How Do Children Envision Scripture Stories?

How Do Children Envision Scripture Stories?
A KIDS' SCRIPTURE-READING SITE

Monday, May 2, 2011

Converted Lamanites



 This is one of the most moving stories in the whole Book of Mormon, to me.




This is Anti-Nephi-Lehi
 the king of the converted Lamanites,
whose father, King Lamoni Senior, had recently died
    Alma 24:1  

And it came to pass that the ... Lamanites who ...had not been converted and had not taken upon them the name of dAnti-Nephi-Lehi, were stirred up ... to anger against their brethren.
 2 And their hatred became exceedingly sore against them, even insomuch that they began to rebel against their king, insomuch that they would not that he should be their king; therefore, they took up arms against the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.

  3 Now the king conferred the kingdom upon his son, and he called his name Anti-Nephi-Lehi.


Anti-Nephi-Lehi was the king of the converted Lamanites,
whose father, King Lamoni Senior, had recently died
  
 4 And the king died in that selfsame year that the Lamanites began to make preparations for war against the people of God.
King Lamoni Senior died after he gave the kingdom to his son, Anti-Nephi-Lehi.

Council to decide what to do about the approaching armies
 5 Now when Ammon and his brethren and all those who had come up with him saw the preparations of the Lamanites to destroy their brethren, they came forth to the land of Midian, and there Ammon met all his brethren; and from thence they came to the land of Ishmael that they might hold a acouncil  



Anti-Nephi-Lehi 

with Lamoni and also with his brother Anti-Nephi-Lehi, what they should do to defend themselves against the Lamanites. 
 6 Now there was not one soul among all the people who had been converted unto the Lord 
  that would take up arms against their brethren; nay, they would not even make any preparations for war; yea, and also their king 
Anti-Nephi-Lehi commanded his people
not to take up their weapons
commanded them that they should not.

 7 Now, these are the words which he said unto the people concerning the matter: I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of the atraditions of our wicked fathers.
... 9 And behold, I also thank my God, that by opening this correspondence we have been convinced of our asins, and of the many murders which we have committed.
 10 And I also thank my God,   yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath aforgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the bguilt from our hearts, through   the merits of his Son.
 11And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to atake them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
 12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since   God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
... for perhaps, if we should stain our swords aagain they can no more be bwashed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins.
 14 And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our asouls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels,  that the bplan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.
 15 Oh, how merciful is our God!  And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us ahide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us bclean thereby.
 16And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall ago to our God   and shall be saved.


Anti-Nephi-Lehi,
 the king of the converted Lamanites finished speaking.

 17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords,
and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood,
and they did abury them up deep in the earth.

 18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they anever would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and bcovenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would cgive up their own lives;   and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands.
 19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to abelieve and to know the truth, they were bfirm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they  buried the weapons of war, for peace.
 20 And it came to pass that their brethren, the Lamanites, made preparations for war, and came up to the land of Nephi for the purpose of destroying the king, and to place aanother in his stead, and also of destroying the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi out of the land.
 21 Now when the people saw that they were coming against them they went out to meet them, and aprostrated themselves  before them to the earth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thus they were in this attitude when the Lamanites began to fall upon them, and began to slay them with the sword.
 22 And thus without meeting any resistance, they did slay a athousand and five of them; and we know that they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God.
 23 Now when the Lamanites saw that their brethren would not flee from the sword, neither would they turn aside to the right hand or to the left, but that they would lie down  and aperish, and bpraised God even in the very act of perishing under the sword—




 24 Now when the Lamanites saw this they did aforbear from slaying them; and there were many whose hearts had bswollen in them for those of their brethren who had fallen under the sword, for they repented of the things which they had done.
 25 And it came to pass that they threw down their weapons of war, and they would not take them again, for they were stung for the murders which they had committed; and they came down even as their brethren, relying upon the mercies of those whose arms were lifted to slay them.
 26 And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we have no reason to doubt but what they were asaved.
 27 And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many aways to the salvation of his people.

Alma 26

1 And now, these are the words of Ammon  to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren,  behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we astarted from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?
 2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
 3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss,  but behold, how amany of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made binstruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
 4 Behold, athousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.
  7 But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the aharvest,

 and they are his; and he will braise them up at the last day.
 8 aBlessed be the name of our God; let us bsing to his praise, yea, let us give cthanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever.
 9 For if we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla, these our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly beloved us, would still have been racked with ahatred against us, yea, and they would also have been bstrangers to God.
 10 And it came to pass that when Ammon  had said these words,
 his brother Aaron  rebuked him, saying: Ammon,  I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting.
 11 But Ammon  said unto him: I do not aboast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my bjoy is full, yea, my heart is brim with cjoy, and I will rejoice in my God.  
 12 Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak;  therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in his dstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
 13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of ahell; and they are brought to bsing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?
 14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the achains of hell...  behold, he has brought them into his everlasting blight, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
 16 Therefore, let us aglory, yea, we will bglory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?

Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his cmercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. 
 17 Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and apolluted state?
 18 Behold, we went forth even in wrath, with mighty threatenings to adestroy his church.
 19 Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal adespair?
 20 Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting agulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.    


 21 And now behold, my brethren, what anatural man is there that knoweth these things? I say unto you, there is bnone that cknoweth these things, save it be the penitent.
 22 Yea, he that arepenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good bworks, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the cmysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be dgiven to ereveal things which never have been revealed;  yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.
 23 Now do ye remember, my brethren, that we said unto our brethren in the land of Zarahemla, we go up to the land of Nephi, to preach unto our brethren, the Lamanites, and they alaughed us to scorn?
 24 For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the Lamanites    of the aincorrectness of the btraditions of their fathers, as cstiffnecked a people as they are; whose hearts delight in the dshedding of blood;  whose days have been spent in the grossest iniquity; whose ways have been the ways of a transgressor from the beginning? Now my brethren, ye remember that this was their language.
 25 And moreover they did say: Let us take up arms against them,  
that we destroy them and their iniquity out of the land, lest they overrun us and destroy us.
 26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls.

 27 Now when our hearts were depressed


,     and we were about to aturn back,     

behold, the Lord bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with cpatience thine dafflictions, and I will give unto you success.
 28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house,  

relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God. 

 29 And we have entered into their houses  

   

and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their asynagogues and taught them;

 and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been bstoned,
 
  and taken and bound with cstrong cords,

  and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
 31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the afruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are bmany; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love  towards their brethren and also towards us.

 32 For behold, they had rather asacrifice their lives than even to take the life of their enemy; and they have bburied their weapons of war deep in the earth,  because of their love towards their brethren.
 33 And now behold I say unto you, has there been so great love in all the land? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, there has not, even among the Nephites.
 34 For behold, they would take up arms against their brethren; they would not suffer themselves to be slain. But behold how amany of these have laid down their lives; and we know that they have gone to their God,  because of their love and of their hatred to sin.
 35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away,
even unto boasting in my God; for he has all apower, ball wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a cmerciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.
 36 Now if this is aboasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo.

Alma 27

1 Now it came to pass that when those Lamanites who had gone to war against the Nephites had found, after their amany struggles to destroy them, that it was in vain to seek their destruction, they returned again to the land of Nephi.
 2 And it came to pass that the Amalekites, because of their loss, were exceedingly angry. And when they saw that they could not seek revenge from the Nephites, they began to astir up the people in anger against their bbrethren, the people of cAnti-Nephi-Lehi; therefore they began again to destroy them.
 3 Now this people aagain refused to take their arms, and they suffered themselves to be slain according to the desires of their enemies.
 4 Now when Ammon  and his brethren saw this work of destruction among those whom they so dearly beloved, and among those who had so dearly beloved them—for they were treated as though they were angels sent from God to save them from everlasting destruction—therefore, when Ammon and his brethren saw this great work of destruction, they were moved with compassion, and they asaid unto 
This is Anti-Nephi-Lehi
 the king
the king:
 5 Let us gather together this people of the Lord, and let us go down to the land of Zarahemla to our brethren the Nephites, and flee out of the hands of our enemies, that we be not destroyed.
 6 But the king said unto them: Behold, the Nephites will destroy us, because of the many murders and sins we have committed against them.
 7 And Ammon said:  I will go and inquire of the Lord, and if he say unto us, go down unto our brethren, will ye go?
 8 And the king said unto him: 
The king asked Ammon to ask the Lord what to do.
Yea, if the Lord saith unto us go, we will go down unto our brethren, and we will be their slaves until we repair unto them the many murders and sins which we have committed against them.
 9 But Ammon said unto him: It is against the law of our brethren, which was established by my father, that there should be any aslaves among them; therefore let us go down and rely upon the mercies of our brethren.
 10 But the king said unto him: Inquire of the Lord, and if he saith unto us go, we will go; otherwise we will perish in the land.
 11 And it came to pass that  Ammon went and inquired of the Lord, and the Lord said unto him:
 12 Get this people aout of this land, that they perish not; for Satan has great hold on the hearts of the Amalekites, who do stir up the Lamanites to anger against their brethren to slay them; therefore get thee out of this land; and blessed are this people in this generation, for I will bpreserve them.
 13 And now it came to pass that  Ammon went and told the king 
This is Anti-Nephi-Lehi,
 the king
all the words which the Lord had said unto him.
 14 And they gathered together all their people, yea, all the people of the Lord, and did gather together all their flocks and herds, and departed out of the land, and came into the wilderness which divided the land of Nephi from the land of Zarahemla, and came over near the borders of the land.
 15 And it came to pass that Ammon  said unto them: Behold, I and my brethren will go forth into the land of Zarahemla, and ye shall remain here until we return; and we will atry the hearts of our brethren, whether they will that ye shall come into their land.
 16 And it came to pass that as  Ammon was going forth into the land, that he and his brethren met Alma, over in the aplace of which has been spoken; and behold, this was a joyful meeting.
Alma's joy knocked him to the ground!
 17 Now the ajoy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the bexhausting of his strength; and he fell cagain to the earth.
 18 Now was not this aexceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of bhappiness.
 19 Now the joy of Alma  in meeting his abrethren was truly great, and also the joy of Aaron, of Omner, and Himni; but behold their joy was not that to exceed their strength.
Alma's house
  20 And now it came to pass that Alma conducted his brethren back to the land of Zarahemla; even to his aown house. And they went and told the bchief judge all the things that had happened unto them...
 21 And it came to pass that the chief judge sent a proclamation throughout all the land, desiring the voice of the people concerning the admitting their brethren, who were the people of aAnti-Nephi-Lehi.
This is Anti-Nephi-Lehi
 the king of the converted Lamanites,


They gave their friends a place by the sea to live safely
  22 And it came to pass that the voice of the people came, saying: Behold, we will give up the aland of bJershon, which is on the east by the sea,  which joins the land Bountiful, which is on the south of the land Bountiful; and this land Jershon is the land which we will give unto our brethren for an inheritance.
 23 And behold, we will set our armies between the land Jershon and the land Nephi, that we may aprotect our brethren in the land Jershon;
They gave their friends a place by the sea to live safely
 and this we do for our brethren, on account of their fear to take up arms against their brethren lest they should commit sin; and this their great fear came because of their sore repentance which they had, on account of their many murders and their awful wickedness.
 24 And now behold, this will we do unto our brethren, that they may inherit the land Jershon; and we will guard them from their enemies with our armies, on condition that they will give us a aportion of their substance to assist us that we may maintain our armies.
 25 Now, it came to pass that when Ammon had heard this, he returned to the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, and also Alma  with him, into the wilderness, where they had pitched their tents,   and made known unto them all these things. And Alma  also related unto them his aconversion, with  Ammon and Aaron, and his brethren.
 26 And it came to pass that it did cause great joy among them. And they went down into the land of Jershon, and took possession of the land of Jershon;  
and they were called by the Nephites the apeople of Ammon; therefore they were distinguished by that name ever after.
 27 And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their azeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly bhonest and upright in all things; and they were cfirm in the faith of Christ,   even unto the end.
 28 And they did look upon shedding the blood of their brethren with the greatest abhorrence; and they never could be prevailed upon to take up arms against their brethren; and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection;   therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it.
 29 Therefore, they would suffer adeath in the most aggravating and distressing manner which could be inflicted by their brethren, before they would take the sword or cimeter to smite them.


 30 And thus they were a zealous and beloved people...

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