Alma also commanded Helaman to preserve the twenty-four plates of gold found by the people of King Limhi (see Mosiah 8:7–11). Through those records the Lord would reveal “the secret works of those people who [had] been destroyed” (Alma 37:21) and witness to future generations that he would “bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and abominations; and except they repent [he would] destroy them from off the face of the earth” (v. 25).
The Lord said he would reveal those “secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land” (v. 25). Why would the Lord do this? (see Ether 2:8–12). Alma 37:23 reveals that this unveiling of the secret works of darkness would be accomplished through the Lord’s servant Gazelem, by means of “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.” The stone has reference to the interpreters called the Urim and Thummim (see vv. 21, 24, D&C 17:1; see also Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 307–8).
Alma specifically instructed Helaman not to record the secret oaths, covenants, agreements, and signs by which the secret combinations of past ages were perpetuated, lest others reading the sacred record should also start to use them (see Alma 37:27–29; see also Helaman 6:25–26). The American continent is a choice land and it is “cursed … forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe” (Alma 37:31).