Great Spirit

The term "Great Spirit" appears 18 times in the Book of Mormon, but not once in the Bible. When told of Ammon's exploits in protecting the king's flocks, King Lamoni thought, "Surely, this is more than a man. Behold, is not this the Great Spirit who doth send such great punishments upon this people, because of their murders?" (Alma 18:2). Mormon explained, "Now this was the tradition of Lamoni, which he had received of his father, that there was a Great Spirit. Notwithstanding they believed in a Great Spirit, they supposed that whatsoever they did was right" (Alma 18:5). When Ammon first began teaching Lamoni, he asked if Lamoni believed in God. Lamoni said that that he did not understand. Then, Ammon said, "Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit? And he said, Yea. And Ammon said: This is God" (Alma 18:24-28).

When Ammon's brother Aaron asked Lamoni's father, "Believest thou that there is a God?" Lamoni's father responded, "If now thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe" (Alma 22:7). Then the king asked, "Is God that Great Spirit?" which Aaron affirmed.

Ammon and Aaron's clarification, linking "God" to the Lamanite conception of the "Great Spirit," was somewhat of a breakthrough in the Lamanite understanding, upon which Lamanite converts could build a growing understanding of the gospel. The few words of king Anti-Nephi-Lehi suggest that the Lamanite converts continued to substitute "Great God" for "Great Spirit." He speaks of "my God" (Alma 24:7, 9-10), "our God" (Alma 24:15-16), "my great God" (Alma 24:8, 10), "the great God" (Alma 24:14), and Jesus as the "Son of our great God" (Alma 24:13).

Lamoni testified to his father that Ammon and his brethren were "holy prophets of the true God" (Alma 20:15), reflecting the contrast between his new understanding of Deity and his earlier false views. Interestingly, Samuel the Lamanite might have been reflecting on his own cultural background when he combined this later idea with the revised understanding of a Great Spirit, in his title for God as "our great and true God" (Helaman 13:18).

Personal application

Like effective missionaries build on their investigators' positive ideas to bring the perspective of the gospel into their lives, consider how you can follow the example of these nephite missionaries to build on common ideas when you communicate with your friends and families about the gospel.