Amulek Adds His Testimony to Alma's - Book of Alma, Chapter Ten (Alma 10)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/10?lang=eng.  

With the end of the previous chapter, Alma passes the proverbial baton to his new companion Amulek after pleading with the people of Ammonihah to repent and dealing with even more rejection.

One can imagine the enraged crowd being taken aback and more than a little curious. “Why is this local notable (Amulek) getting ready to speak to us as though he is with this troublesome person claiming to be a prophet?”

Amulek starts, as we’d expect from someone descended from Middle Eastern heritage, by describing himself in terms of his family history. Amulek is, like most of the people in Ammonihah, a Nephite. We learn here that Nephi and his family came from the Israelite tribe of Manasseh. Manasseh was one of the sons of Joseph of Egypt. Amulek also tells the crowd that one of his ancestors is a person named Aminadi, who is not elsewhere mentioned in present-day scriptures but apparently was held in high regard by Amulek’s contemporaries as someone with a gift of translating mysterious, divine writings (verses 1-3).

Then Amulek reminds the people that he is a prosperous and prominent member of their community—clearly establishing that he has a lot of credibility (verse 4). Right away, he uses that credibility to condemn his own shortsightedness. He tells the people that despite all of his worldly accomplishments and accolades, he has not taken the opportunity to learn more about the ways of the Lord (verses 5-6). Only now, when visited by the angel who told him to help Amulek, has he softened his heart and become open to what the Lord has wanted to teach him for so long—that He cares about the people of the world and sends messengers to bless them. Amulek, by identifying himself with the people of Ammonihah, and then discussing his own closed mind and heart, is trying to wake the people up to their own need to let the Lord into their lives and recognize how much He gives them.

After that, Amulek relates the experience he had with the angel telling him about Alma, and then describes how he found and took care of Alma. His main point is to testify to the people that they should regard Alma as a blessing to them rather than a nuisance or a threat, doing this by declaring how deeply Alma’s presence and teaching in his (Amulek’s) home had blessed his entire family (verses 7-11).

This clearly has a profound effect on the crowd, because they are astonished that another witness has emerged to back up Alma (verse 12). And it seems that they are especially astonished because this testimony comes from one of their own. 

But that doesn’t end the opposition to what Alma and Amulek are teaching. The lawyers of the city, who are skilled at argument and therefore use their powers of persuasion to gain influence and power, profit from contention and strife, because that leads to more legal action and fees. Apparently threatened by the possibility that Alma and Amulek might be getting through to the people, these lawyers try to change the narrative (verses 13-15). For them, unfortunately, control is more important than truth. They are panicking at the possibility that this upstart Amulek—who, even if prominent, is no lawyer—is making a real bid to free the people from the stranglehold of falsehood and worldliness upon which their livelihoods are based. 

Thankfully, while Amulek may be overmatched by the lawyers’ training, God helps him make up the difference. The pure in heart are entitled to help that often allows them to avoid the snares others lay for them. As the lawyers begin to ask questions with the aim of getting Amulek to contradict himself or otherwise lose credibility from his responses, he is able to perceive their thoughts and confidently expose their true intentions (verses 16-18). He reminds the people of King Mosiah’s warning (in Mosiah 29:27) that if they choose what is wicked, they will reap destruction for themselves (verse 19). Then he echoes Alma’s call for them to repent. Like Alma, Amulek also refers to the coming of God among them in the person of Jesus (verses 20-21). It seems that while Alma was recovering physically and emotionally in Amulek’s home, Alma taught and trained Amulek about these vital truths and how to share them with the people. 

After that, Amulek raises a new and very important point. He observes that the people of Ammonihah are hanging on by a very small thread. It is only because of the prayers of a select group of righteous people in the city that the people have been preserved thus far. His unmistakable warning is that the many in Ammonihah who reject God’s ways for the cold, harsh calculations of worldly gain will find themselves with neither worldly nor spiritual protection if they continue to make those trying to live good, decent lives feel unwelcome. He provides very specific caution that they will face famine, disease, and war if they do not make significant changes (verses 22-23). I can’t help but wonder if similar concerns might apply to the people of today’s world. 

The people’s response is predictable: attack the messenger rather than take time to ponder whether his message is worth heeding. Their rejoinder to Amulek is that he is unfairly attacking their law and their lawyers (verses 24 and 27-28). Amulek makes the effort to separate the two (verses 25-26). He explains that the principles of the law (which are based on inspired teachings) are good, but, going back to his point about the need for repentance, the lawyers are not representing the law properly. It is a theme that the prophet Abinadi also used when condemning Noah and his priests for twisting holy teachings to benefit their own agendas (in Mosiah 12). When a group of people have a monopoly to interpret something to society, there is always a danger they will abuse their power. This is what Amulek is exposing. Of course, Jesus did this with the priestly classes of his day too. It is always a tough sell to convince a society of their own shortcomings. 

The chapter ends with one of the foremost lawyers, Zeezrom, preparing to weigh in against Alma and Amulek (verse 31).

Alma Delivers His Message of Repentance - Book of Alma, Chapter Nine (Alma 9)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/9?lang=eng.  

As we finished the previous chapter (Alma 8), Alma and Amulek are going out together to preach to the people of Ammonihah. This chapter begins with Alma making an effort to speak to the people, and the people flatly rejecting him. Just days before, the same people cast Alma out of the city, and now he’s back. They are surely wondering why he’s trying again with them and probably want to be even clearer he is not welcome.

They dismiss the idea that one person can presume authority to share momentous prophecies about them and their future (verses 1-2). They may feel as though an outsider like Alma can’t properly know them well enough to speak to their situation. How would we feel if someone who didn’t know us personally suddenly appeared in our neighborhood and started telling us about the things we were doing wrong?

But their resistance goes beyond their unfamiliarity with Alma. They seem to be daring him, and God, to share ominous warnings so that they can mock those warnings into meaninglessness. To drive the point home, they basically say, “If you warn us that the most disastrous thing imaginable will happen—the destruction of our city in a single day—we still won’t believe you” (verse 4). These residents of Ammonihah may be used to facing down other people, but they don’t understand you can’t trifle with the Lord or intimidate Him away.

Neither can you bully the Lord’s servants. The people get ready to take hold of Alma, either to throw him out again or take him to prison. But Alma, blessed with the Lord’s strength, stands boldly to testify to them of their wickedness (verse 7). Somehow he is able to avoid being silenced—the only thing we read is that the people did not lay hold of him.

Alma’s main concern for the people is that they have forgotten God and His commandments (verse 8). So Alma stirs them up to remembrance. He reminds them that God guided Lehi and his family to the promised land they now inhabit. He recounts the many times God delivered Lehi’s family members from those who would destroy them, including the members of their own family (a clear reference to Lehi’s son Nephi eluding the dark designs of his other sons Laman and Lemuel) (verses 9-10). Alma then sums up by saying it is only through the Lord’s power and mercy that any of them can hope for salvation (verse 11).

This point—which hints at salvation through Jesus Christ—leads directly to the next one, which is that the people need desperately to repent. If they don’t, Alma shares with the people what the angel shared with him (in Alma 8:16)—that utter destruction will come upon them (verse 12). It’s a vivid reminder to us that when we fail to repent of sin, it wreaks havoc in our lives. Maybe it’s not as outwardly destructive as what the people of Ammonihah are being warned of, but it goes to work on us like a virus. And the only cure comes from the Lord.

Again, Alma mentions Lehi, the founder of their civilization. He reminds them that the Lord told Lehi that their people would be cut off from the Lord if they did not keep the Lord’s commandments (verse 13). And Alma shares the example of the Lamanites, who rebelled early and often, and as a result, lost the guidance of the Lord (verse 14).

He goes on to warn the people of Ammonihah that they, as descendants of Nephi, are expected to live to a higher standard than the Lamanites of their generation because the Lamanites have not been raised to believe. In contrast, the people of Ammonihah have had “so much light and knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God,” and have been so richly blessed and miraculously delivered from their enemies time and again. By failing to live in line with the truth they have been taught, the Lord will hold them accountable, while the Lamanites will be entitled to greater mercy because of their relative ignorance (verses 15-17).

But there’s more—a lot more. In addition to there being hope for many of the Lamanites to be corrected and find happiness in God’s way, Nephi says that the Lamanites will be the instrument God uses to destroy the people of Ammonihah if they refuse to humble themselves and change (verse 18). He then tells them that this is why the Lord is so focused on warning them. He wants them to know of their perilous state and that the way out of it is to repent and follow the gospel of Christ, which leads to covenants made through baptism and the salvation this brings (verses 19-30).

Alma has now done everything in his power to make the people aware of their predicament, and the way they can choose to escape it and find salvation. The people are livid at him because they see him as an outsider who presumes to judge them—so their pride is injured and they want to punish him (verse 31). They are probably also feeling some sense of uneasiness at the guilt that attends their rebellious natures.

We have a curious passage here that is similar to some about Jesus during his mortal life. The people seek to take hold of Alma and throw him in jail, but the Lord doesn’t allow this to happen (verses 32-33). How God protects Alma from the mob is unclear, just as in some of the cases where people tried to harm or imprison Jesus and the gospel narrators tell us that the Lord did not suffer them to do it. Instead, Amulek steps forth, and we get ready to hear what this newly minted companion of Alma has to say (verse 34).

Check out a video clip covering this chapter here.