Chapter Six - Alma the Elder and a Baptismal Revolution

CHAPTER SIX

Alma the Elder and a Baptismal Revolution

MOSIAH 18–27 (selective)

Alma runs.
He hides in the wilderness at a place called the Waters of Mormon.
There, he begins to preach.
Not with fire and threats, but with invitation.

People come.

They gather secretly.
They listen.

He asks them:
Are you willing to bear one another’s burdens?
To mourn with those who mourn?
To stand as a witness of God at all times?

Then be baptized.

And they are.

One by one, he baptizes them in the water.
A covenant. A beginning.

They form a new community. Equal, simple, and devoted.
No kings.
No pride.
Just shared belief.

They appoint teachers and priests.
They meet together often.
They call themselves the church of God.

But Noah finds out.

He sends men to destroy them.
The people flee again, deeper into the wilderness.

Meanwhile, back in Noah’s kingdom, everything falls apart.

The Lamanites attack.
The people turn on Noah.
They burn him alive, the same way he burned Abinadi.

His son, Limhi, survives and takes the throne.
But they’re trapped under Lamanite rule.
They pay tribute.
They suffer.

Eventually, Mosiah’s people in Zarahemla find them.
The records come together.
The groups reunite.
Limhi’s people escape.

And Alma returns too, now with his entire church.

He’s welcomed.
Honored.

Mosiah gives him spiritual leadership over the land.

The church spreads.
But not without struggle.

Mosiah’s sons and Alma’s own son, Alma the Younger, start fighting it.
They rebel.
They try to destroy the church from within.

They mock the believers.
Lead people away.
Tear everything down in secret.

Until an angel appears.

One day, Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah are stopped. Literally.

A blinding light.
A voice from heaven.

“Why are you persecuting the Church of God?”

Alma collapses.
He can’t speak.
He can’t move.

He lies in darkness for three days, consumed by guilt.

Then he cries out to Jesus.

And he rises.

A changed man.

From that moment, everything shifts.

The rebel becomes a missionary.
The enemy becomes a teacher.
The church gains its greatest defender.

But this is only the beginning of his arc.