Alma’s prophecy of the destruction of the city of Ammonihah (see Alma 9:4–5,12,18) is fulfilled (Alma 16:2, 11). The prophets have declared throughout time: repent or perish. If not destroyed in mortality, then we will pay for our sins in the hereafter (see D&C 19:15–19). The question for today is where do we stand in regard to our own personal repentance? Where does the country we live in stand as to its reverence to God? Consider and ponder the following comment from noted scholars Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet:
Ammonihah, a city pretending religion, a religion perfectly tolerant of any action save it be the preaching of the gospel of repentance! To preach repentance, to testify of Christ, to speak of the necessity of good works—these were sins too grievous to be borne. Their effect was to unite in wrath and bitterness the diversified factions within the congregations of this ever-tolerant religion. These missionaries of righteousness must be mocked, ridiculed, beaten, and imprisoned. Their adherents must be stoned, driven from the community, or burned at the stake. Such were the seeds they planted and such was the harvest they reaped in the desolation of Nehors. We are left to wonder to what extent Ammonihah is a prophetic foreshadowing of that which the scriptures denominate as the “desolation of abomination” (D&C 84:114, 117; D&C 88:85), events that will precede and attend the coming of our Lord and Master that will bring again that peace once known to the faithful of the Nephite nation. (Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987–1992], 3:119)