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Alma 8-12 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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Today's lesson we're going to be focusing on Amaniha.
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This particular city is fascinating in the whole mission
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of Alma the Younger. Remember, he gave up the
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judgment seat. He's no longer the chief judge,
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and he's gone on this mission to try to increase the the level of
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righteousness among the Nephites.
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So you'll notice that back in chapters five and six, he
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started at the center of the land.
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He began in Zarahemla. Then in seven he went out to
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Gideon and had a great experience with the people in
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Gideon. Then he came home, and in the
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beginning of chapter 8 it tells you that he returned in verse
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one to his own houses ere hemla to rest himself from the
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laborers which he had performed. He's getting some downtime, some
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relaxation, and then in chapter 8, he begins again in verse
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four, he began to teach the people in the land of Milek
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according to the holy order of God by which he had been called.
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Check this out. You get chapter 8 verse, you
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know, three through 6, he's in Milek and look at the people.
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Verse five, it came to pass that the people came to him
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throughout all the borders of the land, which was by the
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wilderness side, because we're West of the river Sidon out on
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the West by the borders of the wilderness.
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And they were baptized throughout all the land.
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So that when he had finished his work at Melech, he departed
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thence and travelled 3 days journey on the north of the land
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of Melech and came to the city which is called Amaniah.
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Now look at this. So you get chapter 8 where he
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leaves Melech in verse six comes to Amaniah and you're going to
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be in Ammaniah all the way through chapter 15.
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That's a lot of column space. That's a lot of scripture pages
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for for the city of Ammaniah. Notice this pattern.
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Mormon looking down the quarter of time says, what do they need?
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What is going to be the most beneficial to them in the last
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in in the latter days? What happens here, here, here or
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here and in what proportions? You'll notice what we got the
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vast majority of of Mormons editing effort for it's what
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happened in Ammaniah. You got 3-4 verses Max in Milek
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where largely the people are not members of the church.
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So these they're they're not in the in the gospel, but they come
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in huge, huge numbers to be baptized.
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And we're sitting here saying, come on Mormon, there's great
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success happening in Milek and you're not giving us any of
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those details. I'm thinking Mormon saw our day
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and said, you people in the latter days, you need to know
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what Alma had to go through and what Amulek had to go through in
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ammonia as opposed to just celebrate the wonderful things
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that happened in Milek. Think about this.
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What if you were serving a full time mission for the church and
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there was a particular area in your mission that was
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notoriously bad. Nobody wanted to serve there.
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And when anybody got assigned to serve there, it was like, Oh no,
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kiss of death, poor you, good luck.
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Look at chapter 8, verse nine. What if you got a description of
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a particular area that looked like this?
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Now Satan had gotten great holds upon the hearts of the people of
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the city of fill in the blank with whatever name, in this
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case, Amanihah. Therefore they would not hearken
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unto the words of Elma. You're saying to yourself, well
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then there's nothing I can do. Why waste my time here?
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Because Satan has such a great hold.
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Notice you've got all of this awful description of how their
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hearts are bound by Satan. So it's it's a pretty bad
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outlook on the people. And then notice the very next
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word in verse 10. Never the less, which we've
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talked about before, always the greater put more emphasis over
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here, de emphasize, not de emphasize, but put the greater
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emphasis here in this cause counter effect relationship.
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So it's a rough spot to serve. But in spite of that, we're
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going to put greater emphasis on what comes here.
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Every mission president the world over would pray for all of
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their missionaries to be like verse 10.
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Nevertheless, Alma labored much in the Spirit, wrestling with
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God in mighty prayer that he would pour out his Spirit upon
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the people who were in the city, that he would also grant that he
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might baptize them under repentance.
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I love that faithful approach. And you're thinking, Oh good,
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this is great. There's only one problem.
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Look at the first word of verse 11.
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In spite of a missionary's best efforts, or a leader's best
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efforts, or a mom or a dad, their best efforts, there's
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still this thing called agency. And verse 11 is all about agency
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being used in the wrong direction.
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Nevertheless, the people in Ammaniah had hardened their
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hearts, saying unto him, Behold, we know that thou art Elma, and
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you're just the high priest. You're no longer our chief
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judge. You have no authority over us,
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so we're not going to listen to you.
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So you saw this. There's a really rough place.
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Nevertheless, Alma worked really hard.
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He, he put his whole soul into this and poured his heart out to
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God. Nevertheless, the people
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rejected him anyway. I teach many, many students at
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BYU every year and occasionally I'll I'll find out from some of
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them who have returned from missions that they feel like
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they were a failure on the mission because they'll say
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things like I, I didn't baptize anyone or I only baptized and
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then they'll give me some really low number and say it.
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I don't feel like I accomplished what I really should have been
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able to accomplish in that time. I love the fact that here in
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verse 910 and 11, God is teaching a principle that you
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cannot control people's agency and you can't base your success
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on how other people choose to use their agency.
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Alma did everything he could and the people still chose to reject
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him. At which point look at verse 13.
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Now when the people had said this and withstood all His
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words, and not just withstood him, look at this next part, and
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reviled him and spit upon him, and caused that he should be
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cast out of their city, he departed thence and took his
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journey towards the city which was called Aaron.
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Can you picture the body language?
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By the way, he's been fasting many days because nobody's
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feeding him. Can you picture the physical
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appearance of Alma, the spiritual rejection and
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dejection as he's spit upon, reviled, kicked out of the city,
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as he now leaves and starts walking away, this weighed down
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soul. Now look at verse 14.
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It came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being
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weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and
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anguish of soul because of the wickedness of the people who
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were in the city of Amanihaha. It came to pass that while Alma
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was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold, an Angel of the
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Lord appeared unto him, saying, Blessed art thou Alma, therefore
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lift up thy head and rejoice. So here he is weighed down, and
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he's in the depths of of prophetic despair, having been
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totally rejected in Ammanihah. And then the Angel comes and
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says, lift up your head and rejoice.
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It's OK. You've been faithful in keeping
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the commandments. You did everything you could.
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And then the Angel introduces himself to him in a different
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way. He says, remember, Do you
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Remember Me? We're old friends, Elma.
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I'm the one who was sent to turn you from that path of wickedness
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when you were off with the four sons of Mosiah many years ago.
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Now I get to come to you again. Isn't this interesting, The
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contrast? The first time this Angel came
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to Alma, he's puffed up. He's at the height of his
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popularity among the people. He everything that he's doing,
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the world is applauding and he's he's on cloud nine.
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And the Angel comes and bursts that bubble and brings him down
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into the depths of humility and three days of the pains of a
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damned soul using his own words are are what follows.
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Now you get the opposite. Now Alma is in the depths of
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despair. He's downtrodden.
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He's more than humble. And now the Angel comes.
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Lift up your head. Rejoice.
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He lifts him up. There's a phrase in the
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Scriptures and a concept in the Scriptures that repeats itself
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in in a variety of ways, that the lofty shall be brought down
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and made low, and the valleys shall be lifted up.
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The low shall be exalted, he who exalteth himself shall be abased
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and he who humbleth himself shall be exalted.
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It comes in a variety of ways throughout the Scriptures.
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And here you get a a perfect example of this reunion between
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Alma and this particular Angel. And by the way, we always put
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the emphasis, don't we, on wow, isn't that amazing?
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Alma got to see an Angel. I, I have to believe that that
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in heaven and in the spirit world that it's equally as
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amazing for these angels to get to be the one to have the
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assignment or or get the opportunity, the calling to go
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down and be that heavenly messenger for people.
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Can you imagine this particular Angel being told you get to be
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Alma the Younger's tutor? That's remarkable.
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Can you picture Angel Moroni? You get to be the one to be the
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personal tutor of Joseph Smith Junior profit and serve the Lord
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in the restoration the dispensation of the fullness of
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times. I personally think Marone, I was
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just as excited on that occasion as as was Joseph in this in this
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incredible coming together experience and and you get it
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here as well. Look at the command in verse 16.
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Behold, I am sent to command thee that thou return to the
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city of Amaniah and preach again unto the people of the city.
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Yeah, preach unto them. Yeah, say unto them, except they
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repent. The Lord God will destroy them.
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Let's play shoulder Angel and shoulder devil for a minute.
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How hard would it be for a devil to to put in some pretty
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discouraging words into Alma's mind and into his heart right
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now? You've just been rejected,
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reviled, spit upon, kicked out. And now an Angel says, oh, go
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back into the city and don't go into the city and declare glad
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Titans of great joy go back in and tell them unless they
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repent, they are going to be utterly destroyed.
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Can you imagine the the thoughts that might have crossed Alma's
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mind placed there by the by the devil to say, oh, yeah, that's
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going to be effective. That's going to be popular.
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You're going to get a lot of followers now, Alma.
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They're really going to love you.
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Or really, why would the Lord send you back in there, Alma?
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Weren't you already there? Didn't you already tell them
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that if they didn't repent, they were going to be destroyed?
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Why would God want you to go again?
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You can see all of these discouraging things that could
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be placed in a in a person's mind.
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Now let's play the Angel for a moment.
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Give me one good reason why Alma should go back into Emaniah.
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All you need is one. It's because God commanded it.
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Skip down to verse 18. Now it came to pass that after
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Alma had received his message from the Angel Lord, he returned
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speedily to the land of Amaniah. And he entered the city by
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another way, by the way, which is on the South of the city.
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He's been fasting many days. He's exhausted.
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He's been rejected. The Angel comes and says, now go
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back in and preach this really, really difficult message.
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And he says, OK, and he returned speedily.
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I love that principle. I love that idea that I can be
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called to do things that are really, really hard or
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inconvenient or not ideal. But if I will respond to the
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promptings of the Lord and do them quickly, then I'm far more
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likely to to receive the help in this case, back to our story in
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the scriptures. Alma comes into the city having
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no idea where, what he's actually going to do, and then
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he runs into Amulek on the way in.
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And Amulek has seen a vision from from an Angel as well, and
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brings Alma home, feeds him, takes care of him.
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And then this opens the door, sets the stage for the great
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preaching that is going to begin in Chapter 9.
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OK, let's turn into Alma Chapter 9 and let's listen to how Alma
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structures and lays the foundation for what he's trying
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to teach the people. Alma's speech is understood in a
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covenant of context. I want you to pay attention to
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certain words that appear in in Alma's speaking.
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So if you take for example, verses 8 through 18, look for
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words like how does he use the word forget or the word
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remember. He talks about deliverance and
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mercy and promises. All this has to do with
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covenantal language and what he's getting the people to focus
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on. He says, you know, could can you
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really forget all the incredible deeds of deliverance that God
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has done to show his mercy and his love and his salvation for
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you? He has all these promises that
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he's made. And you should remember these
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things. And actually you should put this
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word back up here. The order of the ordinances in
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the gospel, like baptism and sacrament and temple covenants,
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are invitations for us to remember that God delivers us in
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mercy and fulfills promises. There is an order for the
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covenant path, and I'll just read a couple of the verses
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here, and I want you to to listen to how Alma's trying to
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teach this orderliness that God has in the plan of salvation and
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that the covenants are the invitation to experience the
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beauty of God's order. So let's take a look at verse 8.
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Behold, all you wicked and perverse generation, how have
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you forgotten the tradition of your father's?
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Yeah, How soon you've forgotten the commandments of God.
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You forget the commandments of God.
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You cannot prosper in the land. And I think we all know what
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happens in Ammanihah. They get fully destroyed in a
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single day, which they said we wouldn't even believe it if you
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told us that would happen. Verse nine, Do you not remember
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that our Father Lehigh was brought out of Jerusalem by the
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hand of God? You not remember that they were
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all led by him through the wilderness.
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So again, we want you to remember these stories of
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salvation, of deliverance, because there's signs and
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symbols of God's mercy that God will fulfill his promises to the
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faithful. And what Amma's trying to lay
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out is we all have the same access to those promises.
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The people of Ammaniha who were just in the grasp of like this
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terrible wickedness, have the ability to receive the same
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promises if they would just remember and not forget all the
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good that God had done for them and not forget they had duties
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to keep the commandments. Verse 10 Have you forgotten so
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soon how many times He delivered our fathers out of the hands of
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their enemies? Verse 11 If it had not been for
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His matchless power and His mercy and His long-suffering
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towards us, we should unavoidably have been cut off on
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the face of the earth. Verse 12 And this is the crux of
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what Alma's trying to get at. You are commanded to repent.
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Except you repent, you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
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If you don't repent, you will be strewn.
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OK, destroyed. Destroyed means fully strewn
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away, thrown away. Verse 13.
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Do you not remember the words which he spake unto Lehigh?
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And this is one of the core messages of the Book of Mormon,
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and it's actually a summary of our covenant obligations to God
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and His children. Here it is.
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Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper
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in the land. Inasmuch as you will not keep my
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commandments, you shall be cut off for the presence of the
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Lord. And that's actually what it
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means To prosper is to have God's presence.
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If you don't keep the commandments, you do not have
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God's presence, and you are therefore not prospering.
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I want to give you 2 invitations.
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One, I want you to think about times in your life where you
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have remembered the great deeds of deliverance God has done for
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you and you've experienced His mercy and seen His promises.
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And back in Alma five, he asked us, can we remember these
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things? We should do that again on a
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regular basis. The sacrament is an invitation
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for us to remember the great deeds God has done for us.
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And we recommit ourselves to offering our hearts and our love
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to God and to be fully committed on the covenant path to keep the
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commandments. I also encourage you to look at
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the rest of this chapter and look at the promises that Alma
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reinstates around the Lamanites. You know, we've spent all this
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time focusing on the Nephites, the good guys.
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The Lamanites always seem to be the bad guys for the most part
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of the Book of Mormon. There are some exceptions.
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And it's interesting here that Alma lays out that the
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Lamanites, they are actually off the covenant path because their
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ancient forefathers had misinformed them, miseducated
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them, taking them off the path. And so these descendants didn't
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know any better. And it's some future day.
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And that is actually happening right now in the latter days.
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Those descendants will be invited back in and they can
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have a fullness of the promises that God had promised Abraham,
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Isaac, Jacob, Nephi, Jacob, Enos in the Book of Mormon and
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others. So Alma is trying to help the
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people of Ammaniah know there is a pathway of covenants of order
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that you are invited in to get on that path and to demonstrate
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to God your faithfulness. And then you get the fullness of
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everything you want, all the prosperity.
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We'll see in future chapters that they were focused on the
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wrong things. They define their own prosperity
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not in the ways of God, but in the ways of men.
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So when Elma finishes his speech with the people in Chapter 9,
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then it's Amulex turn this second witness.
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This is the difference between the first time Alma Wyndham and
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I and the second time is now he's no longer alone.
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You get a second witness that God is prepared to stand next to
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him. Amulek and Amulek introduces
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himself as look, I I'm a man of no small reputation.
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He's his background being a descendant of a Minidai, the guy
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who interpreted the writing of the Finger of God on the wall of
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the temple, that we don't have that story in the book,
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unfortunately. And then he gives us a glimpse
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into something that is very, very applicable to many of us.
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He tells us in verse five that he never had known much of the
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ways of the Lord and his mysteries and his marvelous
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power. And then in verse six of chapter
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10, he says, nevertheless, I did harden my heart for I was called
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many times and I would not hear. Therefore I knew concerning
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these things, yet I would not know.
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The implication being, oh, I knew better, but I had convinced
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myself otherwise because I wanted to keep doing what I
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wanted to do. And thus he begins talking to
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his people. He lives in Ammani Ha about his
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own conversion experience and explaining the reasons why
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they're struggling. And he starts getting in, in a
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bit of an argument with some of the lawyers in Ammani Ha.
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And if we turn the page over to Chapter 11, this heightens.
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And then you get Mormon doing something very strange.
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In Chapter 11, he breaks up the storytelling starting in a verse
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five and he says, now let me give you the the reckoning of
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the Nephite money. You'll notice it never uses the
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word coin or coinage system in the Book of Mormon.
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Coins aren't invented by this time.
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So this is their monetary system.
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This is the weights and measures of their gold and silver.
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The way they're taking care of the economic things.
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We're not going to spend a ton of time on covering all of
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these, these names of their gold and their silver and the
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different values. Mormon gives you extensive
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descriptions of their monetary system, and there are a variety
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of reasons why he probably did that.
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The most obvious one is probably to help us gain a little bit of
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context for what's about to happen in the story.
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Oh and by the way, the lawyer that they're interacting with
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here, his name is Zezrim, one of the names of the silver in verse
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12. And Ezram of Silver was as great
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as 4 seenums. What Tyler's pointed out in
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Hebrew the word zay can mean it or he or he of.
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So you have this guy named Z Ezram, and his name in Hebrew
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may mean he of the silver Ezrim, which is apparently the second
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highest monetary value in the Nephite system in silver.
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So it's a little funny, this guy who's so focused on money, this
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actually may be kind of a code word.
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It may not have been his real name that Mormons like.
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Oh yeah, that silver money filthy lucre guy.
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Or Zezrim. All he cared about was the
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things of mankind. Now, having said that, this is
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interesting because we as a people do this all the time.
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If you were to meet Zezrum today, would you see him as a
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money grubbing, deceptive guy who at the time as a lawyer,
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this look of I'm going to trap you?
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Or would you see him as one of the greatest success stories in
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the whole Book of Mormon? He's named Zezrum, but he
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becomes a man of great power, a man of God, not a man of money.
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So as we move forward in this story and you're, you're reading
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what he did, be careful in your own mind not to keep him held
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hostage to his past because his past is pretty rough.
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Give him like Alma the Younger, his companion, an opportunity to
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move beyond those past issues and become this this glorious
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disciple of Christ moving forward.
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So what happens is in the next next part of the story, verse 22
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is Zezrum is going to hold out six aunties of silver and offer
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them to Amulek and say, if you'll deny God, I'll give you
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these six aunties of silver. Now, if Mormon hadn't spent some
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time giving us their monetary system, that would have meant
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absolutely nothing to us. Here are 6 aunties of silver.
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We know nothing about that, but we do know now I'm not going to
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bore you to death with the mass. What we know is he's holding a
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major chunk of change. It represents 42 days wage for a
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judge in their society. That's a lot of money and he's
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saying all you have to do is deny the existence of a supreme
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being. Bottom of verse 22.
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Now look at 23. Now emulates said, Oh, thou
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child of hell, why tempt ye me? Now Amulek may or may not have
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read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by this
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time, but he's not. He's not beating around the Bush
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here. Then look at verse 24.
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Believeth thou that there is no God?
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I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but
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thou lovest that lucre more than him.
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You have made that money in your hand.
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Become your God. That money motivates you more
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than God motivates you at this point.
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And you've lied, Zezrim, you said you were going to give me
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that, but in your heart you said you're just using that as bait
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to get me to say something. Then you're going to withhold
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it. Now look at the next part of the
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dialogue, verse 26. Zezrim said unto him, Thou
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sayest there is a true and living God.
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And Amulek said, yeah, there is a true and living God.
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Now this is interesting. Zezrim said, is there more than
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one God? And he answered, No.
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Now Zeezram said unto him again, how knowest all these things?
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And the answer amulet gives us. An Angel hath made them known
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unto me. This just happened very recently
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for him. That's how I know them.
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Different than Alma's response about the Holy Ghost and fasting
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for many days in a previous lesson.
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Look at verse 32. Zezram said again, Who is he
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that shall come? Is it the Son of God?
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And he said, yeah. And Zezram said again, shall he
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save his people in their sins? And Amalek answered and said he
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shall not, for it is impossible for him to deny his word.
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Now watch what happens. This happens all the time.
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Today you saw the dialogue here. Now Zezrim the lawyer turns to
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the group. And in verse 35 he said to the
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people, see that you remember these things.
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For he said that there is but one God.
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And he saith that the Son of God shall come, but he shall not
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save his people. You see what happened?
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He took what Amulek said and parsed it out of context to use
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it against him. He shall not save his people.
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That is not what Amulek said. Amulek was asked will he save
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his people in their sins? And he said no, he won't.
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So now look at verse 37. Here's Amulek jumping back in
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again. I say unto you again that he
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cannot save them in their sins. Oh, the power of a preposition,
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right? He says, will he save them in
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their sins? And the answer is no, God cannot
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save us in our sins. The eat, drink can be merry, for
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tomorrow you die and it'll be well with you, because God loves
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you. Doctrine that Nihor had taught.
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That's a false doctrine. So look how he clarifies it.
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No unclean thing can inherit the Kingdom of heaven.
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Therefore how can you be saved? Except you inherit the Kingdom
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of heaven, you cannot be saved in your sins.
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The word we would use here instead of in is God's Son will
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come to save us from our sins. Notice that he goes on to say in
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verse 40, He shall come into the world to redeem his people, and
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he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who
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believe on his name. Now verse 42, things shift
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really, really powerfully to a big eternal context Here he's
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going to talk about two deaths. Here you get the physical death
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and you get a spiritual death that are going to be discussed
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by Amulek really powerfully. Verse 42 Now there is a death
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which is called a temporal death and the death of Christ shall
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loose the bands of this temporal death and all shall be raised
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from this temporal death. The word temporal comes from the
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root tempo, which means time there there's time attached to
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it. It's not eternal, it's temporal,
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it'll end, it'll pass. So the physical death is going
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to pass, it's temporal. It's got a clock ticking.
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It's not going to last forever. And he describes in this has to
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be one of the best places in all the Scripture to describe the
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resurrection, this physical resurrection from the grave.
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The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect
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form. Both lemon joint shall be
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restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time.
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And we shall be brought to stand before God.
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We're going to be brought out of the grave, overcoming the
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physical death and the spiritual death, the separation from God's
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presence, that's going to be overcome as well.
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So we're going to be brought and arraigned before God.
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There's going to be a judgement experience.
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We're going to be brought before God, knowing even as we know
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now, and have a bright recollection of all of our
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guilt. Now, who gets this?
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This restoration, overcoming both of these deaths inherited
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by Adam, cometh to all, both old and young, both bond and free,
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both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous.
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And even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be
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lost, but everything shall be restored to its perfect frame.
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Notice will be brought and be arraigned before the bar of
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Christ the Son and God the Father and the Holy Spirit,
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which is 1 eternal God, to be judged according to their works,
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whether they be good or whether they be evil.
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Everyone, good, bad, black, white, bond free male freeman,
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everyone will be brought and arraigned before the bar of
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Christ in the presence of the Father and the Holy Ghost as
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well, which is 1 Eternal God. Isn't it fascinating that you
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and I are going to be judged according to our works?
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But Jesus Christ was already judged according to your works,
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and he was found guilty and he was punished to the full extent
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of the law. And so now it's our opportunity
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to come and stand before the One who already knows what it's like
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to be judged of our works. There's nobody that you would
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rather have be your judge than Jesus Christ because of how
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perfectly he understands you and me and what we're going through
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now. Amylok finishes there, and then
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Alma jumps back up in 12, and now he's going to take that
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doctrine and take it even deeper.
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Look at the way he describes this experience here, overcoming
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Adam's spiritual death that we've inherited from the fall of
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Adam and Eve as we're brought back into the presence of God.
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Look at verse 14. Our words will condemn us, our
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works will condemn us. We shall not be found spotless,
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and our thoughts will also condemn us.
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And in this awful state, we shall not dare to look up to our
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God. And we would fain be glad if we
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could command the rocks in the mountains to fall upon us, to
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hide us from His presence. But this cannot be.
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We must come forth and stand before Him in His glory and in
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His power, in His might and majesty and dominion.
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If you're marking the attributes of God, verse 15 is loaded with
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characteristic traits of God. Now verse 16.
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Now behold, I say unto you, then cometh the death, even a second
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death, which is a spiritual death.
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Then is a time that whosoever dieth in his sins as to a
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temporal death shall also die a spiritual death.
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He shall die as to things pertaining unto righteousness.
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What he's saying is if you've gotten here and you've totally,
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you people in Ammaniah, you've totally rejected this covenant
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that that Christ has offered to you and you've turned your back
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on him, you're going to be brought back into the presence
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of God, but then you're going to suffer a second death, a
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spiritual death again. You're going to be taken out of
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God's presence again because of the decisions that you've made.
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Now look at verse 20. Antiona, a chief ruler there in
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ammonia, he comes and he says, well, wait, you're saying
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everyone's going to be resurrected?
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I don't believe that because the scriptures say that God placed
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cherubim, a flaming sword to protect the way to the tree of
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life so that Adam and Eve couldn't partake of the fruit of
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the tree of life and live forever.
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Are you seeing how once again we take things out of context and
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only share a part of the the scripture or part of the story
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to to establish belief? This is very dangerous because
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then Alma goes on to explain, no, if they had instantly
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partaken of the fruit of the tree of life, they would have
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lived forever in their sins. They needed a period of time, a
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probationary state, to be able to repent.
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So we enter that probationary state in verse 24 as a time to
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prepare to meet God, a time to prepare for that in the state.
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That's what the plan of redemption is all about.
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Now, as you turn the page over, he's going to explain more of
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this doctrine of the fall and the redemption and how angels
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come and reveal all of these things.
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Look at verse 32. Therefore, God gave unto them
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commandments after having made unknown unto them the plan of
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redemption. God teaches the plan so that you
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can see the, the, the grand why and The Who and the how.
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And then once you once you understand that, then he gives
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you the commandments, which are that covenant connection to say
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you've seen the blueprints. Now let me give you the step by
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step instructions of how to get from point A to point Z because
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just because you've seen the vision isn't going to make it so
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you get there without a lot of guidance and directions.
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Your your spiritual GPS, so to speak, along the way.
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Look at verse 33. But God did call on men in the
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name of his Son as being the plan of redemption, saying, if
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you will repent, harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy
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upon you through my only begotten Son.
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Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is the mediator, the
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intercessor, the go between, not just for us talking to God.
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Verse 33 But God did call on men in the name of his Son.
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We call upon God in the name of his Son, and God calls upon us
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in the name of his Son. Jesus is the messenger of the
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covenant. He is the go between.
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He is the one who embodies everything God wants for us, not
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just in our lives here, but in eternities.
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This covenant path isn't just for mortality, it's for
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eternity. And here's Alma preaching this
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idea. The plan of redemption is so
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simple you could put it into two words.
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Trust Jesus. So it's our hope and our prayer
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for all of us as we move forward that we will not puff ourselves
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up needing to be humbled and abased as we go forward in life.
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But that will stay humble. That will call upon God in the
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name of his Son and listen as God calls upon us in the name of
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his Son. That will, as our Prophet has
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repeatedly said, learn how to hear him, and follow and hearken
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and obey. We hope you can feel the joy and
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the excitement of the gospel. How beautiful the plan is.
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How beautiful upon the feet of the mountains are those who
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declare glad tidings, and we find that here in the
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Scriptures. Know that you're loved.