The book of Alma is the longest in the Book of Mormon, and its first half is dominated by missionaries. Alma the Younger — once a destroyer of the church, transformed by a near-death experience of Christ's mercy — now cannot stop talking about what he found. He goes city to city, hard assignment after hard assignment, asking the same questions: Is your heart changed? Have you felt what I felt? Do you know this is real?
The first half of Alma is a theological laboratory. You get the most careful teaching in the Book of Mormon about how faith in Christ actually works — how you grow it, test it, and nourish it from a small seed into a tree that bears fruit. And you get Amulek's sermon on the Atonement, which is one of the most direct and urgent statements in all of scripture: infinite in scope, personal in application, and time-limited in opportunity.
Alma 5 — Have You Been Born of God?
Before his missionary journeys, Alma the Younger delivers a sermon to the people of Zarahemla — his home congregation — that is essentially a spiritual audit. For 62 verses, he asks question after question, not to shame but to surface what is real.
"And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" — Alma 5:26
"Can ye feel so now?" is one of the most penetrating questions in scripture. It is not asking whether you once had a conversion experience. It is asking whether that encounter with Christ is alive today, or whether it has faded into institutional habit and inherited belief.
Alma asks whether their garments are washed clean — not by ritual but by the blood of Christ (Alma 5:21). He asks whether they could face God today with a pure conscience. He asks whether the image of God is engraved on their countenances (Alma 5:19) — meaning, does Christ's character show up in your face?
These are not exam questions. They are invitations to check the pulse of your relationship with Jesus. Alma is asking because he has been in the dark place. He knows what it feels like when the pulse is absent. And he knows what it feels like when it comes back.
The Zoramites and the Rameumptom
When Alma and his companions arrive among the Zoramites — a group that had separated from the Nephites — they encounter one of the most extraordinary religious parodies in all of scripture. The Zoramites have built synagogues, but their worship practice has been reduced to this:
Once a week, each person climbs a tall narrow stand (the Rameumptom — "holy stand"), recites the same prayer thanking God that they are "chosen and holy" above all others, denies that Christ will come, and goes home. They do not pray again for a week. They do not serve each other. Their religion is entirely a vehicle for social distinction.
"Now, after the people had all offered up thanks after this manner, they returned to their homes, never speaking of their God again until they had assembled themselves together again to the holy stand." — Alma 31:23
This is religion without Christ at the center — religion as identity badge rather than transformative encounter. The Zoramites are not unique to the ancient world. The Rameumptom shows up anywhere religious practice becomes performance designed to distinguish "us" from "them," with no actual relationship with God in between.
The Poor Zoramites
The poorer members of the Zoramite community had been excluded from the synagogues because they could not afford the right clothing. They found Alma and asked him, essentially: we have been shut out of the building. What do we do?
Alma's answer is one of the most liberating passages in the Book of Mormon: their poverty was not a disadvantage. It was a mercy. Their circumstances had stripped away the self-satisfaction that makes faith impossible. "Blessed are ye," he tells them, "because of your afflictions, for they have made you ready for this message" (see Alma 32:5–6).
Alma 32 — The Seed of Faith
Alma's sermon to the poor Zoramites on the hillside Onidah is one of the most carefully constructed arguments about faith in scripture. He begins with a practical reality: these people have no place to worship. They have been excluded from every institutional structure. So he offers them a form of faith that requires nothing but a willing heart.
"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." — Alma 32:27
A particle of faith. A desire to believe. That is the entry requirement.
The experiment: plant the word of Christ in your heart and observe what happens. If the word begins to "swell within your breasts" — to enlarge your understanding, to enlighten your mind, to taste delicious — that is evidence it is good. You have not yet achieved knowledge. But you have gathered experimental evidence that is pointing in the direction of knowledge.
Alma is essentially describing the scientific method applied to spiritual experience. You hypothesize, you test, you observe the results. The results do not give you certainty — but they give you something to build on.
The critical requirement: nourishment. A seed planted and then ignored will die. Faith in Christ, planted and then not tended through prayer, scripture, obedience, and service, will wither. "Ye must not suffer it to become dormant" (Alma 32:42). Faith is alive. Alive things require feeding.
Alma 34 — Amulek on the Infinite Atonement
Amulek is Alma's companion — a wealthy man from the city of Ammonihah whom Alma found by following an angel's directions. Amulek's testimony in Alma 34 is among the most concentrated statements on Christ's Atonement in all of scripture.
He begins with the problem: no human sacrifice could bear the weight of sin. A finite offering cannot pay an infinite debt. The law of Moses pointed toward something the law of Moses could never accomplish:
"For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice." — Alma 34:10
Only Christ qualifies — because only Christ is infinite. His Atonement covers all sin for all people in all times who meet the conditions of repentance and faith.
Amulek then makes the application immediate and practical: pray. Pray over everything:
"Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you." — Alma 34:27
And then the urgency:
"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." — Alma 34:32
The Atonement is infinite in scope, but it requires a response in time. You have now. Use it.
Alma's Missionary Companions — Christ Through Many Voices
One of the structural features of Alma 1–29 is that the testimony of Christ comes through many different people with very different stories. Alma the Younger testifies from the experience of a man who was on the wrong side and was stopped by an angel. Amulek testifies from the experience of a prosperous man who ignored the prophets until one showed up in his house (Alma 10:5–6). Zeezrom testifies from the experience of a lawyer who tried to destroy them and was instead converted (Alma 15).
Christ is not monolithic in these chapters. He appears in the lives of former destroyers, the comfortable and complacent, the intellectually hostile. His Atonement is not only for a particular type of person. It is specifically infinite.
The Be Like Jesus Connection
Alma's sermons in the first half of his book describe the mechanics of becoming more like Christ. The seed of faith is not just a metaphor for believing in doctrines — it is a metaphor for becoming. You plant the word of Christ in your heart: who He is, how He lived, what He asks. You nourish it through ongoing encounter with Him in prayer and scripture. Over time it grows into something that shapes your desires, your countenance, and your choices.
Alma 5's question — "Can ye feel so now?" — is the right question to ask yourself regularly. Not as self-condemnation, but as calibration. Is my relationship with Christ alive and growing? Or has it become routine — the spiritual equivalent of climbing the Rameumptom once a week and reciting the formula?
The Be Like Jesus thesis requires that Christ be alive in you, not just believed as a fact. The seed has to be growing.
Reflection Questions
- Alma asks "Can ye feel so now?" — whether the joy of your original encounter with Christ is still present. How would you answer that question honestly today?
- The Zoramites' Rameumptom was religious performance with no actual relationship with God. Where in your spiritual life do you find yourself performing rather than connecting?
- Alma 32 says a desire to believe is enough to begin. What is one area of your faith where you have "a desire to believe" but haven't yet planted the seed?
- Amulek says "this life is the time for men to prepare." What are you putting off that you know you need to begin?
This Week
Read Alma 32:26–43 as a guide for your personal prayer this week. Identify one specific question or doubt about Christ and treat it as Alma's seed experiment: plant the question in your prayer, ask for evidence, and pay attention to what happens in your mind and heart over the next seven days. Write down what you notice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Alma's seed of faith in Alma 32?
An experimental approach to faith: plant the word of Christ in your heart with just a desire to believe, observe whether it swells, enlightens, and tastes good, and nourish it through ongoing practice. Faith is not certainty — it is a growing, testable, living thing that produces fruit over time.
What did Amulek teach about the Atonement in Alma 34?
That Christ's Atonement must be infinite because the consequences of sin are eternal. Only an infinite being can offer an infinite sacrifice. The Atonement covers all sin for all people who exercise faith and repent — and Amulek adds urgency: this life is the time to respond. Do not delay.
What is the Rameumptom?
A tall stand in the Zoramites' synagogue from which members delivered a weekly performance prayer of self-congratulation, denied Christ's coming, and then went home without thinking about God for another seven days. The Book of Mormon's sharpest critique of performative, Christ-absent religion.
What does "Can ye feel so now?" mean in Alma 5?
Alma's probing question about whether your original encounter with Christ — the changed heart, the song of redeeming love — is still alive today. Not a guilt trip but a diagnostic: is your faith in Christ a living relationship or a maintained habit?