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Book of Mormon Commentary
Alma Chapter 13
MISSIONS TO JERUSALEM, ANI-ANTI, AND MIDDONI, VER. 1-22
Alma 13:2 Now the Lamanites, and the Amalekites, and the people of Amulon, had built a great city,
which was called Jerusalem.
To this city went Ammon's brother Aaron, where he began his missionary work by preaching to
the Amalekites in their synagogue. The historian said the Lamanites "were sufficiently hardened,
but the Amalekites, and the Amulonites, were still harder" (3). Their synagogues were built "after
the order of the Nehors" (5).
Alma 13:6 Therefore, as Aaron entered into one of their synagogues to preach unto the people, and as
he was speaking unto them, behold there arose an Amalekite, and began to contend with him, saying,
The heckler began by asking questions such as, "Hast thou seen an angel?" "How knowest thou
the thought and intent of our heart?" (7,8). "We do believe that God will save all men" (9). This
doctrine of Nehor (Alma 1:7) is called "universalism" today. The following definition is relevant. .
Universalism is the doctrine of the ultimate well-being of every person. The doctrine has a pagan
and a Christian form. According to the former, all will ultimately be happy because all are, 'by
nature, the creatures and children of God. The universalistic heresy (it is rejected by the general
tradition of the church-Eastern, Roman, and Protestant) in Christianity teaches that although all of
the human creatures of God have fallen into sin and are lost, all will be saved through the
universal redemption of Christ. Christian universalism has two historical forms: restoration at
death and restoration after future punishment.
The Universalist doctrine is refuted in Mosiah 8:83-86; 11:133-136; and D. and C. 28:7c, 8a;
76:4a-e.
Alma 13:10 Now Aaron said unto him, Believest thou that the Son of God shall come to redeem
mankind from their sins?
The Amalekite answered, "We do not believe" in these foolish traditions." Nor did they believe
that Aaron knew of things to come (11,12). Then Aaron talked of the coming of Christ,
resurrection, and redemption through the atonement. The people be- came angry and mocked him.
Seeing that they would not give him a hearing, Aaron left the synagogue and city, and went to the
village of Ani-anti (14,15). Here he found Muloki and Ammah trying to preach. The people were
not inclined to listen, but "would harden their hearts" (16), so the missionaries went to the land of
Middoni.
These places are sometimes referred to as cities and sometimes as lands. In most instances it
seems that reference to "land" does not mean a state or province but a small area surrounding a
city. Alma told the people of Gideon "He [Jesus] shall be born of Mary at Jerusalem, which is the
land of our forefathers"
(Alma 5:19).
It is not certain where the Book of Mormon history was enacted, so it cannot be accurately related
to the geography of today. Once students were inclined to locate the inhabited lands over a wide
latitude extending from Peru to Nova Scotia. This was largely based on a placing of "the narrow
neck of land" (Alma 30:6; Ether 4:68) at the obvious place on our maps--the Isthmus of Panama.