Come Follow Me - Alma 39-42 (part 2): "The State of the Soul"
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Part 2 of a 3-part verse-by-verse study of Alma 39-42, which recounts Alma's counsel to his son Corianton. Part 2 covers Alma 40 and 41 and examines true doctrine's effect, the first resurrection, the Spirit World, wresting scripture, and the law of the harvest. Join Jared Halverson for your weekly Come Follow Me study of the Book of Mormon!
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"You can’t plant darkness your whole life and then wake up one day and expect to harvest light." What a truly amazing piece of truth.
Amen! Alma teaches it so powerfully!
The Law of the Harvest, so very basic, but packs a powerful punch. This time of year makes it so clear when gardens and trees are bearing their associated harvest. I laughed out loud when you likened eating real fruit to subbing for Starburst. A few years ago my husband and I went on a sugar fast for a few months. I remember telling a friend how delicious frozen blueberries had become to me at that time. She laughed at me and I didn't understand it until I let the sugar back into my diet and all of the sudden frozen blueberries didn't have quite the same power over me. I completely missed the spiritual application at the time but can see it now. Thank you!
Jared,
My wife and I have watched many video commentaries on the Book of Mormon. Yours is, by far, the best we have found. Thank you very much for the time you devote to this project. We only hope that when your classes start up again, you may consider continuing these commentaries. Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words. I'm grateful for all the other channels out there--we each have different approaches and hopefully there is a teaching style that meets all the different leraning styles. Thanks for letting me be a part of your scripture study!
ludwig1976yt (
ludwig1976yt (
Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the teachings of the Book of Mormon. I am grateful to that I can go back and listen again to your teachings and your testimony of its truths and of our Savior his death resurrection and the Atonement. Thank you Bro. Jared Halverson. I love the Book of Mormon. My favorite book to read. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I’ve gained a lot more knowledge and understanding of the Book of Mormon because of you. I love reading and have gained my own testimony of the truths taught in the Book of Mormon
Thanks for sharing. Have you read the original 1830 version of the book of Mormon? It helped me a lot in my understanding of the BOM and I bet it will for you too.
For example in the 1830 version we read in Mosiah 21:28 that it was King Benjamin that had the gift of translation. In later editions, this was changed to Mosiah. There are over 3k other changes made to the first edition, some grammatical, but others of significant doctrinal importance.
Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 24:35
God bless.
Thank you for your kind words! The Book of Mormon is such a blessing as we strive to learn of Christ and come unto Him. Bless you in your studies!
Thanks, iterum nata. The translation process(es) is a fascinating topic of study, one that grants us a lot of insight into the interplay of divine and human efforts in the creation of scripture.
@@Unshaken Can you explain what you mean by "the interplay of divine and human efforts in the creation of scripture?"
The Bible teaches that ALL scripture is "God breathed" (2 Tim 3:16) and that "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Thank you. We are in terrible times right now. I hope people will realize just how close we have to the 2nd coming of Christ. Now more than ever we need to step up and cling on to our testimony. I feel, and my feelings only we have less than 25 years maybe less. It's hard not to be fearful but its time to turn to Jesus Christ if you haven't yet.
We certainly live in calamitous times. In Matthew 24, Jesus tells of his 2nd coming and many signs preceding this event, including false Christs and false prophets. One assurance he gave us amidst these turbulent times is in verse 35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Since LDS theology is explicit that his word did pass away into corruption through mis-translations of the Bible, how do you understand this verse and its companion verse in Isaiah 40:8?
God bless.
The "great and terrible" day will definitely have elements of both extremes. I'm grateful to be led by prophets as that day approaches. Time to hold fast to our testimonies indeed!
iterum nata: I take the assurance that God's word will not pass away as a confirmation that God's promises are sure, not a declaration of scriptural inerrancy. And the warning of false prophets seems to suggest the presence of true prophets as well. I'm grateful the Lord will not leave us without His direction. He IS the word, and of all words, He will not pass away. Thanks for sharing!
@@Unshaken Thanks for your response. Without an inerrant view of scripture, how does one know that God's promises are sure? If the Bible is corrupted, the promises that you believe are sure are liable to be corrupted too. Only if the Bible is absolutely reliable, can we be sure of anything about God and his promises.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. In 1891, the First Presidency and quorum of the twelve made the following statement in a petition to the President of the United States: "We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or celestial marriage as commanded by God through Joseph Smith was right; that it was a necessity to man's highest exaltation in the life to come." (Reed Smoot Case, Vol. 1, page 18)
God's promise about polygamy as taught by 4 presidents of the church and scores of apostles, was not sure. It came to naught as polygamy is no longer taught as a requirement for "man's highest exaltation."
The Bible, is different. God's word is truth (John 17:17). It is pure (Psalm 12:6). All scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16-17). It is reliable and never changes, because God is faithful and does not lie (2 Tim 2:13, Numbers 23:19)
God bless.
@@tkc3742 Great question. We know God's promises are sure because the Spirit of God testifies of the truthfulness of what is written in scripture, but it doesn't take an inerrantist view of scripture to believe that. In fact, an inerrantist view, in my opinion, potentially makes it more difficult to trust God's promises, since it requires a degree of interpretation and reconciliation of potentially discordant passages that strains belief. I do believe in the inspiration of scripture, but not direct, verbal inspiration in every case. As I said in a comment elsewhere (I believe you asked about it there as well), scripture has both divine and human fingerprints all over it. As you said there, it is indeed God-breathed and Spirit-inspired (we believe that as well), so it's wrong to deny the divinity of scripture (as skeptics do), but we don't need to over-correct and deny the humanity in scripture (as inerrantists do). I actually prefer the humility manifest on the title page of the Book of Mormon: "if there are mistakes, they are the mistakes of men." That's not to deny the divinity within the book, but to acknowledge the humanity that is present even when God works through us. Except in the case of Jesus, something is "lost in translation" whenever God speaks or works through mortals, which again is why we need to appeal to God directly in hopes that He can guide us around our own fallenness and human nature/nurture. Lastly, especially when we quote the Bible to defend the Bible, there is a degree of circularity there that outsiders wouldn't accept. There has to be an outside source of confirmation, and again, to Latter-day Saints, that source is the Spirit of God. Thanks again for excellent questions! I've just seen that when it comes to the inspiration of scripture--whether Bible or Book of Mormon--a "bend but don't break" attitude is both more defensible and more effective than inerrantism, which throughout history has proven to be a case of "break because it won't bend" for too many ex-believers.
Wow! Just wow! Thank you so much Bro Halverson.
You're so welcome! Thanks for letting me be a part of your scripture study!
Thank you for teaching the Lessons.
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
So good, Thank you😍🎉
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!
Another way of looking at things:
Alma 40:11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection-Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.
Who is “the God that gave them life”? It is the god they chose.
Alma 5:20, 25, 39-41 I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil? they shall be cast out for they are the children of the kingdom of the devil... And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold, I say unto you, that the devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold; and now, who can deny this? Behold, I say unto you, whosoever denieth this is a liar and a child of the devil. For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil. Therefore, if a man bringeth forth good works he hearkeneth unto the voice of the good shepherd, and he doth follow him; but whosoever bringeth forth evil works, the same becometh a child of the devil, for he hearkeneth unto his voice, and doth follow him.
So the wicked have chosen the devil to be their shepherd, their very father and the god who gives them life during their mortal sojourn.
Therefore, Alma 40:13 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 [becoming the god that gave them life]-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.
14 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 [the devil whom they have chosen to be their] God upon them…
It’s not a kindly bishop they will see, but an inquisitor.
Also see Alma 34:34-36 and Alma 36:13-15.
Great insight! Thanks for sharing!
@@Unshaken You're welcome.
I think the challenge with Alma 40 is that people teach these as complete doctrines and they are not. Alma uses "soul" multiple times when he should be saying spirit (D&C 88:15). People teach that evil spirits go back into God's presence as soon as they die because of Alma 40:11, which is not true (D&C 138:20-22). They teach that Alma 40:13-14 is what the spirit prison is like for all people, but that is not exactly right, I don't think. I appreciate that you have taught that these doctrines are not complete, and are based on Alma's understandings, and we have more knowledge now. I have not found any other podcast that teaches this properly. Most of them either skip the whole thing, or teach it improperly; sad, really...
Did you hear Bro. Wilcox (Teaching With Power) expound on repentance and change being instantaneous? I know you've mentioned a change of heart may not (or shouldn't) be a gradual thing. I thought of your comments when he said that. These teachers are such a blessing to me. And I enjoy your comments.
RUclips must not allow editing 😣
I mistakenly thought the repentance quote was from Bro Wilcox when it is actually in part 1 of Bro Halverson's.
I know what you mean. The Lord said that He would reveal truth "line upon line" but we sometimes don't take that seriously enough. I'm grateful for the entire "cloud of witnesses" to help us gain a more complete view!
How can God get angry? God is perfect and anger is a weakness.
It's according to how you define angry
Interesting the Alma's written tone while he gives a blessing to his son's
Thanks again I’ll I’ll send it out with your name thanks and thanks so sorry I cannot I know that you’re busy I’m just going back and let the
Thanks again I’ll let her and I’ll let ya guys see
Great point! It would be amazing to hear the spoken version of a conversation like this.
Love this! Thank you Brother Halvorson. 💕🌸💕
Alma says “And now, concerning this space of time, what becometh of the souls of men is the thing which I have inquired diligently of the Lord to know;”. I am by no means a scriptorium. So, were there any scriptural records available to Alma that would shed light on this topic or was he working from scratch in finding his answer.
Great question. He would have had access to the brass plates (roughly the Old Testament up to Jeremiah and some writings we no longer have in the OT), and all the earlier writings from the Book of Mormon prophets, but he does seem to be learning much of what he's teaching "in the moment." I love the glimpse it gives us into "line upon line" learning!
Have you ever studied people's near death experiences where they had time in the spirit world? It's interesting the things people see.
Yes, and it sounds exactly like what Alma describes. If you sowed light, you return to light. If you sowed darkness, you return to darkness. I've studied quite a few NDE and it rings so true with the gospel, especially what Alma says here.
Are you aware of the youtube channel “mormonconvert”? He grew up as a baptist if I remember correctly and after studying in detail thousands of near death experiences he found the LDS doctrine to be the closest match to what people reported in their near death experiences. ruclips.net/video/3jeUZeFj33w/видео.html
Torque Pilkington. Yes, I have a d I just love his story. Its fascinating how many people who have had those experiences end up finding the gospel. How wonderful 🥰
Yes his channel is the one that inspired me to look into it!
I haven't studied that, but it definitely sounds fascinating! I'm grateful for the "sneak peek" the scriptures give us!
Bro. Halverson, Is it in the spirit world and the "space" mentioned in Alma 40:21, when the Gospel is preached to those who want to hear it or did not hear it here on earth.
Exactly! Couple Alma 40 and 41 with D&C 138 and we get a good idea of what's going on in the Spirit world. Thanks for watching!
Bro. Halverson, thank you for these videos. I am wondering if you have plans to make them available by way of podcasts? Or, if you have, could you point me in the right direction to find them? Thanks again.
I need to do it! But I just haven't had the time yet. Thanks for the nudge in that direction!
Love youtubr
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🔴Just a reminder that Jesus Christ was the very first that was resurrected...no one who ever lived could have been resurrected without Him. When Brother Halverson talks about resurrection BC...(Chronicle order) he is talking about those who lived first..not that they were resurrected before Christ was.
Well said and absolutely true! Thanks for that clarification!