Obedient to the divine command he had received Alma took with him his faithful benefactor and protector, Amulek, and once again began to declare the Word of the Lord to the apostate people of Ammonihah. To the righteous entreaties of the two missionaries the wicked denizens of that great city were, from the very first, antagonistic. They sought to contend with God's servants upon matters of fundamental doctrines, questioning Alma's authority, and asking him, "Who art thou?" and "Who is God?" They twisted and turned the prophet's words in an effort to ensnare him, as it were, in a fowler's net. They implied in their bitterness that the great and marvelous things of which Alma spoke, even the passing away of the earth, and the destruction, in one day, of their magnificent city, were not to be believed in upon the testimony of just one man, and especially of him who they said was a liar and an untrustworthy witness.
Soon the enmity of the Ammonihahites towards Alma became a vehement ill will; so great was their hatred of him that they sought to do him bodily harm. They attempted to seize him forcibly that thereby they, by brutal strength, might end forever the terrible forebodings of coming woe which he pronounced upon their fair city. But, they could not lay their wicked hands upon him for the protecting power of the Great Jehovah was over him, and Alma stood forth boldly, and, being unafraid, once more testified to them of their iniquitous ways.