Alma 41-42

Reading Assignment: Alma 41

Learning Activities:

1) Alma 41:10 is a doctrinal mastery passage. You may want to mark doctrinal mastery passages in a distinctive way so you can locate them easily.

As you consider Alma’s teachings about the law of restoration, why do you think it is true that “wickedness never was happiness”?

What are some examples of commandments Satan would have us break and believe that we can still experience happiness? 

2) What does a boomerang have to do with Alma 41?

3) Read these quote and consider copying them into your scriptures:

Alma 41:10. Wickedness never was happiness

President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that there is a difference between true happiness or joy and other emotions or sensations a person may experience:

“If we look to the world and follow its formulas for happiness, we will never know joy. The unrighteous may experience any number of emotions and sensations, but they will never experience joy! Joy is a gift for the faithful [see 2 Nephi 9:18]. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ [for examples, see 2 Nephi 27:30; Alma 27:16–18]” (Russell M. Nelson, “Joy and Spiritual Survival,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 84).

Elder L. Tom Perry (1922–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that our happiness is dependent upon the liberty we gain from obeying God’s commandments:

“God reveals to His prophets that there are moral absolutes. Sin will always be sin. Disobedience to the Lord’s commandments will always deprive us of His blessings. The world changes constantly and dramatically, but God, His commandments, and promised blessings do not change. They are immutable and unchanging. Men and women receive their agency as a gift from God, but their liberty and, in turn, their eternal happiness come from obedience to His laws. As Alma counseled his errant son Corianton, ‘Wickedness never was happiness’ (Alma 41:10)” (L. Tom Perry, “Obedience to Law Is Liberty,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 88).

Alma 42
1) Watch this video and then read the chapter looking for teachings that relate to it:

The Sting of the Scorpion

 The Sting of the Scorpion (2:50)—A young boy’s encounter with a scorpion in the Arabian desert can teach us a lot about what we must do to avoid and overcome the venomous sting of sin

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Alma 42:1. The justice of God

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that happiness can be found only through repentance:

“Real happiness lies not in denying the justice of God or trying to circumvent the consequences of sin but in repentance and forgiveness through the atoning grace of the Son of God” (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Blessing of Scripture,”Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 34).

Alma 42:15. “God himself atoneth for the sins of the world”

 Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“Christ is not only a mediator but also a judge [see Mosiah 3:10; Moroni 10:34; Moses 6:57]. It is in that role of judge that we may find even greater meaning in [the] expression that ‘God himself’ will come down to redeem his people [Mosiah 13:28; see also Mosiah 13:34; 15:1; Alma 42:15]. It is as if the judge in that great courtroom in heaven, unwilling to ask anyone but himself to bear the burdens of the guilty people standing in the dock, takes off his judicial robes and comes down to earth to bear their stripes personally. Christ as merciful judge is as beautiful and wonderful a concept as that of Christ as counselor, mediator, and advocate” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 81).