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The Book of Alma, the son of Alma — Chapter 1

¹ The first year of the Nephite judges began after King Mosiah died. He had lived a good life, keeping God’s commandments. None of his sons would rule after him, so he had made laws which the people had promised to obey.

² During the first year Alma was the chief judge, a big strong man was brought to him to be judged.

³ This man preached to the people what he said was the word of God. He said bad things about the church, and told the people their priests and teachers should not have to work, but that the people should pay them.

⁴ He told them that everybody would be saved at the end of the world. He said they should not be afraid because of their sins, but should be happy, because God had made everyone and would save everyone, and everyone would live with God again.

⁵ He taught these things so much that many people began to believe what he said. So many people believed him that they began to pay him for teaching these things.

⁶ He began to be very proud in his heart. He wore fancy clothes and began a church of his own.

⁷ While he was on his way to teach those who believed what he said, he met a teacher who belonged to God’s true church. He began to argue with the teacher, to try to get more people to join his church. But the teacher would not believe him, and instead told him the truth from God.

⁸ Now the name of the teacher in God’s church was Gideon. This was the same man God had sent to help Limhi’s people escape from slavery.

⁹ Since Gideon would not believe what the man said, and told him what God really said, the man got angry and took out his sword and began to hit him. Gideon was so old that he could not fight, so he was killed.

¹⁰ The man who killed him was taken by the people of the church and brought to Alma to be judged for his crime.

¹¹ He stood before Alma and defended himself without fear.

¹² But Alma said to him: “This is the first time priestcraft has been taught to this people. You are not only guilty of priestcraft, but of using your sword to try to make people do it. If the people were made to have priestcraft, it would destroy them.

¹³ “You have killed a righteous man who has done lots of good among this people. If we were to let you live, his blood would cry out for justice.

¹⁴ “The law that Mosiah, our last king, gave to us, says you must die. The people voted for this law, so they must follow it.”

¹⁵ So the man, whose name was Nehor, was taken to the top of the hill Manti, where he had to say before heaven and earth that what he had taught the people was against God’s word. Then he was killed.

¹⁶ But this did not stop priestcraft in the land. There were many people who loved the vain things of the world, so they taught false things to get riches and fame.

¹⁷ They could not lie, because the law said that liars would be punished, so they taught what they pretended to believe, because there was no law about what people could believe.

¹⁸ But they were afraid to rob, because robbers were punished. They were afraid to murder, because murderers were punished with death.

¹⁹ But those who did not belong to God’s church began to persecute those who did belong to God’s church and had taken on themselves Christ’s name.

²⁰ They persecuted them and said terrible things to them because they were humble and not proud, and because they taught each other God’s word without being paid money to do so.

²¹ Now there was a law among the people of the church not to persecute people who did not belong to the church, nor to persecute each other.

²² Even so, there began to be a few among them who became proud, and who began to argue with their enemies. Sometimes they would fight and hit each other with their fists.

²³ This happened during in Alma’s second year as chief judge, and it made lots of trouble for the church,

²⁴ Because many people’s hearts were hard. They left the church and were not counted as God’s people anymore. Many of them also left the Nephites.

²⁵ This was a terrible test for those who stayed strong in the faith. But they still kept God’s commandments and were patient about the persecution they went through.

²⁶ When the priests stopped their work so they could teach the people, the people stopped working to listen to the gospel. After the priests taught them, they all went back and worked hard. The priests did not think they were better than those who listened (because the teacher was no better than the one who listened). They were all equal, and everyone worked as hard as they could.

²⁷ They shared their things with each other and with the poor and sick and troubled. They did not wear rich clothes, although they were neat and clean.

²⁸ This was how the church worked, and they had peace again, even with all the persecution.

²⁹ Since the church was so strong, they began to get very rich. They had more things than they needed — flocks and herds, and all kinds of young animals, and grain, and gold and silver, and silk and fine cloth.

³⁰ Since they were rich, they did not send anyone away who was naked or hungry or thirsty or sick. They did not care about their riches, so they gave freely to everyone — old and young, slave and free, male and female, in or out of the church. They gave to anyone who was in need.

³¹ So they prospered and became much richer than those who were not part of the church.

³² Those who did not belong to the church spent their money on witchcraft and laziness, and on gossip, and on rich clothes, because they were so proud. They lied, and robbed, and committed sexual sins, and murdered, and did all kinds of wicked things. But the law punished as many of them who broke the law as it could.

³³ Since the law punished those who broke the law, those people were very careful not to do too many wicked things. So there was lots of peace among the Nephites until the fifth year of the judges.