PUZZLE #25 - Out Of Time

Alma 34:35 (Page 295) says that if you have not repented at the time of your death, the devil "doth seal you his". Verse 34 tells us that he is talking about the death that takes us "out of this life". He is speaking of the time when we die, at the end of our mortal life on earth.

Verse 34 says that our spirit won't change when we die, and verse 33 says; we "cannot repent" after we die; it will be too late. It says that when we get to that day, we cannot claim that we want to repent. The time to repent will have passed us by. This passage in Alma teaches that dead people cannot repent, and that because their spirit will not change, they won't want to.

That is reall PUZZLING!

Temple work (baptism, endowment, temple marriage) is regularly done for the deceased relatives of devout Mormons. Mormonism teaches that after they die, they can accept the saving ordinances, done for them. It teaches that someone still living on earth can do ordinances for those who are dead. It teaches that the dead can accept or reject the works done for them. Isn't that called repentance? Wouldn't it be part of that "no labor performed" clause at the end of verse 33?

Which is true? Is the doctrine true that is taught here in Alma, or is the doctrine taught by the Mormon Church the true one? Both cannot be true. Either you can repent, or you can't. It's a PUZZLE.

The teaching on this subject by most of today's Christian churches is that when we die, the time allocated for us to repent has run out. At the moment of death, our fate is sealed. There is no continuation of mortal probation beyond the moment of our physical death.

We see that Alma 34:33-36 teaches this same doctrine, consistent with what is taught within mainstream Christianity, but Alma 34:33-36 flies in the face of the concept of vicarious work for the dead taught in Mormonism and practiced by countless thousands of LDS people.

How can this be? How can someone read the Book of Mormon and believe it, but still participate in the ordinance work for the dead, taught by Mormonism. How can they read in Alma; 'after this life there can be no labor performed', and then go to the temple and perform labor for those who are dead? Alma says that the dead cannot repent.

The Mormon Church touts this book as the most accurate and truthful book ever presented to the world; and yet, they advocate and encourage vicarious ordinance work to be by their members for those who are dead, in direct contradiction to Alma's words. Why is that?

God is not the author of confusion, but confusion has an author, and his name is Lucifer. Where you find confusion, you can be sure it's Lucifer's work.