10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart,
the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden
his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given
unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
11 And they that will
harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they
know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the
devil, and led by his will down to destruction.
Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.
12 And Amulek hath
spoken plainly concerning death, and being raised from this mortality to a
state of immortality, and being brought before the bar of God, to be judged
according to our works.
13 Then if our hearts
have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word,
insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for
then we shall be condemned.
14 For our words will
condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless;
and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not
dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the
rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to chide us from his
presence.
15 But this cannot be;
we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in
his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our everlasting shame that
all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful
unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that
believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.
Alma 12:10-15
Alma continues to teach Zeezrom.
He had told Zeezrom the Lord gives out knowledge based on
the diligence of the seeker. If the
seeker does hardens his heart, he receives the lesser portion of the Lord’s
teachings. “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he
hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:29-30).
Should the person not harden their hearts, not only will
they receive a greater portion of the gospel, but they will also know the
mysteries of God in full.
“For
behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon
line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are
those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they
shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them
that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which
they have” (2 Nephi 28:30).
“That
which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God,
receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the
perfect day” (D&C 50:24).
“Now,
behold this is wisdom; whoso readeth, let him understand and receive also; For
unto him that receiveth it shall be given more abundantly, even power”
(D&C 71:5-6).
Those who refuse to listen to God’s word receive the lesser
portion until the time comes they know nothing about the mysteries of God.
It appears that enlightened beings
exist on a sliding scale of Spirit and that the direction a person is sliding
with respect to the Spirit determines the degree of his or her happiness … It
is clear that the knowledge to get the Spirit is the most valuable knowledge
that can be offered to a person, or that he can implement to affect his total
well-being.[1]
Conversely, those who harden their
hearts (harden appears eight times in Alma's sermon) experience the
opposite of order. They are "taken captive by the devil, and led by his
will down to destruction," and, the Lord swears in his wrath, they
"shall not enter into my rest" but shall be condemned to the
"everlasting destruction" of their souls (Alma 12:11, 35, 36).[2]
Failing to learn concerning the mysteries of God leads one
to become a captive of the devil and led to his destruction. “[T]his
is what is meant by the chains of hell.”
“His
own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords
of his sins” (Proverbs 5:22).
“Jesus
answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant
of sin” (John 8:34).
“For
the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be
stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains,
and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; For behold, at that day shall he rage
in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that
which is good. And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security,
that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and
thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to
hell. And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell;
and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth
in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is
no deliverance” (2 Nephi 28:19-22).
“And
now I say unto you, ye have been oppressed by king Noah, and have been in
bondage to him and his priests, and have been brought into iniquity by them;
therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity” (Mosiah 23:12).
“Yea,
we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has
loosed our brethren from the chains of hell” (Alma 26:14).
“Whoso
is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is
pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are
in the depths of hell” (Proverbs 9:16-18).
“For
the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous
work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on
the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life
eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and
the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and
also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity
of the devil, of which I have spoken” (1 Nephi 14:7).
“And
the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of
men from the fall. And because that they
are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from
evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the
punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments
which God hath given. Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all
things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and
eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and
death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that
all men might be miserable like unto himself. And now, my sons, I would that ye
should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and
be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of
his Holy Spirit; And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the
flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power
to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own
kingdom” (2 Nephi 2:26-29).
Alma reminded Zeezrom Amulek had spoken clearly about death
and being raised from mortality to immortality as well as standing before the
judgement bar of God to be judged according to our works.
“He
shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his
people” (Psalms 50:4).
“But
I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).
“For
the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then
he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27).
“For
this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might
be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the
spirit” (1 Peter 4:6).[3]
“Wherefore,
if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the
things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore,
they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if
their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be
filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so,
the kingdom of God must be filthy also” (1 Nephi 15:33).
“And
it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be
filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before
my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world … And behold, all
things are written by the Father; therefore out of the books which shall be written
shall the world be judged” (3 Nephi 27:16, 26).
If we have hardened our hearts and will not accept the word
of God, it will not be found in us. If
it is not found in us, we shall be condemned at the final judgement.
Our words condemn us, our works condemn us, our thoughts
condemn us, and we will not be able to stand spotless before God.
“Death
and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the
fruit thereof” (Proverbs 18:21).
“And
the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and
it is set on fire of hell” (James 3:6).
“And
finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there
are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this
much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and
your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue
in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto
the end of your lives, ye must perish.
And now, O man, remember, and perish not” (Mosiah 4:29-30).
We won’t dare look at God.
If we could, we would have rocks and mountains fall upon us to hide from
God.
“The
high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and
the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains,
Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us” (Hosea 10:8).
“And
they that kill the prophets, and the saints, the depths of the earth shall swallow
them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and mountains shall cover them, and
whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush
them to pieces and grind them to powder” (2 Nephi 26:5).[4]
President Marion G. Romney gave us the key to avoid this
awful event – conversion.
President Marion G. Romney
(1897–1988) of the First Presidency described conversion—experiencing a mighty
change of heart—as a transformation process involving and affecting every
aspect of one’s life: “The verb convert means ‘to turn from
one belief or course to another,’ [and] conversion is ‘a
spiritual and moral change attending a change of
belief with conviction.’ As used in the scriptures, converted generally
implies not merely mental acceptance of Jesus and his teachings, but also a
motivating faith in him and in his gospel, a faith which works a
transformation, an actual change in one’s understanding of
life’s meaning and in one’s allegiance to God—in interest, in thought, and in
conduct. While conversion may be accomplished in stages, one
is not really converted in the full sense of the term unless and until he is at
heart a new person.”[5]
Despite our best efforts, we will not be able to avoid
facing God at the final judgement. We
will “stand before him in his glory, and
in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion.” “And if they be evil they are consigned to an
awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink
from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from
whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their
own souls” (Mosiah 3:25). We won’t be able to hide our shame.
Shame is mentioned often enough in
the Book of Mormon to prove that a strong culture of honor and shame operated
in Nephite society. For example, Jacob used a heavy dose of shame in
castigating the men in the city of Nephi for their sexual infidelity and greed,
berating them because their actions had wounded their wives and children and
even caused himself "to shrink with shame" (Jacob 2:6–9). Alma tried
to sway his accusers in Ammonihah by telling them that eventually they would
have to acknowledge before God to their "everlasting shame that all his
judgments are just" (Alma 12:15).[6]
We will acknowledge His judgements are just and fair; he is
merciful to all of His children, and He can save all who believe in Him and
repent. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9).
[1] Alma
the Younger (Part 2) Man's Descent, M. Catherine Thomas, Maxwell Institute,
accessed April 10, 2015.
[2] Feasting
on the Word – "Know the Covenants of the Lord" – Sermons, Maxwell
Institute, accessed April 10, 2015.
[3] JST 1 Pet. 4:6 “Because of this, is the gospel preached to them who are dead, that
they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live in the spirit according to the will of God.”
[4] This
occurred at the time of Christ’s crucifixion in the new world. “And now, whoso readeth, let him understand;
he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all
these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by
whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these
things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy
prophets” (3 Nephi 10:14).
[6] The
Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon – Judicial Punishments: Types and Rationales,
Maxwell Institute, accessed April 10, 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment