Alma 14

(All of my own thoughts are in red type 6/20 Green 4/21 orange 7/22 Brown 8/23)

Chapter 14
- Preach to find the few - not to convert many; Be it unto me according to the will of the Lord

Alma and Amulek are imprisoned and smitten—The believers and their holy scriptures are burned by fire—These martyrs are received by the Lord in glory—The prison walls are rent and fall—Alma and Amulek are delivered, and their persecutors are slain. About 82–81 B.C. Their mission was about 1 year 

  1 And it came to pass after he had made an end of speaking unto the people many of them did believe on his words, and began to repent, and to search the ^ascriptures. This shows that the preaching of the word DOES have an effect on people and they CAN be convinced of the error of their ways. Notice that one of the fruits of their repentance was they began to search the scriptures. I'm thinking this is showing their desire to know more of the word of God for themselves and to not rely on the incorrect teachings of others as they had done.
  2 But the more part of them were desirous that they might destroy Alma and Amulek; Darn! Why are some so hard hearted? Do not take security in being in the majority...  for they were angry with Alma, because of the ^aplainness of his words  because he made sense? unto Zeezrom; and they also said that Amulek had ^blied unto them, really? who's the liars here? and had reviled against their law and also against their lawyers and judges. free speech? Is their law their religion? Do they believe they are saved by the law? Now, I can understand if someone was speaking against our Constitution that that would be cause for concern (actually happening today) but it's not reason to want someone destroyed. Exposed, yes...And why did the majority who disagreed all want them destroyed? I get trying to "expose" them as fraud if that is what they think they are, but why are their words so threatening? Is it because they were afraid the the believers becoming the majority and losing their power? Probably...
  3 And they were also angry with Alma and Amulek; and because they had ^atestified so plainly against their wickedness, they sought to ^bput them away privily. They knew they were caught. Clear as day. That's why they had to try to "secretly" put them away. Every day more evil is being plainly exposed. It's still not getting people prosecuted, but once that starts happening we may see more mystery deaths.
  4 But it came to pass that they did not; They decided to take them openly to the judge and not kill them privately in secret but they took them and bound them with strong cords, They surely knew the stories. God can break strong cords! and took them before the chief judge of the land. And Alma and Amulek suffered it to be done to them.
  5 And the people went forth and witnessed against them—testifying that they had reviled against the law, and their lawyers and judges of the land, and also of all the people that were in the land; and also testified that there was but one God, and that he should send his Son among the people, but he should ^anot save them; What is the point of God sending His Son without sending Him to save us? They are going with Zeerom's claim that Alma was making this statement when he had only said He would not save us IN our sins. (Which for them, the wicked and unrepentant meant, yes, He's not going to save you. and many such things did the people testify against Alma and Amulek. Now this was done before the chief judge of the land. I read that one of the witnesses against Trump in this January 6th investigation/trial is being held up by the media as an important/star witness when her testimony was only based on what she thought she overheard someone else say they heard. Not credible at all. That's all they have are false witnesses.
  6 And it came to pass that Zeezrom was astonished at the words which had been spoken; and he also knew concerning the ^ablindness of the minds, which he had caused among the people by his ^blying words; So much blindness going on right now because of lying words! Other people's words can cause us to remain blind. Who are you listening to...and his soul began to be ^charrowed up under a ^dconsciousness of his own guilt; This is probably a definition of hell yea, he began to be encircled about by the pains of hell .You don't want to feel this! Repent!  Interesting paradox: The one who was blind and caused blindness in others could now see. The consequence for causing others to be blind is that you don’t control over whether they will see when you see and the influence you had to cause them to be blind is not the same influence it takes to help them see. They will turn on you even though they trusted you before. Always amazes me that people possessed by the lying spirit of the devil are so quick to accuse the righteous of being possessed by the devil - as if they 1) believe in the devil and 2)think that would be terrible to be possessed by one  - when they so easily give way to temptation and because they have known the truth about all of this before and can be so distorted in their thinking. Last thing: Alma had experienced a similar thing as Zeezrom by leading people astray, then experiencing the pain of guilt and then conversion. I can see this happening with our prophet. He had great power to lead people to blindness on the vax. If he is made to "see" and tries to convince the people he was wrong, all the power he had by being "the prophet" will be lost. And this same person who had such powers of persuasion will have none. We truly will have to take the Holy Spirit as our guide, as we should have all along and as this very prophet taught us to do. Why did they not follow Him on that teaching?
  7 And it came to pass that he began to cry unto the people, saying: Behold, I am ^aguilty, and these men are spotless before God. He understood that we are guilty or innocent before God only. Not man or judges or kings.  And he began to plead for them from that time forth; but they reviled him, saying: Art thou also possessed with the devil? This is the pot calling the kettle black! And they spit upon him, nasty form of shame and ^bcast him out from among them, and also all those who believed in the words which had been spoken by Alma and Amulek; and they cast them out, and sent men to cast stones at them. God blesses them to believe and have softened hearts, but they still had to bear the persecution of others. Is this a form of sending down deep roots quickly, through intense persecution? 
  8 And they brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be ^acast into the fire; and they also brought forth their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be ^bburned and destroyed by fire. Whose wives and children were brought? Amulek's? The aforementioned "believers", if they were all men, it could have been there wives and children...We know Amulek's family had all been taught the gospel. Were they among the martyrs? Such an extreme and immediate test of faith for these new converts. How could they "know" with such conviction? Well, that is the power of hearing one preach with the Spirit and Power of God!
  9 And it came to pass that they took Alma and Amulek, and carried them forth to the place of ^amartyrdom, that they might witness the destruction of those who were consumed by fire.
 10 And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, His relatives? 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. He knew God could do this. He had saved them many times. Why not these innocent women and children and others?
 11 But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth To “constrain” is more than just restraining. It means to use force against an overwhelming force to do something else. Alma had to be wanting to stop what was happening really badly to be “constrained” not to. The Spirit literally forced him not to act as he wanted to. 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.
 12 Now Amulek said unto Alma: Behold, perhaps they will burn us also.
 13 And Alma said: Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not. This is a great statement by Alma. He was willing to be cast into the fire too, if it was God's will. But the Spirit had made it known to him that it was not and that they had not finished their work.Still...so hard to be spared when those who were burning were only doing so because of your words. So not fair!
 14 Now it came to pass that when the bodies of those who had been cast into the fire were consumed, and also the records which were cast in with them, paper copies? the chief judge of the land came and stood before Alma and Amulek, as they were bound; and he smote them with his hand upon their ^acheeks, and said unto them: After what ye have seen, will ye preach again unto this people, that they shall be cast into a ^blake of fire and brimstone? Threatening to do the same to future believers...Such a paradox! The believers had just been spared the fires of hell only to be consumed by the fires of persecution. The perpetrators were going to suffer the eternal fires of hell, even though they felt powerful by burning others in their man-made fire.
 15 Behold, ye see that ye had not power to save those who had been cast into the fire; neither has God saved them because they were of thy faith. And the judge smote them again upon their cheeks, and asked: What say ye for yourselves? They were tempting God to show His power, probably only to rebel directly against it.
 16 Now this judge was after the order and faith of ^aNehor, secret combination who slew Gideon. Calling it a "faith" suggests that it's a form of religion. Don't think for a minute that those calling for complete separation of church and state by doing away with all reference to God are getting rid of religion. They are just replacing believe in God with their own form of religion - faith in Satan, or man, or science, etc.
 17 And it came to pass that Alma and Amulek answered him ^anothing; After such powerful preaching they were told by the Spirit to say nothing. Alma had been witness to the powerful preaching of Abinadi. Interesting that he was not told to preach in the same way. and he smote them again, and delivered them to the officers to be ^bcast into prison.
 18 And when they had been cast into prison three days, there came many ^alawyers, and judges, and priests, and teachers, who were of the profession of Nehor; and they came in unto the prison to see them, and they questioned them about many words; but they answered them nothing. Does this go back to Alma's speech about the mysteries not being given to the hard-hearted? I wonder what their questions were...Probably said mockingly, but maybe deep down they wanted to know.  
 19 And it came to pass that the judge stood before them, and said: Why do ye not answer the words of this people? Know ye not that I have ^apower to deliver you up unto the flames? And he ^bcommanded them to speak; but they answered nothing. I guess there comes a time when you know that nothing you say will turn people's hearts, so you just say nothing. Were they “constrained” again? Did they want to say something? They showed the one who thought to have power to command that they only took commands from God!
 20 And it came to pass that they departed and went their ways, but came again on the morrow; and the judge also smote them again on their cheeks. And many came forth also, and smote them, saying: Will ye stand again and judge this people, and condemn our law? If ye have such great power why do ye not ^adeliver yourselves? Talk about being provoked! And talk about being constrained! Such submission to the Spirit!
 21 And many such things did they say unto them, gnashing their teeth upon them, and spitting upon them, and saying: How shall we look when we are damned? Legitimate question since you will be damned!
 22 And many such things, yea, all manner of such things did they say unto them; and thus they did ^amock them for many days. And they did withhold food from them that they might hunger, and water that they might thirst; and they also did take from them their clothes that they were naked; and thus they were ^bbound with strong cords, and confined in ^cprison. Here it is possible that they consecrated their lack of food as a period of fasting so that instead of making them weak it made them powerful. 
 23 And it came to pass after they had thus suffered for many days, (and it was on the twelfth day, in the tenth month, in the tenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi) that the chief judge over the land of ^aAmmonihah and many of their teachers and their lawyers went in unto the prison where Alma and Amulek were bound with cords.
 24 And the chief judge stood before them, and smote them again, and said unto them: If ye have the ^apower of God deliver yourselves from these bands, and then we will believe that the Lord will destroy this people according to your words. This judge, that thinks he has real power - is about to experience greater power than he can even imagine. I wonder if their words, that they would believe with proof, carries over into the spirit world, where they are surely captive by Satan because of their choices. Will they now know, but be subject to the devil still? 
 25 And it came to pass that they all went forth and smote them, saying the same words, even until the last; and when the last had spoken unto them the ^apower of God was upon Alma and Amulek, and they rose and stood upon their feet.
 26 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. Miracles and power are given to us “according to our faith”. Was the waiting and the persecution a test of their faith before power was granted them? Or was it about justifying the destruction of the wicked after the wicked had sufficiently proved themselves to be unchangeable?
 27 And it came to pass that so great was their fear that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the ^aprison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the chief judge, and the lawyers, and priests, and teachers, who smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof. They poked and prodded and pushed and tempted God until they were "full" in iniquity. And the God spoke. And it was over. Just. Like. That.
 28 And Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them ^apower, according to their faith which was in Christ. Surely, their faith in Christ sustained them for the many days they were suffering before this miracle. Maybe they were translated and that's why they were not harmed or didn't die for lack of food/water...And they straightway came forth out of the prison; and they were ^bloosed from their ^cbands; and the prison had fallen to the earth, and every soul within the walls thereof, save it were Alma and Amulek, was slain; and they straightway came forth into the city.
 29 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. The people must have known now that they were in trouble with God! If they were repentant, they would have fallen to their knees and begged for mercy.