Alma 16

Eleventh year, second month, fifth day: War cries. Oh joy. Human nature rears its uglier head. Lamanites attack on—forgive the expression—the wild side of Ammonihah. The usual terrorist stunts. Nephites had become near pacifists and were caught with their pants down, metaphorically speaking. By the time they had mustered and armed, bodies stank in the fields and the captives were long gone.

Zoram, captain of the Nephite armies, and his two sons, Lehi and Aha, went to Alma, who remained the chief oracle. Should they head into the wilds to free the captives?

Alma got details from God, who was in favor of the trek: the Lamanites would cross Sidon River in the south; meet them on the east side and you’ll win the day, he said.

Zoram and his sons took the cue, assaulted the Lamanite armies, scared half of them off, wounded and killed the rest and took the former captives—all alive, despite the Lamanites’ reputation—back to their homes.

The eleventh year ended and … Happy New Year? Not a chance. Lamanites on the run, but Ammonihah, the reputedly indestructible city, almost leveled, most of its citizens eaten by wild dogs and vultures.

The survivors and outsiders worked together to pile up the carcasses and cover them in a thick layer of topsoil. The stench warded off potential land developers for years. The real estate got known as the Desolation of Nehors, because the dead followed Nehor’s pseudo-philosophies.

Three years of Nephite peace followed. Alma and Amulek went back on a regional revival tour. Temples, synagogues, chapels, any churchy building became a stump for their preaching, which continued to have broad appeal. The church grew alongside more ultra-progressive politics and social experiments: the goal was total equality of means and ownership. God’s spirit ran like a river through the land, persuading people to simplify, cooperate, and believe. Alma-ish priests taught moral conduct, not just the big stuff—murder, adultery—but also attitudinal refinement: root out malice, envy, foolish debate, over-acquisition, and so forth. Note: the “small” sins are harder to give up than the big ones. The latter can overpower, but the former infest.

They also taught eschatological doctrine, though they still had little to go on. Churchgoers asked lots of questions, but few had answers beyond “rejoice” and “obey.”

So the fourteenth year of the judges’ reign slowed like a train into a station called “Peace.”