The Conversion of Alma the Younger

In Institute this morning, the main topic of discussion was Alma the Younger's conversion. (See Mosiah 27) Some interesting points were brought up:

1. Alma had a great gift for speaking. He was "a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people." (v. 8) After his conversion, he was able to use this gift to do a lot of good, as he strove to repair the injuries he had done before. I didn't mention this in class, but this actually reminds me of a Veggie Tales movie: "Lord of the Beans", where a boy is given a gift (a magic bean) and goes on a journey to discover what that gift is for, and how he can use it to bless others.

2. Frequently, wickedness arises among the "rising generation" because they aren't familiar with everything with which their parents are familiar. Alma's generation wasn't familiar with the words of King Benjamin because they had been too young at the time they were given. Our teacher mentioned how the seminary students she used to teach weren't familiar with who Bruce R. McConkie was, so the many quotes by him in the seminary manual didn't have the same impact that they otherwise might have had.

3. One reason why it is so important to teach the youth is because today's youth will become tomorrow's parents, and if they go astray now, their children won't know the truth, and more generations will be lost.

4. Thunder is used as a symbol of the Lord's power. (see v. 11, 18)

5. There is great power when many people gather together to pray for one cause. Fasting increases that power. (see v. 14, 22-23)

6. When the elder Alma prayed for his wicked son, he didn't ask for his son to be struck down. He didn't pray for an angel. He didn't ask to be granted wisdom so he would know what to do for his son. He asked that his son might "be brought to the knowledge of the truth" by whatever means the Lord would find necessary. (v.14)

7. Angels are only sent to perform labors that cannot be performed by men. They won't be sent to satisfy curiosity.

'The ministering of angels must be in harmony with the will of God and does not always occur according to the timetable of the petitioner. Speaking of a man who had prayed for the visitation of angels, President Wilford Woodruff (1807–98) said:
“I said to him that if he were to pray a thousand years to the God of Israel for that gift, it would not be granted, unless the Lord had a motive in sending an angel to him. I told him that the Lord never did nor never will send an angel to anybody merely to gratify the desire of the individual to see an angel. If the Lord sends an angel to anyone, He sends him to perform a work that cannot be performed only by the administration of an angel. I said to him that those were my views. The Lord had sent angels to men from the creation of the world, at different times, but always with a message or with something to perform that could not be performed without. I rehearsed to him different times when angels appeared to men. Of course, I referred to the angel visiting Joseph Smith. The Revelator John said that in the last days an angel would fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwelt on the earth. The reason it required an angel to do this work was, the Gospel was not on the earth. The Gospel and the Priesthood had been taken from among men. Hence God had to restore it again.
“Now, I have always said, and I want to say it to you, that the Holy Ghost is what every Saint of God needs. It is far more important that a man should have that gift than he should have the ministration of an angel, unless it is necessary for an angel to teach him something that he has not been taught” (“The Administration of Angels,” in Brian H. Stuy, comp. Collected Discourses, 5 vols. [1987–92], 5:233).' (Quoted in the Institute Manual)

 8. When the younger Alma was brought to his father dumb and weak, his father rejoiced - not that his son had been struck down, but that God had answered his prayer, had intervened in the life of his son, that his son had experienced something that could put him on the right course. (v. 20)

9. The elder Alma recognized that what the Lord had done was done "for" his son, not "to" his son. God will never force anyone to repent, or to make a particular choice. He will always allow us our agency.

10. The young Alma went through the repentance process and was reborn.

“Repentance of necessity involves suffering and sorrow. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not read the life of the young Alma, nor tried personally to repent. In the process of repentance we are granted just a taste of the suffering we would endure if we failed to turn away from evil. That pain, though only momentary for the repentant, is the most bitter of cups. No man or woman should be foolish enough to think it can be sipped, even briefly, without consequence. …
“We learn that when repentance is complete, we are born again and leave behind forever the self we once were. To me, none of the many approaches to teaching repentance falls more short than the well-intentioned suggestion that ‘although a nail may be removed from a wooden post, there will forever be a hole in that post.’ We know that repentance (the removal of that nail, if you will) can be a very long and painful and difficult task. Unfortunately, some will never have the incentive to undertake it. We even know that there are a very few sins for which no repentance is possible. But where repentance is possible, and its requirements are faithfully pursued and completed, there is no ‘hole left in the post’ for the bold reason that it is no longer the same post. It is a new post. We can start again, utterly clean, with a new will and a new way of life” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, However Long and Hard the Road [1985], 83–84). (also quoted in the Institute Manual)

11. Part of the repentance process involves restitution, or repairing the evils done. Alma and his friends spent the next several years "zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done".  (v. 35)

12. The final verse of this chapter is a reference to Isaiah 52:7: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" Incidentally, these words were quoted by Abinadi when he was teaching the elder Alma in the court of King Noah, an experience which brought about Alma's own conversion.