Enos, Mosiah 27 – Pre-mission Conversion
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Nephite Timeline
We left off the Nephite narrative with Alma the Younger in a 2 day spiritual coma after his run-in with the angel. While family and friends fasted and prayed over him Alma was going through the most intense anguish of soul and repentance imaginable. He describes the process later to his son Helaman in phrases such as these: “racked with eternal torment”, “my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree”, “tormented with the pains of hell”, “the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror”, “that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body”, “the pains of a damned soul”. (Alma 36:12-16)
While Alma is being “thus racked with torment” and “harrowed up by the memory of (his) many sins” his mind catches hold of a glimmer of hope, he “remembered…to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.” In one of the greatest Chiasmus structures known in all scriptural writ this is the transition point, the transformation through the atonement of Christ of all that is wrong, sinful, and painful into their constituent opposites. Alma states “Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.” (Alma 36:17-18)
Having so prayed, reaching out for that one lifeline that might save him, all is changed in an instant. He states: “when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” (Alma 36:19-20)
This process culminating in an event is what Alma himself described being “born of the Spirit” (Mosiah 27:24). It is described throughout the Nephite record starting with Nephi’s conversion that “did soften (his) heart” so he didn’t rebel against his father like his brothers (1 Ne 2:16). Later Enos, who’s “soul hungered” as he remembered the words he had “often heard (his) father speak concerning eternal life” (Enos 1:3-4). Or the people of King Benjamin who unitedly cried out for forgiveness and had the “Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent… wrought a mighty change in (them), or in (their) hearts, that (they had) no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). Still, there is no greater example of the transformative power that the Atonement has, to take the “stony heart out of their flesh” and exchange it for “a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19) than the conversion of Alma the Younger.
Individual Timeline
This is the most important chapter and event of the book, and therefore in our lives. We’ve hinted and touched on it here and there. Nephi, Jacob, and King Benjamin all taught it. All prophets, peoples, saints, and sinners must experience it if they wish to be saved. It’s been happening all throughout the book but comes most pronounced, most clearly, most beautifully here, in the conversion and transformation of one of “the very vilest of sinners” (Mosiah 28:4), Alma the Younger.
What is it, this being “born of the spirit”? How do we obtain it? When does it happen? What does it do? Who receives it? These and many more questions surround this doctrine that heretofore the prophets have attempted to teach “according to the plainness of (their) prophesying” (2 Ne 31:2), yet still we often “will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto (us) in plainness, even as plain as word can be” (2 Ne 32:7). So let’s dive in.
What is it?
This event goes by many names, it is the
Global Timeline
Pioneer hardships/conversion
Personal Timeline
The Way 