Peace Returns
In the sixth year that judges ruled over the people of Nephi, there were no fights or wars in the land of Zarahemla. The people had a very hard time. They had lost their brothers. They had lost their sheep and cows. They had lost their grain fields. The Lamanites had walked through the fields and destroyed them. Their troubles were so great that everyone was sad. They believed that God was punishing them because of their sins. So they remembered what they should be doing.
They worked hard to build up the church. Many people were baptized in the waters of Sidon. They joined the church of God. Alma baptized them. He was the high priest over the people of the church. His father Alma had given him that job. In the seventh year that judges ruled, about 3,500 people joined the church of God and were baptized. That is how the seventh year ended. There was peace the whole time.
Pride Enters the Church
In the eighth year that judges ruled, the people of the church started to become proud. They had a lot of money. They had nice silk clothes and fine linen. They had many sheep and cows. They had gold and silver and all kinds of nice things that they had worked for. All these things made them proud. They started to wear very expensive clothes.
This made Alma very sad. It also made many of the teachers, priests, and leaders of the church very sad. They felt terrible about the wrong things they saw happening among their people. They saw with great sadness that the people of the church were becoming proud. The people cared more about money and the things of the world. They started to be mean to each other. They started to hurt people who didn’t believe what they wanted them to believe. In this eighth year that judges ruled, the people of the church started to fight a lot. There was jealousy, fighting, hate, hurt, and pride. They were even more proud than the people who did not belong to the church of God.
That is how the eighth year ended. The wrong things happening in the church made it hard for people outside the church to want to join. The church stopped growing.
Two Kinds of People
At the start of the ninth year, Alma saw the wrong things in the church. He also saw that the bad example of the church was leading people who didn’t believe to do more and more bad things. This was destroying the people. He saw that people were not being treated fairly. Some people were proud and looked down on others. They turned their backs on people who needed help. They ignored people who had no clothes, people who were hungry, people who were thirsty, and people who were sick.
This made many people very sad. But other people were humble. They helped those who needed it. They gave their things to the poor and to people who needed help. They fed hungry people. They went through hard times for Christ, who would come like the prophets said. They looked forward to that day. They kept getting their sins forgiven. They were filled with great joy because Jesus Christ would bring people back from the dead.
Alma Chooses to Preach
Alma saw the hard times that humble followers of God were going through. He saw how the rest of his people were hurting them. He saw how unfair everything was. He became very sad. But the Spirit of the Lord stayed with him.
He chose a wise man who was a leader of the church. He gave him power that the people agreed to. This man could make laws based on the laws they already had. He could make people follow these laws when they did wrong things and crimes. This man’s name was Nephihah. He was made the Chief Judge. He sat in the judge’s seat to make decisions and rule the people. Alma did not give him the job of being High Priest over the church. He kept that job for himself. But he gave the judge’s seat to Nephihah.
He did this so he could go out among his people, the people of Nephi. He wanted to preach the word of God to them. He wanted to help them remember what they should be doing. He wanted to use the word of God to pull down all the pride, lies, and fighting among his people. He saw no other way to help them except by teaching them the truth. At the start of the ninth year that judges ruled over the people of Nephi, Alma gave the judge’s seat to Nephihah. He focused only on being the high priest of the holy order of God. He taught the word according to what the Spirit showed him and what prophets had said.