Alma continued to question his listeners as he further advanced toward the climax of his great sermon. The resurrection of the dead through “him who should come to redeem his people” was his message. Part of this message was, that the bands of death—which is the grave—were broken, and the chains of hell—which is the death of the spirit—were loosed.
Death held fast in its inexorable grasp, power over all them that lay in the grave; to its unyielding misery, hell chained its helpless victims. Alma’s message proclaimed that both death and hell must deliver up to Eternal Life the prisoners they kept entombed in the grave, and also them that, in hell, partook of the bitter cup of endless torment. The grave must release from death the temporal body, and hell, the spirits of men. Then they’ll be united, the body and the spirit which is the soul of man. From that time forth they will go on forever; the soul will “expand”; it will go from grace to grace in the nurture and admonition of God. “In the knowledge of the glory of him who created them,” the souls of men will expand until all the promises the Lord has made to His children are fulfilled. With grateful hearts and united voices they will give thanks to God who with abounding love hath redeemed them.
In these verses, Alma spoke in what is called prophetic past; that is, of things yet to be as though they had already been