Alma — Chapter 36
Chapters 36–37: Alma’s commandments to his son Helaman.
1 My son, listen to my words: I promise you that if you keep God’s commandments, you will prosper in the land.
2 I want you to remember our ancestors’ slavery as I have done. They were slaves, and no one could save them except the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He truly saved them in their troubles.
3 O my son Helaman, you are young, so I beg you to listen to what I say and learn from me. I know that whoever trusts in God will be helped in their tests and troubles and sorrows, and will be saved at the last day.
4 I don’t want you to think that I learned this by myself. I did not learn it by my own mortal thinking, but by the Spirit of God.
5 If I had not been born of God, I would not know these things. But God’s angel told me these things — and not because I was worthy to know them.
6 I went around with Mosiah’s sons trying to destroy God’s church, but God sent his angel to stop us.
7 He talked to us with a voice of thunder, and the ground shook under our feet. We fell down, because the fear of God came on us.
8 Then the voice said to me: “Stand up.” I stood up and saw the angel.
9 And he said to me: “Even if you yourself want to be destroyed, do not try to destroy God’s church anymore.”
10 Then I fell down on the ground. For three days and nights I could not talk or move my arms and legs.
11 The angel said more things to me that my brothers heard, but I did not hear them. When I heard the words, “even if you yourself want to be destroyed, do not try to destroy God’s church anymore,” I became so afraid that I might be destroyed that I fell to the ground and did not hear anything else.
12 I was full of eternal pain, because my soul was full of terrible guilt about all my sins.
13 Yes, I was full of the pains of hell because I remembered all my sins and wickedness. I saw I had rebelled against my God and not kept his holy commandments.
14 I had killed many of his children by leading them away to destruction. Yes, my sins were so great that the very thought of coming before God filled my soul with terrible fear.
15 I thought, “O, if only I could be dead, both soul and body, so I would not have to stand before God and be judged by my works.”
16 For three days and three nights I was filled with the pains of a damned soul.
17 Then while I was full of pain and guilt from the memory of all my sins, I remembered hearing my father prophesy to the people about the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who would pay for the sins of the world.
18 When I thought of this, I cried in my heart: “O Jesus, you Son of God, have mercy on me. I am full of pain and I am tied up with the eternal chains of death.”
19 When I thought this, all at once my pain was gone. Yes, the memory of my sins did not fill me with guilt and pain anymore.
20 And oh, what joy and wonderful light I saw! Yes, my soul was filled with as much joy as it had been filled with pain!
21 I tell you, my son, that there could never be anything so awful as my pains. But I tell you, my son, that on the other hand, there could ever be anything so wonderful and sweet as my joy was then.
22 I thought I saw (as our father Lehi saw) God sitting on his throne, with countless angels around him singing praises to him. How my soul wanted to be there!
23 But my arms and legs got strong again, and I stood on my feet and showed the people that I had been born of God.
24 Since that time I have worked without stopping to bring souls to repentance, to help them taste the great joy I tasted, so they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
25 Yes, O my son, the Lord gives me great joy in the success of my work.
26 Many people have been born of God, and tasted joy as I have, and have seen eye to eye with God as I have because of the gospel he has given to me. This is how they know about the things I have talked about, just as I know. God has given me this knowledge.
27 I have been helped through tests and troubles of every kind. God has saved me from prison, and from chains, and from death. I trust in him, and he will still save me.
28 I know he will save me at the last day and let me live with him in glory. Yes, I will praise him forever, because he brought our ancestors out of Egypt, and drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea. He led our ancestors to the promised land by his power, and he saved them from slavery from time to time.
29 He brought our ancestors out of the land of Jerusalem. He saved them from slavery from time to time, even up to now, by his eternal power. I have always remembered their slavery, and you should always remember their slavery, as I have done.
30 But, my son, this is not all. You should know as I know that if you keep God’s commandments, you will prosper in the land. You should also know that if you do not keep God’s commandments, you will be cut off from him. This is what he has said.
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