Prayer of the Zoramites

Alma took some of his dearest friends on a mission to the Zoramites.  I love seeing who came with him on this mission.  In addition to his original companion, Amulek, he took Zeezrom, the lawyer they had converted in Ammonihah.  Also joining him were Ammon and some of his brethren who had been with Alma when the angel appeared to them.  And he took two of his sons, Shiblon and Corianton.

The Zoramites climbed onto their Rameumptom and prayed.  This prayer is very interesting because it is so full of false doctrine:
 Alma 31:15 Holy, holy God; we believe that thou art God, and we believe that thou art holy, and that thou wast a ^aspirit, and that thou art a spirit, and that thou wilt be a spirit forever.

  16 Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast ^aelected us to be thy ^bholy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that ^cthere shall be ^dno Christ.

  17 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast ^aelected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth ^bbind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.

  18 And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen. 

 

Here are the false doctrines I notice in this prayer:

1)  The nature of God -- They say that God is a spirit, has always been a spirit, and will be a spirit forever.

2)  God has separated them from their brethren -- God doesn't separate us from our brethren.  Sometimes he asks us to separate ourselves from their wickedness, but mostly he wants to be "in the world, but not of the world" so that we can influence others for good.

3)  Belief in Christ is a childish belief handed down from their fathers -- They say that there should be no Christ.

4)  They are elected to be saved while others around them will be cast down to hell -- I'll discuss this more in a later post.

These people had chosen to believe some very wicked doctrines, and these beliefs later proved to lead them in the path of destruction.