Noah and Alma

Sorry, no, not that Alma; his son.

As Grant Hardy has pointed out, Mormon likes to tell stories that parallel each other. Often, those parallels seem meant to starkly contrast good and evil; the parallels between King Benjamin and King Noah immediately spring to mind. Other times, they seem to illustrate the consequences of different behaviors. Compare, for example, the escape of Limhi’s people from the Lamanites with the escape of Alma Sr.’s people. 

And sometimes, I’m at a loss. For example, in the parallels between King Noah and Alma the Younger. Essentially, in Mormon’s telling, they are the same person.

Don’t believe me? Compare the description of King Noah in Mosiah 11:2, 7, with the description of Alma the Younger in Mosiah 27:8. King Noah “caused his people to commit sin”; in doing so, he led them to “become idolatrous.” He seems to have succeeded because he “did speak flattering things unto” his people.

As for Alma the Younger? He was a “wicked and idolatrous man.” He “did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities.”

So both Noah and Alma the Younger[fn1] are associated with idolatry, with sin/iniquity, and with flattery.[fn2]

Alma famously repents, while Noah, though on the brink, doesn’t.

Alma’s repentance, though, was notably preceded by an earth-shaking angelic visitation and a vision of himself in Hell. In fact, as Alma admits, he wasn’t redeemed as the result of his own worthiness.

The point? In Mormon’s telling, there seems to be a thin line between true and false prophet, the crossing of which isn’t entirely volitional. That is, while Noah and Alma both had the ability to choose, Alma got an angel and, Laman and Lemuel’s experience to the contrary, that seems to have made an important difference.

Ultimately, then, what do we take from Mormon’s similar framing of Alma the Younger and King Noah? At the least, I hope, we’re forced to confront our own spiritual position humbly; while it takes personal effort and commitment to be active and believing members of the Church, it also takes grace, whether it be the grace of having been born into a faithful family, the grace of having felt the Spirit at the right moment, or the grace of having an angel—rather than a prophet—tell us we’re doing the wrong thing. And, I think, we’re forced to confront the fact that those who don’t join us in our beliefs may not be stubborn or iconoclastic, but rather have not (yet, at least) received the same.

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[fn1] It may also be worth pointing out that both Noah and Alma departed from the ways of their righteous fathers.

[fn2] Flattery actually appears to be a sine qua non of Book of Mormon dissenters: by the time we get to the book of Helaman, Paanchi, in his attempt to wrest the kingdom from his brother, also flatters his (potential) followers.