Abstract: In the Book of Mormon, many people received a remarkable spiritual outpouring following a declaration or demonstration of full belief in what they had already received or were about to receive. This paper examines nine examples of this that exhibit strong similarities in both language and substance. These examples demonstrate that the key to receiving a spiritual outpouring is to “believe all the words” of God that one has already received or is about to receive, after which great blessings will follow. However, such full belief must be thoughtful and inspired, not merely credulous. The findings of this paper provide another example of the rich narrative and doctrinal patterns in the Book of Mormon.

table {border: 1px solid #dddddd; width: 100%; margin: auto;} td, th {border: 1px solid #dddddd; padding: 5px !important; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;} th {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #373737 !important; font-size: 100% !important; text-transform: none !important; line-height: 1.5 !important} .centered td, .centered th {text-align: center !important;} td.centered, th.centered {text-align: center !important;}

In the Book of Mormon, many people received a remarkable spiritual outpouring following a declaration or demonstration of full belief in what they had already received or were about to receive. In this paper, I examine the following nine examples of this process:

 

Person

Declaration or Demonstration of Full Belief

Resultant Spiritual Outpouring

Nephi1

1 Nephi 2:16

1 Nephi 2:19–24

Nephi1

1 Nephi 11:5

1 Nephi 11:6–14:30

King Benjamin’s people

Mosiah 5:2

Mosiah 5:2–7

Alma1

Mosiah 17:4

Mosiah 18:13, 18, 27–29; 23:1, 16

Zeezrom

Alma 15:7

Alma 15:10–12

Lamoni

Alma 18:33

Alma 18:41–43; 19:12–13

Lamoni’s wife

Alma 19:9

Alma 19:13, 29–30, 33

Lamoni’s father

Alma 22:11

Alma 22:15–18; 22:23–27; 23:3

Brother of Jared

Ether 3:12

Ether 3:6–28

[Page 296]The approach taken here is rooted in the study of narrative and doctrinal patterns in the Book of Mormon. Such patterns illustrate the book’s rhetorical power and internal consistency. The nine examples listed above are presented and compared to show that the Book of Mormon employs a unique narrative pattern to teach and reinforce the doctrinal point that full belief in what one has already received from God, or is about to receive, leads to additional spiritual outpouring. The Book of Mormon’s teachings on this matter are relevant for our day and are reinforced by the teachings of modern prophets and apostles.

Narrative and Doctrinal Patterns in the Book of Mormon

Many writers have noted the presence of narrative and doctrinal patterns in the Book of Mormon. These patterns serve to reinforce key messages for the reader, increasing the convincing power of the book and fulfilling the divine “law of witnesses.”1 The presence of these recurrent threads also demonstrates that later authors had access to prior authors’ work, with later authors drawing therefrom for narrative and doctrinal purposes.

Scholars have observed many narrative and doctrinal patterns in the Book of Mormon. For example, Louis Midgley observed that recurrent “language about reme...