Alma the Younger was a major achiever. Having become transformed through his experience with repentance, he went on to become an amazingly successful missionary, a foe to anti-Christs, high priest, chief judge, military leader and prophet. His doctrinal teachings were extensive and thought provoking but none more so than the following question he asked of his hearers when he inquired if they had been spiritually born of God: "Have ye received His image in your countenance?" (Alma 5:14). This question would have to be the most poignant question contained in the holy scriptures. If we should practice what we preach, then Alma indeed had the right to ask such a question.
Many years after his conversion, 'Alma delivered up the judgement-seat to Nephihah and confined himself wholly to the high priesthood' (Alma 4:20) that he might preach to the straying members of the Church and cry repentance to the unconverted. Having enjoyed success in Zarahemla and surrounding lands, he entered the city of Ammonihah and thus began the most grueling mission of his life. The people of Ammonihah not only rejected his message but they rejected him and his missionary companion, Amulek. So strong was the rejection that the very fires of hell gaped before them as those who dared to believe were stoned and burnt at stake (Alma 14:7,8). Alma and Amulek were stripped naked, imprisoned, spit upon, beaten and starved (Alma 14:22). After 12 days of such treatment, the humiliation deepened as the chief judge and the lawyers appeared at the prison to smite them again and to mock them tempting them to deliver themselves. The scriptures record no murmuring or any retaliation from either Alma or Amulek. Even when the power of God descended upon Alma, his words were directed to God asking for deliverance and not to his tormentors (Alma 4:26). There is only one way to account for such godly temperance. In all his doing, Alma didn't neglect 'becoming', for it is not about what we do but what we become while we do it. It was less important what Alma became but more important who he became. Alma the Younger, high priest, chief judge, military leader and prophet, became Alma the Submissive, Alma the Meek, Alma the Humble, Alma the Patient, Alma the Loving, Alma, the man with Christ's imagine in his countenance.
