My son, give ear to my words; for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God, ye shall prosper in the land.
I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them, except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions.
And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words, and learn of me; for I do know that whomsoever shall put his trust in God, shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day;
and I would not that ye think that I know of myself, not of the temporal, but of the spiritual; not of the carnal mind, but of God.
Now behold I say unto you, If I had not been born of God, I should not have known these things; but God hath, by the mouth of his holy angel, made these things known unto me, not of any worthiness of myself,
for I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to destroy the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.
And behold, he spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet, and we all fell to the earth, for the fear of the Lord came upon us.
But behold, the voice said unto me, Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel.
And he said unto me, If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God.
And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of three days and three nights, that I could not open my mouth; neither had I the use of my limbs.
And the angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren, but I did not hear them; for when I heard the words, If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God, I was struck with such great fear and amazement, lest perhaps that I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth, and I did hear no more;
but I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree, and racked with all my sins.
Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments;
yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine, so great had been my iniquities, that the very thoughts of coming into the presence of my God, did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.
O, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.
And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.
And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophecy unto the people, concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart, O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who art in the gall of bitterness, and art encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
And now behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
And O, what joy, and what marvellous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain;
yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter, as was my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy;
yea, and methought I saw even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.
But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God;
yea, and from that time, even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceeding great joy in the fruit of my labors;
for because of the word which he hath imparted unto me, behold, many hath been born of God, and hath tasted as I have tasted, and hath seen eye to eye, as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God.
And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God hath delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me;
and I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he hath brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he hath swallowed up the Egyptians in the red sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he hath delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time;
yea, and he hath also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he hath also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time, even down to the present day; and I have always retained in remembrance their captivity; yea, and ye also had ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity.
But behold, my son, this is not all: for ye had ought to know, as I do know, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God, ye shall prosper in the land; and ye had ought to know also, that inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God, ye shall be cut off from his presence. Now this is according to his word.
Influences
- 36:1 — 1 Corinthians 7:19 (KJV)Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
- 36:2 — Matthew 22:32 (KJV)I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
- 36:3 — Matthew 11:29 (KJV)Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
- 36:4 — 1 Corinthians 10:20 (KJV)But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
- 36:4 — Romans 8:7 (KJV)Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
- 36:4 — Romans 13:1 (KJV)Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
- 36:5 — 1 John 3:9 (KJV)Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
- 36:7 — Revelation 19:6 (KJV)And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
- 36:10 — Acts 19:8 (KJV)And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.
- 36:13 — Revelation 14:10 (KJV)The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
- 36:17 — Acts 25:19 (KJV)But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
- 36:18 — Matthew 15:22 (KJV)And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
- 36:18 — Acts 8:23 (KJV)For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
- 36:18 — Acts 8:23 (KJV)For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
- 36:20 — 1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
- 36:20 — 2 Timothy 1:4 (KJV)Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
- 36:24 — 2 Timothy 1:3 (KJV)I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;
- 36:24 — Acts 2:4 (KJV)And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
- 36:26 — Hebrews 6:5 (KJV)And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
- 36:28 — Revelation 12:16 (KJV)And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Notes
- 36:1-30
LDS John W. Welch, author of, Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, argues that the use of chiasms in the Book of Mormon supports its authenticity. Alma 36:1-30 is his most famous example of a chiastic structure in the Book of Mormon.
On chiasms, Dr. Nils W. Lund writes, "It is doubtful that as many books are chiastic as has been suggested, but the presence of chiasmus in the ancient world is unquestioned. They very way that learning occurred may have contributed to chiastic structures and awareness. In all probability chiasmus was used for mnemonic purposes to assist in the dissemination of material in an oral culture. It was a way for a hearer or reader to keep track of the sequence of ideas. Therefore, chiasmus was rhetorical, artistic, and functional both for the author in arranging material for emphasis and for the reader in remembering that material." -Nils W. Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament: A Study in the Form and Function of Chiastic Structures, p. vii.
LDS philosopher Blake Ostler, in reviewing the book, Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, commented, "Book of Mormon Authorship has made a prima facie case for the ancient origins of the Book of Mormon. It fails, however, to respond to scholarly criticism in some crucial areas. For example, since Welch first published his study on chiasmus in 1969, it has been discovered that chiasmus also appears in the Doctrine and Covenants (see, for example, 88:34-38; 93:18-38; 132:19-26, 29-36), the Pearl of Great Price (Book of Abraham 3:16-19; 22-28), and other isolated nineteenth-century works. Thus, Welch's major premise that chiasmus is exclusively an ancient literary device is false. Indeed, the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon may be evidence of Joseph Smith's own literary style and genius. Perhaps Welch could have strengthened his premise by demonstrating that the parallel members in the Book of Mormon consist of Semitic word pairs, the basis of ancient Hebrew poetry. Without such a demonstration, both Welch's and Reynold's arguments from chiasmus are weak." -Blake T. Ostler, Review of Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, by Noel B. Reynolds, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 16, no. 4 (Winter, 1983): p. 143.
We believe that when examined closely and in its entirety, Alma 36:1–30 fails to meet the criteria of a genuine chiastic structure and instead appears to be artificially constructed through selective and inconsistent analysis.
In response to Welch's claim that Alma 36 is chiastic, a writer reproduced the section in question on www.lds-mormon.com, showing which elements Welch included and which verses were ignored. The writer states, "The first thing that we note is that there is an awful lot of repetition in this passage... Given that there is so much repetition, does this not increase the chances that at least some passages would display a roughly chiastic structure? Especially when we depart from the strict definition of a chiasm, and note that there are a number of elements that have no parallels, and still others that have parallels that are outside of the chiastic structure. Take, for example, the phrase, 'born of God.' It occurs four times in this passage (and seven times in the book of Alma). Two of these occurrences are worked into the chiastic structure by Welch-verses 5 and 24. A third occurrence, in verse 26, can also be worked into the structure, because it occurs between elements L and J (See Welch's chiasm structure for reference). The fourth occurrence, in verse 23, is found between elements M and L. If, as Welch asserts, this passage were deliberately intended to be chiastic, why would the author include elements that break the structure? A similar problem afflicts element I, which is actually misplaced in the chiastic structure. Again, to labor the point, the phrase 'harrowed up' occurs three times (verse 12, 17 and 19). two of these, verse 17 and 19, can be worked into the chiastic structure. The third, in verse 12, cannot. In short,.. The chiasms that Mormon researchers find all over the Book are, in fact, a result of the incredible amount of repetition contained therein, and are well within the bounds of probability. This, couple with the rather loose definition of a chiasm employed by the researchers, wherein they can include only those elements which fit the structure, and discard those elements which don't, results in a large number of imaginary chiasms in the Book." -anonymous author. For full review, including Welch's proposed chiastic structure, see Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, pp. 221-233.
- 36:6-14
In Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, Jerald and Sandra Tanner list at least 17 significant parallels between the Apostle Paul in the Bible and Alma in the Book of Mormon.
Compare Alma 36:6 with 1 Corinthians 15:9. Both Alma and Paul traveled about trying to destroy the church of God. Likewise, Alma 36:14 with Acts 22:4 describe how both Alma and Paul were vigorous in their persecution of the church.
Other parallels between Paul and Alma noted on: Mosiah 27:8-32, Alma 14:22-28, Alma 15:11, Alma 30:32.
- 36:18
"Curiously, of the five times the words 'gall of bitterness' are used in the Book of Mormon, four of them include the words 'bonds of iniquity.' It should be noted that all of these quotes are set in the same context as the quote from Acts 8:23." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 23.
See also: Mosiah 27:29, Alma 41:11, Mormon 8:31, Moroni 8:14.