Endtime Temporal Salvation - Mosiah 12-17

​In this week review of the Book of Mormon, we’ll look at Mosiah chapter 12 to 17.  The Book of Mosiah continues with its theme on leadership and this week we see an example of a true prophet – Abinadi.  Abinadi warns King Noah and his people that unless they repent they will be brought down into bondage and destroyed.  Now that’s an Endtime theme!  But Abinadi extends his discourse beyond mortality and expands it to include physical salvation in eternity.   So this week, we’ll first look at an overview of salvation and then see how Abinadi presents it here.

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​Salvation
Salvation in its most basic definition is to be saved from death.  In the Scriptures, we see a physical death and a spiritual death. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of God’s presence – spiritual death - and their bodies became mortal subject to physical death.  Salvation is the process to be saved from this physical and spiritual death.  Moreover, salvation can be applied to two periods – for time and for eternity.  So now our summary looks like this.

SALVATION

Type\Period	Temporal ​(For Time)	Eternal (For Eternity)
Physical	Sustainable Physical Life	Endless Physical Life
Spiritual	Holy Spirit ​The Son/Jehovah/Yeshua ​	Holy Spirit The Son ​The Father

Sustainable Physical Life In Time
After Abinadi warns Noah about being brought down into bondage and destruction in chapter 12, he then explains how they can be saved from this physical death.  Abinadi begins by questioning Noah’s priests. Specifically, he says that they are not, in v29:
 
1. Teaching the people to repent as required under the sacrificial system – the Law of Moses.
    (Later we’ll see that repentance is perfected through Messiah/Christ’s Atonement)
2. Caring for the poor by setting their hearts upon obtaining riches.
3. Abstaining from multiplying wives and whoredoms.
 
Abinadi affirms physical life (salvation) for time is obtained through the Law, v33.  But the people need to repent as required under the Law of Moses(sacrificial system) and return to the Law - the commandments.  After Abinadi finishes reciting the first commandment at the end of chapter 12, he closes at 13:14 by saying, And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments, which we can connect directly to John 14:15 and then to Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
 
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
 
And finally, Moses says this about the Law:

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deu 30:19

So the sequence that Abinadi has set out for us to receive sustainable physical life for time looks like this:

Loving God by >

Keeping the Law and >

Receiving Physical Life

​Abinadi then finishes reciting the rest of the ten commandments, 13:15-25.
​
So now our summary look like this:

SALVATION

Type\Period	Temporal ​(For Time)	Eternal (For Eternity)
Physical	Sustainable Physical Life	Endless Physical Life
Obtained By	Repenting and returning to the Law given to Israel

​Repentance Perfected in Christ’s Atonement
Next we see beginning at verse 28 to 34 that Abinadi explains that the sacrificial system – Law of Moses – was a type of Christ’s Atonement. Indeed, animal sacrifice was never adequate to atone for human transgression only a human sacrifice could do that!


Endless Physical Life in Eternity
Abinadi closes his address in chapter 13 by referring to the resurrection of man's physical bodies through Yeshua/Jesus redemption at verse 35.  Abinadi then expounds on Yeshua/Jesus sacrifice in chapter 14, which is set out in chapter 53 of Isaiah.
 
So now our summary looks like this.

SALVATION

Type\Period	Temporal ​(For Time)	Eternal (For Eternity)
Physical	Sustainable Physical Life	Endless Physical Life
Obtained By	Repenting and returning to the Law given to Israel	Resurrection through Yeshua's Redemption

Yeshua as the Father and the Son
In chapter 15, Abinadi expands on Jehovah’s role as Humanity’s God and Redeemer by showing how Jehovah is both a father and a son.  That looks like this –

JEHOVAH INCARNATE ​(Yeshua/Jesus)

God (plural) Genesis chapter 1 John chapter 1	Flow of Authority (1 Cor. 11:3)	​Creator God of the physical form of Heaven and Earth, and Redeemer Genesis chapter 2
Eternal Father	God
V	V
Son	Yeshua/Jesus	Father (an Eternal Father because he is the author of Endless Life)
	V	V
	Man ​Woman	Sons Daugthers

​Abinadi concludes his explanation on the resurrection through to verse 8 of chapter 15.
 
 
Resurrection of the Just
He then picks up at verse 9 in chapter 15 through to verse 25 to explain those who are the Just in the Resurrection, who come forth in the first resurrection. They are Christ's “spiritual” seed v11 who will need to become His sanctified people and overcome transgression like the prophets v 13 and become Zion v14.  Moreover, they have not become perfected and reached the full stature of the Messiah.
 
Resurrection of the Unjust
Those who have rebelled against God and not kept the commandments don’t come forth in the first resurrection – v 26,27 and chapter 16.

SALVATION

Type\Period	Temporal ​(For Time)	Eternal (For Eternity)
Physical	Sustainable Physical Life	Endless Physical Life
Obtained By	Repenting and returning to the Law given to Israel	Resurrection through Yeshua's Redemption Resurrection of the Just ​Resurrection of the Unjust