Corianton had now been taught and had been warned. He was accountable. As a young man, his sin with Isabel, the harlot, was forgivable if he repented, but it would not be forgivable on a second offense (see D&C 42:24–26). Perhaps Alma is referring to those who wrested the scriptures when he warned of “it has been spoken” that one could be “restored from sin to happiness.” It would be similar in saying to a young person today, “go ahead and be immoral, you just have to wait a year and then you can be married in the temple or go on a mission.” The brethren have warned against such fallacious thinking. Alma’s further statement is well-known and quoted often in the Church; “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10).
The “state of nature” coined by Alma (v. 11) is the same state that the angel spoke of to King Benjamin, “the natural man” (Mosiah 3:19). The angel also told the king that “as in Adam, or by nature” men fall (Mosiah 3:16), or as Alma says here they are in a carnal state and without God in the world, or contrary to the nature of God (Alma 40:11). In this “state of nature,” men must make choices, and the choices they make determine their resurrected degree. From Alma’s definition, restore means to reinstate or make as it was (v. 13). The same definition would be acceptable in our society.