As always there were a lot of places you could choose to focus your attention in the reading this week, but I wanted to address the emphasis that was put on the choice between happiness and misery. This phrase, or variation of this phrase, was repeated several times throughout the reading. At the end of Alma chapter 40, and throughout all of chapter 41, Alma talks about the “plan of restoration” and how a “all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”
I couldn’t help but think of car restoration as a parallel. In restoring cars, restoration is “the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.” A full restoration entails “completely disassembling the vehicle and restoring each and every part and system.” It can mean taking a car "from original condition in an effort to return it to like-new or better condition," and it can mean rebuilding the car exactly the way the manufacturer first assembled it in the factory.
I like the gospel teachings because the parallels that we are taught about small scenarios tend to hold true when broadened and expanded as well. So we can talk about the individual and the restoration of the soul to the body, but we can also talk about families, groups of people, the entire church, or even the earth being restored to a new or better condition. That makes me think of the 10th Article of Faith that not only talks about the restoration of the ten tribes of Israel, but also the earth being renewed and receiving its paradisical glory.
We also talk about the restoration of the church. I used to assume that the church was “restored” with Joseph Smith because that’s what I thought we were taught, but lately they have talked more about how the restoration of the church has only begun, and it is by no means complete. So it should be interesting to read the scriptures with this perspective, where we try to see the differences of the church in the past in the Bible or the Book of Mormon, and compare it to our day to see how things might be destined to improve, because restoration is always an improvement. It is taking something in a current state, and making it better, more perfect, more complete, like new.
Alma also talked about a spiritual restoration, which is where I’d like to focus the rest of our attention. He said, “I have somewhat to say concerning the restoration of which has been spoken; for behold, some have wrested the scriptures, and have gone far astray because of this thing." Again, as we’ve learned in the past, wresting with the scriptures is not wrestling. It’s not fighting or struggling with something. Wresting is to twist, distort, or contort something. So, the plan of restoration, or the spiritual restoration is something that people really have a hard time with.
Alma tells us that it’s just and necessary for our bodies and souls to be restored to one another, but he also says it is equally just and necessary that “men should be judged according to their works; 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 restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil.”
I think it’s really interesting that we will be restored to that which we have sowed. It’s the law of the harvest again. And it’s logic again. If we plant strawberries, we get strawberries. If we plant an apple tree, we get apples. We don’t get peas from planting strawberries, and we never will. Like produces like. And it’s my understanding that Alma is telling us here that the things we have done in our lives will be multiplied and returned to us. “Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness to inherit 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.” These scriptures tell us that there are specific consequences and results to specific actions, and they are non-negotiable.
The thing that many struggle with, I think, is this concept of happiness. We live in a Hedonistic society where many believe that pursuing their dreams, desires, or fulfilling passions are what bring happiness, but the scriptures tell us this isn’t true. The scriptures tell us that happiness comes as a side-effect, or a consequence of a specific type of living. Alma seems to think it’s completely illogical for us to think of it any other way. “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. . . this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil 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.”
He’s telling us that happiness is to be found in following God (serving God, serving man, and finding a way to contribute to make the world more perfect or the Kingdom of God on Earth). Lasting happiness, joy, and peace aren’t found anywhere else. Pleasure, sure. But deep satisfaction, peace, and happiness? That’s only found by living one way (though the variations of what that may look like are many). Happiness is to be found only within the framework that God has prescribed. He goes on to say that “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored . . .”
This also made me think about the scripture in Alma 34 where he is talking about procrastination and says, “Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.” To me this means that we will be the same people, have the same personality now and later. We won’t magically become different or better later unless we work to change, to be better, to repent. We will be restored to that which we were, which we have been. If we want to be restored to good things, we should strive for good things now. If we want to be happy later, we should live the way that allows us to be happy now. I think living a life of meaning is what makes us happy, and to have meaning means to change the world for the better and improve the lives of others.
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