It is finished! I have completed my very first official college paper, a character sketch of a Book of Mormon character for Honors Literature 203R - “Old Testament Roots in the Book of Mormon.” How cool is it that my first paper gets to be about a Book of Mormon character? Anyway, for a first paper, with a two-day deadline, I’m pretty proud of it. It is entitled “Amulek - A Diamond in the Rough” and is readable by clicking “more…” or by downloading the PDF.

Amulek - A Diamond in the Rough

For the first 19 years of their lives, young men of the Church today are prepared, molded, and taught, in anticipation of serving a two year mission. The time is scheduled, and the lessons are organized. But what if you lived your whole life not knowing much of the Church, only to be visited by an angel, commanded to preach with someone you’ve never met, to a people so agnostic and wicked that they torture prophets, kill masses, and burn holy writ, only to lose all of your worldly possessions and family in a matter of three months? Such is the call of Amulek.

Son of Giddonah, great-grandson of the prophet Aminadi, Amulek was a “man of no small reputation� and who had “acquired much riches,� through his labors (Alma 10:4). Yet, even being the great-grandson of a prominent prophet, Amulek said that he “never [had] known much of the ways of the Lord,� which lack of religious education was most likely a byproduct of the wicked city that he lived in - Ammonihah (Alma 10:5). Ammonihah was a city so wicked, it earned the rare distinction of securing a spot on the Lord’s one-day-destruction list, an infamous position that very few other cities in the Book of Mormon qualified for. Amulek would have spent his childhood in this abominable place, would have had to decide which set of values to follow, and also raise a family in such a city.

It was on a trip to visit one of his family members that Amulek received his call, but not in a familiar white envelope. Rather, an angel of God appeared to Amulek, and showed him Alma in a vision, and commanded, “Thou shalt receive.� (Alma 8:20). Acting upon great faith, Amulek invited Alma into his house without even so much as knowing his name, after which Alma blessed all of Amulek’s family, and tarried with him for a long while (Alma 8:21-27).

Yet Amulek’s true luster is not evident until he began preaching to his colleagues, who wished to “put [him] away privily,� or secretly kill him (Alma 14:3). But what a brilliant and cutting rebuke he delivers to the wicked! Pleading from the depths of his compassionate heart, the Book of Alma records: “but Amulek stretched forth his hand, and cried the mightier unto them, saying: ‘O ye wicked and perverse generation, why hath Satan got such great hold upon your hearts?’� (Alma 10:25).

It is not long after this denunciation that Alma and Amulek are thrown into prison, mocked and humiliated by the chief judge and lawyers, and broken down to an animalistic level. He is denied food and water, is stripped of his clothing, and is regularly beaten and questioned. In the midst of his imprisonment, he is forced to also watch the horrific and evil scene of the leaders of Ammonihah burning all the women and children of those that believed on the missionaries’ word. To anyone, this would be a terrifically crushing crime to witness. But imagine Amulek’s utter helplessness as he watched his wife, mother, and children scream in agony as the flames consumed their flesh. All of Amulek’s family had been converted, and therefore would have been among the believers that had been gathered together and burned for believing in a God and Messiah. One can sense Amulek’s tenderness as he cries, “How can we witness this awful scene?� and wishes to exercise Priesthood authority to save the people, and surely his family, from pain (Alma 14:10). Yet this is not to be, and Alma and Amulek are sent back to prison to be subjected to more beatings and sufferings, until they are finally heard by the Lord and are freed from the crumbling walls of the prison.

And as if this weren’t enough, after being freed from prison, Amulek loses all of his worldly possessions (which are many), is disowned by his father, and is abandoned by his kindred (Alma 15:16). Amazingly, this occurs within three months of his call, a painfully short amount of time for you to lose everything near and dear to you (Alma 10:6, 14:14). But through it all, the giant of the man named Amulek stands resilient, with an eye perfectly single to the glory of God. The divinely-refined Amulek goes on to teach the word of God to many people, accompanying Alma on his famous teachings of faith to the Zoramites, and staying faithful all his days.

Would you or I heed the command of an angel? Most likely. Would you or I have the courage to testify against our friends and neighbors? Could you or I watch our wives, mothers, and children burned right before our eyes? And could we then continue to serve the Lord, unquestioning? He may not ask us to find out, but the inspirational rock that is Amulek can certainly teach us of the extreme faith and strength that is needed to accomplish all.

Written by Josh Lyman