Alma 36 Parallels God's Plan
Alma 36 amazes me yet again. Not only does it show the process of repentance, it's literary genre is of the chiastic style, also called chiasmus, which in and of itself is pretty amazing. But I recently discovered a parallel with Alma 36 and the plan of salvation which I'm going to share here.
The division of verses that map Alma 36 to the plan of salvation are as follows:
| Alma 36 | Plan of Salvation |
| 1-4 | Heaven |
| 5-9 | Birth |
| 10-16 | Earth |
| 17-19 | Jesus Christ |
| 20-22 | Spirit World |
| 23-26 | Resurrection |
| 27-30 | Kingdom of God |
Chiasmus is a literary structure in which the words, ideas, or elements are repeated backwards around a central element. This is often shown with indentations, as in the table above. The chiastic structure of Alma 36 is much more complex than the outlined verses shown in the table and some have criticized it for its imperfections as a chiasmus but Alma was probably trying to accomplish much more than just create a chiasm. I believe that he was structuring his own lived experience with a big picture of the plan of salvation in mind as well as to demonstrate the process of repentance all at the same time. Perhaps he was even trying to accomplish more than this, which hasn't been discovered yet.
Just like the chiasmus is not perfect in every aspect, I do not believe that every word of every verse can be perfectly tied into the plan of salvation in every detail. I will explain how I see the verse-sets above map to the plan of salvation and you may either see flaws or be amazed, you choose.
Heaven
In verses 1-4, Alma speaks to his son in a way that could be similar to how Heavenly Father spoke to his children and explained His plan in the great family council in heaven before the world was created. In verse 2, it uses the phrase captivity and bondage and when we think of pre-earth life, we don't typically think of captivity or bondage but we think of being in the presence of Heavenly Father. However, in Doctrine & Covenants 138:50, it talks about how the spirits felt like they were in bondage without having a body and they were looking forward to being freed by receiving their bodies again. In like manner, Heavenly Father had a body and we did not but we saw that He had one and He wanted to free us from that lack of joy. Also in verse 4, it talks about knowing and we had a more sure spiritual knowledge of things before we were born. It also says "not of the temporal but of the spiritual, not of the carnal mind but of God." This phrasology does make me think of pre-earth life where we did not have temporal bodies, only spiritual bodies and we probably didn't think temporally or carnally but we did think of God.
Birth
In verse 5, it uses the word 'born' and this parallels our physical birth in this case. It says, "not of any worthiness of myself." While we may have had a choice in being born, it was God 's election more so than of any worthiness. While I have not found direct symbolism for the sons of Mosiah, I have for the Church of God; I see this as symbolizing our mother's body. God's holy angel probably also has some direct symbolism with the plan of salvation, but I'm not sure how yet. There are a couple possibilities for the voice of thunder and my first thought is of what the fetus hears when their ears start to be able to hear. The whole earth trembling makes me think of labor contractions or birth contractions. The phrase 'fell to the earth' has multiple repetitions, but in this case, I believe it has to do with our spirit falling to the earth and into a body before birth. Some people call this ensoulment. When it talks about fear of the Lord, at ensoulment we become mortal and inherit an innate fear death, or separation from our bodies. I haven't placed any direct symbolism on verse 8 because I don't understand what it could represent related to labor and delivery.
Earth
Verse 10 starts in the singular, 'I fell to the earth'; with this second fall, birth is complete and we are on earth, alive, and ready for this mortal experience. The whole of section 3, which is seven verses, starts and ends with the number three, 'three days and three nights.' I find it significant that the number three was used here. Days and nights are mentioned in the creation of the earth as well, and may be symbolic of our individual lives having times of light and times of darkness. The next phrases are directly related to newborn infants. Infants cannot speak; they can only make noise. They can't use their limbs because they haven't learned how yet. In verse 11, we must remember that angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost and spirits can hear other spirits, but once we have a body, we have a lot of trouble hearing the spirit so it's no wonder that he couldn't hear the angel, symbolically speaking. Then it reiterates birth and the fear of death and destruction and the falling to the earth at the end of birth, stating that he did hear no more the spirit. Our mothers nourish us as the church nourishes us, trying to destroy the church is like trying to destroy our mothers whether in the womb or after birth.
This earth life is filled with trials, troubles, and afflictions and that includes sins, iniquities, pains, horrors, torments, tortures, and hell for most people. Many people in this life, after being engulfed in sin, have no desire to stand in God's presence and shun the idea. Many people in this this life also consider it to be a hell and consider themselves damned. This is always due to sins and iniquities.
Jesus Christ
This central, pivotal section, verses 17-19, is interesting for many reasons: First, Jesus and His role as our Savior and Redeemer is central to the plan of salvation. Second, confessing to God is central to the process of repentance. Third, power is a central element of the pattern of seven and in this section the power of the atonement is mentioned. Fourth, death is a common central element of the pattern of seven mentioned at other places in my blog. And fifth, the gallbladder, which is part of the central element of digestion, feeds into the duodenum, mentioned in a previous blog post. I imagine the words 'encircled' and 'chains' may also be symbolic but I can't figure how.
Spirit World
The feelings and sentiments that Alma describes in verses 20 through 22, come when Jesus is accepted, when joining his church, and/or when entering the spirit world. The spirit world is filled with joy and marvelous light, and there's a big contrast to the light that we see in this life with our mortal eyes. When I listen to after death experiences, there's such joy and lack of desire to return to this life. They often talk about how their pains of mortality are completely removed and how exhilarating it is. Our spiritual eyes are opened and we can see, either symbolically or literally, God sitting on his throne, but we are not in God's presence yet and our souls long to be in His presence while in the spirit world once we've accepted Jesus.
Resurrection
This section, verses 23-26, starts with the phrase, 'my limbs did receive their strength again.' The word 'again' and this whole phrase has direct symbolism or even a literal connection to the resurrection. Resurrection is also a form of birth, or rebirth, so to use the phrase 'born of God' is appropriate again here. It is my understanding that the labor of resurrected beings is to bring many souls to repentance; but they also do this without ceasing because there's no need for sleep in the eternal world. The words tasted and seen are significant and appropriate here because resurrected beings have their bodies back and can taste and see with a greater sight than just spiritual or just mortal eyes and their knowledge is of God.
There seem to be three semi-indirect references to judgment in this section. To see 'eye to eye' is a phrase related to those who are judged worthy to go into the kingdom of God. We are judged according to our works, and in this section, Alma talks about his labors to bring people unto repentance and to help people be born of God. He also speaks of manifesting, or witnessing, that he had been born of God. All three of these are related to the judgement that occurs at our resurrection.
Kingdom of God
While we have no idea if Alma knew of the kingdoms of glory in the kingdom of God as Joseph Smith learned about it, I do find it interesting that this section starts with two triplets - trials, troubles, and afflictions and prison, bonds, and death. And, these triplets are inside the start of another triplet of Alma, the Israelites, and Lehi's people all being delivered by the power of God. These all are presented in the past tense which is true for him, but if we look at it as symbolic of the kingdom of God in the plan of salvation, the deliverance at that point will have come to pass for us as well. The last thing I want to mention in this section is that the phrases 'dwell with him in glory' and 'praise Him forever' both have direct reference to the kingdom of God and living in His presence.
I hope you found this as enjoyable to learn from Alma 36 related to the Plan of Salvation as I did. If you have any further insights, please comment. If you liked this, please share it.
Comments