A Call from Arms

The king of the Lamanites gathered the believers to discuss how to respond to the threats of violence from those who did not believe. You might call his message a call from arms:

Since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren….

And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.

Alma 24:12, 15

The people accepted the challenge. “They took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth” (Alma 24:17). With this action, they promised never to raise a weapon against another person again.

This act of consecration is so remarkable that it is mentioned multiple times.

• Even before telling this story, Mormon informs us that all those who were converted by the preaching of the sons of Mosiah “did lay down the weapons of their rebellion” (Alma 23:7, 13).
• A second group of Lamanites who were inspired by the courage of the believers “threw down their weapons of war” on the battlefield, “and they would not take them again” (Alma 24:25).
• Later, another group of Lamanites was converted, “and they did also bury their weapons of war, according as their brethren had” (Alma 25:14).
• As Ammon reviews with his brothers the outcome of their mission, he focuses not only on the number of people who accepted the gospel but on the depth of their conversion: “They had rather sacrifice their lives than even to take the life of their enemy; and they have buried their weapons of war deep in the earth, because of their love towards their brethren” (Alma 26:32).
• Two thousand of the children of these converts later formed a powerful battalion which was instrumental in defending the Nephites against an invading Lamanite army. (See Alma 53:14-22.)
• Subsequent generations of Lamanites made the same covenant when they were converted to the gospel. (See Helaman 5:51, Helaman 15:9.)
• In Mormon’s final message, he extends the same challenge to his future readers: “Know ye that ye must lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall command you” (Mormon 7:4).

President Russell M. Nelson has invited us to follow the examples of these faithful disciples of Christ, giving up anything in our lives which creates conflict:

If you are serious about helping to gather Israel and about building relationships that will last throughout the eternities, now is the time to lay aside bitterness. Now is the time to cease insisting that it is your way or no way. Now is the time to stop doing things that make others walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting you. Now is the time to bury your weapons of war. If your verbal arsenal is filled with insults and accusations, now is the time to put them away. You will arise as a spiritually strong man or woman of Christ.

“Peacemakers Needed,” General Conference, April 2023; italics in original

Today, I will bury my weapons of war. I will identify patterns of thought, speech, or action which generate or aggravate animosity, and I will replace them with new patterns which bring people together and generate peace.