Alma 24:26 - 24:30

Alma 24:26 And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we have no reason to doubt but what they were saved.

The number of Lamanites who join up with the people of God was more than the number who were stain by them. Mormon has no doubts that the slain were all saved in the kingdom of God.

Alma 24:27 And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people.

All the slain were righteous people and more than a thousand were converted to the gospel. This is just one of many ways to bring salvation to his children.

This might seem to some as a rather barbaric way to gain converts; allow some people to die so someone would be converted by their act of murder. But we do not know the mind of God and his methods. It almost seems that He will take converts in anyway He can. But let us not forget that these "murders" did not know any better. They grew up in that kind of culture and we cannot judge them as to their personal worth because they were only acting as they were accustom it as a society. They did not know better, but when shown that their way was not good, they turned from it immediately. Again, showing that they were in their souls good people, but was not nurtured because of how they were raised. I can see that much of the world problems are designed to get people to repent. The wars and crime are allowed so as to convince many that the gospel is a far better way to live and the way they are living now. That is one reason God allows wicked to exists. It is to convince us the hard way of the goodness of gospel living.

Alma 24:28 Now the greatest number of those of the Lamanites who slew so many of their brethren were Amalekites and Amulonites, the greatest number of whom were after the order of the Nehors.

The members of the Lamanite army that inflicted the greatest number of deaths of the people of God were Amalekites and Amulonites who were followers of the order of Nehor.

Alma 24:29 Now, among those who joined the people of the Lord, there were none who were Amalekites or Amulonites, or who were of the order of Nehor, but they were actual descendants of Laman and Lemuel.

Not one of the numbers of the Lamanites who joined up with the people of God were Amalekites or Amulonites. All the converts were descendants of Laman and Lemuel.

I see the fulfillment of Lehi's words where he said the grad children of Laman and Lamuel that they would be a righteous people if they were taught correct principles by their parents. Here we see that even in the depraved condition that the Lamanites were living in, they were quick to accept the gospel when brought to them. This also shows that no matter how depraved a person might appear to be, they can still be converted. This would apply to gang members as well as to law abiding citizens.

Alma 24:30 And thus we can plainly discern, that after a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things.

Mormon uses the example of the Amalekites and Amulonites to show that once you have had a great knowledge of the gospel and then turned on it, you become worse off than if you had never been exposed to it in the first place.

This is kind of scary. One has to be very careful about their testimonies so they do not fall into this condition of being a rebellious apostate.