Alma 7

Where we are

Alma 7 is the Book of Mormon's master condescension-of-Christ chapter, and one of the most beloved Christological texts in all of scripture. Verses 11–13 — the prophecy that Christ would take upon Him not only the sins but the pains and sicknesses and infirmities of His people, that He might know according to the flesh how to succor them — is the foundational Latter-day Saint text on the empathetic Atonement. It is also among the most precise pre-Christian Nephite anticipations of the New Testament. Read carefully, the chapter does the work a New Testament epistle would later do for the saints of the Mediterranean: it tells a faithful people, in advance, who their Savior is and how He has chosen to save them.

The chapter is also marked by a striking shift in tone. Alma had spent Alma 5 interrogating the proud Church at Zarahemla with more than forty pointed questions. At Gideon he finds a humble Church and changes his manner entirely. Instead of bearing down in pure testimony against pride, he affirms the path the people are on and instructs them in the Christ who is coming. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's clearest text on the principle that the same prophet must preach the same truth in different tones, suited to the state of the congregation.

The chapter has five movements:

1. The introduction and the finding of the Gideon Church faithful (vv. 1–6).
2. The Christological prefiguration of the birth and Atonement of Christ (vv. 7–13).
3. The call to baptism and the strait gate (vv. 14–16).
4. The pastoral blessing — I perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness (vv. 17–22).
5. The catalogue of virtues and the bidding of peace (vv. 23–27).

Seven verses carry most of the weight:

1. v. 7 — there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people.
2. v. 10 — he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel… and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
3. vv. 11–12 — he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people… he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people. The chapter's heart.
4. v. 13 — the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people.
5. v. 14 — come and be baptized unto repentance… that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.
6. v. 19 — I perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness. The pastoral blessing.
7. v. 24 — see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works. The Pauline triad eighty years before Paul.

The introduction and the finding of the Gideon Church faithful (verses 1–6)

Behold my beloved brethren, seeing that I have been permitted to come unto you, therefore I attempt to address you in my language; yea, by my own mouth, seeing that it is the first time that I have spoken unto you by the words of my mouth, I having been wholly confined to the judgment-seat, having had much business that I could not come unto you. — Alma 7:1

The chapter opens with a quietly important admission. Alma has been the chief judge for eight years, and in those eight years he has not personally ministered to the Church at Gideon. The judgment-seat consumed his time. The verse is the cleanest possible vindication of the Alma 4 decision to lay the office down. The very fact that Alma is now standing in Gideon, in person, addressing the Saints in his own voice, is the fruit of the resignation. Civil administration has its place, but it cannot do what a prophet must do face to face.

And behold, I trust that ye are not lifted up in the pride of your hearts; yea, I trust that ye have not set your hearts upon riches and the vain things of the world; yea, I trust that you do not worship idols, but that ye do worship the true and the living God, and that ye look forward for the remission of your sins, with an everlasting faith, which is to come. — Alma 7:6

The verb tells the story. I trust. Where Alma 5 demanded — have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? — Alma 7 entrusts. The Gideon Church is not under interrogation; they are under affirmation. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's clearest example of the pastoral discipline of meeting a humble Church with trust rather than examination. A prophet who treats every congregation with the same severity will eventually break the faithful, and a prophet who treats every congregation with the same softness will fail to reach the proud. Alma reads the room and changes his mode.

The Christological prefiguration (verses 7–13)

For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people. — Alma 7:7

The chapter's first great verse. The Redeemer liveth. Job said it from his ash heap (for I know that my redeemer liveth, Job 19:25); Isaiah said it to despairing Israel (thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, Isa. 41:14); Alma says it to a Nephite congregation a generation before the Lord's birth. Liveth is not the language of a future possibility; it is the language of a present reality. Christ already lives. He is about to come.

Behold, I do not say that he will come among us at the time of his dwelling in his mortal tabernacle; for behold, the Spirit hath not said unto me that this should be the case. Now as to this thing I do not know; but this much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to his word. — Alma 7:8

A small but important window into the discipline of true prophecy. Alma honestly admits the limit of what he has been shown. He does not know whether Christ will visit the Americas in mortality. The Spirit has not told him so, and he refuses to invent what he has not been given. The chapter teaches that real prophecy is honest about its boundaries. And there is a quiet irony here that only the reader who knows 3 Nephi can see: the question Alma could not answer would be answered, more than a century later, in a way more glorious than he could have imagined. The chapter sets up the surprise.

But behold, the Spirit hath said this much unto me, saying: Cry unto this people, saying—Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. — Alma 7:9

The same call John the Baptist will make ninety years later, in nearly identical words. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight (Isa. 40:3, fulfilled in Mt. 3:3). Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 3:2). The Nephite chapter and the Judean wilderness preacher draw from the same well. Alma is a Baptist a generation in advance.

And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. — Alma 7:10

One of the most specific prophecies in the Book of Mormon. The mother is named — Mary. The region is named — Jerusalem, which is the land of our forefathers. The conception is named — overshadowed… by the power of the Holy Ghost. The child is named — the Son of God. The chapter precedes Luke's annunciation by eighty-plus years and uses precisely the same vocabulary: the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee (Lk. 1:35); she was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Mt. 1:18).

The phrase at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers sometimes troubles modern readers who know Christ was born at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The Book of Mormon's vocabulary is territorial rather than urban. The land of Jerusalem is the larger administrative region that includes Bethlehem within it. The chapter is not contradicting Micah; it is using a regional name where Micah used a town name. The two prophecies fit together.

The phrase a precious and chosen vessel honors Mary in language Paul will later apply to himself — he is a chosen vessel unto me (Acts 9:15); a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use (2 Tim. 2:21). Mary is the vessel before the apostle. The Nephite tradition gives her the strongest Marian language in the Book of Mormon.

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. — Alma 7:11

The chapter steps into its central teaching. Alma names three categories of mortal experience Christ will take upon Himself: pains, afflictions, and temptations. The verse explicitly cites an existing prophecy — the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people — almost certainly Isaiah 53:4 in its Brass-Plates form: surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Matthew applies the same verse to Christ's ministry of healing: himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses (Mt. 8:17).

The Nephite chapter expands the Isaian prophecy. Isaiah names griefs and sorrows; Alma adds temptations. The Christ of Alma 7 will be tempted as well as wounded, and the writer to the Hebrews will say later why this matters: for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted (Heb. 2:18); we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are (Heb. 4:15). The Atonement reaches the tempted because the One who atones has been tempted.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. — Alma 7:12

The chapter's heart. Three purposes are named for the Suffering:

1. To loose the bands of death which bind his people — the universal resurrection purpose.
2. That his bowels may be filled with mercy — the affective purpose. Mercy itself is to be deepened in Christ by the experience of bearing what His people bear.
3. That he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities — the experiential purpose. The Atonement, on this teaching, is not only substitutionary; it is empathetic. Christ takes upon Himself not only the sins of His people but their sufferings, so that when one of them cries to Him, He will know from within the flesh exactly what that suffering is.

The doctrine is the deepest contribution of the Book of Mormon to Christology. There is no purer expression of the empathetic Christ in any scripture. The hymn writers of the Latter-day Saint tradition have leaned on this verse for two centuries — Where can I turn for peace? — and so have its general conferences. Verse 12 is the textual anchor of an entire devotional theology.

The Hebrews letter will say the same thing in its own grammar: wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted (Heb. 2:17–18). The Nephite version is more compact and, in some ways, more daring. It says that Christ took on the infirmities not only because His people needed Him to bear them, but because He needed to know — according to the flesh — what they cost.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. — Alma 7:13

The verse that anchors the whole doctrine philosophically. The Spirit knoweth all things. Christ as eternal Spirit knew everything already. But knowledge by the Spirit and knowledge by the flesh are not the same kind of knowledge, and the Atonement requires the second as well as the first. The chapter teaches a striking doctrine: that there are things only the suffering of mortal flesh can teach, and that the Son of God enters mortal flesh precisely to learn them.

Paul writes the same doctrine in different vocabulary: being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself (Phil. 2:6–8). The Hebrews letter compresses it: though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered (Heb. 5:8). The Nephite chapter is in the same stream, and stating the doctrine more plainly than either New Testament text.

The call to baptism and the strait gate (verses 14–16)

Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. — Alma 7:14

The chapter's clearest pre-Johannine echo. The Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world (cf. Jn. 1:29) appears here in the Nephite record almost a century before John speaks it at the Jordan. The phrase mighty to save is Isaiah's (Isa. 63:1). The Lamb-of-God Christology, the prophetic call to be born again (Jn. 3:3–7), and the call to baptism unto repentance (Mt. 3:11; Acts 2:38) all converge in a single Nephite verse.

Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments. — Alma 7:15

The phrase easily doth beset you is one of the most precise pre-Pauline echoes in the Book of Mormon. Hebrews 12:1 will use the same words: let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us. The chapter teaches a discipline every Saint must learn: each person has a besetting sin — the particular sin that hangs on tightest, that one's life keeps offering opportunities for — and the discipline is to lay it aside. Not to manage it. To lay it aside.

The pastoral blessing (verses 17–22)

For I perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the kingdom of God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths straight. — Alma 7:19

Three times in the verse: I perceive. The pastoral blessing is not condescending or formulaic; it is observational. Alma can see the state of the Gideon Saints, and what he sees is good. The chapter teaches a principle that is hard for some leaders to learn: when affirmation is true, the right thing to do is to give it. The Gideon Church needed encouragement, not correction. Refusing to give encouragement to a faithful Church is a kind of pastoral failure.

I say unto you that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. — Alma 7:20–22 (paraphrased; cluster)

The precise vocabulary of John's prologue, eighty years in advance. John will say: we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). Alma adds mercy to the pair. The expansion is consistent with the chapter's central doctrine: the Christ of Alma 7 is full not only of grace and truth but of the mercy that comes from having borne His people's pains.

The catalogue of virtues and the bidding of peace (verses 23–27)

And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. — Alma 7:23

The chapter's catalogue of Nephite virtues runs to nine: humble, submissive, gentle, easy to be entreated, patient, long-suffering, temperate, diligent, supplicating, grateful. James names a similar cluster: the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits (Jas. 3:17). Paul will name a longer one in Galatians: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22–23). The Nephite catalogue belongs to the same tradition. To live as a Saint is to grow into a recognizable cluster of virtues that the Spirit produces in those who walk in the path.

And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works. — Alma 7:24

The Pauline triad — now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (1 Cor. 13:13) — appears in the Nephite chapter eighty-plus years before Paul writes it. The same three virtues appear in 1 Thes. 1:3 (your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope) and 1 Thes. 5:8 (the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation). Alma's compression — faith, hope, charity, and then ye will always abound in good works — locates the works downstream of the virtues. The Christian life produces good works as the natural fruit of these three.

And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless, even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out. — Alma 7:25

The image is the Lord's own. Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 8:11; cf. Lk. 13:28–29). Alma uses the same picture nearly a century before Christ uses it Himself. The spotless garments belong to the same tradition Revelation will inherit (they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. 7:14).

And now, my beloved brethren, I have spoken these words unto you according to the Spirit which testifieth in me; and my soul doth exceedingly rejoice, because of the exceeding diligence and heed which ye have given unto my word. — Alma 7:26

And now, may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands, and upon your flocks and herds, and all that you possess, your women and your children, according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. And thus I have spoken. Amen. — Alma 7:27

The chapter ends with a priestly blessing of the same shape as the Aaronic benediction: the Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace (Num. 6:24–26). Alma extends the blessing outward — houses and lands, flocks and herds, women and children — until it covers every part of the Saint's life. Paul will use the same phrase later in his own benediction: the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Phil. 4:7). Christ Himself will use it on the night of His betrayal: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (Jn. 14:27). Alma's blessing on the Gideon Saints belongs to that long line.

The chapter's architecture

The chapter has five panels. Verses 1–6 introduce the visit and find the Gideon Church faithful. Verses 7–13 give the Christological prefiguration that is the chapter's heart. Verses 14–16 give the call to baptism and the doctrine of the besetting sin. Verses 17–22 give the pastoral blessing for a Church that is already on the path. Verses 23–27 give the catalogue of virtues and the priestly bidding of peace.

The theological center sits in vv. 11–13: he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people. Nothing else in the Book of Mormon expresses the empathetic Atonement so directly, and nothing else in scripture says so plainly that the Son of God entered mortal flesh not only to atone but to know.

The chapter operates as the Book of Mormon's most developed pre-Hebrews articulation of the empathetic Christ. The Latter-day Saint doctrine that the Atonement covers the pains and sicknesses and temptations of mortal life — not only the sins — has its clearest textual anchor here. The contribution to Christology is large. Substitution alone could be transacted from above; empathy required descent. Alma 7 is the chapter that insists on the descent.

The chapter is also the Book of Mormon's clearest text on the differentiated pastoral tone. The Alma 5 mode is interrogation; the Alma 7 mode is affirmation. The two modes are inseparable expressions of the same priesthood, and the prophet who can use both is the prophet whose people will not be hardened by the wrong one. The Latter-day Saint missionary and pastoral tradition has always taught the same thing in different words: the message does not change, but the manner must.

Finally, the chapter is the cleanest pre-New-Testament echo chamber in the Book of Mormon. The Lamb of God, the only-begotten full of grace and truth, the easily doth beset us of Hebrews, the faith-hope-charity triad of First Corinthians, the sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of the Olivet sayings — all appear here in their pre-Christian Nephite form. The chapter is one of the strongest scriptural witnesses that the Book of Mormon and the New Testament are not two unrelated streams but two channels carrying the same water.