Alma's Anticipation

After Alma was turned to righteousness by the angel, he told those who had fasted and prayed for him, “I rejected my Redeemer, and denied that which had been spoken of by our fathers; but now that they may foresee that he will come,… he will make himself manifest unto all” (Mosiah 27:30).  The fact that the Savior would soon come then became a theme of Alma’s as he taught the Nephites.  He told the people of Zarahemla, “I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth.  And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world….  The Son of God cometh in his glory, in his might, majesty, power, and dominion….  The kingdom of heaven shall very soon shine forth among all the children of men” (Alma 5:48, 50).  Soon thereafter he told the people of Gideon: “There be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people” (Alma 7:7).  He then told the people of Ammonihah, “And not many days hence the Son of God shall come in his glory” (Alma 9:26).  He also prophesied to them, “We only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming; for the time cometh, we know not how soon” (Alma 13:25).  Later Alma and Amulek went forth with others to “preach the word throughout all the land…, holding forth things which must shortly come; yea, holding forth the coming of the Son of God” (Alma 16:15, 19).  Alma clearly waited with great anticipation for the 1^st coming of the Savior, and he didn’t know whether that time would be in his day.  I think it was this anticipation that led to his great desire to be one those angels who could “speak with the trump of God, with the voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!” (Alma 29:1).  This desire that Alma had for the Savior’s coming should be the same kind of anticipation that we have for the 2^nd Coming of the Savior.  Like Alma we don’t know whether or not it will be in our day, but we do know that it is “not far distant,” so “now is the time to repent, for the day of salvation draweth nigh” (Alma 13:21).