Arraigned

The Ammonihahites were proud of their lawyers, and their lawyers were pretty proud of themselves. When they started questioning Amulek, hoping to make him contradict his testimony, and he pushed back, the people were outraged. “He has reviled against our lawyers, and our judges,” they cried, and “the lawyers put it into their hearts that they should remember these things against him” (Alma 10:29-30).

At this point in the narrative, Mormon takes a moment to explain the monetary system of the Nephites. Why? Partly to provide context for a bribe the lawyer Zeezrom is about to offer Amulek if he will deny his testimony. But also partly to explain the perverse motivation of the lawyers:

They received their wages according to their employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them.

Alma 11:20

So it’s not surprising that Amulek would use legal terminology to describe our future state, after the resurrection:

This restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

Alma 11:44, emphasis added

That’s the only time any form of the word “arraign” appears in the scriptures. To arraign someone is to bring them into a court of law to answer charges that have been filed against them. It’s not a comfortable place to be, and lawyers in Ammonihah understood that. Maybe that’s why “Zeezrom began to tremble” when he heard Amulek’s words. (See Alma 11:46.)

As soon as Zeezrom was able to regain his composure, he asked Alma to explain Amulek’s words. What does it mean to be “brought to stand before God to be judged according to [our] works” (Alma 12:8)? You see, Zeezrom had made a career out of putting people in the hot seat, and he wasn’t excited about the prospect of occupying that seat himself. In fact, it made him physically ill. Shortly after, Alma and Amulek found him in a neighboring city, “with a burning fever, which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness” (Alma 15:3).

But this awareness motivated him to prepare. Once he had visualized himself as a defendant in a court of law, he was anxious to receive all help he could get. He pleaded for Alma and Amulek to heal him, he affirmed his faith in Jesus Christ, he chose to be baptized, and he preached the gospel. (See Alma 15:4-12.)

Today, I will remember that I will one day be “arraigned before the bar of…God.” I will seek and receive the extraordinary assistance the Savior offers me, so that I can be prepared for that day.