Beginning at the first or with the Fall of Adam, through which according to Scripture, "mankind became a lost and fallen people," Alma rehearsed to Antionah and thus to all the people, the Plan of Salvation which would bring Eternal Life to all God's children.
Alma recalled Amulek's testimony wherein his missionary companion had expounded the transgression of Father Adam. In a few wards he reminded his listeners that Adam fell by partaking of the Forbidden Fruit.
The Fruit which God had commanded Adam not to eat of grew in the Garden of Eden. Nearby was the Tree of Life which also flourished in the Garden. Adam broke God's commandment and partook of the Fruit. At the same time that God gave Adam that commandment He admonished him saying, "If thou eat thou shalt surely die." Adam was no doubt in a quandary, he had partaken of that which was forbidden. He had brought upon himself and his children the penalty of disobedience. If he now should eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life he would live forever in his fallen state thereby making the Word of God to no effect; making "God a liar," Alma said.
God promised death to the transgressor; the Tree of Life offered one who partook of its Fruit a never-ending existence in his sins, subject to pain, sweat, and tears, and all the infirmities that attend mankind, except he could not escape them through death because for him there would be no death. The penalty pronounced by God upon Adam that "Thou shalt surely die," conflicted with the Tree's inviting assurance, "Thou shall live forever."
To prevent Adam and his wife, Eve, from partaking of its Fruit, which in so doing they would live forever in their fallen condition, the Lord put guards between the man and the Tree.
As Amulek had noted in his previous sermon, the temporal body of man is destroyed by death. Death is a separation of the body of flesh and blood from the spirit of man. Before that separation occurs, there is a time appointed wherein man can prepare to meet his God. That time is now! This mortal life is a probationary state wherein man can make himself ready to enjoy a life in the presence of God, which is that endless state of which we have spoken, Alma said. That endless state is after the resurrection of man, or after the reuniting of the soul has taken place.
About eight years after Alma's and Amulek's notable mission to the Ammonihahites, or about 74 B.C., they again went on another tour of duty, this time among the Zoramites, there to proclaim the Name of Christ. As they had preached to the people of Ammonihah that now is the time for repentance, and that this life of mortality is the appointed season in which to prepare oneself to enter God's presence, so they in like manner declared it unto the Zoramites:
And now, my brethren, I would that, after ye have received so many witnesses, seeing that the Holy Scriptures testify of these things, ye come forth and bring fruit unto repentance.
Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your Salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great Plan of Redemption be brought about unto you.
For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for Eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
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.
For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34:30-35)