Lessons on the Book of Mormon 2020
Lesson No. Twenty-Seven
This Life is the Time to Repent - Alma 34:32-35
Greater knowledge of life after death has been revealed in the latter days – Very little knowledge about the spirit world was revealed to Book of Mormon prophets. Amulek correctly understood that this life is the time to repent. (See Alma 34:32-35, the video of Amulek’s testimony recorded in Alma 34 is powerful) However, it had not been revealed that for those who did not have the opportunity to accept the gospel in mortality their probationary period, the time for repentance, was extended into the spirit world. In a marvelous vision President Joseph F. Smith learned that repentance was possible in the spirit world:
"I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.
“The dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God” (D&C 138:57-58, emphasis added).
For those who have the gospel this life is the time to repent – For those who should have repented in mortality but did not will find the repentance process much longer and more difficult in the spirit world. Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles expounded on the doctrine Amulek taught as recorded in Alma 34:32-35:
“A man may receive the priesthood and all its privileges and blessings, but until he learns to overcome the flesh, his temper, his tongue, his disposition to indulge in the things God has forbidden, he cannot come into the celestial kingdom of God – he must overcome either in this life or in the life to come. But this life is the time in which men are to repent. Do not let any of us imagine that we can go down to the grave not having overcome the corruptions of the flesh and then lose in the grave all our sins and evil tendencies. They will be with us. They will be with the spirit when separated from the body.
“It is my judgment that any man or woman can do more to conform to the laws of God in one year in this life than they could in ten years when they are dead. The spirit only can repent and change, and then the battle has to go forward with the flesh afterwards. It is much easier to overcome and serve the Lord when both flesh and spirit are combined as one. This is the time when men are more pliable and susceptible. We will find when we are dead every desire, every feeling will be greatly intensified. When clay is pliable, it is much easier to change than when it gets hard and sets.
“This life is the time to repent. That is why I presume it will take a thousand years after the first resurrection until the last group will be prepared to come forth. It will take them a thousand years to do what it would have taken but three score years and ten to accomplish in this life” (Book of Mormon Student Manual, p. 92).
Get on the covenant path and endure to the end – Amulek taught the Zoramites: “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” (Alma 34:34).
Elder Bruce R. McConkie also expounded on the doctrine Amulek taught as recorded in Alma 34:32-35: “If we are in the course of our duty when this life is over, we will continue in that course in eternity…If we go out of this life loving the Lord, desiring righteousness, and seeking to acquire the attributes of godliness, we will have that same spirit in the eternal world and we will then continue to advance and progress until ultimately we will possess, receive and inherit all things.”
At another time Elder McConkie further explained: “Everyone in the Church who is on the straight and narrow path, who is striving and struggling and desiring to do what is right, though is far from perfect in this life; if he passes out of this life while he is on the straight and narrow, he is going to go on to eternal reward in his Father’s kingdom….The way it operates is this: You get on the path that is named the ‘straight and narrow.’ You do it by entering the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that is called eternal life. If you are on the path and pressing forward, and you die, you’ll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come, and the reason is that this life is the time that is given to men to prepare for eternity.”
An eternal perspective gives us a desire is to repent and become more like our Savior – In developing strong muscles, opposition or resistance is provided by physical work or lifting weights. Likewise, while living in mortality our bodies provide the perfect opposition and resistance and our spirits become stronger much faster.
If we have an eternal perspective, we will make sure we stay on the covenant path. We will take advantage of every day in this life, when it is easier to repent and improve, to become more like our Savior.