Alma spent an unspecified period preaching to the Noahites secretly in their homes. Such an arrangement, though essential, would have been frustrating for believers, since they would inevitably desire to participate in a community who shared common understandings. Yet larger gatherings in Noah’s politically charged atmosphere would have been dangerous, perhaps suicidal. To openly live their new belief, the converts had to leave their established community and begin a new one. Those who go to the land of Mormon are already converted, not merely interested investigators. Likely the community’s location was also kept secret and known only to the faithful, for fear of betrayal.
Just as Joseph Smith’s earliest converts found that gathering to a new community gave them the opportunity to openly share their religion with others of the same beliefs, so did this community of Alma’s believers. They had left their homes, and possibly their families, and gone to a relative wilderness—not to seek riches, but to seek Yahweh’s kingdom. The place might be beautiful, but it was also dangerous because of Noah’s religious oppression and the wild beasts (v. 4). Gathering would have taken several days, some spent in preparation and others in travel; some were taken up in preparations for that travel. By the time they left the land of Mormon, 450 believers had joined Alma (v. 35). This count presumably included only adults, as the record does not mention children and converted parents would certainly bring their offspring. A count of 450 adults probably means somewhat more than half of that number as households, which would create a hamlet. Of course if the count follows the general Old World custom of counting adult males only (a distinct possibility since the Book of Mormon is so studiously quiet about women), then the village would have been a more substantial one. In either case, their departure could not fail to be noticed and would certainly have generated the official concern that the history records.
Our quick introduction to the essential difference in what Alma taught from that which they might have learned in Lehi-Nephi is found in the final sentence of verse 7. They learn “repentance, and redemption, and faith on the Lord.” These phrases are sufficiently common for modern Christians that it is easy to gloss over their significance for Alma’s community. What Alma preaches is the Atoning Messiah—precisely the message that Abinadi delivered but which was rejected. Abinadi’s conversion of Alma succeeded in doing what Abinadi had been unable to do—to convert some of the Noahites to a true understanding of the connection between the law of Moses and the future mission of the Atoning Messiah.
It is equally probable that modern Latter-day Saints also miss the fact that Alma’s group provides the first clear evidence in the Book of Mormon of what we would call a church. Alma organizes a community of believers that eventually sets the pattern for all Nephite religious practices. Alma will become the most important religious innovator in Nephite history.