Zeezrom and Lawyers
[Equity and Justice of Judges]
[Atonement & Resurrection]
[We are Tested in This World]
311 I trust that you have all read Alma to the end. It’s long, as you know. I’m just going to point out some things you may have overlooked. That isn’t being patronizing because I have overlooked them myself for years and years, and they are important, too. Alma 10 is the legalistic chapter. It’s on legalism and lawyers. It packs a real wallop and shows immense insight. This was [translated] in 1829 before Joseph Smith had had any of his experience with lawyers. He was hauled into court and went through the routine 42 times. They were always bringing him to court. Americans were just as legalistic [then] as they are today. But remember that this was written before he had any of that experience at all. He knew nothing about lawyers or anything else; he had just lived on the farm all his life. This chapter is really something, and we’re on verse 13 now. They began to question Amulek using “cunning devices [that] they might catch them in their words, that they might find witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime [they would make it all legal] which they could make appear or witness against them.”
311 Alma 10:14 “Now it was those men who sought to destroy them, who were lawyers.” It’s frightening because these people make the rules as they go. They’re the lawyers and they’re free to move the goal post anytime they want, so they always win
312 Alma 10:16,17; Mosiah 29:27 “They began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak.” [That’s exactly what the lawyer is supposed to do, make you contradict yourself. But he was onto them, of course.] ... “O ye wicked and perverse generation, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God.” That’s what a lawyer does; he lays traps and snares. Remember that Mosiah gave them their constitution. “Yea, well did Mosiah say ... if the time should come that the voice of this people should choose iniquity ... they would be ripe for destruction.” In Mosiah’s constitution the people chose the local judges in local elections, and it was the local judges that decided everything, after all, because they chose the chief judge and could remove him if they wanted to. So the people were responsible, and they will be responsible; that’s the whole idea of it. Not that they will always do right. He says, the voice of the people does right more often than not, but if they don’t—if you should choose iniquity—then it’s your own fault. You’ve made your own choice. If that time should come, then you would be ripe for destruction. These are the ground rules of the promise in the land.
312 Mosiah 10: 27,20 This is a very interesting thing, you’ll notice. He tells them in verse 27 that it is going to be destroyed “by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges.” And notice in the next verse [verse 20] how he contrasts it here. The Lord is the judge. When the Lord judges, he judges “by the voice of his angels.” This is a different thing. The one is by the voice of the people, and the other is by the voice of angels when the Lord judges. You are going to be judged by that. “Well doth he cry unto this people, by the voice of his angels: Repent ye, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Yea, well doth he cry, by the voice of his angels that: I will come down among my people, with equity and justice in my hands.” That’s the theme of the whole chapter; everything is on the theme of “equity and justice,” a very good study for a law review or something like that.
313 Alma 10:22 “If it were not for the prayers of the righteous ...” Then what would happen? He says, it would be as it was in the days of Noah. Remember, in the days of Noah the Lord says they bought and sold, married and gave in marriage, ate and drank. They did normal things—business as usual right up until the last minute. In one day it hit them like that. But he said this is different; this will be by “famine, and by pestilence, and the sword.” Of course, they all go together.
314 Alma 10:23 “But it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared.” Remember that—there won’t be many of them around for long. This just made the people mad. Now the people were really angry with him.
314 Alma 10:24 What’s the best defense when you feel guilty as hell? Then you become offensive and indignant. Then you are self-righteous. How dare you say such things to us? Verse 24: “This man doth revile against our laws which are just, and our wise lawyers whom we have selected.” There’s your Oedipus irony again. They admit that it is their responsibility; they are taking it on themselves. Remember, at the trial of Jesus they said, “We have no other king but Caesar. Crucify him!” They brought it [the destruction] on themselves, and it’s the same thing here. We have selected the lawyers, and we’ll be responsible.
314 Alma 10:25 Then he came back to them, “O ye wicked and perverse generation, why hath Satan got such great hold upon your hearts?” . Are the poor people just victimized by Satan? Satan is a ravening lion who goes along seeking those whom he may destroy, and they become his helpless victims. Don’t fool yourself; look at this verse here. “Why will ye yield yourselves unto him that he may have power over you, to blind your eyes, that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth?” .
315 Alma 10:26 He won’t have power unless you yield yourself up to him, and that’s what they have done here. As Joseph Smith said, Satan cannot force us to sin, and God will not force our free will. So we are responsible. It is by deception that he blinds you. He uses all the correct answers to make us blind by telling us lies—lies like truth. “. . . that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth?” You’ll understand the words, but not according to their truth. You can twist them—twisting words, as he says, is the lawyer’s business. He has outraged their defense; they are the untouchables. Verse 26: “For behold, have I testified against your law?” They said he had. He said, no, you are breaking the law; that’s what we are testifying about. “I say unto you that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges.” This is exactly what Socrates said to his friend Gorgias long before this.
315,316 Alma 10:28-32 : “When Amulek had spoken these words the people cried out against him, saying: Now we know that this man is a child of the devil, for he hath lied unto us; for he hath spoken against our law. And now he says that he has not spoken against it.” This is the idea. This is typical legal sophistry here. He criticized the lawyers for their lawlessness, but to criticize the lawyers is to revile the law. They are the wise lawyers that [the people] had chosen. Amulek said he had not criticized the law but the lawyers. Ah, so he had lied when he said he didn’t criticize the law, because he did criticize the lawyers. So they had him in a trap now. This is typical. Verse 29: “And again, he has reviled against our lawyers, and our judges. And it came to pass that the lawyers put it into their hearts that they should remember these things against him.” Joseph Smith’s insight into lawyers is very good here. And verse 32 is the bottom line: “Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain [are you surprised? The bottom line was money, and here it is]; and they got gain according to their employ.”
317 Alma 11:20; Alma 10:31 “Now, it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings [a very profitable business]; ... therefore they did stir up the people against Alma and Amulek. (I was so anxious to get to that last verse in chapter 10 that I forgot Brother Zeezrom here.) “Now he was the foremost to accuse Amulek and Alma [he was the leader], he being one of the most expert among them, having much business to do among the people.” There it is. He had associations, he had connections, he was making a lot of money, etc.—the typical lawyer. Now we refer to him again here [in Alma 11:21].
318 Alma 11:21 He begins to argue here, and he puts up the best argument he can. “Now Zeezrom was a man who was expert in the devices of the devil, that he might destroy that which was good [he set him up perfectly].... Will ye answer the questions which I shall put unto you?” He has it all set up. He asks a very crude question here. I mean if he is trying to be subtle, isn’t this about as crude as you can get? He says, “Behold, here are six onties of silver, and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being?” In front of all those people there, you see. Would he accept a bribe as conspicuously as that after his moral tirades, etc.? Well, of course he wouldn’t. What is the guy planning to do? It lets us know what he’s planning to do. As Amulek tells him, I know you had no intention to pay. What he was going to do was to up the ante.. But Amulek said, I know you weren’t going to pay it anyway, but I’m not going to accept it whatever it is. It seems like a rather crude approach, but you can see what he was doing. He had these people in the palms of his hands. It said he had much business with the people, and he was the most skillful lawyer in the place. He was the top man.
318,319 Alma 11:23,24 “Now Amulek said: O thou child of hell, why tempt ye me? Knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations? [even in a prize show here] ... Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him [it’s the money that has spoiled him, he says]. And now thou hast lied before God unto me. Thou saidst unto me—Behold these six onties, which are of great worth, I will give unto thee—when thou hadst it in thy heart to retain them from me.” He said, of course you weren’t going to pay me that. He knew he wasn’t.
319 Alma 11:34-37 Then he starts setting forth the gospel plan. Chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14 are a very important part of the Book of Mormon. If you say the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel, this is it. This is the gospel plan, and a perfect epitome of the whole thing is given by Alma all through here. You’ll see that it goes back to the old law of Moses. It has everything in it after verse 35, following this question/answer [episode]. He starts cross examining, and Amulek is more than a match for him. Verse 34: “Shall he save his people in their sins? And Amulek answered and said unto him: I say unto you he shall not, for it is impossible for him to deny his word. Now Zeezrom said unto the people: See that ye remember these things [watch that—we’ll catch him on that]; for he said there is but one God; yet he saith that the Son of God shall come, but he shall not save his people—as though he had authority to command God.” Notice that he omits the part, “in their sins.” He just leaves that out. He says don’t say “in their sins” is a typical lawyer question. Answer yes or no; will he save his people? Well, he won’t save them in their sins. I didn’t say “in their sins”; leave that out. I’m just asking you a question. Answer me yes or no—will he save his people? Of course, it’s a conditioned answer. This is a very favorite trick of lawyers. Their tricks are all easy, foolish, and transparent. They always work though, more or less.
319 Alma 11:36 Then Amulek says you’re the one that lies “for thou sayest that I spake as though I had authority to command God because I said he shall not save his people in their sins. And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins [that’s the thing he hadn’t mentioned]; for I cannot deny his word. ... Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?” This is the crux of the Christological controversy— how can he be the Son and the Father again? He tells us here in the next verse what he is the father of. It doesn’t mention the Son here—just as Joseph Fielding Smith used to teach that Jesus Christ is our father because he made possible our physical bodies here and he made possible the Resurrection. It’s through him that the Resurrection is possible. Who is it that begets a person’s body? Well, it’s your father. He doesn’t beget your spirit, but he brings forth your body. Well, Jesus Christ by his work made the Resurrection possible— the literal bringing forth of the flesh. Not flesh and blood, but of the flesh to live eternally after the Resurrection. The one that makes that possible is your real father. He is the father who makes the Resurrection possible. We are not resurrected just as spirits or ghosts; we are resurrected with a real body. In that case he is truly the father, but not of our spirits. He is never referred to as that.
320 Alma 11:39,40 “And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are.” He made the whole thing possible. And Hebrews 1:2 says the same thing. He made possible the physical resurrection. “And he shall come into the world to redeem his people.” To redeem something, as we said before, is to bring back somebody who had been there before—to bring him home again. REDEMPTIO is to buy back again. It’s to buy back something that was yours before and got lost; now you buy it back again. Well, we were with Him in the eternities before this. Now we have been separated, and then we go back again. “And he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else.”
320 Alma 11:41,42 The Atonement is limited, you notice—but everybody is going to get resurrected. This is an important thing, and he brings this out. “Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death.” He couldn’t buy us back if we didn’t belong to him at some former time. But were we damned here? Did we separate ourselves from him? Yes, by the Fall we were separated to learn what we have to learn. How can we be brought back? Nevertheless, whether you have been good or bad, “all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works .. . and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.” That makes him truly the Father as well as the Son. The temporal death is the death here, so there will be a physical resurrection.
320,321 Alma 11:43 “The spirit and the body shall be reunited again,” as they were here during this life. Of course, this is the ultimate question—this is the big one. These two verses here are the best answer, the best definition you will get anywhere, of what resurrection is: “The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time.” This is the interesting thing where he says, “The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form.” What does this mean by “perfect form”? They would say, “Yes, the body could be restored again, but it must have all its limbs and all its joints and all in working order.” That’s what he says here, “both limb and joint,” as if they didn’t belong to the body. Well, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks before Homer [didn’t have a word for body]. Homer had no word for body, he used GUIA, which means MEMBERS. Then there’s the other word for TORSO, the SOMA, but the [Greek word for] body comes after Homer. It’s a very interesting thing that the ancients didn’t think of the body as one particular unit. Surprising isn’t it? They divided it up.
321 Alma 11:43 “Both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time [notice he is making it very vivid what’s going to happen]; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.” We will be right back to square one, right back where we are now. But we’ll have a bright recollection; it will all come back to us. We will take up exactly where we left off before, so nothing will be lost. [You’ll remember] everything you experienced here, in other words. No experience and no detail of this life is wasted here. It will always be either for you or against you, even if you are guilty of wasting time, etc. It will all be with you then. It will all return, so nothing is lost here—everything is recorded. A good psychologist can get most of it out of you now just by hypnotizing you or cross-examining you, etc. So it happens.
321 Alma 11:44 “Now, this restoration shall come to all.” To everybody. Well, doesn’t that solve the question? That’s the big one. What do the Buddhists and the Moslems, etc., have to worry about? They are going to get just as much resurrected as we are. They are going to have as much eternal life as we do. Ah yes, but it’s the level. The idea, as he tells us here, is whether we have gained anything while we were here. But they are good people, too. There are righteous people among them, just as there are wicked Christians and Jews, etc. Being resurrected is the only thing that worries most people. Alma 12:9 puts them into the picture (the mysteries of God), but let’s go on and see what happens here.
321,322 Alma 11:44,45 “And even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost.” That’s the expression, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have all the hair that was ever cut off. That would be something. But you recognize how these expressions are—that everything will be as it should be in its proper and perfect form, which means we’ll be very different. I won’t suffer from malnutrition there, so I won’t be so short, or something like that. “But every thing shall be restored [restored again] to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God [there you go again; this is what atonement is: when you are made at-one, you are one in that case], to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.” They are going to be at-one. Not one person, but one office and calling, which requires one comprehension. They comprehend the same things, etc. As our knowledge becomes more perfect, the knowledge of all of us becomes more alike. As we become more perfect physically, we also become more alike. But the external is not what our true nature is; nevertheless, we have to have this to carry on at another level. “I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more.” This goes for everybody here. This is really at-one-ment, coming together. In at-one-ment of the body and spirit, you bring them together to be one again. They had been separated before. That’s redemption, bringing them back again. And they are at-one with each other.
322 Well, that’s putting us on a different stage all right, and in that stage you are going to go on forever. So it’s of enormous importance that you get started on the right foot while you are here because this is where we choose our direction. This is where you get going. That’s why it pays to have the gospel. It makes all the difference in the world that people hear the gospel to know how to prepare for this. As he is going to tell us, this is the time to prepare. Now when Zeezrom heard this, he began to tremble because it was the question he thought couldn’t be answered.
322,323 Alma 12:1 “Now Alma, seeing that the words of Amulek had silenced Zeezrom,... He opened his mouth and began to speak unto him.” Alma gets into the picture now and goes to the heart of the matter, which Zeezrom had been avoiding. He wouldn’t touch that. “He began to tremble under a consciousness of his guilt.” It had all come back to him. The resurrection stops everybody cold after going through all the expository stuff. The clergy of the Catholics, Protestants, and Jews always talk around it and talk around it. They will never come right back to it and make a clear specific statement like this. You can believe this or reject it, but if there is a resurrection this is what it is. So stop messing around about it. This being Easter week, they will talk a lot about the Resurrection. “Well, it’s a spiritual resurrection,” etc. St. Augustine said he believed in an afterlife, but the idea of a resurrection is utterly absurd—we couldn’t have flesh resurrected. Even Augustine said that.
323 Alma 12:1-5 He had an opening now, so Alma followed up “to explain things beyond, or to unfold the scriptures beyond that which Amulek had done. Now the words that Alma spake unto Zeezrom were heard by the people round about.” They were in on the discussion, too. Now as to the subtlety of the devil: “And thou seest that we know that thy plan was a very subtle plan, as to the subtlety of the devil, for to lie and to deceive this people that thou mightest set them against us, to revile us and to cast us out [not having the answers, the only excuse for religious people is to be very offended, and touchy, and dangerous]. Now this was a plan of thine adversary, and he hath exercised his power in thee.” Notice that the adversary is the adversary to Zeezrom as well as he is to us; he’s not the friend of those that follow him. It’s interesting that we “cozy up” to our adversary, the one who is really our enemy. He is our adversary, and yet we seek to make friends with him and follow him all over the place. He leads us around by the nose because we allow it.
323,324 Alma 12:6-9 “And behold I say unto you all that this was a snare of the adversary ... that he might bring you into subjection unto him, that he might encircle you about with his chains, that he might chain you down to everlasting destruction, according to the power of his captivity.” His great ego asserts itself over others—he wants to get you in. Then Zeezrom began to tremble when Alma spoke, “for power was given unto them that they might know of these things according to the spirit of prophecy. And Zeezrom began to inquire of them diligently, that he might know more concerning the kingdom of God.” Well, now there’s been a turning point; he has changed his mind. They could see through him and he knew it. So now he is going to ask some interesting questions, and he becomes a different man. It’s very interesting that this top man, this most depraved person, is going to become a zealous missionary. It’s surprising what goes on, you see. “And Zeezrom began to inquire of them diligently.” Once they start asking the questions, that’s exactly what we want. The usual thing is to ask the question and then leave before they answer it. They always do that. They ask very shrewd and pointed questions about the Book of Mormon, etc., but do not wait for an answer. That’s the thing to do [they think]. Those are the questions we want, but we want to have a chance to answer them, and want to go into the mysteries of God. He calls them “the mysteries of God.” Verse 9: “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.” That’s true of all learning. You learn your math, or whatever it is, only according to the heed and diligence you give to it. The Lord is not going to give you something that you haven’t paid attention to with heed and diligence. In section 10 of the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord “bawls out” Oliver Cowdery and tells him to think it out in his own mind. You solve the problem and then ask me if the answer is correct.
324,325 Alma 12:10,13 “And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word.” Now it keeps using the word harden all throughout here; it’s a very interesting thing. Notice, “harden his heart” in verse 10 and “harden their hearts” at the beginning of verse 11. Verse 13: “Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word.” What is this “hardening of the heart” that’s used even more in the rest of the chapter? I know at my age things start hardening, and that’s the point. They become less effective, less workable, etc. That’s why he uses this word hardening; it’s very effective. That is what happens when you get things hardened. You harden into a mold is what you do. If you’ve made up your mind and you won’t change it at all, that’s hardness of heart. You become doctrinaire; you become an ideologue, etc. This is an interesting thing to note here; notice the nice contrast between these verses: “And he that will not harden his heart, to him is given [progressively, you see] the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.” That’s progressive knowledge, and notice that the next verse reverses that exactly: “And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries.” In the first one, if they don’t harden their hearts, they will progress until they know the mysteries in full. In the next one, they will get harder and harder and know less and less until finally they know nothing at all. It works in the opposite direction. You can’t be static. You can’t just stay between them; you must make your choice. As Heraclitus says, the road upward and the road downward are the same. It depends entirely on the way you are facing. You can’t compromise between them; you take the up road or the down road. You can’t go off at an angle, or anything like that. It’s the same thing here. You harden or you keep open. “Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.” He has been using “chains of hell” just as an image here. They aren’t real chains, but this is what is meant by the “chains of hell.” It refers to them again in Alma 13:30; that’s a very common statement here.
325,326 Alma 12:13,14 “Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word,. .. then will our state be awful.” Then it happens. Notice in verse 14 the three things we can do that all condemn us if we harden our hearts. We have no idea of changing; we’ve made up our minds what it is. See, I may be completely wrong in everything I say. Well, all right, I’m still open. I’ll still change. I find that I’m way behind in certain things. “For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; ... and our thoughts will also condemn us.” These are the three things we can produce: words, works, and thoughts. The others go back to thoughts. They are the three things that motivate us, and they can all become hardened and conventionalized and in a groove. In that case “we shall not dare to look up to our God.” You can see why. “And we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.” That’s how guilty we would feel. We don’t want to face up to it. We don’t want to get out and get mobile again. Once you have been frozen in the mold, once you change the custom, the thought of having to get out and move around in the open is terrifying. We have an awareness of our own responsibility and potential. When we haven’t taken advantage of it, we feel very guilty. We do not want to look upon Him; we would prefer the rocks and the mountains to fall on us.
326 Alma 12:15 But sorry! We are ongoing creatures. You are going to live forever, he says. You can die no more. Verse 15: “But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him [we are not going to get out of it, so we might as well get used to it now; that’s why we need to hear the gospel now] in his glory, and in his power . . . and acknowledge to our everlasting shame [we can’t avoid it; we can’t deny that it’s all true] that all his judgments are just.... He has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.” He wants to save us, and if we don’t take advantage of it we are going to be very much ashamed of ourselves. So therefore the subject is repentance; we preach nothing but repentance.
326,327 Alma 12:17,18 Then he talks about the second death. The second death is on a different level, just like the morning of the first resurrection is on another level of existence permanently hereafter. The second death is when you die as to things pertaining to righteousness. You reach a point when it’s easier just to go ahead with it than go back and try to reform and change things. You reach that point of no return. That’s what happens here. Then you are stuck with it. You are in the second death until you don’t want to change. It’s the sort of thing that paranoids get. You die as to things pertaining to righteousness. When you are paranoid you go on living, but you go on living at another level. It won’t be such a happy one. Eventually, you are going to have to come around anyway, so [we should] get that into our thick heads. Verse 17: “Then is the time when their torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone [it doesn’t mean literally]; ... they shall be chained down to an everlasting destruction, according to the power and captivity of Satan, he having subjected them according to his will.” He just told us what he meant by being “chained down.” That is what is meant by the “chains of hell,” when you go on until you know nothing. You become completely committed [to evil], and you can’t get out of the hole that you have dug yourself into. Notice how strongly he puts it in verse 18: “Then .. . they shall be as though there had been no redemption made.” That’s a terrible doom on you. There are people like that now, of course, as though there had been no redemption made. But they are stuck with it. In the same verse he says, “And they cannot die, seeing there is no more corruption.” This is the real stroke of doom here. It’s not death or destruction that’s the stroke of doom. It’s the fact that they can’t die, and yet they are living as if there had been no redemption. They are going to have to go through an awful hell before they can get out of that.
327 Alma 12:20,21 “But there was one Antionah, who was a chief ruler among them, came forth and said unto him ...” He’s indignant. He’s had all he can take here, and he says, what is this stuf