Alma 11

Mosiah’s law was that judges got paid by the hour. If someone owed someone money the creditor went to a judge, swore a complaint, and got marshals to bring the debtor to court, where, if the debt were proven, he had to pay it off or be villainized as a deadbeat, ostracized, possibly stripped. And the judge would get paid for the time it took to carry all this out—a senine of gold or a senum of silver (the latter equal to the former) for a full day’s work.

Let me digress here and run through the monetary rates and values, just for posterity’s sake. (Sorry for interrupting the flow of the narrative, but I was afraid I’d forget later if I didn’t do it now.)

Nephite Money

(These rates and values were are always subject to change. Ours was a very vibrant economy.)

Four weights of gold: a senine, a seon, a shum, and a limnah.

These equaled the four silver categories: a senum, an amnor, an ezrom, and an onti

These respective categories were equivalent: a senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold, etc.

These amounts, as I’ve listed them, are in ascending order.

Thus, a seon of gold was twice the value of a senine, a shum twice the value of a seon, a limnah was the value of all the others put together.

An amnor of silver was twice the value of a senum, an ezrom four times the value of a senum, and an onti the value of all the others put together.

As for division of values: a shiblon is half of a senum, a shiblum half of a shiblon, and a leah half of a shiblum.

I hope that’s helpful.

Finally, an antion of gold equals three shiblons.

Okay, back to my story. Some judges stirred up trouble just to make more money: the more defendants, the more hours on the timeclock. (When I say “trouble,” that could mean anything from riots to adultery.) Why do I mention this? Because Zeezrom was one of these money-grubbing lawyers.

So he started interrogating Amulek in this soft-voiced faux-polite way: “Oh, do you mind answering a few questions?” (Did I tell you the man was in league with the devil? Just thought I’d mention that in case I hadn’t before.)

Amulek, no pushover, said, “Well, no, if God tells me to, because he’s sort of my ref in these matters.”

Zeezrom said, “I’ll give you six onties of silver right now to deny that God, or anything like him, even exists.” (Obviously the man had no subtlety—where did he get his hifalutin reputation?)

Amulek smirked and said, “Oh please, you child of hell, are you kidding? Do you know anything about people like me? Do you believe in God yourself? I’d say, no you don’t—because you know God exists, but you prefer to worship money. Typical attorney.

“But beyond that I know you were lying with the offer. You were never going to give those onties to me no matter what I said. You were baiting me.”

“So you insist God exists.”

“Duh.”

“More than one God or just one?”

“The latter.”

“So how do you know?”

“An angel told me.”

“Uh, who is it you say will come in God’s name—God’s son was it?”

“Yep.”

“And he’s going to save sinners, right?”

“No way. That’s not the deal.”

“Oh, so do you hear that, people? He says God’s son will come but has no desire or power to save his people—as though he, Amulek were the arbiter of God’s will or ability.”

“First, I’m not God’s arbiter. Second, you’re twisting my words. I said he wouldn’t save sinners. He can’t do that. He’s very particular about who gets to hang around his heavenly temple. He only saves saints—though they were, as we all have been at one time or another, sinners before being saints.”

“Fine,” Zeezrom said, then, without skipping a beat: “Is God’s son the same as what some people call the Father of heaven and earth?”

“True enough, although there’s neither time or point to delve into theology with you, sir. But yes, let’s say he is the first and last of anything to do with creation. What you need to pay attention to is his mission, which is to save—sometimes through perilous metamorphosis—nasty people like, ahem, yourself.

“He will absorb people’s sins if they trust him to do so. And those are the only people who go to heaven. Those who reject his heavenly advances—let’s just say that he might as well have skipped his trip to earth as far as those people are concerned. Well, except for their being raised from death to be judged at some future time. I think everyone gets that.

“That is, the Anointed One dispels everyone’s mortal death, puts everyone’s body and spirit back together so that they can actually stand, literally stand, before God, just like people stand in court to hear the verdict.

“All, of us, by the way, ‘righteous’ or ‘wicked,’ will recall vividly the wrong we’ve done. Because we all have.

“So, back to my point: everyone gets to live again, restored in every detail to a manageable age, one you wouldn’t be ashamed to live as forever. I’m not sure what that age is, or if I’ve even reached it yet. But I can say that this will happen for everyone. Where they go with that reunited body and spirit, once judged, will vary considerably. But they will indeed remain intact.”

Amulek ended with that thought and passed the rhetorical baton to Alma, who had noted Zeezrom now essentially cowering in front of the two men.