Alma Ch1

As I've said before, this Alma is the son of the Alma that was converted by Abinadi. He was made high priest over the church and the first chief judge over the people of Nephi. In the book of Alma, there are 63 chapters and they consist of a lot of contentions among the people and a war against the Lamanites. In this first chapter, a guy names Nehor begins to disrupt things by establishing a false church and murdering Gideon (that really cool general from Limhi and them). Nehor is put to death but more priestcraft continues in his established false church. Despite that, the true church continues to prosper and care for the poor.

Here it is already, "in the first year of the reign of the judges" (look for many more of those)! The people abided by King Mosiah's laws and there was Nehor brought to be judged according to those laws and what he had done (v1-2). His story started when he preached doctrines that were against the church such as paying the priests and teachers, everyone would be saved and have eternal life, and being prideful was no biggie (v3-6). People believed him, but Gideon, a teacher in the church, used the words of God to discredit Nehor, which made him angry to the point of murdering Gideon (v7-9)!

Back to Nehor being judged, he stood up for himself but was accused of murdering  and sentenced to death (v10-14). When he was about to die, he confessed that what he had taught was wrong, but in vain because priestcraft was spread by those who loved the vain things of the world (v15-16). It was against the law to lie, so they pretended to believe the things they preached, so they broke no laws, but persecuted the members of the true church because of their humility (v17-20). 

The law of the church was to not persecute nonmembers or fellow members, but some were becoming proud and would fight (v21-22). This all escalated over the course of a year and many members became less active and excommunicated (v23-24). For those who stayed faithful, it was all a trail, but they continued to listen to their teachers and maintain equality (v25-26). This trial of their faith strengthened those who were active members and they established peace by caring for the needy (v27-28).

The church was blessed for their steadiness and prospered with an abundance of riches (v29). Members used this prosperity to nourish the sick and didn't seek these riches except to help anyone in need (v30). Because of their desire to help those in need, they had more wealth than those outside the church (v31). A main reason for that is because nonmembers were lazy and spent what money they had on indulgences. They also ended up breaking the law and suffering for it, until they finally learned their lesson and most became law abiding people (v32-33).

Until the 5th year...

To be continued