Alma 42

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I reread my past two posts for this chapter, and my feelings are still the same: I LOVE the logical breakdown of the Laws of justice and mercy.

Corianton was a wayward son. Alma writes this letter to him in a fatherly attempt to touch his heart and bring his focus and faith back where it should be.  I found it fascinating to look at the doctrinal points Alma presented to his son (in chapters 39-42.)

Before Alma jumped into the deep doctrinal stuff, he tried to put Corianton's mind in the right place.  He spoke of personal responsibility and accountability. Corianton was a missionary (39:1-4), and his father wanted him to understand the fact that the way we choose to believe and act have an eternal effect on ourselves, and others.

• You cannot hide your sins from God. (39:8)
• Self-mastery is key to inheriting the kingdom of God (39:9)
• As a representative of Jesus Christ, you have the power to either draw people to Him, or chase them away (39:11)
• Eternal perspective is key (39:14)
• Some answers require great effort to obtain (40:3,9)
• It's all right that we don't know everything. God does. Knowing that can be enough (40:5)

Hoping this was enough for Corianton to readjust his place in the scheme of things, and had a heart that was softer and more humble and teachable, Alma explained to Corianton the reality of the eternal consequences of his (and our) earthly choices. He taught:

• Resurrection (40:4-26)
• Life after death (40:11)
• The law of restoration (41:2-15)
• The price/reward of wickedness (41:15)

When Alma had established a concrete case for choice/consequence, then Alma taught about the Plan of Salvation/Redemption/Happiness, and how through the Atonement we can be freed from justice and be saved. He wanted Corianton to own his choices, and be grateful for mercy, and see the bigger, eternal picture. He expounded on:

• The Fall of Adam (42:1-3)
• The probationary state of mortality (42:4, 6-7)
• What would have happened to Adam if repentance weren't available (42:5-6, 11-14)
• The need for an Atonement (42:9, 13, 15)
• The reality of sin, law, and punishment --the Law of Justice (42:16-22)
• The saving grace of Mercy and the Atonement (42:23-26)
• Only the penitent can be saved (42:24, 29-30-31)
• This is God's plan and purpose for His children (42:26-27)
• Justice has a grip on all, but Mercy is extended to all (42:27)
• In the end, all will get what they deserve based on their own choices--accountability (42:27)

I'm assuming Alma's letter had the desired effect on Corianton, for in verse 31 Alma extends Corianton's call to serve and preach.

We don't hear about Corianton for another twenty chapters and twenty years. In Alma 63, about twenty years after his father's letter to him. The great wars with the Lamanites have subsided, and for the first time in decades there is some peace in the land. Corianton has lost his father and his brother Helaman. Shiblon was still the caretaker of the sacred records.

In verse ten we learn that after Shiblon died, "Corianton had gone forth to the land northward in a ship, to carry forth provisions unto the people who had gone forth into that land." We never hear of him again.

I'd like to assume Corianton stayed true to the gospel, and was a tool in God's hands throughout his life. We do, however, know that he seemed to have never lost his spirit of adventure.

It has been speculated by some that these people who went northward in ships were the pioneers of the Polynesian islands-- a theory that I find fascinating.