Next Ammon began thinking what had to happen to him and the other sons of Mosiah before they responded to the Spirit and came down to become missionaries among the Lamanites. Imagine the youngest son of the President of the Church and the four sons of the king all going up and down the land trying to get young people to sin and no longer support the Church.1 But as Alma later says in his writing,2 the Lord knew of their good works before they were born and therefore he sent an angel to bring them to their senses.
When the angel first appeared his voice was like thunder. He knocked the five young men to the ground. They barely rose to their feet when the angel’s voice knocked them down again. This time Alma did not arise. He was left unconscious three days and nights. Mosiah 27:8 says he had been practicing idolatry but what he saw in the spirit world almost frightened him into thinking he had become a son of perdition. However, when he finally came out of his coma, Alma knew how wicked he had been. The experience left him a frightened, humble servant of God but he had been told he would be given a second chance. How grateful he was for at least his good works in the pre-existence that made him worthy to have an angel visit him and bring him to his senses.
At this point Ammon meditates on their former wickedness and says:
“Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state? Behold, we went forth even in wrath, with mighty threatenings to destroy his church. Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair? Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.”
“I Cannot Say the Smallest Part Which I Feel”
Next Ammon began thinking what had to happen to him and the other sons of Mosiah before they responded to the Spirit and came down to become missionaries among the Lamanites. Imagine the youngest son of the President of the Church and the four sons of the king all going up and down the land trying to get young people to sin and no longer support the Church.1 But as Alma later says in his writing,2 the Lord knew of their good works before they were born and therefore he sent an angel to bring them to their senses.
When the angel first appeared his voice was like thunder. He knocked the five young men to the ground. They barely rose to their feet when the angel’s voice knocked them down again. This time Alma did not arise. He was left unconscious three days and nights. Mosiah 27:8 says he had been practicing idolatry but what he saw in the spirit world almost frightened him into thinking he had become a son of perdition. However, when he finally came out of his coma, Alma knew how wicked he had been. The experience left him a frightened, humble servant of God but he had been told he would be given a second chance. How grateful he was for at least his good works in the pre-existence that made him worthy to have an angel visit him and bring him to his senses.
At this point Ammon meditates on their former wickedness and says:
“Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state? Behold, we went forth even in wrath, with mighty threatenings to destroy his church. Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair? Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.”