pgs. 310 and 311...Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

3 And it is requisite with the ^ajustice of God that men should be ^bjudged according to their ^cworks; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be ^drestored unto that which is good.

4 And if their works are evil they shall be ^arestored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be ^brestored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—^cmortality raised to ^dimmortality, ^ecorruption to incorruption—raised to ^fendless happiness to ^ginherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other—

5 The one raised to ^ahappiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.

6 And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness.

7 ^aThese are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own ^bjudges, whether to do good or do evil.

8 Now, the decrees of God are ^aunalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that ^bwhosoever will may ^cwalk therein and be saved.

9 And now behold, my son, do not risk ^aone more offense against your God upon those points of doctrine, which ye have hitherto risked to commit sin.

10 Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, ^awickedness never was ^bhappiness.

11 And now, my son, all men that are in a state of ^anature, or I would say, in a ^bcarnal state, are in the ^cgall of bitterness and in the ^dbonds of iniquity; they are ^ewithout God in the world, and they have gone ^fcontrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.

12 And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?

13 O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again ^aevil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.

14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal ^ajustly, ^bjudge righteously, and do ^cgood continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your ^dreward; yea, ye shall have ^emercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.

15 For that which ye do ^asend out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.

THE BOOK OF ALMA
THE SON OF ALMA

CHAPTER 42

Mortality is a probationary time to enable man to repent and serve God—The fall brought temporal and spiritual death upon all mankind—Redemption comes through repentance—God himself atoneth for the sins of the world—Mercy is for those who repent—All others are subject to God’s justice—Mercy cometh because of the atonement—Only the truly penitent are saved. About 73 B.C.

1 And now, my son, I perceive there is somewhat more which doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand—which is concerning the ^ajustice of God in the ^bpunishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that it is ^cinjustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery.

2 Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee. For behold, after the Lord God sent our first parents forth from the garden of ^aEden, to till the ^bground, from whence they were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, ^ccherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life—

3 Now, we see that the man had become as God, knowing good and evil; and lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, the Lord God placed ^acherubim and the flaming sword, that he should not partake of the fruit—

4 And thus we see, that there was a ^atime granted unto man to repent, yea, a ^bprobationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

5 For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and ^apartaken of the ^btree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.

6 But behold, it was appointed unto man to ^adie—therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and man became ^blost forever, yea, they became ^cfallen man.

7 And now, ye see by this that our first parents were ^acut off both temporally and spiritually from the ^bpresence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own ^cwill.

8 Now behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this ^atemporal death, for that would destroy the great ^bplan of happiness.


In my opinion it was great for Alma to explain The Fall to his son at this time. It makes his lecture seem more loving when he tells Corianton that even Adam and Eve needed the atonement and repentance. The bottom line is every single one of us does. It is nothing to be ashamed of. We are all here in this probationary state to experience the consequences of our choices. No one makes all right choices. The great thing about that is that we can all learn from our own experience that "wickedness never was happiness."