Amaleki's Exhortation

In my mind one of the most powerful invitations given in the Book of Mormon is Amaleki’s in Omni 1:26 where he wrote, “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.”  I have thought often on this scripture and its invitation to come unto Christ through prayer, fasting, enduring to the end, and ultimately offering everything we have to Him.  Offering our “whole souls” to the Savior should be the goal for all of us who claim to be disciples of the Savior, and this final invitation from the small plates of Nephi should be one that we ponder and evaluate against ourselves often. 

            I realized today that the preceding verse also contains an invitation to come unto the Savior, and it contains a bold statement about the kind of faith that we should have in these last days.  Amaleki wrote that his purpose in writing was “exhorting all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying, and in revelations, and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good” (Omni 1:25).  Verse 26 contains the actions we must take to come to the Savior—prayer, fasting, enduring to the end, and ultimately consecrating our lives—whereas the previous verse tells what we need to believe in order to come unto the Savior.  And it is not the list that I think most of us would expect; we need to believe in prophesying, revelations, ministering angels, and the gift of tongues.  In other words, we need to believe that God can work miracles around us and in our own lives.  We have to believe that He has power today like He did in the meridian of time.  As Mormon put it, “Have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them?...  Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain” (Moroni 7:36-37).  Here he put the burden on us if miracles are not taking place—angels, revelations, and miracles will all come from the Lord if we truly have faith.  Moroni said it this way, “And these signs shall follow them that believe—in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover” (Mormon 9:24).  Coming unto Christ means that we truly believe in the miracles that the Lord has done and can do for us.  Amaleki’s final exhortation should continually call us to believe more fully in the power of God in our own lives.