Alma 42
42:1-10 - Corianton’s next misunderstanding stems from his misunderstanding of God’s punishment and judgment, he believes “that it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery.” There is an imagined scenario in which we, as trembling, well intentioned, deserving but imperfect mortals stand before the judgment bar of God and, as Brad Wilcox describes in his talk entitled “His Grace is Sufficient” “Jesus standing there with a clipboard and Brad standing on the other side of the room nervously looking at Jesus. Jesus checks His clipboard and says, ‘Oh, shoot, Brad. You missed it by two points.’ Brad begs Jesus, ‘Please, check the essay question one more time! There have to be two points you can squeeze out of that essay.’” This is what Corianton and most of us think of when we think of being “consigned to a state of misery,” desperately wanting to enter into the pearly gates but being denied, it puts God in the position of unfairness, of blame. But the fact of the matter is, it’s not like that. The universal law of happiness dictates that the only way to be happy is to keep the commandments of God, if you don’t keep the commandments of God, then you are unhappy, not because God is punishing you but because you are disobeying the natural law. So when Corianton says that “it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery,” it implies that as punishment for disobedience or disloyalty, God administers misery, when in fact the opposite is true, as a result of disobedience and disloyalty, God provides a way back, blessings beyond measure, and endless joy, a plan of redemption, but he won’t force us to take it, we have to choose it. Brother Wilcox continues “But the older I get, and the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, ‘Let me stay.” No, he will probably be saying, ‘Get me out of here!’ Knowing Christ’s character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, ‘Please, choose to say. Please, use y Atonement- not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want to stay.” We can see that the misery comes when the sinner refuses the plan of happiness and instead chooses Satan’s plan of misery. This is one way that we can see Corianton’s misunderstanding, but Alma teaches him that this life is “a probationary time.” The IM quotes many general authorities who comment on different aspects of this concept, beginning with Elder L. Tom Perry as teaching “the main purpose of earth life is to allow our spirits, which existed before the world was, to be united with our bodies for a time of great opportunity in mortality. The association of the two together has given us the privilege of growing, developing, and maturing as only we can with spirit and body united. With our bodies, we pass through a certain amount of trial in what is termed a probationary state of our existence. This is a time of learning and testing to prove ourselves worthy of eternal opportunities. It is all part of a divine plan our Father has for His children.” This is an interesting point that I hadn’t considered before, that our bodies and spirits united provides opportunities for learning and growth that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. I guess because we don’t know much about the preexistence, we don’t know of what our limits were when it was just us as spirits, surely we waited eons for the opportunity to have bodies, and now these two parts of ourselves together give us opportunities that are unique to this earth life. The IM also quotes Elder Ronald E. Poelman as teaching, “the plan of salvation presented to and accepted by us in our premortal state includes a probationary period on earth, during which we experience opposites, make choices, learn the consequences thereof, and prepare to return to the presence of God. Experiencing adversity is an essential part of the process. Knowing this, we elected to come to mortality.” Another great point here, when Corianton finds injustice in the misery experienced by sinners, it infers that we are passive participants in this earth life, perhaps even abducted and forced into living here, I know that I felt like that for a long time, furious that I was suffering living a life “I never asked to live, I never asked to be born.” Believe it or not, that was my attitude for a long time, when in fact, I now know that I actually did ask to be born, knowing that I would experience trials, I still “elected to come to mortality.” So when Corianton says that it’s unjust that the sinners are unhappy, we have to think that, yeah it’s unfortunate, but they knew the plan, they chose to come here even though they knew that it would be tough. Another aspect of this whole “probationary time” is that we need to live by results, meaning, if you live a wicked life and are unhappy, then it wouldn’t be too hard to put two and two together and realize that wickedness is not happiness. Likewise, when you serve someone, even briefly and feel good inside, then that equation is, service = happiness. It’s honestly not brain surgery, and we can look at the examples in the scriptures, Alma the younger lived a crazy life, and once he repented became a great prophet, he didn’t decide later on that it wasn’t worth it. In the church today there are many millions of amazing, brilliant people who wouldn’t work so hard to live a life that didn’t yield incomparable joy. My life is a testament to that, I’ve lived on both sides of the rope, and I’ll never go back, not because I’m scared of some vengeful God, but because I’ve learned that obeying the commandments = happiness, peace, comfort, and spiritual stability. That’s what I’ve learned and that’s what I’m sticking with, and that’s the same story of millions like me, both past and present. And finally, the IM quotes Elder William R. Bradford as teaching "this life is a probationary period. It is a marvelous gift of time during which we can learn to be like our Heavenly Father by following the teachings of His Son, Jesus Christ. The path He leads us on is not a cluttered path. It is simple and straight and lighted by the Spirit."
42:11-15 - There's an interesting point here that Alma brings up saying "and now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord." What I find interesting about this statement is the "laying it aside" part. Is Alma saying laying it aside, as in "pretending it never happened?" Or is he saying laying it aside, as in "not taking advantage of it?" This reminds me of Mosiah 16:5, that those who "persists in his own carnal nature... is as though there was no redemption made." I think either way it is the same and that's an interesting idea, Corianton says it's not just for the wicked to be miserable, but here Alma says that without partaking of the atonement, they would be miserable simply based on the fact that justice would have hold of them, because of their unwillingness to repent, their state is the same as if the atonement had never happened, either way, justice has it's claim, because they rejected mercy, and they are clearly miserable because they are "cut off from the presence of the Lord," not because God is inflicting some heinous form of punishment. The Savior provides a way out, he provides mercy to pay our debt to justice. The IM quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching "Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended save there be one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption. Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing. But now this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. The trust is the very root of Christian doctrine... The extension of mercy will not be automatic. It will be through covenant with Him. It will be on His terms, His generous terms, which include, as an absolute essential, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. All mankind can be protected by the law of justice, and at once each of us individually may be extended the redeeming and healing blessing of mercy." That was so beautiful! We might not understand it fully now, I know that I sure don't, but there is a plan, a way for us to escape, and that it is provided by a loving God who truly desires nothing but our happiness, that is the truth that can unravel the falsehoods that are confounding Corianton. The IM also quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching "The justice and mercy of God will have been so demonstrably perfect that at the Final Judgment there will be no complaints, including from those who once questioned what God had allotted in the mortal framework."
42:16-22 - We now come to the essential role that punishment plays in the whole mercy/justice dynamic, and it seems a little bit gloom and doom, but this is the nature of actions and consequences, I guess we can also say that reward and blessings play a vital role in the mercy/justice dynamic as well, but I assume that punishment is addresses here because Corianton's question is about sin and misery. Alma indirectly addresses both when he says "repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should be, affixed opposite of the plan of happiness, which was as eternal also as the life of the soul." Punishment is eternal and so is the plan of happiness and they both play a role together on the happiness or misery on the individual, based on their own personal choices pertaining to repentance. Interestingly, in verse 18 Alma teaches that "remorse of conscience" is a brought by punishment, which fits in a different way, if we think about it. The reason that the wicked are miserable is because they feel too guilty to be in the presence of God, which is the punishment for breaking the laws of God and refusing to repent. The IM quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching, "It is my purpose to east the pain of those who suffer from the very unpleasant feeling of guilt. I feel like the doctor who begins his treatment by saying, 'Now this may hurt a little...' Every one of us has at least tasted the pain of conscience which follows our mistakes... All of us sometime, and some of us much of the time, suffer remorse of conscience from things we did wrong o things left undone. That feeling of guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the physical body... We all make mistakes. Sometimes we harm ourselves and seriously injure others in ways that we alone cannot repair. We break things that we alone cannot fix. It is then in our nature to feel guilt and humiliation and suffering., which we alone cannot cure. That is when the healing power of the Atonement will help." I really liked the analogy of guilt is to the spirit, what pain is to the body. When we talk about fire and brimstone and gnashing of teeth, those are descriptions of physical pain, but they are akin to what the guilt will do to our spirit if we don't repent. I think if we were to learn that the guilt we feel will be unbearable, and that would be our punishment, I think a lot of us would think, "oh well, that doesn't sound too bad," so to make our mortal minds understand the gravity of the horror that we will face, the description of physical pain is so much more vivid and easy for us to understand. The IM continues to quote President Spencer W. Kimball as teaching, "How wonderful that God should endow us with this sensitive yet strong guide we call a conscience! Someone has aptly remarked that 'conscience is a celestial spark which God has put into every man for the purpose of saving his soul.' Certainly it is the instrument which awakens the soul to conscienceness of sin, spurs a person to make up his mind to adjust, to convict himself of the transgression without soft-pedaling or minimizing the error, to be willing to face facts, meet the issue and pay necessary penalties- and until the person is in this frame of mind he has not begun to repent. To be sorry is an approach, to abandon the act of error is a beginning, but until one's conscience has been sufficiently stirred to cause him to move in the matter, so long as there are excuses and rationalizations, one has hardly begun his approach to forgiveness. This is what Alma meant in telling his son Corianton that 'none but the truly penitent are saved." This brought up some interesting concepts for me, especially the one that true repentance is free of excuses and rationalizations. There is forsaking and confessing sins, but there's also a time when it's not appropriate to look back with longing, I don't know if that makes sense, but there are things that I've done that disgust me, and then there are things just as wrong that don't. Hmmm.... I guess I don't really know how to explain it.
42:23-31 - There is a statement in verse 23 that gets quite a bit of attention in the IM, "and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead." The IM quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as teaching, "the magnificent expression of His love, when He gave His life as a sacrifice for all men. That Atonement, wrought in unspeakable pain, became the greatest even of history, an act of grace for which men gave nothing but which brought the assurance of the Resurrection to all who have or would walk the earth. No other act in all of human history compares with it. Nothing that has ever happened can match it. Totally unselfish and with unbounded love for all mankind, it became an unparalleled act of mercy for the whole human race. The with the Resurrection that first Easter morn came the triumphal declaration of immortality... He not only granted the blessing of the Resurrection to all, but opened the way to eternal life to those who observe His teachings and commandments." I loved the line "an act of grace for which men gave nothing," as stupid as it sounds, I had never thought about it before, we, I, truly gave nothing for the blessings of the atonement, He truly just wants me to be happy and successful, and he truly gave his life for that to happen, not just so that I can live again, but so that I can live more abundantly, oh wow, so much more makes sense right now. That's incredible. Now we come full circle, to the beginning of the chapter, and I have to be honest, this was a little bit difficult for me to follow, Alma's logic through the questions, is it justice that the wicked are "consigned to a state of misery?" Alma teaches first that God gave us this mortality to as "a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God." And because this is a time to learn and grow, we have "become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature." In this state, God has provided a road map for us to follow, the map of commandments, and in order for these commandments to be of any worth to us, there had to be punishments affixed for the breaking of those commandments. The punishments made us subject to justice, which would be exacting and merciless, but God's intention was not for us to come here and fail and be unhappy because of our inability to be perfect, so he created the great plan of redemption because "there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience." Because there was the great plan of redemption, we are provided the opportunity to repent, "which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment." So really, the determining factor between mercy and justice is what we choose to do, if we repent, then we have God's mercy and the opportunity to be happy, but if we don't repent, then we are forced to meet justice face to face, and the choice is ours, "therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds. If he has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God." And here we are full circle, the wicked are miserable because they refuse the mercy of Christ, so they must face justice, and the guilt will not allow them to be in God's presence. It's easy to understand Corianton's confusion and see God as a hard hearted monster who inflicts heinous, unjust, and extreme punishment on those who are disobedient, but in reality, it is the choice to not repent that means misery and suffering of the unrepentant, God is standing there with out stretched arms, hoping that we will run to Him and repent, and stay with him, our punishment, our misery is self-inflicted when we refuse to go to Him and partake of His love and goodness.
42:11-15 - There's an interesting point here that Alma brings up saying "and now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord." What I find interesting about this statement is the "laying it aside" part. Is Alma saying laying it aside, as in "pretending it never happened?" Or is he saying laying it aside, as in "not taking advantage of it?" This reminds me of Mosiah 16:5, that those who "persists in his own carnal nature... is as though there was no redemption made." I think either way it is the same and that's an interesting idea, Corianton says it's not just for the wicked to be miserable, but here Alma says that without partaking of the atonement, they would be miserable simply based on the fact that justice would have hold of them, because of their unwillingness to repent, their state is the same as if the atonement had never happened, either way, justice has it's claim, because they rejected mercy, and they are clearly miserable because they are "cut off from the presence of the Lord," not because God is inflicting some heinous form of punishment. The Savior provides a way out, he provides mercy to pay our debt to justice. The IM quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching "Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended save there be one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption. Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing. But now this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. The trust is the very root of Christian doctrine... The extension of mercy will not be automatic. It will be through covenant with Him. It will be on His terms, His generous terms, which include, as an absolute essential, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. All mankind can be protected by the law of justice, and at once each of us individually may be extended the redeeming and healing blessing of mercy." That was so beautiful! We might not understand it fully now, I know that I sure don't, but there is a plan, a way for us to escape, and that it is provided by a loving God who truly desires nothing but our happiness, that is the truth that can unravel the falsehoods that are confounding Corianton. The IM also quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching "The justice and mercy of God will have been so demonstrably perfect that at the Final Judgment there will be no complaints, including from those who once questioned what God had allotted in the mortal framework."
42:16-22 - We now come to the essential role that punishment plays in the whole mercy/justice dynamic, and it seems a little bit gloom and doom, but this is the nature of actions and consequences, I guess we can also say that reward and blessings play a vital role in the mercy/justice dynamic as well, but I assume that punishment is addresses here because Corianton's question is about sin and misery. Alma indirectly addresses both when he says "repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should be, affixed opposite of the plan of happiness, which was as eternal also as the life of the soul." Punishment is eternal and so is the plan of happiness and they both play a role together on the happiness or misery on the individual, based on their own personal choices pertaining to repentance. Interestingly, in verse 18 Alma teaches that "remorse of conscience" is a brought by punishment, which fits in a different way, if we think about it. The reason that the wicked are miserable is because they feel too guilty to be in the presence of God, which is the punishment for breaking the laws of God and refusing to repent. The IM quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching, "It is my purpose to east the pain of those who suffer from the very unpleasant feeling of guilt. I feel like the doctor who begins his treatment by saying, 'Now this may hurt a little...' Every one of us has at least tasted the pain of conscience which follows our mistakes... All of us sometime, and some of us much of the time, suffer remorse of conscience from things we did wrong o things left undone. That feeling of guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the physical body... We all make mistakes. Sometimes we harm ourselves and seriously injure others in ways that we alone cannot repair. We break things that we alone cannot fix. It is then in our nature to feel guilt and humiliation and suffering., which we alone cannot cure. That is when the healing power of the Atonement will help." I really liked the analogy of guilt is to the spirit, what pain is to the body. When we talk about fire and brimstone and gnashing of teeth, those are descriptions of physical pain, but they are akin to what the guilt will do to our spirit if we don't repent. I think if we were to learn that the guilt we feel will be unbearable, and that would be our punishment, I think a lot of us would think, "oh well, that doesn't sound too bad," so to make our mortal minds understand the gravity of the horror that we will face, the description of physical pain is so much more vivid and easy for us to understand. The IM continues to quote President Spencer W. Kimball as teaching, "How wonderful that God should endow us with this sensitive yet strong guide we call a conscience! Someone has aptly remarked that 'conscience is a celestial spark which God has put into every man for the purpose of saving his soul.' Certainly it is the instrument which awakens the soul to conscienceness of sin, spurs a person to make up his mind to adjust, to convict himself of the transgression without soft-pedaling or minimizing the error, to be willing to face facts, meet the issue and pay necessary penalties- and until the person is in this frame of mind he has not begun to repent. To be sorry is an approach, to abandon the act of error is a beginning, but until one's conscience has been sufficiently stirred to cause him to move in the matter, so long as there are excuses and rationalizations, one has hardly begun his approach to forgiveness. This is what Alma meant in telling his son Corianton that 'none but the truly penitent are saved." This brought up some interesting concepts for me, especially the one that true repentance is free of excuses and rationalizations. There is forsaking and confessing sins, but there's also a time when it's not appropriate to look back with longing, I don't know if that makes sense, but there are things that I've done that disgust me, and then there are things just as wrong that don't. Hmmm.... I guess I don't really know how to explain it.
42:23-31 - There is a statement in verse 23 that gets quite a bit of attention in the IM, "and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead." The IM quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as teaching, "the magnificent expression of His love, when He gave His life as a sacrifice for all men. That Atonement, wrought in unspeakable pain, became the greatest even of history, an act of grace for which men gave nothing but which brought the assurance of the Resurrection to all who have or would walk the earth. No other act in all of human history compares with it. Nothing that has ever happened can match it. Totally unselfish and with unbounded love for all mankind, it became an unparalleled act of mercy for the whole human race. The with the Resurrection that first Easter morn came the triumphal declaration of immortality... He not only granted the blessing of the Resurrection to all, but opened the way to eternal life to those who observe His teachings and commandments." I loved the line "an act of grace for which men gave nothing," as stupid as it sounds, I had never thought about it before, we, I, truly gave nothing for the blessings of the atonement, He truly just wants me to be happy and successful, and he truly gave his life for that to happen, not just so that I can live again, but so that I can live more abundantly, oh wow, so much more makes sense right now. That's incredible. Now we come full circle, to the beginning of the chapter, and I have to be honest, this was a little bit difficult for me to follow, Alma's logic through the questions, is it justice that the wicked are "consigned to a state of misery?" Alma teaches first that God gave us this mortality to as "a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God." And because this is a time to learn and grow, we have "become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature." In this state, God has provided a road map for us to follow, the map of commandments, and in order for these commandments to be of any worth to us, there had to be punishments affixed for the breaking of those commandments. The punishments made us subject to justice, which would be exacting and merciless, but God's intention was not for us to come here and fail and be unhappy because of our inability to be perfect, so he created the great plan of redemption because "there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience." Because there was the great plan of redemption, we are provided the opportunity to repent, "which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment." So really, the determining factor between mercy and justice is what we choose to do, if we repent, then we have God's mercy and the opportunity to be happy, but if we don't repent, then we are forced to meet justice face to face, and the choice is ours, "therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds. If he has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God." And here we are full circle, the wicked are miserable because they refuse the mercy of Christ, so they must face justice, and the guilt will not allow them to be in God's presence. It's easy to understand Corianton's confusion and see God as a hard hearted monster who inflicts heinous, unjust, and extreme punishment on those who are disobedient, but in reality, it is the choice to not repent that means misery and suffering of the unrepentant, God is standing there with out stretched arms, hoping that we will run to Him and repent, and stay with him, our punishment, our misery is self-inflicted when we refuse to go to Him and partake of His love and goodness.
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