Alma 36: The Book of Mormon Chiasmus

In literature, there is a term called Chiasmus which performs a very cool pattern. Google Dictionary defines it in the following way:

chi·as·mus

kīˈazməs/

noun

1. 1.

   a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form; e.g. ‘Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.’

What is even cooler than that is that one such chiasmus exists in the Book of Mormon in Alma 36 when Alma (the younger) is recounting the story of his conversion to his son, Helaman. The chiasmus of this chapter can be displayed like this:

1 - ...inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land.
     2 - ...he surely did deliver them in their afflictions
          3 - ...whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trails...
               4-5 - ...if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things...
                    6 - ...God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.
                         10 - ...and it was for the space of three days...I [had not] the use of my limbs
                              14 - ...the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul
                                         with inexpressible horror. 
                                   16 - ...I was racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.
                                        17 - I remembered...my father prophesy...the coming of one Jesus 
                                                Christ...to atone for the sins of the world
                                        18 - ...O Jesus...have mercy on me, who am...encircled about by the
                                                  everlasting chains of death.
                                   19-21 - ...I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more...
                              22 - ...methought I saw...God sitting upon his throne...
                         23 - ...my limbs did receive their strength again...
                    24 - ...I have labored without ceasing...that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding
                               joy of which I did taste...and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
               26 - ...many have been born of God, and tasted as I have tasted...
          27 - ...I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind...and I do put my trust in 
                    him and he will still deliver me
     28-29 - ...delivered them out of bondage and captivity...
30 - ...inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land...

The center of the chiasmus illustrates the most important part, so the fact that Christ and his atonement are central here is very significant.

There was one important moment in my mission when I learned about this concept. Occasionally on the mission general authorities will visit to give special, mission specific training. One such occasion for me was when Elder Kopischke, an apostle from the quorum of the 70, visited my mission. After an inspiring day of training, he allowed a few missionaries to have personal interviews with him. I was one of those lucky few missionaries and in my interview I got to ask him a question, which was: "how can one find balance in life and always manage to remember the things that are most important in the middle of all the static everything in life that is trying to pull for our attention?"

The answer he gave to me came in the form of a beautiful piece of imagery he shared from Revelations 7 in the New Testament of the Bible.

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and ^akindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and ^bpalms in their hands;

 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four ^abeasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came ^aout of great ^btribulation, and have^cwashed their robes, and made them ^dwhite in the ^eblood of the^fLamb.

 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his ^atemple: and he that ^bsitteth on the throne shall ^cdwell among them.

 16 They shall hunger no more, neither ^athirst any more; neither shall the ^bsun light on them, nor any heat.

 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of ^awaters: and God shall wipe away all ^btears from their eyes.

One of the major sections of focus in these verses is in verse 17. "Midst" is an Old English word meaning "middle." So in this image, they are hungering and thirsting no more because the Lamb, or Jesus Christ, is in the middle of their throne and because of that, they receive many precious blessings. The beautiful part about that is that the Christ has perfect balance between all the components that make him who he is; physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional. When we put Christ in the center of our lives, automatically everything in our life becomes more balanced because Christ is perfectly balanced. Perhaps that is why Christ is likewise the center of the chiasmus.

Taking one further step, an additional question could be, "what can I do to make Christ the center of my life?"

Playing off of the theme that Revelations 7:16-17 begins about hunger and thirst, one soon may find the scripture in 3 Nephi 12:6 which says:

 6 And blessed are all they who do ^ahunger and ^bthirst after^crighteousness, for they shall be ^dfilled with the Holy Ghost.

Putting some puzzle pieces together, this conclusion may be drawn. As we try to put Christ in the midst of the throne in our life, we are increasingly balanced and our appetites change to hungering and thirsting after righteousness at which point we may be filled with the Holy Ghost. As we seek to go where the spirit is, Christ is able to be central in our life.

D&C 20:77 - Willing

Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, is the scripture we hear every week as the sacrament is blessed:

77 O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

One of the words which has always stuck out to me in this verse is: willing. The topical guide gives a beautiful list of words which could be considered synonymous including: agency, desire, purpose, diligence, initiative. Such words point forward to a future event because the will comes before the way. Since this verse is meant as a reminder of the baptismal covenants, this teaches that at baptism we don't yet take upon the name of Christ to the fullest extent. Rather, we continue to prepare ourselves spiritually so that later, in the temple of the Lord, we can literally take upon ourselves the name of Christ.

There are different levels of desire. There is the level such that if someone hands you something on a silver platter you suppose you'll take it. Then there is the type of desire that you'll do anything, change anything, and become anything for a certain cause. Only the latter type will ever bring about the desired outcome because the will can then bring about the way. Conscious desire and consistent effort are the fruits demonstrating that one is willing and, thus, form the bridge between baptism and the temple.

There was a point in the last month of my mission when I finally began to understand the power of being willing. My mission president had returned from the mission president seminar with the solution to the long pondered puzzle of mission presidents: how can we double baptisms. The answer he received from past mission presidents who had actually been able to do just that was the idea of pay-it-forward, or that he would pick one or two companionships to work with. He would do anything and everything within his power to help those missionaries double baptisms in their respective areas. Upon accomplishing that Herculean task, their responsibility would then be to turn around and teach other companionships and eventually the entire mission how to double baptisms. Our mission president concluded by explaining that he didn't even know how to begin the task of choosing who it would be, but if we were interested in doing anything it takes to fill that role, we should text him that day.

When this plan was presented before the Mission Leadership Council, I learned something very important about will. My companion and I were overcome with the spirit. We quickly left when the meeting concluded and when we got out to the car we burst out crying because we knew the power was within us. We were called by a true prophet of God and given the authority to preach the most amazing message in the world, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on earth once again! God was on our side and he wanted us to succeed. We had over time allowed ourselves to forget our purpose and we would fill our time with activities that were good and easy instead of hard but better and best. We had let ourselves forget the dreams we had of baptizing when we first opened up our mission call. We had started to become complacent in setting small goals so that we didn't feel like a failure at the end of the day. But that day in the car, we finally caught the vision and we decided together that whether we were chosen or not, we would do absolutely everything within our power to double baptisms in our area with or without the help of the mission president.

That is the moment that I began to learn how important agency is in God's plan. Agency is finally deciding what you actually want out of your life then doing everything in your power to make it happen. It starts with a decision and it solidifies with the consistent daily actions. It is action and progression over time which, after all, is the only way imperfect human beings could ever become a people able to take upon themselves Christ's name! The road may be less traveled, but in the end, it makes all the difference.