There are three major questions asked of Amulek by Zeezrom in the above verses. The answers given by Amulek may be confusing and seemingly contradictory at first. It must be remembered that Amulek is not teaching a new investigator of the gospel. He is reproving an apostate who knows better and is trying to trick Amulek into giving answers that would appear to be a denial of the true and living God (vv. 25–27). Amulek’s answers, inspired by the Spirit, were instead a testimony of the true position of Jesus Christ of whom Nephi, son of Lehi, testified: “There is a true and living God, and he is Christ” (2 Nephi 11:7).
The answer to the first question asked by Zeezrom “Is there more than one God?” seems a contradiction to the first Article of Faith: “We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost,” or “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit” (D&C 130:22). The three personages of the Godhead are there enumerated. However, the Father had delegated his authority to the Son to administer the affairs of the earth. Therefore, he said to Moroni, “I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world” (Ether 4:12). As received through Joseph Smith, he is:
11 And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings;
12 Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—
13 The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. [D&C 88:11–13]
Amulek had learned these attributes of Christ from an angel (Alma 11:31). Although his knowledge was recently acquired, he had learned it well and knew with Nephi, son of Lehi, that “there is a God, and He is Christ” (2 Nephi 11:7). Christ was the God of the Nephites and the one through whom their blessings came.
The answer to Zeezrom’s second question, “Who is he that shall come? Is it the Son of God?” (Alma 11:32) was an attempt to get Amulek to negate the first answer. If the God who was to come was the Son of God then, it was a declaration that there were two Gods, not one. If God had a Son, then the Son should also be a God. Furthermore, if there was only one God and this God did not save his people, he was not a God (v. 35). However, Amulek had again answered correctly and thwarted Zeezrom’s cunning words. Christ did not come “to redeem them in their sins” as Helaman later quoted Amulek as saying (Helaman 5:10). As Mormon abridged Amulek’s answer, he did not give the whole answer, but he did emphasize that “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven” (Alma 11:37). The newly converted Amulek had outdone the cunning Zeezrom again.
The answer to the third question asked by Zeezrom, “Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?” was another masterpiece of word selection. Zeezrom was apparently trying to show that the Son of God could not be the Eternal Father because his father would also be a God, thus contradicting that there was only one God, but also that the Father would be superior in authority to the Son. Amulek’s answer that the Son was the very Eternal Father of heaven and earth is explaining the Son’s role as creator. When Jesus spoke to the Nephites, after his resurrection, he identified himself as “Jesus Christ the Son of God, I created the heavens and the earth” (3 Nephi 9:15). He did so under the direction and delegation of the Father. The Bible teaches the same doctrine.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. [John 1:3, 10]
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [Colossians 1:16]
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; [Hebrews 1:2; see also D&C 93:10, Moses 1:32–33]
Amulek had certainly refuted Zeezrom’s plan to destroy him (v. 25), and he also taught the true position of Jesus Christ as the creator and the administrator of the earth.