In my following of the Church's study guide, Come, Follow Me, I re-read the "war chapters" of Alma this week. With all that is going on in America right now with Antifa, BLM, and the riots in several major cities, it is pretty easy to see parallels. America is on the verge of civil war. Personally, I anticipate that the election will be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back, when both sides will accuse the other of cheating to win the election. Even if there is a Trump landslide, the Dems will not accept it. The country is about to break in two.
The great Latter-day Saint scholar is reputed to have said that nobody understands why the war chapters of Alma are included in the Book of Mormon, but woe unto the generation that does! I think we are the generation to which this part of the Book of Mormon was directed. The chapters tell of years of strife, dissent, and violence in which the society split into political factions, where the elites sought to take over the government, and were resisted by the common people. Amid this tumult, Church members were caught up and certain ones of them played critical roles in preserving liberty.
Interestingly, you would think this would be a terrible time of suffering and misery. There were brief periods of peace and prosperity amid the threats of war, however. Oddly, Alma chapter 50, verse 23 states of this time:
But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges.
Prior to this verse, Alma explains that it was a time when the greater portion of the Nephites lived righteously and kept God's commandments, even while thousands of the wicked died. Amid wars and rumors of wars, the righteous followers of Christ lived the gospel and were blessed. Afterward, they reflected there was never a happier time among them.
If we should take any message from the war chapters of Alma to heart, it is that verse. As America may soon descend into civil war and/or anarchy, the secret to happiness is obedience to God's commandments. For many of us, we may afterward find that these are the greatest, most purposeful, and happiest times of our lives. Take comfort in that. Be humble, repentant, and do your best to live the gospel.
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