Alma's Three Final Questions

In a final interview with his son Helaman, Alma asked him three questions which I believe are worthy for all of us to consider.  First, he asked about the scriptures: “Believest thou the words which I spake unto thee concerning those records which have been kept?”  Second Alma asked his son about his faith in Christ: “Believest thou in Jesus Christ, who shall come?”  Lastly, he asked Helaman, “Will ye keep my commandments?”  Helaman answered in the affirmative to all questions, with his final answer a powerful expression of his conviction: “Yea, I will keep thy commandments with all my heart” (Alma 45:2-7).  Alma was satisfied with these answers and those were all that he asked Helaman before prophesying and giving him a blessing.  After that, Alma disappeared, perhaps taken up into heaven like Moses, and was never seen again.  I believe these final questions from Alma can be important indicators for each of us in our spiritual progression.   

            These final queries of Alma to his son represent essential pillars for each of us in our own conversion to the Lord.  The first question hearkened back to Alma’s teaching to Helaman in Alma 37:1-20 about the sacred records.  He taught Alma that it was “for a wise purpose” that the records were kept; that they would “go forth unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people”; that they brought the people “to the knowledge of God unto the salvation of their souls”; and that they were “small and simple things” by which “great things” would be brought to pass.  In the language of our own day we might summarize Alma’s teaching simply as this: “the scriptures are a really big deal.”  His question to his son was about whether he believed that, with the implication that if he did he would similarly take care of the records entrusted to him.  Surely one of the measures of our own spiritual health is how we value and care for the scriptures in our possession.  For us do they similarly “retain their brightness” and powerful effect in our lives?  As we do learn to treasure the scriptures, it leads naturally to an understanding of the subject of Alma’s second question: the Savior.  Alma told Helaman that the scriptures “brought [the Lamanites] to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer.”  Faith in the Savior develops as we sincerely search the word of God, or as Paul put it, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  And a true belief in the Savior, true faith, will always lead to repentance and keeping the commandments, the subject of Alma’s final question.  Their faith in the Savior and their study of the word of God brought these Lamanites to a knowledge of the “incorrect tradition of their fathers” and “unto repentance” such that they started to keep the commandments.  Of course, these three items, the study of scriptures, faith in Christ, and obedience to the commandments, are not independent actions but each increases the others.  As we continually study the scriptures we develop more faith in the Savior, that faith increases our desire for obedience, and obedience to the commandments increases our desire to know the word of God in the scriptures.  Perhaps Alma knew that if his son truly could answer these questions in the affirmative he would have a fountain of living water to continually guide him.  He would certainly need that sustaining influence through the tremendous difficulties—particularly the great war in which he led the stripling warriors—that he would face after his father’s death.  As we strive to answer in the affirmative to those three questions with the same conviction as Helaman, we too will be prepared for the challenges that await us.