Alma 13-14
Reading for class on Thur. Jan. 11: Alma 13-14
Learning Activities:
- It might be helpful to know that the phrases “from the foundation of the world” and “in the first place” in Alma 13:3 refer to the premortal existence. In the premortal spirit world, Melchizedek Priesthood leaders were foreordained—meaning God appointed them “to fulfill specific missions during their mortal lives” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference [2004], 69; see also Alma 13:3, footnote a).
- Quotes about Foreordination:
- Joseph Smith said, “Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was. I suppose that I was ordained to this very office in that Grand Council” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 511).President Spencer W. Kimball:“In the world before we came here, faithful women were given certain assignments while faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood tasks. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 215–16).
Alma 14:7–11“The Lord receiveth them up unto himself”
The prophet Jacob taught: “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection” (2 Nephi 9:6). Although we grieve at the deaths of the righteous, we rejoice in knowing of their rewards in the spirit world (see Alma 40:12) and their final state in the celestial kingdom (see D&C 76:50–70). The Lord said, “Those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them” (D&C 42:46). President Joseph F. Smith (1838–1918) explained:
“It is true I am weak enough to weep at the death of my friends and kindred. I may shed tears when I see the grief of others. I have sympathy in my soul for the children of men. I can weep with them when they weep; I can rejoice with them when they rejoice; but I have no cause to mourn, nor to be sad because death comes into the world. … All fear of this death has been removed from the Latter-day Saints. They have no dread of the temporal death, because they know that as death came upon them by the transgression of Adam, so by the righteousness of Jesus Christ shall life come unto them, and though they die they shall live again. Possessing this knowledge, they have joy even in death, for they know that they shall rise again and shall meet again beyond the grave” (Joseph F. Smith, in Conference Report, Oct. 1899, 70).
Want more:
Alma 13:1. The “holy order” of God
The higher priesthood was taken away from the children of Israel in the days of Moses, and only prophets held the Melchizedek Priesthood from that point in the Old Testament. However, the Nephites held the Melchizedek Priesthood. Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–1985) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
“These Nephites, who were faithful and true in keeping the law of Moses, had the Melchizedek Priesthood, which means they had also the fulness of the gospel. … Some of our best information about the Melchizedek Priesthood is found in Alma 13” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah [1978], 421).Alma 13:2. “Ordained after the order of his Son”
Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–1985) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:“Alma, in about 82 b.c., discoursed at length on the Melchizedek Priesthood and on those who held it from the beginning. ‘Those priests,’ he said, meaning high priests of the Melchizedek Priesthood, ‘were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.’ That is to say, they were types and shadows of our Lord’s coming; they were living, walking, breathing Messianic prophecies, even as we should be living witnesses that he has come” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah[1978], 451).Alma 13:3. Agency in the premortal world
Speaking about priesthood holders and their premortal foreordination, Alma taught that “in the first place [they were] left to choose good or evil” (Alma 13:3). President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) expanded on this truth:
“God gave his children their free agency even in the [premortal] spirit world, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just as men have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, or partaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins. Because of this, some even there were more faithful than others in keeping the commandments of the Lord. …