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Alma — Chapter 12

¹ When Alma saw that Amulek had made Zeezrom be quiet (since Amulek saw that Zeezrom was trying to destroy him), and that Zeezrom had begun shaking from feeling guilty, he began to explain more things from the scriptures to teach him what Amulek had said.

² Many people heard what Alma told Zeezrom, saying:

³ “Now, Zeezrom, you see that we know you are lying. You have lied not only to people, but to God. He knows all your thoughts, and his Spirit told us about them.

⁴ “Now you know that we saw your very tricky plan from the devil to lie to the people and to trick them into being against us and throwing us out.

⁵ “This was the plan of your enemy, the devil, and he used his power in you. I want you to remember that whatever I say to you, I say to everyone.

⁶ “I tell you that this was the enemy’s trap for your people, so he could make you his slaves and use his power to put his chains of destruction around you.”

⁷ When Alma said this, Zeezrom began to shake even more, because he saw God’s power more and more. He also saw that Alma and Amulek knew what he had planned, and that they could see the thoughts and plans in his heart, because they had been given the power to know these things by the spirit of prophecy.

⁸ Then Zeezrom began to ask them real questions so he could learn more about God’s kingdom. He said to Alma: “What did Amulek mean when he talked about the resurrection of the dead — that righteous and wicked people will come before God to be judged by their works?”

⁹ Then Alma began to explain these things to him, saying: “Many people have been taught God’s mysteries, but they have been commanded to teach only a small part of them to the people, depending on their obedience and faith in him.

¹⁰ “Those who harden their hearts will be given only a small part of the gospel. Those who don’t harden their hearts will be given more of the gospel until they know all of God’s mysteries.

¹¹ “Those who harden their hearts will get less and less of the gospel. Soon they will not know anything about his mysteries. Then the devil makes them his slaves and leads them down to destruction. This is what ‘the chains of hell’ means.

¹² “Amulek talked plainly about death, and about being raised from mortality to immortality, and about being brought before God to be judged by our works.

¹³ “Then if our hearts have been hardened — yes, if we have hardened our hearts against the gospel so it is not in us, it will be terrible for us, because we will be damned.

¹⁴ “Our words and our works and our thoughts will condemn us. We will not be found clean, and we will not dare to look up to our God. We would be happy if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall on us so we could hide from him.

¹⁵ “But this cannot happen. We must come and stand before him in his glory and power and might, and say to our eternal shame that his judgments are just. We will have to say that he is fair in everything he does, and that he is merciful to people, and that he has the power to save all people who believe on his name and do works which show they repent.

¹⁶ “I tell you that after that, a second death comes, which is a spiritual death. At that time, those who die the first death (of the body) in their sins, will die to everything righteous.

¹⁷ “Then they will feel pain as if in a lake full of eternal fire. They will be chained down to eternal destruction by Satan’s power of slavery, since they obeyed him.

¹⁸ “For them it will be as if there were no salvation, because God’s justice cannot let them be saved. And they cannot die anymore, since there will be no more death.”

¹⁹ When Alma was done saying these things, the people began to be more amazed.

²⁰ But one of their chief rulers, Antionah, came to him and said: “What do you mean that people will rise from the dead and be changed from mortal to immortal, so that the soul can never die?

²¹ “What does the scripture mean which says God put cherubim and a sword of fire in the east of the Garden of Eden, so our parents could not get back in and eat the fruit of the tree of life, and live forever? This tells us it was not possible for them to live forever.”

²² Then Alma said to him: “I was just about to explain that. Adam and Eve fell by eating the forbidden fruit, as God had said they would. This was how all people became lost and fallen.

²³ “I tell you that if Adam and Eve had been able to eat the fruit of the tree of life, there would have been no death, and God would have been made a liar, because he had said: ‘If you eat [the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil], you will die.’

²⁴ “We see that the death of the body Amulek talked about will come to all people. But people were given a time to repent. This life became a test — a time to prepare to meet God, a time to prepare for the eternity we talked about, which comes after the resurrection of the dead.

²⁵ “If it had not been for the plan of salvation, which was planned before the world was made, there could not have been a resurrection of the dead. But the plan of salvation was prepared, and there will be a resurrection of the dead, which we talked about.

²⁶ “Now, if our first parents could have eaten the fruit of the tree of life, they would have been unhappy forever, because they would not have had this time to prepare [for eternity]. The plan of salvation would not have worked, and God’s words would not have come true.

²⁷ “But that did not happen, and they had to die. After death they would be judged — yes, they would go to that last judgment we talked about, which is the end.

²⁸ “After God planned for these things to happen, he thought it best for people to know about them.

²⁹ “So he sent angels to talk to people, helping them see God’s glory.

³⁰ “From that time on, people began to pray to him, so God talked with people, and told them about the plan of salvation that had been planned before the world was made. He told them about it as they had faith and repented and did holy works.

³¹ “He gave people commandments after they broke the first earthly commandments–becoming as gods, knowing the difference between good and evil, and being able to do what they wanted, whether good or evil.

³² “So God gave them commandments after telling them about the plan of salvation. He told them not to do evil. If they did, they would be punished with a second death — a death to everything righteous. The plan of salvation would not work for those who did evil, since in God’s goodness justice could not be destroyed.

³³ “But God talked to people in the name of his Son, as part of the plan of salvation, and said: ‘If you will repent, and not harden your hearts, then I will have mercy on you because of my Only Begotten Son.

³⁴ “‘Those who repent and do not harden their hearts will have mercy because of my Only Begotten Son. Their sins will be taken away, and they will rest with me.

³⁵ “‘But I promise in my anger that those who harden their hearts and do evil will not rest with me.’

³⁶ “Now, my brothers and sisters, I say to you that if you harden your hearts, you will not rest with the Lord. Your sins will bring his anger and the first death to you here on earth, and the destruction of your souls, or the second or last death, in the next life, as he has said.

³⁷ “Now, brothers and sisters, since we know these things, and since they are true, let us repent and not harden our hearts so we will not bring down the Lord our God’s anger by breaking his second commandments to us. But let us go in to God’s rest, which is ready for us as he has said.”