Mosiah 18

In time Alma himself gradually started to preach a warmed-over Abinadi message: resurrection, redemption, and the life of the future Anointed One. Given the popularity of anti-Abinadi sentiment, he had to stay incognito, couldn’t preach much in the open, just in small backstreets and club venues. He was a wanted man. His converts moved out of town to protect themselves from the king. They gathered at a place called Mormon.

Mormon had been a favorite hideout for Alma, an oasis with thicketed trees and a spring-fed pond. Now he could preach there to an adoring crowd. His message? What we might call the “Abinadi basics.” After all, he hadn’t heard other preachers he liked and was new himself to the evangelical game.

One day he invited his hearers to be baptized in the pond to help put together a church. The criteria: attach oneself to Christ in name and behavior, particularly when it came to empathetic behavior and mutual service. Mourn with mourners, he said. Soothe bad feelings. Shoulder each other’s loads. Go public with your faith. Don’t hold back on that last one (an odd prerequisite for a fugitive). All these things fit one for that first resurrection.

And then the soft sell: Alma said, “If these are what you want to do, do you have any objections to being dipped in the pond? That would show you want to formalize this Reconciliation with God. Besides, he will pour his Spirit into you as a bonus.”

The crowd actually started clapping. Literal applause. “That’s what we want,” some said. Mission accomplished.

Alma took Helam into the water and shouted up to heaven, “Lord, I need your Spirit to do this right.” He felt that spirit, leaned Helam into the water, and said “By God’s authority I baptize you. This shows that you covenant with him to serve him till death, he keeps pouring his spirit into you, and you will live always near him.”

Alma leaned back and they both were submerged—not quite the right format, though it seemed clear Alma was trying to baptize himself too. When they came up, both were laughing. Even ritual has its moments. Next time, Alma didn’t dip himself.

Two hundred and four people got baptized that day.

After baptizing, Alma ordained priests to teach the others;

one priest for every fifty. Alma trained them what to say, though he himself hadn’t been trained. “Stick with what I’ve said and what’s in the brass plates,” he said. “Basically repentance and faith in Jesus.”

Then the hard part. He told them they should never argue. They should do everything with the same motives. And they shouldn’t dwell on the past. This is how we become children of God, he said.

Oh, and honor the Sabbath and thank God for everything.

Oh, also: priests don’t get paid, in case there was any confusion about that. The payment was authority and grace, for which God would foot the bill.

How often to teach? Where, when? At least once a week. (Maybe on the Sabbath?)

He also gave them a new economic plan.

Everyone should give to a fund, each according to his means. If you have a lot, you give a lot. If you have a little, you give a little. If you have nothing, you give nothing. (Most of the people were in these latter two categories.) There was no punishment for not giving, except maybe from God. The fund would be doled out to the givers and others to meet their basic needs. No one should go hungry or unclothed.

God commanded this new plan, Alma said, and the people duly followed it. As it turns out, it was not just a way to redistribute money and goods. It redistributed spirituality in its own odd way.

This may have been the first socialist revival meeting in the woods, though that’s hard to verify. In any case, Mormon, the place, took on a legendary status—beautiful in its own right, but more so for the way this new church started there. And it was all secret, of course, done in the outskirts of the county. The king couldn’t learn of it.

But he did. And when he did he spent spies, faux potential proselytes to check out the scene. They reported to Noah, who sent soldiers to massacre them. Alma learned of it in time enough for them to pack up and move further into the woods. No plan except to survive. All 450 of them.