the story before the doctrine.

Zeezrom's sickness of conscience (verses 3–6)

And also Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness, for he supposed that Alma and Amulek were no more; and he supposed that they had been slain because of his iniquity. And this great sin, and his many other sins, did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance; therefore he began to be scorched with a burning heat. — Alma 15:3

Zeezrom's fever is psychosomatic in the strictest sense — caused by what is happening in his mind. The text says so plainly: the great tribulations of his mind. He thinks he has killed the prophets by his earlier work as a lawyer for the order of Nehor. He has not, but he believes he has, and the believing itself is enough to make him sick.

The Bible knows this kind of illness. David describes the same fever in Psalm 32:3–4: when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Unconfessed sin dries the body out. The conscience, when convicted and not yet relieved, runs a fever.

The verb harrow is worth pausing on. It is an agricultural verb — to break up the clods of the field, to turn the hard ground over so it can take seed. Jeremiah uses it that way in Jer. 4:3 (break up your fallow ground) and Hosea in Hos. 10:12 (break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord). Alma the Younger used the same verb of his own conversion (my soul was harrowed up by all my sins, Alma 36:17). Conviction by the Spirit feels like that. It is not pleasant; it is necessary. It breaks ground.

And it came to pass that when he heard that Alma and Amulek were in the land of Sidom, his heart began to take courage; and he sent a message immediately unto them, desiring them to come unto him. — Alma 15:4

A small detail, but a true one. The first sign of repentance is not flight from the prophet but the seeking of him. Alma the Younger sought out the priests he had persecuted after the angel struck him (Mosiah 27); Paul, after Damascus, went straight to Ananias (Acts 9:17). Zeezrom does the same thing. The convicted soul wants the person it has wronged to come to it.

And it came to pass that they went immediately, obeying the message which he had sent unto them; and they went in unto the house unto Zeezrom; and they found him upon his bed, sick, being very low with a burning fever; and his mind also was exceedingly sore because of his iniquities; and when he saw them he stretched forth his hand, and besought them that they would heal him. — Alma 15:5

Zeezrom puts out his hand. The gesture is the petitioner's gesture — the same hand the leper extended to Jesus (Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean, Matt. 8:2), the same hand Naaman extended to Elisha. The sick person who genuinely wants to be healed has to extend something. That is the form. The priesthood does not impose itself on the unwilling.

And Alma said unto him: If thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed. — Alma 15:6

The diagnostic question of priesthood healing, in one sentence. The healing is not magic; it is covenantal. Alma does not lay hands on Zeezrom and pronounce the word; he first asks whether Zeezrom believes. The petitioner's faith is the load-bearing element. Jesus will later use the same form — according to your faith be it unto you (Matt. 9:29) — but here it is already the form in Sidom, eighty years before the Galilean ministry.

The healing and baptism (verses 7–12)

And he answered and said: Yea, I believe all the words that thou hast taught. — Alma 15:7

Zeezrom's answer is precise and total. Not I believe what you believe or I believe in your God — I believe all the words that thou hast taught. The man who once tried to trap Alma with hypotheticals on lawyer's pay now confesses the whole of Alma's discourse from Alma 9–14 in a single sentence. This is the form of the pre-baptismal interview the Nephite church uses. It is not a creed; it is the prophet's words received as the Lord's words.

And Alma said: If thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed. And he said: Yea, I believe according to thy words. — Alma 15:8–9

Alma asks a second time. The repetition is not redundance; it is the priesthood protocol of the double witness. Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 require two or three witnesses for any matter of consequence, and Alma extends the principle to the petitioner's own confession. Zeezrom confesses twice. The matter is established.

And Alma cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord our God, have mercy on this man, and heal him according to his faith which is in Christ. — Alma 15:10

The form of the priesthood healing prayer, in one verse. Four elements: address (O Lord our God), petition (have mercy on this man), action requested (heal him), and condition (according to his faith which is in Christ). The condition is the most important part. Alma does not invoke his own power; he asks the Lord to act according to Zeezrom's faith. Modern Latter-day Saint priesthood blessing language descends, in essence, from this form.

And when Alma had said these words, Zeezrom leaped upon his feet, and began to walk; and this was done to the great astonishment of all the people; and the knowledge of this went forth throughout all the land of Sidom. — Alma 15:11

The verse echoes the scene at the Beautiful Gate, where Peter heals the lame man and the man leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God (Acts 3:8). Eighty years before that moment in Jerusalem, the same pattern is already at Sidom. The Book of Mormon's clearest pre-Acts text on being raised in the name of Christ is this verse. A burning fever, an extended hand, a question, a prayer, and a man on his feet.

And Alma baptized Zeezrom unto the Lord; and he began from that time forth to preach unto the people. — Alma 15:12

He is healed, baptized, and preaching in the same day. The pattern is the one Acts 9 will later record of Saul of Tarsus: straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues (Acts 9:20). Zeezrom does the same thing — and he does it before Saul is born, before Jesus has begun his Galilean ministry, and before any apostle has stood up to teach. The persecutor becomes the preacher the same day he becomes a disciple.

The church established at Sidom (verses 13–14)

And Alma established a church in the land of Sidom, and consecrated priests and teachers in the land, to baptize unto the Lord whosoever were desirous to be baptized. And it came to pass that they were many; for they did flock in from all the region round about Sidom, and were baptized. — Alma 15:13–14

Alma uses the same protocol he learned from his father at the Waters of Mormon (Mosiah 18) — believers gathered, consecrated priests and teachers, baptism on confession. The Nephite church is not improvised in each city; it has a form, and that form is portable. People come from all the region round about, the same language Matthew 3:5 will use of John the Baptist's ministry. The form is not new in Galilee; it is already in Sidom.

Amulek's costly discipleship (verses 15–19)

But as to the people that were in the land of Ammonihah, they yet remained a hard-hearted and a stiffnecked people; and they repented not of their sins, ascribing all the power of Alma and Amulek to the devil; for they were of the profession of Nehor, and did not believe in the repentance of their sins. — Alma 15:15

A grim editorial parenthesis. Some Ammonihahites survived the destruction of Alma 16 — but their explanation for what they had seen is the same one the Pharisees will use of Jesus' exorcisms: this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils (Matt. 12:24). They attribute the divine work to the adversary. The Book of Mormon's clearest pre-Synoptic text on what Christ will call the unpardonable sin — calling good evil — sits here. The Nehorite order, when it cannot deny the miracle, blasphemes its source.

And it came to pass that Amulek having forsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred; — Alma 15:16

The chapter's quietest verse, and its costliest. Up to this point we have known Amulek as the man who fed Alma when no one else would, who stood at his side through the discourse and the trial and the prison. Now, in a single sentence, we learn what that cost him. His gold. His silver. His precious things. His friends. His father. His kindred.

The catalog is almost exactly the one Jesus will give in Matthew 19:29 — every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. Amulek lives the list eighty years before the Sermon is preached. The phrase rejected by those who were once his friends anticipates the Johannine lament — he came unto his own, and his own received him not (John 1:11). Amulek's own household received him not.

This is what discipleship costs, in the actual currency of an actual man. The Book of Mormon is not abstract on this point. It names the gold and the silver, the friends and the father.

Therefore, after Alma having established the church at Sidom, seeing a great check, yea, seeing that the people were checked as to the pride of their hearts, and began to humble themselves before God, and began to assemble themselves together at their sanctuaries to worship God before the altar, watching and praying continually, that they might be delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction — — Alma 15:17

The verb check is the one to watch. Sidom's people are not converted en masse; they are checked. Brought up short. Restrained. The verb is mild but firm — what happens to a horse that has been running and is reined in. Sometimes the Lord's grace works through outright conversion; here it works through humbling and re-orientation. The result, though, is the same in shape: prayer, the altar, the sanctuary, the watching against destruction. The form of worship returns first, and conversion follows it.

Now Alma, having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord. — Alma 15:18

The chapter's most pastoral verse, and one of its most easily overlooked. Alma does not leave Amulek to grieve his lost family alone. He takes him home — to his own house, in Zarahemla — and ministers to him there. Paul will later say who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble (2 Cor. 1:4). Alma is doing the work Paul names: the comforted comforts. The prophet is also a pastor.

The Acts 9 parallel is exact. When Saul of Tarsus is converted on the road to Damascus, Ananias is sent to take him in, and he stays certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus (Acts 9:19). The pattern of the new convert sheltered in the prophet's own house is already in Alma 15. Amulek is the first man in the Book of Mormon to live it.

The chapter closes with a simple chronological marker: thus ended the tenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. No doctrinal summit. No flourish. A date. Luke will end his account of John the Baptist's call the same way (in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Luke 3:1). The Book of Mormon is history. It is dated. The Lord's mighty acts happen in real time, and Mormon-the-editor refuses to let us forget it.

The chapter's architecture

Five movements, each short. The departure and the gathering. The sickness of a guilty conscience. The healing and the baptism. The establishment of the church. The costly discipleship of Amulek and the close of the year.

The center of gravity is the diagnostic question — believest thou in the power of Christ unto salvation? — and the priesthood prayer that follows it — O Lord our God, have mercy on this man, and heal him according to his faith which is in Christ. Together, those two verses are the form of every priesthood blessing the Latter-day Saint church gives today.

Two things stand out in any honest reading. The first is the speed of Zeezrom's transformation: persecutor to penitent to preacher in a single day. The chapter does not soften that. The man who set the snare in Alma 11 is preaching in Alma 15. The Book of Mormon is willing to assert that the most violent rejector of the gospel can become, within a day, its most articulate witness — but only on condition. The condition is the fever, the broken pride, the extended hand, the confession of all the prophet's words. Without the harrowing, no rising.

The second is what the chapter costs Amulek. The chapter is not, in the end, primarily about Zeezrom. Zeezrom is healed and baptized and preached and is largely done. What lingers is the verse about Amulek's gold and silver and friends and father. The narrative pays attention to what genuine discipleship takes from a particular man — not in theory, but in fact. Amulek loses everything that the Sermon on the Mount will later catalog. He does it before the Sermon is preached. And the prophet takes him home and ministers to him.

The chapter is the pastoral pendant to Alma 14's violence. Alma 14 was the fire and the prison. Alma 15 is the bedside, the small house at Sidom, the home in Zarahemla. The Lord works both ways — by judgment and by quiet rebuilding — and a faithful reading of the Book of Mormon needs both registers. This is the second one.