Alma’s Advice to His Son
My son, listen to what I say. I promise you that if you obey God’s commands, you will do well in this land. I want you to do what I have done. Remember when our fathers were captured. They were slaves, and no one could save them except the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he did save them from their troubles. My son Helaman, you are still young. So please listen to my words and learn from me. I know that anyone who trusts in God will get help during their hard times and troubles. God will lift them up at the last day.
I don’t know these things from my own mind. I know them from God. If I had not been born of God, I would not know these things. But God sent his holy angel to tell me. It wasn’t because I was good.
The Angel Stops Alma
I used to go around with the sons of Mosiah. We tried to destroy God’s church. But God sent his holy angel to stop us. The angel spoke to us. His voice was like thunder. The whole earth shook under our feet. We all fell to the ground because we were scared of the Lord. But the voice said to me: Stand up. So I stood up and looked at the angel. He said to me: If you want to destroy yourself, keep trying to destroy God’s church.
Then I fell to the ground. For three days and three nights, I could not open my mouth. I could not move my arms or legs. The angel said more things. My friends heard them, but I did not. When I heard the words about destroying myself, I was filled with fear. I was scared that I would be destroyed. I fell to the ground and heard nothing else.
Alma Remembers His Sins
I felt terrible pain. My soul hurt so much because of all my sins. I remembered all my sins and bad things I had done. They made me hurt like I was in hell. I saw that I had turned against God. I had not kept his commands. I had hurt many of his children. I had led them away to be destroyed. My sins were so bad that just thinking about standing before God filled me with terrible fear. I thought: I wish I could disappear completely. I wish my soul and body could be gone. Then I would not have to stand before God and be judged for what I did. For three days and three nights I hurt like this.
Alma Calls on Jesus
While I was in all this pain and remembering my many sins, I also remembered something. I remembered hearing my father tell the people about Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God who came to pay for the sins of the world. When I thought of this, I cried out in my heart: O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! I am trapped in bitterness and wrapped in the chains of death.
When I thought this, I could not remember my pain anymore. I was not hurting from my sins anymore. What joy I felt! What amazing light I saw! My soul was filled with as much joy as I had felt pain. I tell you, my son, that nothing could be worse than my pain. And I also tell you, my son, that nothing could be better than my joy. I thought I saw what our father Lehi saw. God was sitting on his throne. So many angels surrounded him. They were singing and praising God. My soul wanted to be there.
Alma Teaches Others
Then my arms and legs got strong again. I stood up and told the people that I had been born of God. From that time until now, I have worked hard to bring people to turn from their sins. I want them to taste the great joy that I tasted. I want them to be born of God and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
My son, the Lord gives me great joy because of my work. Because of the word God has given me, many people have been born of God. They have tasted what I tasted. They have seen what I saw. So they know these things just like I know them. And what I know comes from God.
God Has Always Saved His People
God has helped me through all kinds of hard times and troubles. God has saved me from prison, from chains, and from death. I trust in him, and he will keep saving me. I know he will raise me up at the last day to live with him. I will praise him forever. He brought our fathers out of Egypt. He destroyed the Egyptians in the Red Sea. He led our fathers by his power to the promised land. He has saved them from being slaves and captured many times. He brought our fathers out of Jerusalem. By his power, he has saved them from being slaves and captured many times, even until today. I have always remembered when they were captured. You should remember it too, just like I have.
But my son, this is not all. You should know, just like I know, that if you obey God’s commands, you will do well in this land. You should also know that if you do not obey God’s commands, you will be cut off from him. This is what God has said.
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.