33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so
many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the
day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is
given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while
in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor
performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis,
that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for
that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of
this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that
eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your
repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of
the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath
withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over
you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
36 And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth
not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell; yea,
and he has also said that the righteous shall sit down in his kingdom, to go no
more out; but their garments should be made white through the blood of the
Lamb.
37 And now, my beloved brethren, I desire that ye should
remember these things, and that ye should work out your salvation with fear before
God, and that ye should no more deny the coming of Christ;
38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that
ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves
even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit
and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and
blessings which he doth bestow upon you.
39 Yea, and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be
watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be led away by the
temptations of the devil, that he may not overpower you, that ye may not become
his subjects at the last day; for behold, he rewardeth you no good thing.
40 And now my beloved brethren, I would exhort you to have
patience, and that ye bear with all manner of afflictions; that ye do not
revile against those who do cast you out because of your exceeding poverty,
lest ye become sinners like unto them;
41 But that ye have patience, and bear with those
afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your
afflictions.
(Alma 34:33-41)
Amulek continues.
They have received many witnesses. “Whereof the Holy Ghost
also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before” (Hebrews 10:15).
“And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my
soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I
will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even
as I have seen him.
“And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen
him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto
them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I
will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he
proveth all his words” (2 Nephi 11:2-3).
He tells them not to procrastinate the day of their repentance.
“But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of
your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made
sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye
could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which
thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and
Eternal Head” (Helaman 13:38).
After this life, if they fail to repent, there comes a night
of darkness. “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).[1]
“What is the ‘night of darkness’ mentioned in Alma 34:33 and
Alma 41:77 It is a descriptive name for the spirit world (p. 255). Is ‘eternal torment’
(Alma 36:12) a torment that lasts forever? No, rather ‘eternal’ represents the
nature of the torment. not the duration, for it ‘comes from God who is Eternal.’”[2]
At that time, no works can be performed.
“There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is ‘not this day’ … The scriptures make
the danger of delay clear. It is that we may discover that we have run out of
time. The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting.
We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him
in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the
opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought ‘Someday
I will’ can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity.”[3]
When they face God, they will not be able to repent.
“And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the
wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the
Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good;
therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of
their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be
weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own
iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.
“Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in
darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of
the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the
righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection” (Alma 40:13-14).
The same spirit which possess their body at the time of
death will have the same power to possess them in the eternal world.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not
under the law, but under grace.[4]
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law,
but under grace? God forbid [GR may it not be].
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to
obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?
“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but
ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness” (Romans 6:14-18).
What did Amulek mean when he said, “that same spirit which
doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same
spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world”?
“[A] of the passage has led some people to believe that the ‘same
spirit’ (Alma 34:34) refers to a person’s own spirit, which they suppose cannot
change after death. Occasionally, some have suggested that this means that a
smoker, for example, will still have a craving for tobacco after he dies, but
that his spirit will not be able to satisfy this craving. However, a careful
reading of the next verse shows what Amulek meant. Speaking to these people who
had already been members of the church, he declared:
“‘[I]f ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance
even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil,
and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from
you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this
is the final state of the wicked.’ (Alma 34:35)
“From this it is clear that the ‘same spirit’ that possesses
the wicked person and will continue to possess him in the hereafter is the
devil, not the individual's spirit. Those who do the devil’s will and refuse to
repent will come under his power both in this world and the world to come. This
is particularly true of those who have already entered into the covenant by
being baptized.”[5]
By procrastinating their day of repentance, they will become
subjected to the spirit of the devil.
“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.
“Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and
hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before
the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they
must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone,
which is endless torment” (2 Nephi 28:19-23).
For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your
repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of
the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath
withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over
you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
At that time, the devil will seal them as his. “And our
spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a
devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the
father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled
our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and
stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all
manner of secret works of darkness” (2 Nephi 9:9).
The Spirit of the Lord will withdraw and have no place in
them. They devil has all power.
The Lord, Amulek reminded them, does not dwell in unholy
temples. “I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in
open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and
becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in
him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples” (Mosiah 2:37).
“And he doth not dwell in unholy temples; neither can
filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God;
therefore I say unto you the time shall come, yea, and it shall be at the last
day, that he who is filthy shall remain in his filthiness” (Alma 7:21).
“And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their
brethren, the Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve
them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not
dwell in unholy temples” (Helaman 4:24).
He only dwells in the hearts of the righteous. They will sit
with Him in his kingdom because their garments are made white through the blood
of the Lamb. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word
of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation
12:11).
[1] “I must work the works of him that sent me, while
I am with you; the time cometh when I
shall have finished my work, then I go unto the Father. (JST John 9:4).
[2] Review
of Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 3, Alma through Helaman
(1991), by Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet., Donald W. Parry, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon
4/1 (1992): 144.
[4] “For in so doing sin shall not have
dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans
6:14).
[5] Scripture
Insight, “Do Not Procrastinate the Day of Your Repentance,” Maxwell Institute
website.
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