Strong Faith and Two Lions
Book of Mormon Notes - Wednesday, August 23, 2023, Alma 14
It’s not coincidental that one of the first things that some of the people in Ammonihah began to do as they began to repent was to begin to search the scriptures as well. The testimony of Alma and Amulek was so powerful that many in Ammonihah began to repent and to search the scriptures.
But most of the people of Ammonihah were enraged because Alma had spoken the truth so plainly, and because Amulek had rebuked their wicked lawyers and judges. Remember what happened when Nephi spoke the plain and simple truth to his brothers?
And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear.
And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken ahard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the bguilty taketh the ctruth to be hard, for it dcutteth them to the very center.
And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might awalk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us. (1 Nephi 16:1-3)
The teachings and testimonies of Alma and Amulek cut to the center of the hardened hearts in Ammonihah. Most of the people in Ammonihah were wicked like King Noah and his priests, and they sought to destroy the prophets whom the merciful Lord had sent unto them.
These wicked people bound Alma and Amulek, bore false witness against them, and accused them of many things. Meanwhile, Zeezrom began to see how his lies had caused such terrible problems, and he even tried to confess his sins and plead on behalf of Alma and Amulek. The devilish Ammonihahites then accused Zeezrom of being possessed by the devil, and cast him out, intending to stone him to death. The people of Ammonihah were so wicked that they even began to burn to death innocent women and children, and also to destroy their scriptures in the fire. Often when I read these passages I can’t help but think of the Shoah, the Holocaust and martyrdom of so many innocent Jews.
What happened next is one of the most terrible but instructive events in all of scripture:
And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the apower of God which is in us, and save them from the flames.
But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in aglory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the bjudgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the cblood of the dinnocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.
Now Amulek said unto Alma: Behold, perhaps they will burn us also.
And Alma said: Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not. (Alma 14:10-13)
This is an answer to one of the most difficult questions that we face in mortality: Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? or Why do good people so often suffer, and why does God allow them to suffer?
Amulek’s desire to save the people from martyrdom is the honest and natural response to this terrible situation. But Alma was completely in tune with the Lord and his will was completely swallowed up in the will of God.
How many of us, if we were on the verge of being roasted alive, would be able to say, like Alma: Be it according to the will of the Lord. It reminds me of Elder Bendar’s classic talk “Accepting the Lord’s Will and Timing” and the principle that Elder Bednar taught:
We recognized a principle that applies to every devoted disciple: strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting of His will and timing in our lives—even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted.
Alma and Amulek did not want the innocent women and children to suffer in the fire. They did not want to be burned alive either. But Alma’s faith in Christ was so strong that he could discern and accept the will of God in that awful situation and reassure his companion in tribulation: “Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not.”
Sometimes the Lord, in His infinitely superior wisdom and mercy, allows good people to suffer, and even to die, because of the hard-heartedness and wickedness of others. This has been the case throughout history even with the greatest people who have ever lived, including the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, many of the original apostles, and most importantly our Lord and Savior Himself, who meekly submitted to all the will of His Father in Gethsemane and on the Cross:
And he came out, and went, as he was awont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into atemptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, aremove this cup from me: nevertheless not my bwill, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an aangel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an aagony he prayed more earnestly: band his sweat was as it were great drops of cblood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:39-44)
The Apostle Paul suffered in a particular way, and when sought relief, the Lord’s responds was not what Paul had hoped for:
And lest I should be aexalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a bthorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My agrace is sufficient for thee: for my bstrength is made perfect in cweakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may drest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)
Elder Christofferson recently taught a similar principle about the sacred nature of our relationship with God:
It truly is folly for us with our mortal myopia to presume to judge God, to think, for example, “I’m not happy, so God must be doing something wrong.” To us, His mortal children in a fallen world, who know so little of past, present, and future, He declares, “All things are present with me, for I know them all.”6 Jacob wisely cautions: “Seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.”7
Some misunderstand the promises of God to mean that obedience to Him yields specific outcomes on a fixed schedule. They might think, “If I diligently serve a full-time mission, God will bless me with a happy marriage and children” or “If I refrain from doing schoolwork on the Sabbath, God will bless me with good grades” or “If I pay tithing, God will bless me with that job I’ve been wanting.” If life doesn’t fall out precisely this way or according to an expected timetable, they may feel betrayed by God. But things are not so mechanical in the divine economy. We ought not to think of God’s plan as a cosmic vending machine where we (1) select a desired blessing, (2) insert the required sum of good works, and (3) the order is promptly delivered.8
God will indeed honor His covenants and promises to each of us. We need not worry about that.9 The atoning power of Jesus Christ—who descended below all things and then ascended on high10 and who possesses all power in heaven and in earth11—ensures that God can and will fulfill His promises. It is essential that we honor and obey His laws, but not every blessing predicated on obedience to law12 is shaped, designed, and timed according to our expectations. We do our best but must leave to Him the management of blessings, both temporal and spiritual.
President Brigham Young explained that his faith was not built on certain outcomes or blessings but on his witness of and relationship with Jesus Christ. He said: “My faith is not placed upon the Lord’s working upon the islands of the sea, upon his bringing the people here, … nor upon the favors he bestows upon this people or upon that people, neither upon whether we are blessed or not blessed, but my faith is placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and my knowledge I have received from him.”13
My faith is placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and my knowledge I have received from Him. I’ll trust in the Lord with all my heart, and not lean upon my own understanding. In all my ways, I’ll acknowledge Him, and He shall direct all my paths.
It takes much greater faith in Christ, much greater trust in God and in His will and timing to love and follow Them no matter what the present circumstances or outcomes. This is what Alma was ready and willing to do, and this is also what he taught his companion in tribulation, the mighty missionary Amulek. All of this also reminds me of the famous “But if not” principle and the talks on this topic. (See here and here). The goal is to develop the kind of faith in Christ that the Prophet Joseph Smith possessed and that he described as follows:
After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses...
As Alma and Amulek learned, and as Elder Bednar has also recently taught, an essential part of the program of mortality is to be thoroughly tested and tried:
The process of proving ourselves is a fundamental part of Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness. I promise that as we both prepare and press forward with faith in the Savior, we all can receive the same grade on the ultimate examination of mortality: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
Alma and Amulek were thoroughly proven, tested, and tried by the people of Ammonihah, and especially by the wicked judges and lawyers who bound them, imprisoned them, mocked them, smote them, spit upon them, withheld food and water and clothing from them, and even gnashed their teeth upon them. Alma and Amulek, with Christ-like poise, bore all of these things with patience and meekness, refusing to answer their mocking questions until the last of them had smote them and mocked them, at which point the Spirit of the Lord took over. Like two ferocious lions, Alma and Amulek were filled with the power of God and stood upon their feet
And Alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great aafflictions, O Lord? O Lord, bgive us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto cdeliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them. (Alma 14:26)
This reminds me very much of Parley P. Pratt’s rousing account of the Prophet Joseph Smith in prison:
In one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts bad been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards, Colonel Price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the "Mormons" while at Far West and vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and children.
I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:
SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!
He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.
I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended on a breath, in the Courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of Missouri.
Now that is a great word-portrait of greatness!
Alma and Amulek, like the Prophet Joseph Smith, arose in terrible majesty and the power of God, broke the cords with which they were bound, and emerged like lions from the prison while the prison walls tumbled down upon their persecutors and crushed them to death. This is a very important event in Nephite history that Moroni later honors in his great discourse on faith in the Book of Ether. When Moroni recounts the wonders and marvels done by faith, he begins with this tribute to Alma and Amulek:
Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the aprison to tumble to the earth. (Ether 12:13)
I love how Mormon describes the aftermath of the destruction of the prison:
Now the people having heard a great noise came running together by multitudes to know the cause of it; and when they saw Alma and Amulek coming forth out of the prison, and the walls thereof had fallen to the earth, they were struck with great fear, and fled from the presence of Alma and Amulek even as a goat fleeth with her young from two lions; and thus they did flee from the presence of Alma and Amulek. (Alma 14:29)
Mormon’s simile of the lions and the goats evokes scenes from the great battles in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and more than Achilles and Odysseus, Alma and Amulek are heroes who are worthy of emulation.