Alma 40:11-14
Deep consideration of the realities articulated in these verses has brought a very strong spiritual confirmation to me this morning. This doctrine is familiar to me, both because of the numerous times that I have studied these verses before, but also because of the eternal realities that cause my soul to resonate with the Spirit of the Lord. Verse 11, which I learned and memorized as a youth, especially rings deep and true.
We are taken back to God after this amazing and terrible* mortal experience. And then there is a separation between wicked and righteous. In a realm dominated by the Light, there is a separation. It is also curious to note how the same Being, God, can induce such dramatically different responses in individuals based upon their choices.
*I use terrible in the sense of "extremely unpleasant or disagreeable" or to illustrate the extreme hardships that are an inevitable part of this experience.
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In verses 12-14, the states of the righteous and the wicked are explained in the that space of time between death and the resurrection. It strikes me as I contemplate this, that the wicked are separated from their bodies, which separation is the cause, in part, of their suffering. Having spent their mortal existence satisfying carnal appetites, the spirit has not learned how to influence the flesh, but is rather become a slave to it. When death comes upon such a soul, and the spirit is no longer able to satisfy such cravings of the carnal being, but the longing remains, insatiable. What a miserable state indeed!
On the contrary, the righteous soul that has cultivated the characteristics of the divine, though temporarily separated from the body for a season, will be armed with such tools as virtue, knowledge, temperance and patience. Such a being, though temporarily disabled from the advantages of a physical body, will yet continue to grow and flourish, unencumbered by the distractions and temptations of mortality.
Deep consideration of the realities articulated in these verses has brought a very strong spiritual confirmation to me this morning. This doctrine is familiar to me, both because of the numerous times that I have studied these verses before, but also because of the eternal realities that cause my soul to resonate with the Spirit of the Lord. Verse 11, which I learned and memorized as a youth, especially rings deep and true.
We are taken back to God after this amazing and terrible* mortal experience. And then there is a separation between wicked and righteous. In a realm dominated by the Light, there is a separation. It is also curious to note how the same Being, God, can induce such dramatically different responses in individuals based upon their choices.
*I use terrible in the sense of "extremely unpleasant or disagreeable" or to illustrate the extreme hardships that are an inevitable part of this experience.
---
In verses 12-14, the states of the righteous and the wicked are explained in the that space of time between death and the resurrection. It strikes me as I contemplate this, that the wicked are separated from their bodies, which separation is the cause, in part, of their suffering. Having spent their mortal existence satisfying carnal appetites, the spirit has not learned how to influence the flesh, but is rather become a slave to it. When death comes upon such a soul, and the spirit is no longer able to satisfy such cravings of the carnal being, but the longing remains, insatiable. What a miserable state indeed!
On the contrary, the righteous soul that has cultivated the characteristics of the divine, though temporarily separated from the body for a season, will be armed with such tools as virtue, knowledge, temperance and patience. Such a being, though temporarily disabled from the advantages of a physical body, will yet continue to grow and flourish, unencumbered by the distractions and temptations of mortality.
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