Alma 5

Alma 5 is his testimony to the people. He first tells them that they cannot assume because their parents were righteous that they can be saved on the basis of their parent's righteousness, but it will be on the basis of how they have lived their own lives. He tells them that many of their parents were converted by his father Alma after he had heard the words of Abinadi and a mighty had change come into his heart. He preached to the parents of these people and they had a mighty change of heart, so Alma (the younger) asks these people if they've experienced a change in their hearts like their parents did. He then asks them a series of questions and they are worth thinking about.

1. Have you been spiritually born of God and received his image in your countenance?
2. Do you have faith in the redemption of Christ?
3. Are you prepared to stand before God satisfied with the way you have lived your life?
4. Is your heart pure and your hands clean?
5. Can you comfortably stand before God if your works have been filthy, if you been a murderers, liars, persecutors of the poor?
6. If you once experienced a change of heart, do you feel the same now? Have you endured?
7. Are you sufficiently humble, stripped of pride and envy?
8. Do you have charity or are you unfeeling and mock others?
9. Are you obedient? Do you follow the good shepherd and allow him to protect you?

Alma then bears his testimony and says they should not assume that these are words he just thought of himself, that his knowledge comes from him is own conclusions. He says, "How do ye suppose I know [that the things I am testifying of] of their surety? ... They are made know unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me."

That, I think, is one of the most important messages of the Book of Mormon. If we are willing to pay the price, we can know by the Holy Ghost that these things are true. We will know, not because of what someone else has said or done, but we can know for our own selves without doubt because of the witness of the Holy Ghost. That is the great strength of the church, the individual testimonies of the members.