Gradually, Alma teaches, faith will give way to knowledge as the experimenter observes and verifies the results. Obviously, as with any spiritual growth, some people’s faith may be transformed into “sure knowledge” quickly, while others may repeat these spiritual experiments many times as their faith is slowly strengthened and encouraged by the results they observe. Alma notes that eventually, they will achieve “perfect” knowledge, but even then the knowledge is only complete in that one thing.
For example, people who pray to know whether the Book of Mormon is an inspired document may receive an answer (either immediately or gradually) that it is, because of how its teachings change their lives or bring them closer to God. Eventually, faith will move toward knowledge in that area.
But they must still pray and exercise faith on many other spiritual questions, such as the nature of Christ or the reality of the afterlife, repeating this process until faith becomes knowledge in those areas as well. For most Mormons, this is a lifelong process—and even extends beyond this life, as Latter-day Saints believe that they will still be growing and learning spiritual truths in the life to come.