After Alma the younger got the church in order in Zarahemla, he went to preach to the people in the land of Gideon. While there, he gave several really good sermons, one of which is contained in Alma 7. This sermon is about how Jesus Christ will come to earth, take upon himself the pains and sins of the world so that he can loose the bands of death for humanity and redeem them. The purpose of his sermon is to bring people to have faith in Jesus Christ. Actually, at no point in his sermon does he call him by name, but rather things like Lord, Redeemer, Son of God, and Lamb of God.
There are several other examples of references to words which "cannot be written" in the scriptures. Here are some of the reasons which come to mind for why the rest of Alma's words to the people of Gideon could not be written:
- the copy that Mormon had was not good enough to summarize
- there was not enough room for Mormon to abridge/summarize or quote the words verbatim
- Mormon was commanded not to include those words
- Alma had not written down the remainder of his words, or they had not survived
- Mormon did not have enough time and had to pick and choose which things would survive in the final record
Answer:
Whatever the reason, it would be nice to have that missing record. I am looking forward to the time when all the missing, broken, discarded, or otherwise lost records of the earth will be found, read, and understood.
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