Alma's Prophecies of the Lamanites

As Alma taught the people of Ammonihah, his friends the sons of Mosiah were busy among the Lamanites preaching the gospel there. It had been at that time approximately 10 years since Ammon, Aaron, and his brethren had left for the land of Nephi to preach the gospel to their enemies. It is not clear if there was correspondence between the sons of Mosiah and the Nephites during that time, but it seems unlikely to me given the danger of crossing the wilderness between the two groups of people. And surely there was no mail service between the two nations. So Alma probably was unaware of how it was going for his friends among the Lamanites and likely didn’t know (unless from the Lord) of their incredible success. It is interesting, though, what he told the people of Ammonihah about the Lamanites: “There are many promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance…. And at some period of time they will be brought to believe in his word, and to know of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers; and many of them will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name” (Alma 9:16-17). But this “period of time” was actually not in the future—that event was happening right then as Lamoni’s people and many other had already been converted by Ammon and his brethren. What the wicked people of Ammonihah surely dismissed and disbelieved as they heard it from Alma was already coming to pass.  

               The connection between the people of Ammonihah and the Lamanites was quite important, unbeknownst to them. Alma prophesied again to them, “If ye persist in your wickedness that your days shall not be prolonged in the land, for the Lamanites shall be sent upon you; and if ye repent not they shall come in a time when you know not, and ye shall be visited with utter destruction” (Alma 9:18). This prediction about the Lamanites destroying them was of course fulfilled shortly after the believers were killed and cast out of the city. Amulek recorded that he was visited by the angel on “the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges,” and he and Alma commenced preaching shortly after that. It was in “the fifth day of the second month in the eleventh year” that “there was a cry of war heard throughout the land. For behold, the armies of the Lamanites had come in upon the wilderness side, into the borders of the land, even into the city of Ammonihah, and began to slay the people and destroy the city” (Alma 10:6, 16:1-2). So if the Nephites had a 12-month year, it was only about five or six months after Alma’s prophecy that it was fulfilled and the Lamanites destroyed Ammonihah. Although it is not clear from Alma’s words alone, there was actually a significant connection between his two prophecies that some of the Lamanites would be converted and some Lamanites would destroy the people of Ammonihah. After the wicked Lamanites destroyed some of the converted Lamanites who submitted to the sword without a fight, they seemed to have regretted it and “were more angry because they had slain their brethren.” The funneled this frustration towards their enemies: “Therefore they swore vengeance upon the Nephites…. They took their armies and went over into the borders of the land of Zarahemla, and fell upon the people who were in the land of Ammonihah and destroyed them” (Alma 25:2-3). It was due to the existence of those righteous Lamanites and their unwillingness to fight or defend themselves that caused the Lamanites to be angry and come against the people of Ammonihah. As those Lamanites came down upon them, surely the people of Ammonihah wished they had paid more attention to these two prophecies of Alma and had chosen to repent because of them.