Alma 36:11-15

(Redirected from Alma 36:14)

Questions

Why did the thought of being destroyed strike Alma with "such great fear and amazement"? What does it mean to be "destroyed"? How does being destroyed translate into our current LDS thinking? What might being destroyed have meant in Alma's cultural context?

Why do you think that Alma describes what he had done as murder? (Compare Alma 5:23 and Matt 10:28 — what does it mean to destroy both soul, i.e., spirit, and body in hell?)
How does how Alma the Younger feel imagining himself in the presence of God? How does this compare to how his father had asked the people to imagine feeling in that same situation Alma 5:15]?

Why would Alma want to "become extinct both soul and body"? What does he mean by "soul"?

Being destroyed: While we don't know for sure about the teachings of the Nehors or other dissenters among the Nephites at this period, throughout Mesoamerica most people believed in the immortality of the human soul, so the thought of that soul being utterly destroyed would have been amazing and frightful. According to modern revelation, all people will be resurrected, though Brigham Young taught that those who become sons of perdition will eventually be destroyed and lose their identity as organized beings, with their eternal elements being recycled (Journal of Discourses 1:118). Perhaps Alma realizes at this point that he has had enough light and knowledge to become a son of perdition if he continues on his course of apostasy.