In the spirit of comparing and contrasting, let’s move on to Alma 5. Well, sort of.
Alma, chapter 5, contains one of the most well-known sermons in the Book of Mormon. It is the first sermon that Alma preaches after leaving the judgment-seat, and in it, Alma delivers a beautiful call to repentance to the people of the “church” in Zarahemla. This call to repentance is very important because, whether you recognize it or not, Alma is giving us information about yet another “order,” though it isn’t explicitly identified until chapter 6:
1 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.
2 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.
3 And it also came to pass 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.
4 And thus they began to establish the order of the church in the city of Zarahemla. (Alma 6)
Now, one could argue that, in receiving repentant individuals into the church and in blotting out the names of those who are unrepentant, Alma makes a distinction between two “orders.” However, I will just briefly share my opinion that the latter group of people do not constitute a true “order” and leave it at that. I’ll have to make a case for that another day.
People who repent belong to “the order of God”—not “the holy order of God,” but an order, nonetheless—and, so, it is important to understand what repentance is and what it entails, because it is what determines whether you are in any “order of God” or not. Repentance is foundational, and an understanding of the similarities and differences between “the order of God” and “the holy order of God” (to say nothing of membership in either of those two orders or any other higher order) cannot be obtained without it.
So, in the next post, I’m going to take a short intermission from the immediate topic of “the holy order of God” to discuss some things about repentance in the language of Alma the Younger.