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Alma 6

Reordering the Church at Zarahemla — the Laying On of Hands, the Discipline of the Unrepentant, and the Journey to Gideon

Alma 6: still in the ninth year of the reign of the judges (c. 82 BC). Alma the Younger, having delivered the master sermon of chapter 5, now performs the priesthood work of reordering the Church at Zarahemla. He ordains priests and elders by the laying on of his hands. The unrepentant are rejected and their names blotted out from the Church roll. The Church is set in order. The faithful begin the discipline of fasting and praying often together for the welfare of the souls of those who do not yet know God. Alma departs Zarahemla, crosses the Sidon, and travels southward to the valley of Gideon.

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Witnesses on the page:Alma the Younger

Where we are

Alma 6 is short, but it is the chapter that turns Alma 5's words into a working Church. After the master sermon at Zarahemla, Alma does the quieter and harder work of administration — ordaining priests and elders, disciplining the unrepentant, ordering the affairs of the Church, and then moving on to the next city. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's clearest glimpse of the Nephite priesthood at its administrative work, and it is the bridge that carries the missionary journey from Zarahemla to Gideon.

The chapter has three movements:

  1. The ordination and the discipline (vv. 1–3).
  2. The order and the equal privilege established (vv. 4–6).
  3. The journey to Gideon (vv. 7–8).

Four verses carry most of the weight:

  1. v. 1 — he ordained priests and elders, by laying on his hands according to the order of God, to preside and watch over the church.
  2. v. 3 — whosoever did belong to the church that did not repent of their wickedness and humble themselves before God… the same were rejected, and their names were blotted out. The discipline of the unrepentant.
  3. v. 5 — the word of God was liberal unto all, that none were deprived of the privilege of assembling themselves together to hear the word of God. Open word, restricted membership.
  4. v. 6 — gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God. The intercessory fast.

The ordination and the discipline (verses 1–3)

And now it came to pass that after Alma had made an end of speaking unto the people of the church, which was established in the city of Zarahemla, he ordained priests and elders, by laying on his hands according to the order of God, to preside and watch over the church. — Alma 6:1

The chapter opens with the priesthood doing what the sermon prepared the ground for. Alma ordains priests and elders by the laying on of his hands. The pattern is unbroken from Moses through the apostles. Moses laid hands on Joshua, and Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him (Deut. 34:9; cf. Num. 27:18–23). The apostles laid hands on the seven (Acts 6:6) and on Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:3). Paul exhorts Timothy not to neglect the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery (1 Tim. 4:14; cf. 2 Tim. 1:6). Alma 6 is the Nephite installment in the same long tradition — the same mode of conferring authority that has belonged to the priesthood from Sinai forward.

The purpose of the office is named in two words: preside and watch over. Presidency is administration; watching over is pastoral care. Peter names the same pair: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly (1 Pet. 5:2). Paul says it to the Ephesian elders: take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God (Acts 20:28). The Nephite priest does both jobs at once, and the chapter is the cleanest text in the Book of Mormon on the office's dual character.

And it came to pass that whosoever did not belong to the church who repented of their sins were baptized unto repentance, and were received into the church. — Alma 6:2

The door swings both directions in this chapter. Outsiders who repent come in. The phrase baptized unto repentance matches the Baptist's preaching exactly (I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, Mt. 3:11) and Peter's Pentecost call (repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, Acts 2:38). The Nephite Church is operating the same discipline a century in advance.

And it came to pass also, that whosoever did belong to the church that did not repent of their wickedness and humble themselves before God—I mean those who were lifted up in the pride of their hearts—the same were rejected, and their names were blotted out, that their names were not numbered among those of the righteous. — Alma 6:3

And insiders who will not repent go out. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's clearest record of formal Church discipline. The verse names the disqualifying state with care: those who were lifted up in the pride of their hearts. The chapter does not say the unrepentant murderer or the unrepentant adulterer is the chapter's test case; it says the unrepentant proud is. Alma's discipline targets exactly the sin his Alma 4 resolution named as the disease the law could not reach. Pride is the named disqualifier, and pride is what the priesthood is now empowered to address.

Paul's apostolic discipline runs on the same logic: a man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject (Titus 3:10); deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:5); let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Mt. 18:17). The discipline is not punitive in its goal; it is purifying. A Church that cannot say no to its own unrepentant members will eventually have nothing left to say to anyone.

The order and the equal privilege established (verses 4–6)

And thus they began to establish the order of the church in the city of Zarahemla. — Alma 6:4

The chapter names what the work of the previous verses adds up to: the order of the church. The phrase will recur in the Nephite record (3 Ne. 6:4; 4 Ne. 1:12) and in the Restoration canon (D&C 28:13) as the standing vocabulary for the Church's organized form. An ordered Church is one where the ordination has been laid, the discipline has been administered, and the meetings have been arranged so the people can be fed.

Now I would that ye should understand that the word of God was liberal unto all, that none were deprived of the privilege of assembling themselves together to hear the word of God. — Alma 6:5

A crucial qualification. The Church has just rejected and blotted out the names of unrepentant members, but the chapter is careful: the rejected are not deprived of the word. Anyone may still come and hear. Membership is restricted to the repentant; the message is open to everyone. The chapter is one of the Book of Mormon's clearest texts on the principle that Church discipline is membership discipline, never speech-deprivation discipline. Isaiah's invitation belongs to this verse — ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters (Isa. 55:1) — and so does Revelation's: whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely (Rev. 22:17). The word remains free; the fellowship remains conditional.

Nevertheless the children of God were commanded that they should gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God. — Alma 6:6

The chapter's most distinctive contribution to Nephite devotional practice. The faithful are commanded to fast and pray often — and not for themselves, but for those outside the Church. The discipline is Isaiah 58 in compressed form: is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free (Isa. 58:6). Esther's call to her people takes the same shape: go, gather together all the Jews… and fast ye for me (Esth. 4:16). The Antioch church will fast in the same key when Barnabas and Saul are sent: as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted… they laid their hands on them, and sent them away (Acts 13:2–3).

The Nephite element here is the explicit beneficiary. The fast is in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God. The Latter-day Saint tradition of fasting for others — fast Sunday, the fast for the sick, the fast for a missionary or a wayward son — has its textual anchor in this verse. The chapter teaches that a corporate fast is a corporate act of intercession, and that the faithful's first priority in the fast is not their own deliverance but their neighbor's.

The phrase gather themselves together oft anticipates the writer to the Hebrews — not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another (Heb. 10:25) — and grounds the same discipline in the Nephite Church a century early.

The journey to Gideon (verses 7–8)

And now it came to pass that when Alma had made these regulations he departed from them, yea, from the church which was in the city of Zarahemla, and went over upon the east of the river Sidon, into the valley of Gideon, there having been a city built, which was called the city of Gideon, which was in the valley that was called Gideon, being called after the man who was slain by the hand of Nehor with the sword. — Alma 6:7

The toponymy here is a quiet act of permanent memory. The Gideon who advised Limhi to spare Noah, who led the Nephite deliverance from the Lamanites, and who died at Nehor's hand in Alma 1 has now become the name of a valley and a city. The first martyr of the reign of the judges is permanently inscribed on the land. The chapter teaches that the people did not let the elder die unmemorialized. They built where he had given his last witness, and they named what they built after him.

The geography also closes a quiet loop. The land east of the Sidon — the same orientation as the hill Amnihu where the Amlicite battle began (Alma 2:15) — has become the place where the Alma sermon now goes. The eastern borders that received Nephite blood now receive the Nephite word. The Book of Mormon does not say so explicitly, but the symmetry is there for the reader to see.

And it came to pass that Alma went and began to declare the word of God unto the church which was established in the valley of Gideon, according to the revelation of the truth of the word which had been spoken by his fathers, and according to the spirit of prophecy which was in him, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who should come to redeem his people from their sins, and the holy order by which he was called. And thus it is written. Amen. — Alma 6:8

The chapter closes with a five-fold attestation of Alma's authority to preach:

  1. The revelation of the truth of the word spoken by the fathers — the canon brought from Jerusalem.
  2. The spirit of prophecy in him personally — the charisma of an active prophet.
  3. The testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God — the Christological content of the message.
  4. The promise that Christ should come to redeem his people from their sins — the soteriological mission.
  5. The holy order by which he was called — the priesthood authority itself.

Each of the five is doing necessary work. A preacher without the canon is unmoored; a preacher without the spirit of prophecy is rote; a preacher without the testimony of Christ has nothing to say; a preacher without the redemptive mission speaks but does not save; a preacher without the priesthood has not been sent. Alma has all five, and the chapter names them all.

The phrase the spirit of prophecy is itself worth pausing on. John will later make the equation explicit: the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10). The Nephite chapter has placed the same two phrases beside each other (the spirit of prophecy… the testimony of Jesus Christ) and treated them as one ministry. To prophesy in the true sense is to testify of Christ.

And the holy order by which he was called quietly previews what Alma 13 will develop at length: the priesthood after the order of the Son of God, conferred not by self-assumption but by divine call. The closing amen is the chapter's Hebrew confirmation — let it be so — and Mormon's redactor's signature on the record.

The chapter's architecture

The chapter has three panels. Verses 1–3 give the ordination and the discipline. Verses 4–6 give the order of the Church and the doctrine of the intercessory fast. Verses 7–8 give the journey to Gideon and Alma's five-fold authority to preach there.

The theological center sits in v. 1's he ordained priests and elders, by laying on his hands according to the order of God, to preside and watch over the church. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's clearest text on the implementation of the pure-testimony resolution from Alma 4. Sermon, ordination, discipline, order, intercessory fast, and travel — that is the chapter's pattern, and it is also the pattern of the Alma 5–16 missionary cycle in miniature.

The chapter is also the Book of Mormon's clearest articulation of the open-word-restricted-membership discipline. The word remains liberal to all; the fellowship remains conditional on repentance. The two principles together preserve both the Church's invitation and the Church's purity.

The chapter is also the textual anchor for the Latter-day Saint tradition of the intercessory fast. The faithful fast not chiefly for themselves but for those who do not yet know God. The discipline that the modern Saint inherits in fast Sunday is the discipline Alma's elders received in Alma 6:6, and the underlying Hebrew is Isaiah's tsom: a fast that loosens bands and lifts burdens for someone else.

Finally, the chapter is the bridge that carries the Alma narrative from Zarahemla to Gideon. The pattern — preach, implement, travel, preach again — is the rhythm of the rest of the Book of Alma's main arc. Alma 6 is the chapter that shows the rhythm doing its work for the first time.