Amulek
The man who knew and refused — until an angel came — and then gave everything for the gospel he had resisted
I Would Not Hear
When Alma arrived in Ammonihah, a city of wealthy, hardened people, he was cast out and told to leave. He left, then was turned back by an angel. He was hungry and weary when he met Amulek on the road. He asked for food. Amulek fed him, and then said something extraordinary when he introduced himself to the people:
Alma 10:5–6
“I am a man of no small reputation among all those who know me; yea, and behold, I have many kindreds and friends, and I have also acquired much riches by the hand of my industry. Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never have known much of these things; but behold, I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people. Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know.”
This self-description is one of the most candid confessions in the Book of Mormon. Amulek was not a man who had never been offered the gospel. He had been called “many times.” He had chosen, consciously and repeatedly, not to respond. He knew, and would not know. Then an angel appeared to him — commanded him to receive a holy man into his house — and the long resistance ended.
The Testimony of Salvation
In the debates that followed in Ammonihah, a lawyer named Zeezrom challenged Alma and Amulek with sharp questions designed to trap them in contradiction. Amulek answered with one of the most direct declarations about Christ's exclusive saving role in the Book of Mormon:
Alma 11:40
“And he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else. Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death.”
Zeezrom was eventually convicted by this teaching and converted. Many others were not. The city's judges were enraged. What followed was one of the most harrowing scenes in the Book of Mormon.
The Fire at Ammonihah
The chief judge of Ammonihah ordered the converts — the women and children who believed — to be cast into fire along with their scriptures. Alma and Amulek were bound and forced to watch. Amulek could not endure it:
Alma 14:10–11
“How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames. But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.”
Amulek was then told that his own family had been cast out and that his friends had turned against him because of his witness. He gave up everything — wealth, standing, family connections, safety — that he had introduced himself as possessing when the story began. The man of “no small reputation” and “much riches” was now a prisoner, watching people die for the testimony he had once refused to give.
Alma and Amulek were eventually miraculously freed when the walls of their prison fell, killing their captors. They left Ammonihah. Not long afterward, the city was destroyed by Lamanite armies — in a single day. Amulek continued to serve as a missionary alongside Alma, his costly conversion complete.
Key Scriptures