​This week in our review of the Book of Mormon we’ll review chapters 41 to 45, but focus on chapter 42 where Alma teaches about the Fall of Adam and Eve, and man’s mortal sojourn.  The primary idea that we see in here in chapter 42 is that man, through the Fall of Adam and Eve, received a carnal nature – he became carnal, sensual and devilish – v10, and the time during mortality is a time to repent of this carnal nature.  In fact, the Book of Mormon seems to have as its central focus the theme of Yeshua’s redemption of man from Adam and Eve’s fall throughout the Book of Mormon.  However, this week we’ll ramp-up our view mortality and consider that it is a time of transformation to reach the full measure of the stature of Messiah.

This week in our review of the Book of Mormon we’ll review chapters 36 to 40 of Alma, but look at chapter 40 where Alma teaches on a spirit realm between death and the resurrection. Here we again see the concept of a spirit paradise where the righteous dead go to await the resurrection, which we saw at 2 Nephi 9. When we look at the scriptures, we see two additional instances of where a paradise exists.  First, we see that the Garden of Eden is a paradise and second, during the millennial age that is also known as a paradise. The three paradises that we see here are all linked to the presence of Yehovah-Yeshua, God the Son. Further, we’ll link the concept of paradise with our theme of threes and to the Heaven and the Realm of the Son to see who can be expected to receive this paradisiacal existence in eternity.

​This week in our review of the Book of Mormon we’ll look at chapters 31 to 35.  Our focus will be on chapter 32 where Alma lays out a process to come to a knowledge of the truth.  The primary theme that we see in chapter 32 is the concept of experimenting on the God’s Word to come to a knowledge of the truth.  One of the ideas we see here in Alma 32 is that when we receive a blessing or a fruit for living the Commandments it is a confirmation that we have received truth from God.  But as we will see, positive things that happen in our lives do not always come from God.