The description of Alma and Amulek’s arrest and being brought before the chief judge tells us that Ammonihah operated under the form of government established by Mosiah within the Nephite polity. Even though the Ammonihahites were religious dissenters, politically, they followed the Zarahemlaite form of government.
Ammonihah also apparently followed Mosiah’s policy of having some separation between the religious and the political. The charges are religious, not political, even though we may be tempted to see politics behind the accusation that they had spoken against the lawyers and judges. However, the specific issues are Alma’s doctrinal points that contradict that of the order of the Nehors. For example, witnesses claim that Alma “testified that there was but one God, and that he should send his Son among the people.” They are repeating Zeezrom’s accusation—that Alma proclaims only one God, but also, contradictorily, a Son of God, which makes two gods.
The charge that the message “should not save them” is classic Nehorite doctrine. They believe that God has already provided universal salvation; therefore, there is no need for an Atoning Messiah (Alma 1:5) or repentance. Presumably, they believed in universal forgiveness, based perhaps on the communal activities of the Old Testament’s Day of Atonement: “For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30; see also Lev. 23:27–32).
This particular complaint appears to be the accusation against Alma and Amulek upon which the judge is supposed to rule. There is no mention of the voice of the people, probably because Mormon has omitted it; but Zeezrom’s defense makes the most sense in the context of the voice of the people. (See commentary accompanying v. 7.)
Variant: The printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition begin verse 5 with: “And it came to pass that it was done.… ”