Five High Profile Dissentors and Two Fathers' Grief

One of the most high profile dissenters was the prophet, Alma's, own son.  His name was also Alma and he is differentiated in the Book of Mormon from his father by the title Alma, the Younger.  To add salt to the wound, his four best friends were the sons of King Mosiah.  Their names were Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni.

There's an old saying that the preacher's kid is the worst kid in church.  While that is not a truism by any stretch of the imagination, it was true in Alma's case.  The fact that he, the prophet's son, and the king's own sons were living wild and undisciplined lives, seemed to give others in Zarahemla tacit permission to do likewise.

Not only did they live carnal and licentious lives themselves, they actually went around preaching against the church, purposely trying to break it up.  The Book of Mormon describes them this way: 

Now the sons of Mosiah were numbered among the unbelievers; and also one of the sons of Alma was numbered among them, he being called Alma, after his father; nevertheless, he became a very wicked and an idolatrous man. And he was a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities.

And he became a great hinderment to the prosperity of the church of God; stealing away the hearts of the people; causing much dissension among the people; giving a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over them.. . . he was going about to destroy the church of God, for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord, contrary to the commandments of God, or even the king (Mosiah 27: 8-10)

 

The enemy of God was, of course, Satan.  Alma and his friends were breaking the laws of the church and the laws of the land.  Because of the high profile positions held by their fathers, they thought they were beyond discipline.  Alma counseled with his son and pleaded for him to repent, but it all fell on deaf ears.

 

I wonder if Alma may have felt like Father Lehi, who pleaded with his rebellious sons:

 

O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe . . . And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this world with gladness because of you . . . arise from the dust, my sons, and be men . . . that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you, unto the destruction, yea, the eternal destruction of both soul and body.  Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.  Rebel no more . . .  (2 Nephi 1: 13, 21-24)

 

Sadly, how many a parent has felt this way?

 

Text copyright August 2013, Gebara Education

 

Pictures from www.lds.org

except

Satan from www.thehistorychannel.com