Alma's Translation

In Alma 45 after Alma gave his last counsel to Helaman, we read this about him: “And when Alma had done this he departed out of the land of Zarahemla, as if to go into the land of Melek.  And it came to pass that he was never heard of more; as to his death or burial we know not of.  Behold, this we know, that he was a righteous man; and the saying went abroad in the church that he was taken up by the Spirit, or buried by the hand of the Lord, even as Moses. But behold, the scriptures saith the Lord took Moses unto himself; and we suppose that he has also received Alma in the spirit, unto himself; therefore, for this cause we know nothing concerning his death and burial” (Alma 45:18-19).  It appears that Alma did not suffer a normal physical death but was taken up to the Lord like Moses was with his physical body. 

Elder McConkie gave his opinion that Alma was translated: “Moses, Elijah, and Alma the younger, were translated” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 805, quotation found here).  So if this is true, why would the Lord have translated Alma?  We know at least one reason why Moses and Elijah were translated: they needed to be able to have a physical body to lay hands on the heads of Peter, James, and John at the Mount of Transfiguration.  This was before the resurrection, so if they had died they would have not had physical hands to transfer the keys necessary.  We have no such account of Alma.  The other Biblical person that we know of who was translated was John the Beloved.  He kept his body so that he could “minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation who dwell on the earth” and is still performing a great work on the earth as a translated being (D&C 7:6).  Joseph Smith described translated beings this way: “Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions” (History of the Church, 4:425, quotation found here).  John’s “future mission” was to preach the gospel on the earth; Moses and Elijah’s future mission was to give keys; if Alma really was translated, what was his “future mission?”  We obviously don’t know, but I have to wonder if his translation was not related to his great desires to be a missionary.  He had expressed it this way while on earth: “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!  Yea, I would declare unto every soul” (Alma 29:1-2).  Could it be that God granted him that desire and allowed him, as a translated being, to continue to declare the word among other nations?  Could he have received a mission like John’s to “prophesy before nations, kindreds, tongues, and people?”  (D&C 77:3).  In the same chapter where Alma expressed his great desires to preach the gospel to all people, he said, “I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire” and I’d like to think that God indeed did grant unto him his pure desires to be an angelic messenger to the world (Alma 29:4).  Of course we don’t know for sure, but we do know that Alma’s whole life after his conversion was devoted to the preaching of the gospel.  When it came to declaring the word, he “could not rest” (Alma 43:1).  It only makes sense that after his mortal life he still did not rest but continued declaring the gospel “with a voice to shake the earth.”