How did Alma have authority from God to ordain and baptize?

Thomas R. Valletta

“We may conclude that Alma held the priesthood before he, with others, became disturbed with King Noah. … If he had authority to baptize that is evidence that he had been baptized. Therefore, when Alma baptized himself with Helam that was not a case of Alma baptizing himself, but merely as a token to the Lord of his humility and full repentance. … Alma did not organize the Church with the idea that they had no church before that time. They had a church from the days of Lehi, and Alma only set things in order” (Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 3:203–4).

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