Alma 32 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon for two reasons:
1.It has profound doctrine on faith
2.It teaches it in a simple way!
I'll share my thoughts and hopefully inspire! I challenge you that as you read you read the chapter yourselves and share your insights also! Every verse can mean something different to every person and thats the magic of the scriptures.
To explain the setting before we dive in to the doctrine, Alma has been trying to teach the Zoramites and have found that they aren't willing to accept God's word. Now Alma is approached by a group of Zoramites who were poor and were cast out of the churches because of how poor they were.
Alma, as found in verse 6, "turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had humbled them." Alma, a missionary called of the Lord, is pumped that he found those that the Lord has prepared to hear his message!
First, let's look at how they were prepared. The people were outcasts, hated and seen as not worthy of worship. God put a trial in their life so he can humble them to hear his word! God loves us enough to bless us with what we need and not just what we want.
In verses 10-17 he commends them for being humble in heart. He states that they are willing to listen and believe without being compelled or need to have physical evidence. That's when Alma dives into his lesson on faith.
"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
I have found when teaching Christ's doctrine the people that truly accept it are those who are hoping that the message we're sharing is true. That hope is where faith is born, which Alma taught so clearly here by stating "faith ye hope for things."
Alma in verse 27 then starts with a commitment and asks everybody to excersize a little bit of faith and just try out what he is about to say. He asks them to "give place for a portion of my words."
He starts to outline an expiriement on how to come to know if what he is teaching is true. These are the steps:
1. Plant the seed in your heart.
2.Pay attention to the feelings that accompany the seed.
3.If "swelling motions" are felt then it is a good seed.
Easy enough right? "And know behold is your knowledge perfect in that thing? Yea your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant."
Now you know! The expirement worked! It now is growing inside of you! However, Alma continues with the most important part of the message.
"O then is not this real? I say unot you, ye, because it is light; because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect? Behold I say unto you, nay."
Wait. I thought he just taught that we did have perfect knowledge. Re-analyzing I found that we have a perfect knowledge in a specific thing, but not a pefect knowledge. Will we ever be able to come to a perfect knowledge on this earth? Of course not! Our minds can't process a perfect knowledge of this world. This is why faith is so important.
"Neithe rmust ye lay aside your faith, for ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye might try the experiment to know if the seed was good."
I like to compare this to a person who has just recently been baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They know that being baptized was the right choice. They know it for sure and know that they have come unto Christ's true church. Just like Alma stated they had a perfect knowledge of the truety of the church. Is baptism the end?
Christ's Gospel is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and ENDURING TO THE END. We cannot lay aside our faith because we know one thing is true. We still have to endure to the end! Alma states it as nourishing the tree (which came from the seed of faith.)
"Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root and grow up..."
When one is baptized they have a tree inside of them, symbolically of course, but they haven't allowed it to take root. The more we endure the more the tree will sink it's roots into us. That is why God gives us trials, so we can sink our trees deeper into our soul.
Enduring is essential to God's plan for us. Keep your faith and endure. Then in the end you will be able to "pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet."
As we excersize faith in Christ he will allow it to work in us. He will assist in any way he can without taking away our agency to help us grow that faith inside of us. I know that Christ lives and atoned for our sins. If you haven't tried the seed, try it! Read the Book of Mormon and ask God, in Christ's name, if the book is true, and I know that as you do it sincerely and with real intent he will give an answer unto you, just as James 1:5 promises. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
