The Rest of my Forever

Alma 12

After Amulek finishes speaking, Alma takes the stand and tells them about the Plan of Salvation. He tells of the Fall of man (Adam and Eve), that this life is a probationary period, and that those who harden their hearts to the word of God will be judged as if the Savior did not make a redemption for mankind.

These are some pretty serious things Alma told the people – so much so that Zeezrom becomes shaken because of his own guilt. Alma told Zeezrom that we cannot lie to God – not in this life, and definitely not in the next. In V14 he says our words will condemn us and our works will condemn us. Not only this, he goes on to say our thoughts will condemn us also. We can pretend to be something we are not in this earth life, but the pretense is over at judgment day. It will be so awful that we would want to have the mountains fall on us that we might not be. This too cannot happen. This is called a spiritual death – he will die pertaining to things of righteousness (v16). Words Alma uses that are visual: torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone, flame, chains. And the person in this state will be as though the Savior did not come. And this is forever! We're done. We can't die at this point (v18).

V35 gives me some thought. And whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest. 

What does it mean to harden ones heart? A person with a hard heart will not hear the words of truth. They have cast out all things as pertaining to righteousness and seek to do iniquity. What exactly is iniquity? A reference to this word takes us to Moses 5:15 where it says “believe in God”. Anything that does not lead us closer to the Lord would be my guess. And this is the word that grabbed my attention: “rest”. What does it mean to rest? Ask an insomniac. - someone who for months and years on end is not able to get the restorative sleep they need. This is a miserable state, as I think we can all relate to short periods in our lives when we've felt we were insomniacs. It passes for most of us. How would it be to live with this throughout eternity? Well, D&C 84:24 puts a little different light on the word “rest”. It means more not being able to enter into his (God's) rest and having a fulness of his glory, aka inheriting the kingdom of God. Some might say they are okay with not living with the Lord forever. Some might say that family is over rated. To those of us who have experienced receiving a smaller portion when we could have had it all, it is not a restful state. There is angst. I can't imagine how troubling it would be to know this was the rest of my forever.