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Alma — Chapter 46

¹ Then all the people who would not listen to Helaman and his brothers were gathered together against them.

² They were very angry with them and wanted to kill them.

³ The leader of those who were angry was a big, strong man named Amalickiah.

⁴ Amalickiah wanted to be king, and the people who were angry wanted him to be king, too. Most of them were lower judges of the land who wanted more power.

⁵ Amalickiah promised that if they would help him become king, he would make them rulers over the people.

⁶ So Amalickiah led them to rebel, even though Helaman and his brothers, the high priests over the church, had taught them and taken great care of the church.

⁷ There were many in the church who believed the tricky things Amalickiah said, so they left the church. The Nephites were in very great danger, even though they had just defeated the Lamanites and had been happy because the Lord had saved them.

⁸ So we see how quickly people forget the Lord their God, and how quick they are to do evil and follow the devil.

⁹ Yes, and we can also see what great evil one very wicked person can cause among people.

¹⁰ Yes, we see that because Amalickiah could say smart and sweet words to the people, he was able to lead away many people’s hearts to do evil. Yes, [they were led] to try to destroy God’s church, and the freedom God had given to them (or with which God had blessed the promised land for the good of the righteous people).

¹¹ When Moroni, who was chief of the Nephite armies, heard about these rebellions, he was angry with Amalickiah.

¹² He took off and tore up his coat and wrote on a piece of it: “In memory of our God, our religion, our freedom, our peace, our wives, and our children,” and he tied it to the end of a pole.

¹³ He put on his helmet, and his armor and shields. Then he took the pole with the piece of torn coat (which he called the flag of freedom) and bowed down on the ground and prayed strongly to God for the blessings of freedom to be with his people for as long as there were Christians in the land.

¹⁴ (That was what those who did not belong to the church called all true believers in Christ, who belonged to God’s church.

¹⁵ Those who belonged to the church were faithful. Yes, all true believers in Christ gladly took on themselves Christ’s name and were called Christians because of their belief in Christ who would come.)

¹⁶ So Moroni prayed that God would bless the Christians, and that their lands would stay free.

¹⁷ After he prayed strongly to God, he said that all the land south of the land of Desolation — yes, all the land in the north and south — was a promised land of freedom.

¹⁸ And he said: “God will not let us be destroyed, we who are hated for taking on Christ’s name, unless we bring this punishment on ourselves by our own wickedness.”

¹⁹ After Moroni said this, he went among the people, waving the torn part of his coat in the air so everyone could see what he had written. And he shouted:

²⁰ “Let whoever will keep this flag upon the land come here in the Lord’s strength, and promise to keep their rights and religion, so the Lord God may bless them.”

²¹ After Moroni shouted this, the men came running with their armor on, tearing their coats as a sign or promise that they would not forget the Lord their God, or that, if they broke God’s laws or became wicked, and did not take on themselves Christ’s name, the Lord could tear them as they had torn their coats.

²² This was the promise they made when they threw their coats at Moroni’s feet: “We promise our God that if we ever become wicked, we will be destroyed just like our brothers and sisters in the north lands. Yes, if we become wicked, he can throw us under our enemies’ feet just like we have thrown our coats under your feet.”

²³ Moroni said to them: “We belong to Jacob’s family. Yes, we are part of the family of Joseph, whose brothers tore his coat into many pieces. Let us remember to keep God’s commandments, or our brothers will tear our coats, and throw us into prison, or sell us as slaves, or kill us.

²⁴ “Let us keep our freedom as part of Joseph’s family. Yes, let us remember what Jacob said before he died. He saw that part of Joseph’s coat had been saved and had not gotten old, and he said: ‘Just as part of my son’s coat was saved, so God will save part of my son’s family, and they will live with him, though the rest of his family will be destroyed, just as his coat was destroyed.

²⁵ “‘Now, this makes my soul sad. But my son has made me happy, too, because part of his family will live with God.’

²⁶ “This is what Jacob said.

²⁷ “Now, who knows? Maybe those of Joseph’s family who will be destroyed are the ones who rebelled and left us. Yes, and maybe we will be destroyed if we are not faithful to Christ.”

²⁸ After Moroni said this, he sent others and went himself into all parts of the land where there were rebellions, and he gathered all the people who wanted to keep their freedom to stand against Amalickiah and those who rebelled (called Amalickiahites).

²⁹ When Amalickiah saw that there were more of Moroni’s people than there were Amalickiahites, and when he saw that his people were not sure if what they were doing was right, he took all who would go with him into the land of Nephi.

³⁰ Now, Moroni did not want the Lamanites to get any stronger, so he decided to stop Amalickiah’s people from going, and bring them back, and kill Amalickiah. Yes, he knew Amalickiah would make the Lamanites angry, and make them come fight the Nephites, and he knew Amalickiah would do this to get what he wanted.

³¹ So Moroni took the armies which had gathered together with their weapons, promising to keep the peace, and went into the wilderness to stop Amalickiah there.

³² He went through the wilderness to Amalickiah’s armies, as he planned.

³³ Amalickiah and a few of his men ran away. Moroni took the rest of Amalickiah’s men back to the land of Zarahemla.

³⁴ Moroni had been given power by the chief judge and the people to do what he thought best with the Nephite armies.

³⁵ So whoever among the Amalickiahites would not promise to protect freedom was killed, so the Nephites could keep a free government. There were only a few who would not make that promise.

³⁶ Then Moroni had the flag of freedom raised on every tower in all the land of the Nephites.

³⁷ They began to have peace in the land again. There was peace in the land until just about the end of the nineteenth year of the judges.

³⁸ Helaman and the high priests kept order in the church, and for four years there was lots of peace and happiness in the church.

³⁹ Many died with strong faith that the Lord Jesus Christ had saved their souls, so they died happy.

⁴⁰ Some died with fevers that came along at different times of the year (but not so many, because of the healing plants and roots God had given them to heal sicknesses).

⁴¹ But many died of old age, and we believe that those who died in the faith of Christ are happy in him.