Alma 5:1–32

Alma’s Questions for Self-Evaluation

Moments of self-evaluation can help us see the strength of our relationship with Jesus Christ more clearly. Alma, knowing how pride and contention had become a part of the Church, asked the Church members in Zarahemla a series of questions that encouraged them to reflect on the focus of their hearts and their standing before God. This lesson is intended to help you evaluate your spiritual progress and strengthen your conversion to Jesus Christ.

Helping learners seek personal revelation. Giving students time to quietly study and reflect on the scriptures can help invite the Holy Ghost. When students look inward to evaluate their understanding and conviction of the gospel, they can become aware of what they already know and invite the Holy Ghost to help them identify what they need to know, feel, and do to draw closer to Jesus Christ.

Student preparation: Invite students to scan through Alma 5 and mark all the question marks in the chapter. Students could also ask themselves some of the questions Alma asked his people in this chapter.

Possible Learning Activities

Self-evaluation

Think about opportunities you have had to be interviewed by someone else, including temple recommend interviews, annual interviews with your bishop or branch president, and job interviews.

• What is the purpose of interviews?

• How might you have an interview with yourself?

President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles shared some of the benefits of regularly taking time to evaluate our spiritual progress. You may want to watch the video “Return and Receive,” available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, from time code 8:14 to 8:58 or read the text below.

I have found that to stay focused on returning [to God’s presence] and receiving the promised blessings, I need to regularly take time to ask myself, “How am I doing?”

It’s kind of like having a personal, private interview with yourself. And if that sounds unusual, think about it: who in this world knows you better than you know yourself? You know your thoughts, your private actions, your desires, and your dreams, goals, and plans. And you know better than anyone how you are progressing. (M. Russell Ballard, “Return and Receive,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 64)

Think about how often you take time to evaluate your spiritual progress.

• What kind of benefits can come from doing this regularly?

A skill you can utilize when studying your scriptures is taking time to pause and evaluate how well you are living the teachings or principles you are studying. Today you will have an opportunity to practice that skill as you study Alma 5. This chapter contains many questions that Alma asked his people. You can also ask yourself these questions to evaluate your spiritual progress. As you study, seek guidance from Heavenly Father to help you know what you are doing well and how He would have you improve.

To help the students see the large number of questions contained in Alma 5, consider inviting students to quickly glance through the chapter and notice the many question marks. You could also invite students to dedicate some time during their personal scripture study to mark or circle all the question marks in this chapter if they have not already done so.

Alma preaches to the people of Zarahemla

Recall that after seeing the pride and greed among his people, Alma stepped down as chief judge of the Nephites to dedicate himself more fully to teaching God’s word (see Alma 4:19).

Alma began his preaching in the land of Zarahemla. He reminded these people of the spiritual and physical captivity the Nephites had experienced during the days of King Noah (see Alma 5:3–5).

Read Alma 5:6–13, looking for what Alma wanted his people to remember about the previous generation of Nephites.

• Why do you think Alma wanted his people to remember these things?

• What did Alma want his people to know about Jesus Christ in verse 7?

Read Alma 5:14, 26, looking for the questions Alma asked his people after reminding them of their spiritual heritage.

• What do you think Alma wanted his people to understand by asking them these questions?

  Students might respond by stating truths like the following: The Lord desires us to experience a mighty change of heart and after we have been spiritually born of God, we need to work to maintain our change of heart.

• How do you think asking yourself questions like the ones from verses 14 and 26 could impact your life?

Using Alma’s teachings to conduct a self-evaluation

Display the following instructions and give students adequate time (about 10–15 minutes, if possible) to quietly work through this activity on their own. You might consider having hymns or spiritual music playing quietly while students complete the activity.

Take time to study Alma’s words to the people of Zarahemla in Alma 5:14–30 and reflect on whether you have or are experiencing the change Alma described. As you study, conduct your own self-evaluation by using some or all of the questions Alma asked in these verses. Here are some ways you could do that.

1. Pause and reflect every two to three verses, evaluating how Alma’s questions in those verses relate to your life.

2. Select a few of Alma’s questions that you feel are most meaningful and relevant to you. Write these questions in your study journal and record your responses to each question as well as any other thoughts or impressions you may have.

3. After identifying the questions Alma asked in these verses, create two or three questions you could use to evaluate your own spiritual progress. Record your responses in your study journal.

After students have completed this study activity, discuss with them what they learned and felt as they conducted their self-evaluations. The following questions could be used as part of this discussion.

• Which of Alma’s questions did you feel were most meaningful to you? Why?

• What words or phrases did you find from these verses that could give you the desire and courage to repent?

• What did you learn about God and His desires for you from what you have studied?

Think about what you have learned or felt today as you have used Alma’s words to evaluate your spiritual progress. Identify one or two things you’d like to work on as a result of what you’ve studied. Think about what you will begin doing today, what obstacles you might face, and how you can seek God’s help in overcoming your obstacles. Record your thoughts and impressions in your study journal.

Commentary and Background Information

Alma 5:9, 26. What can prevent us from maintaining a change of heart?

Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy taught:

When we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, we are filled with the heavenly music that accompanies conversion. Our hearts are changed, and we “have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). But the Spirit will not endure unkindness or pride or envy. If we lose that delicate influence in our lives, the rich harmonies of the gospel can quickly become dissonant and can ultimately be silenced. Alma asked the poignant question: “If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26). (Wilford W. Andersen, “The Music of the Gospel,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 55)

Alma 5:14. What does it mean to be born of God?

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

The Lord’s authorized servants repeatedly teach that one of the principal purposes of our mortal existence is to be spiritually changed and transformed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. …

We are instructed to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny [ourselves] of all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32), to become “new creature[s]” in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:17), to put off “the natural man” (Mosiah 3:19), and to experience “a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). Please note that the conversion described in these verses is mighty, not minor—a spiritual rebirth and fundamental change of what we feel and desire, what we think and do, and what we are. Indeed, the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through our reliance upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). As we choose to follow the Master, we choose to be changed—to be spiritually reborn. (David A. Bednar, “Ye Must Be Born Again,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 19–20)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alma 5:4–13. “Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?”

Consider inviting students to come to class prepared to share about an ancestor who left them a legacy to follow. While discussing Alma 5:4–13, you could invite students to share their stories. You might also consider using the following statement by Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy as part of this discussion:

“It would be a wonderful thing if every Latter-day Saint knew the conversion stories of their forefathers. …

“The more connected we feel to our righteous forefathers, the more likely we are to make wise and righteous choices.

“And so it is. Each of us will be greatly blessed if we know the stories of faith and sacrifice that led our forefathers to join the Lord’s Church” (William R. Walker, “Live True to the Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 97, 99).

Spiritual cardiogram

Explain that a cardiogram is a chart that doctors sometimes use to evaluate the condition of our physical hearts. In a similar way, the questions Alma asked in Alma 5 were designed to help his people evaluate the spiritual condition of their hearts.

Consider displaying the following verses: Alma 5:27, 28, 29, 30–31. Invite the students to study each verse or set of verses on their own and answer how well Alma’s questions describe them by using the following scale: “Always,” “Almost always,” “Usually,” “Sometimes,” or “Seldom, if ever.” You may want to suggest that students should answer the question in verse 29 as though it read, “Are you stripped of envy?”

After students have had sufficient time to complete the activity, invite them to record any thoughts or impressions they may have had in their study journals.

Alma’s teachings on being born again

Students could benefit from studying Alma 5 with a mindset of trying to better understand conversion. For example, students could study Alma 5:2–7, paying attention to the role Jesus Christ can play in helping us be born again and experience a change of heart. They could study Alma 5:8–16, 21, looking for the impact the Savior can have on those who are born again and exercise faith in Him.

Book of Mormon video

As part of the students’ study of Alma 5, consider showing “Alma the Younger Sets the Church in Order in Zarahemla” from time code 0:00 to 3:02.