Mormon explicitly states that Alma operates through King Mosiah’s authority. What is also important is that Alma’s innovation of the concept of church is implemented in Zarahemla. The difference stems from two aspects of Nephite society in Zarahemla. The first is the one that explicitly mentions that there were too many people to hear the gospel in a single congregation. Thus, there are multiple congregations that “did assemble themselves together in different bodies, being called churches.” What is not as clear is the second aspect: that these divisions within the city also allowed for the separation from those who might not believe in the same way. The cultural and religious divide between the Nephites and Zarahemlaites was both allowed and given an outward form.
Churches were a separate unit within the larger city. This differed from the communal practice of religion that had dominated both Israel and Israel’s New World incarnation among the Nephites. Where the old way had priests who operated on behalf of all the community, churches operated with divisions in the community, and focused more on the smaller group than the people as a whole.