The work and the glory of Jesus Christ is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). In order to accomplish his work he came “into the world to take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on His name” (Alma 11:40). Although “the worth of souls is great in the eyes of God” (D&C 18:10), only those who meet the conditions of eternal life will receive celestial salvation (Alma 11:40). However, all will receive immortality or “the loosing of the bands of death.” All shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works” (v. 41). Christ broke the bands of temporal death for all mankind (v. 42). As Paul taught the Corinthian Saints: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward that they are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 18:22–23). The order of the resurrection will be discussed later under Alma 40.
Amulek emphasized the completeness of the resurrection. The reuniting of the spirit and the body will restore the same body that we now have, but it will become a perfect body according to our physical potential (Alma 11:43–44). It would not be a reuniting or a restoration if it were not the same body. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “There is no fundamental principle belonging to a human system that ever goes into another in this world or in the world to come, I care not what the theories of men are. We have a testimony that God will raise us up, and he has the power to do it. If any one supposes that any part of our bodies, that is, the fundamental parts thereof, ever goes into another body, he is mistaken” (HC 5:339).
With this perfect body, all will have restored to their minds, a bright recollection of all their guilt. Jacob earlier testified that they would “have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment and their righteousness” (2 Nephi 9:18). Their enjoyment seems to be a knowledge of the Savior’s Atonement having taken away their sins and transgressions (Alma 11:40) and a recognition of their good works (v. 44). The one Eternal God has reference to the unity of the three members of the Godhead in their judgment of all inhabitants of the earth.
Amulek also testifies of the meaning of immortality. Even as our souls are now composed of the spirit and the body (see D&C 88:15), the resurrected body will become permanently merged, as a spiritual and immortal whole, never to die (Alma 11:45). Amulek thus gives us a definition of a resurrected being, and there is not a definition of it in the Bible. The Lord sustained the definition in modern revelation. “The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fullness of joy” (D&C 93:33). Although the Christian world believes in a resurrection, most do not look upon it as a literal resurrection.
Amulek’s words were not all recorded (Alma 11:46). They were so powerful they caused Zeezrom to tremble. We will consider them in the following chapter. We should look forward to when the rest of Amulek’s words, along with many others, will be given to us, but we must first pass the trial of our faith through adherence to what we have been given (see 3 Nephi 26:9–10).