Those who were cast into the fire were an object lesson to refute Alma’s teaching of those who suffer spiritual death being tormented “as a lake of fire and brimstone” (Alma 12:17). In the judges reasoning, if Alma could not save those who were literally burned (Alma 14:15), his teaching of the figurative lake of fire and brimstone was not possible either. The Judge could not distinguish between the physical and the spiritual.
The silence of Alma and Amulek before the chief judge was further condemnation for the just judgment that was to come. They had done nothing to merit his physical abuse, nor had they committed any crime. Among the Nephites “there was no law against a man’s belief; therefore a man was punished only for the crimes which he had done” (Alma 30:11). It is not clear whether this judge, “the chief judge of the land” (Alma 14:14) was “Antionah, who was a chief ruler among them” (see Alma 12:20), or was a higher judge in their judicial system. The latter seems to be the case. Whichever it was, it reminds us of Jesus refusing to answer Herod (see Luke 23:8–12), as Isaiah had prophesied (see Isaiah 52:7). Apparently Jesus refused to answer him because Herod did not have political jurisdiction over him. In Alma’s and Amulek’s case, the chief judge being after the order of Nehor (Alma 14:16) did not have the priesthood, or was an apostate, and did not have authority over Alma and Amulek. Therefore, they left the response up to God. The Spirit had constrained Alma before (v. 11), and he and Amulek still seemed to be doing as they were directed.