[Author’s note: Hugh Nibley first used the phrase “churches of anticipation” with regards to Alma et alis back in the 1950s. I had forgotten that until recently re-reading his writings on the Book of Mormon. 01/31/2012]

There is a curious religious transition that occurs among the Nephites about a century before the birth of Christ. Up until then, the Nephites appear to have been following the law of Moses, in spite of a clear and unprecedented Christology introduced by Lehi₁, Nephi₁ and Jacob in the 5th century BC and re-emphasized by King Benjamin around 124 BC just before he abdicated in favor of his son Mosiah₂. And even though Nephi₁ clearly indicated the need for baptism in following the Savior’s (future) example, there is no record of baptism being practiced for roughly half a millennium afterwards. Instead, the Nephite civilization during that time appears to be a continual kingship with prophets calling the people to repentance.

Those two traditions appear to merge with King Mosiah₁, “being warned of the lord”, leading a Nephite exodus from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla. Mosiah₁ continues as a prophet/king, interpreting the Jaredite (stone) engravings “by the gift and power of God.” His son, King Benjamin, clearly continues as a prophet/king; as noted above, he has a significant vision of the coming Messiah and puts his people under covenant to take upon themselves the name of Christ — though still with no mention of baptism. Mosiah₂ appears to continue that prophet/king tradition, though there is less indication of any revelation or prophecy on his part (however, see Mosiah 21:28).

Meanwhile, back during the reign of King Benjamin, a group of Nephites led by (soon-to-be-King) Zeniff goes back to the land of Nephi (twice, actually) and settles there under agreement with the Lamanites, though relations break down. It is unclear what religious organization or government this group operated under Zeniff’s reign; however, upon Zeniff’s death, his son and successor Noah appears to assume some degree of ‘religious’ leadership along with a set of corrupt priests (including Alma₁). Then Abinadi comes out of the blue and calls Noah, his priests, and his people to repentance. He vanishes for two years (where to? Zarahemla? the Lamanites?), then comes back and has his great confrontation with King Noah and his priests and preaches the coming of Christ (roughly contemporaneously with King Benjamin’s discourse). This leads to Abinadi’s death by fire. Alma₁, stung to repentance, pleads for Abinadi’s life and is forced to flee for his own. He hides out by the waters of Mormon and gathers followers there.

And then Alma₁ introduces baptism.

Baptism may well have existed among the Nephites prior to this time, but if it did, there is no mention of it in the Book of Mormon. [CORRECTION: As ‘cougartex’ points out in the comments below, Jacob — while Nephi is still alive — does tell the Nephites that they need to be be baptized (2 Nephi 9:23). However, there is no mention of baptism after that point until Alma₁ starts practicing it.] It is only when both groups of Nephites (under Kings Benjamin and Noah) have the imminent coming of Christ preached to them that baptism appears as an ordinance among them. And word of this practice apparently filtered back to the Noah/Limhi community, since they were aware of the baptisms practiced by Alma₁. King Limhi was also aware or believed that none of his people had authority to conduct baptisms; likewise, Ammon felt himself unauthorized or unworthy to conduct baptisms (cf. Mosiah 21:32-35).

Now the interesting part occurs after both Limhi’s and Alma₁‘s groups make it back to Zarahemla. Mosiah₂ — himself the son and grandson of prophets and apparently having prophetic gifts of his own — defers to Alma₁, asking him to address the now-combined groups of Nephites (Zarahemla, Limhi, Alma₁) and giving him authority to establish “churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and . . . to ordain priests and teachers over every church.” Alma₁ baptizes all those who repent and desire to join “the church of God” and indeed that becomes a requirement for membership (cf. Mosiah 26:21-22).

Alma₁‘s wayward son, Alma₂, after his own Paul-like conversion experience, ends up inheriting both the government (as chief judge, replacing Mosiah₂) and the church of God (as high priest, replacing his father Alma₁). However, it is clear that there are problems both within the church and between the church members and those not of the church. Alma₂ ends up resigning the chief judgeship in order to focus on putting the church in order among all the Nephite cities, even as the sons of Mosiah₂ are preaching the coming of Christ and baptism among the Lamanites.

There are interesting parallels between what Alma₁, Alma₂, and sons of Mosiah₂ did in the New World and what John the Baptist did in the Old World:

• Baptism does not occur in the scriptural record prior to this time, though no one seems terribly surprised by the ordinance itself.
• No scriptural indication is given of how either John or Alma₁ receive the authority to baptism, but again, no one seems to question that authority.
• Both John and Alma₁ preach repentance and baptism in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom of Heaven
• The appearance of both John and Alma₁ signals an abrupt break from the law of Moses/priestly tradition to a church of anticipation.

There are clear differences as well. For example, while John had disciples, there’s no indication of subordinate “teachers and priests”; on the flip side, Alma₂ clearly talks about the Holy Spirit being with the church (cf. Alma 5:46, 54), while John preaches of the coming of “baptism by fire”. Nevertheless, while reading the preachings of Alma₂ to the Nephites, I hear echoes of John among the Jews and wish that we had John’s records the way that we have Alma₂‘s.

UPDATE (03/15/08):  Here’s a follow-up post on the this subject.  ..bruce..